While this season was certainly a disappointing one for the Kraken, there won’t be a big change coming in the front office. Team CEO Tod Leiweke confirmed to reporters including Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times (Twitter link) that GM Ron Francis will return for his fifth season in 2025-26. Seattle has missed the playoffs in three of its first four seasons which generally isn’t abnormal for an expansion franchise but the early success Vegas had increased expectations. Their lone playoff year came in 2022-23 when they had 100 points but they managed just 76 this season despite handing out two of the bigger deals in free agency last summer to Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson. The team projects to have more than $21MM in cap room this summer, per PuckPedia, so Francis could be a big spender once again.
More from Seattle:
- Defenseman Josh Mahura is hoping to re-sign with the Kraken this summer, Shefte relays. The 26-year-old signed a one-year, $775K deal last year after being non-tendered by Florida back in June. Mahura had a decent season in a limited role, playing in 64 games where he had nine assists while logging a little under 14 minutes a night. It’s likely that his next contract should check in once again at or near the league minimum and it wouldn’t be surprising if Seattle looked to bring him back in a similar role for next season.
- Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will play for Germany at the upcoming World Championship, Shefte notes in the same column. It was another rough year for 33-year-old, whose 3.49 GAA and .875 SV% were the worst marks of his career and saw him limited to just 26 games, plus seven more in the minors after clearing waivers. He has two years left on his contract at a $5.9MM AAV, making him a speculative buyout candidate this summer.
- The team announced (Twitter link) that center John Hayden was assigned to AHL Coachella Valley. He cleared waivers last week in advance of being returned to the Firebirds for their playoff run. The 30-year-old had a goal and an assist in 20 games with Seattle and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.