Jason Botterill was named executive vice president and general manager of the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
He replaces Ron Francis, the team’s first GM, who was named president of hockey operations.
The annnouncement comes one day after Dan Bylsma was fired as coach. No replacement was named.
Botterill, 48, has been with Seattle since he was hired as an assistant GM on Jan. 5, 2021.
“I think what makes this a smooth transition is I’ve worked for the Kraken already, I know how we do things here and the people who make it happen,” Botterill said. “So it’s not like a case where I’m somebody new coming in and have to learn how everything works. I already know our players, our prospects, our staff and we can just get down to work right away without us missing a beat.”
He previously was GM of the Buffalo Sabres from 2017-20. During that span the Sabres went 88-115-30 and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs each season. He was fired by Buffalo on July 16, 2020.
Botterill also worked in the Pittsburgh Penguins front office when they won Stanley Cup championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
Francis, 62, was hired by the Kraken on July 18, 2019, a little more than eight months after the NHL Board of Governors voted to approve the expansion application for Seattle on Dec. 4, 2018, and helped construct the team that began play in the 2021-22 season.
But in four seasons, the Kraken made the Stanley Cup Playoffs once, in 2023, when they defeated the Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the Western Conference First Round before losing to the Dallas Stars in seven games in the second round.
This season the Kraken (35-41-6) finished 20 points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card from the West.
Prior to joining the Kraken, Francis, a forward who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007, had worked in the Carolina Hurricanes front office, including five seasons as general manager, a term that ended when he was fired March 7, 2018.
Francis felt this move would strengthen the Kraken front office.
“In the League today, there are a lot more demands in the GM chair,” he said. “And teams that I’ve talked to about this, in their experience it is a stronger model with two guys working together and trying to get things right.”
Francis said Botterill will have the final say on player and personnel moves.
“We’ll have those discussions and I’ll give my opinion,” Francis said. “But I think, ultimately, he has got to have the ability to make the final call. Otherwise it’s not fair to him to be in that chair and not have the ability to make the final call.”
Bylsma, who replaced Dave Hakstol, the Kraken’s first-ever coach, on May 28, 2024, won the Stanley Cup as coach of the Penguins in 2009. It was his first season as a coach in NHL since 2016-17 with the Sabres. He is 355-231-61 in 647 NHL games with the Kraken, Penguins and Sabres.
The 54-year-old had spent the previous two seasons before this one as coach of Coachella Valley, Seattle’s American Hockey League affiliate. In each season, Coachella Valley reached the Calder Cup Finals.
Bylsma was the eighth NHL coach fired this season, joining Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins on Nov. 19), Drew Bannister (St. Louis Blues, Nov. 24), Luke Richardson (Chicago Blackhawks, Dec. 5), Derek Lalonde (Detroit Red Wings, Dec. 26), John Tortorella (Philadelphia Flyers, March 27), Greg Cronin (Anaheim Ducks, April 19) and Peter Laviolette (New York Rangers, April 19).
