SEATTLE \u2014 Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke gave an update to a\u00a0proposed internal audit\u00a0on Wednesday, saying the Kraken have talked with a number of individuals and firms about using their services in the near future.<\/p>\n
The team is looking for ways Seattle can improve as a franchise after failing to make the postseason for a third consecutive year.<\/p>\n
Whoever the Kraken decide to work with, Leiweke said, they will do so alongside general manager Jason Botterill, who is now the sole decision-maker after\u00a0Ron Francis stepped down as president of hockey operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not threatened by it, he\u2019s encouraging it,\u201d Leiweke said of Botterill. \u201cThe report will land on the owner\u2019s desk. And, it\u2019s really not going to look just at the near term.”<\/p>\n
Leiweke said the report will look back over the team’s five-year history and offer suggestions for improvement. The Kraken have only been in the playoffs once since joining the league.<\/p>\n
One area that could have used improvement this season was the offence.<\/p>\n
The Kraken scored the fewest goals, and no player finished with more than 55 points. Captain Jordan Eberle led Seattle with 26 goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at anything where we could have a big, incremental improvement,\u201d Botterill said, \u201cit would be just our offence. And, creating more offence. And, a big part of that\u2019s not just things in the offensive zone. But, it\u2019s being sharper from a defensive standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seattle goalie Joey Daccord took a step back after a couple solid seasons, though Botterill was adamant netminding was not the issue in the Emerald City. Backup Philipp Grubauer was strong between the pipes whenever he was called upon after a couple of down years.<\/p>\n
Botterill and coach Lane Lambert both agreed that Seattle\u2019s power play also needs to improve. Though the Kraken were tied for 19th at converting on the power play (19.5%), they scored just six power-play goals in 26 games after the Olympic break. Seattle won only seven of those games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power play, from my standpoint, we\u2019ve got to move the puck quicker and we\u2019ve got to put more pucks towards the net,\u201d Lambert said last week. \u201cPenalty killing was (also) a problem all year.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Lambert\u2019s point, only the Vancouver Canucks had a less effective penalty kill. After his\u00a0first season leading the Kraken, Lambert took issue with more than just Seattle\u2019s play on the ice.<\/p>\n
Whenever Seattle faced adversity during the regular season, the defensive-minded coach felt the team struggled to bounce back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our team was a little fragile at times,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cWe run on confidence, as do most teams, but this team here really runs high on confidence. And, when you lack it, struggles happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kraken were eliminated from playoff contention on April 11, just three days after Francis\u00a0said he would be stepping down. And now, Leiweke is turning to an internal audit just as he has with other professional sports franchises.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve yet to get hired somewhere where everything was running perfectly,\u201d Leiweke said. \u201cAnd, this situation for the last eight years has (been) as great a challenge as I\u2019ve ever had in my career. But, there were challenges with the (Seattle) Seahawks. There were certainly challenges with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And, occasionally, periodically, getting fresh perspectives is super helpful, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kraken are optimistic about their future in spite of their on-ice issues.<\/p>\n
Botterill said Seattle will look to the free-agent market for reinforcements. The Kraken are projected to have more than $29 million in cap space this summer. Four first-round picks over the next two drafts doesn\u2019t hurt, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke gave an update to a\u00a0proposed internal audit\u00a0on Wednesday, saying the Kraken have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-624604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}