{"id":575645,"date":"2026-04-10T09:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575645\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:43:12","slug":"kraken-ceo-on-struggles-were-going-to-get-it-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575645\/","title":{"rendered":"Kraken CEO on struggles: ‘We’re going to get it fixed’"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE — While the Seattle Kraken<\/a> are again nearing mathematical elimination from the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, CEO Tod Leiweke is confident the team can improve — and quickly.<\/p>\n

“It’s not acceptable,” Leiweke said, “and we’re committed to fixing it.”<\/p>\n

Entering Thursday’s game, Seattle is 32-34-11, has lost 10 of its last 11 games and is tied with the New York Rangers<\/a> for the fourth-fewest points (75) of any team in the NHL. On Wednesday, the team announced that Ron Francis was out<\/a> as president of hockey operations at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

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The Kraken said it was a mutual decision between the organization and Francis to part ways, and Leiweke added it would be a “fair assessment” to say the Hall of Famer was fatigued by his front office role.<\/p>\n

Seattle is projected to have over $29 million in cap space this summer, per CapFriendly, and Leiweke would like general manager Jason Botterill to be at the helm of a “prolific” offseason when it comes to attracting free agents to the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

Since Seattle’s inception, the franchise has brought aboard proven commodities via free agency like forward Chandler Stephenson<\/a> and defenseman Brandon Montour<\/a>, each of whom are signed through the 2030-31 season. Otherwise, luring top talent to Seattle has proven a difficult endeavor, and the Kraken have relied on their prospects for reinforcements.<\/p>\n

Seattle’s top minor league affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, have locked up a playoff spot in the American Hockey League and comprise one of the more heralded farm systems in the NHL.<\/p>\n

From Leiweke’s perspective, the Kraken aren’t terribly far away from competing again for playoff spots. However, he would prefer for Seattle to be more than a fringe contender.<\/p>\n

“What we want to build is not a team that just sneaks into the playoffs,” Leiweke said. “We think what we should be building here is a team that’s a perennial playoff team.”<\/p>\n

The Kraken not only qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs in their second year of existence, the 2022-23 season, but they also advanced to the second round, in which they lost to the Dallas Stars<\/a> in seven games.<\/p>\n

“We saw the potential in year two,” Leiweke said. “It was incredible.”<\/p>\n

If Seattle is to start competing in the Western Conference, more changes may be necessary for a team that is already on its third head coach in five seasons.<\/p>\n

“Something is out of alignment here,” Leiweke said, “and we’re going to get it fixed.”<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE — While the Seattle Kraken are again nearing mathematical elimination from the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, CEO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-575645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}