Ron Francis’ future.

[Kevinsane]

I shit on Francis a lot, but it’s not exactly his fault the drafts the Kraken were gifted high picks in have proven to be historically thin and only produced a handful of top 6 players? That’s surely at least somewhat attributable to bad luck?

I concur. Not really drafts full of game breakers, and no real “that guy was available one pick after the Kraken selected!” revisionist history at play.
My issue with Francis is more with pro scouting and the term and dollars paid to bottom six players.

 

[Fuhrious]

I concur. Not really drafts full of game breakers, and no real “that guy was available one pick after the Kraken selected!” revisionist history at play.
My issue with Francis is more with pro scouting and the term and dollars paid to bottom six players.

Yeah, I even cut him some slack for the Grubauer and Oleksiak signings…maybe even the Burakovsky one…because he was trying to make a big splash that inaugural year and give the team an aura of legitimacy. Still doing that 5 years later, however…

And there’s also the fact that giving out that term implies “I know I’ll have to deal with this later in the last couple years of the contract” and he’s shown zero willingness to do that.

 

[kihei]

The Kraken have become the most uninteresting team in the NHL and maybe all of hockey. This is on Francis as he had ample opportunity with an expansion draft and high picks. Signing free agents like Oleksiak and Larsson to over payments? Jaden Schwartz? Up and down the roster just a boring team that let some good ones get away. New leadership in the management suite is overdue. I knew it would be a tough slog with a name as bad as the Kraken. Should have just called them the Seattle Hockey Club of Sasquatch.

This smacks of the kind of armchair quarterbacking that translates into a cheap shot. Who would have you taken ahead of Beniers and Evans? How about ahead of Wright? Sale seemed a reasonable risk given the circumstances. Larsson was arguably our best player the first three years. You can park mistakes at Francis' door for sure, but your criticism of him seems more smug and opportunistic than well reasoned.

 

[majormajor]

I concur. Not really drafts full of game breakers, and no real “that guy was available one pick after the Kraken selected!” revisionist history at play.

We really have no idea yet with the amateur drafting. I think they've drafted some pretty good players.

Francis drafted Marty Necas in 2017, he's only recently become a star player.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I took your meaning in the point, but didn't have a lot to add as while I don't think there's a crazy high chance Francis does that (partly because he never does _anything_) there certainly isn't a non-zero chance. Look no further than the former Arizona Coyotes trading a 1st and a bunch of prospects (the one I remember off the top of my head being current Flames defenseman Kevin Bahl) for a partial season of Taylor Hall. It can and does happen.

Dude would literally argue with you that water isn't wet. Place is light years better with him blocked, just talking to you, RCH, Marquis, Fistfull, et al.

Arizona was 3rd in the conference and in like a 5 way tie for 3rd overall at that point in time with half the season left, to be fair. The trade was Merkely, who had good draft pedigree but never made it in the NHL, Bahl, who was a pretty decent piece and a 2nd round pick, Schnarr who was a 3rd round draft pick who hadn't seen any NHL time, and a conditional 1st and 3rd (top 3 protected). Hall was 2 years removed from his MVP year but had only played less than half the season. They also got Kessel that summer when he was still pretty much in his prime. Pretty different circumstances- in hindsight it was a bad move but I think that's a pretty reasonable trade at the time. Who knew they would f***ing crater after that lol.

On the topic at hand, I honestly think Francis has been okay. I have more problems with his signings in the past than now. I do think the term is a problem for Stephenson and to a lesser degree Montour but I have bigger problems with Eberle, Schwartz, and Burakovsky et al. I do wish mgmt would have just let him "tank" instead of being mediocre but whatever. I would feel a lot better about this team if we shipped most of these players out for picks and just did the Utah method of rebuilding.

That said while I don't think the culture here is a very good one, I have faith that we'll start seeing good returns on our prospects within a few years, and I think if we stay the course and get lucky (easier than you think but also easier said than done).

 

[RainyCityHockey]

Not sure how anyone would bring up Adam Larsson as a problem or mistake by Francis.

Dude has been rock solid and worth every penny of his contract.

 

[The Marquis]

Not sure how anyone would bring up Adam Larsson as a problem or mistake by Francis.

Dude has been rock solid and worth every penny of his contract.

He hasn’t been great as of late but he works super hard

 

[dylanmacarthur]

I just don't know where Francis is going with the team. I get that he is trying to compete now and understood the Montour decision. Dunn and Montour are quite a 1-2 punch on D. But the Stephenson decision was always a big question mark. I know the intent behind it but we already have other players of his level on the team. What we needed was a true game changer.

The more I see Francis, the more I feel like he is really struggling to try to adjust to management's decision to get aggressive with winning now. I would understand if he took risks like moving out prospects and picks to get a true game-changer, but all he has done is replace mediocrity with more and older mediocrity. With no true blue-chip prospect in the wings other than Catton, it really concerns me.

For the future of the team, it may actually be best that we are out of the playoffs race at the TDL. Move Gourde, Tanev, etc. to try and get atleast 1 more 1st round pick for next season. It's strange to see an expansion team 4th season with no extra 1st round picks. Also, lets not compare us to Vegas because they went all in right from the start which we never did.

I’ve been saying this for years to the consternation of most Kraken fans.

Francis has no thesis for his management. He has no plan.

 

[dylanmacarthur]

I think he's done a terrible job this season and the early promise of this franchise has been wasted.

The drafting hasn't been that good. How many Wright conversations have we already had? There's prospects, but not a lot of clear stand outs despite the high picks.

Free agency he blew. Overpaid overpaid overpaid. While you might like Montour, the term and price tag is too much and Stephenson is just wasteful spending. So we have a mediocre roster with no real cap flexibility.

Bylsma is not a good NHL coach. He's worse than Hakstol and the team plays a more boring type of hockey with lesser results.

The team is so soft they make Buffalo look tough.

This was a new blank slate franchise and I so wanted to love them but I have to say this season the team leaves me flat and uninterested. I do not see any progress or bright future without changes. They are mediocre blah.

All of that is on Francis. He should go, yesterday.

(I know this will piss some fans off, but sorry, it's the cold hard truth)

So nice to see everybody else finally reach this inescapable conclusion.

 

[Taswell]

The Kraken have become the most uninteresting team in the NHL and maybe all of hockey. This is on Francis as he had ample opportunity with an expansion draft and high picks. Signing free agents like Oleksiak and Larsson to over payments? Jaden Schwartz? Up and down the roster just a boring team that let some good ones get away. New leadership in the management suite is overdue. I knew it would be a tough slog with a name as bad as the Kraken. Should have just called them the Seattle Hockey Club of Sasquatch.

Eh my Islanders say hi. You guys are my Western team I root for and you’re infinitely more interesting that my main team

 

[GrungeHockey]

So nice to see everybody else finally reach this inescapable conclusion.

Well the "I told you so's" always come out when things go bad for any team but there's a question of optimism and pessimism and you need patience in sports.
Enough time has gone by now to draw some conclusions on things like draft choices and how trades worked out. So the mistakes are cumulative and in the end something has to be changed. The logical move right now is dumping Francis.

 

[Fuhrious]

I’m inclined to believe what I’ve heard thrown around a couple places, at least ECH and possible even here…at the end of the season he will “fail upwards” into a higher front office position like “president of hockey operations”

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

I’m inclined to believe what I’ve heard thrown around a couple places, at least ECH and possible even here…at the end of the season he will “fail upwards” into a higher front office position like “president of hockey operations”

The end-of-season changes will be very indicative of what ownership wants. Any GM change, whether that is via a promotion or firing shows that management realizes that they need a different type of GM to fix things.

On the other hand, it would really concern me if ownership believes Francis can fix this mess.

 

[majormajor]

The end-of-season changes will be very indicative of what ownership wants. Any GM change, whether that is via a promotion or firing shows that management realizes that they need a different type of GM to fix things.

On the other hand, it would really concern me if ownership believes Francis can fix this mess.

From his Carolina tenure, I've long had the suspicion that Francis wanted to focus on a long term build in Seattle, while he had to make some short term moves to placate our ownership and give people something to get excited about.

And the team sucking badly, ironically, forces ownership to confront the reality that the team needs to focus on the long run, which is what Francis has been wanting to do.

Our prospects and young players seem to be doing really well. So it isn't impossible to believe that we're on a Carolina type path, in the long run.

On the other hand, his pro scouting decisions, notably the 7 year Stephenson contract (he was saying Stephenson could be an 80 pt guy??), seriously discredit any idea that Francis is the guy to fix this mess.

 

[gstommylee]

From his Carolina tenure, I've long had the suspicion that Francis wanted to focus on a long term build in Seattle, while he had to make some short term moves to placate our ownership and give people something to get excited about.

And the team sucking badly, ironically, forces ownership to confront the reality that the team needs to focus on the long run, which is what Francis has been wanting to do.

Our prospects and young players seem to be doing really well. So it isn't impossible to believe that we're on a Carolina type path, in the long run.

On the other hand, his pro scouting decisions, notably the 7 year Stephenson contract (he was saying Stephenson could be an 80 pt guy??), seriously discredit any idea that Francis is the guy to fix this mess.

problem is getting those talent that the team needs will also hurt us long term in regards of developing our prospects. It would be a make take to give up our best prospect (that currently arent in the NHL) just for the sake of "wining" now.