Ron Francis as Kraken GM ~ The Verdict Is In

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And he is guilty of being a bust as a GM, as predicted by many here including me. Every year, the Kraken just trudge forth in a steady mediocrity, got no future, have no past.

He was an awful hire from the jump. Damn near every fan of all teams knew it. Somehow billionaire sports teams owners didnt know it though. Did literally nothing in Carolina. I think he actually enjoys being mediocre.
 
Are kraken doing well financially? I honestly forget they exist a lot of the time. Beating Colorado in the playoffs was their best achievement. Was hoping they'd build on that but maybe in time they will.
 
Are kraken doing well financially? I honestly forget they exist a lot of the time. Beating Colorado in the playoffs was their best achievement. Was hoping they'd build on that but maybe in time they will.
The Kraken are in the upper half of profitability. They have done very well off-ice, but probably due more to the affluent Seattle market than anything on-ice.
 
I thought his Expansion Draft selections were rough.

Obviously, there were some big hits (Borgen, Daccord, Dunn, Geekie, McCann, etc). But the decision by Francis not to make any trades prior to the draft, coupled with a pointless game of chicken with Montreal regarding Carey Price, hurt the Kraken.

Even that aside, I think a ton of obvious value was left on the board. Ignoring pending UFAs and hindsight players (i.e. Drouin, Ingram, Mikkola, Stolarz, Walman, etc.), I argue you could build a better team with the "leftovers" than the one Francis drafted:

LWCRW
Ondrej Palat [Yanni Gourde]Matt Duchene [Calle Jarnkrok]Frank Vatrano [Chris Driedger]
Evgeni Dadonov [Joey Daccord]J.T. Compher [Jonas Donskoi]Nino Niederreiter [Morgan Geekie]
Alex Kerfoot [Jared McCann]Max Domi [Gavin Bayreuther]Vladimir Tarasenko [Vince Dunn]
Vlad Namestikov [Dennis Cholowski]Nick Bjugstad [Carson Soucy]Christian Fischer [Tyler Pitlick]
LDRD
Marcus Pettersson [Brandon Tanev]Dylan DeMelo [Mason Appleton]
Nikita Zadorov [John Quenneville]Shayne Gostisbehere [Carsen Twarynski]
Olli Maatta [Kurtis MacDermid]Nick Jensen [Vitek Vanacek]
G
Mike Smith [Adam Larsson]
Scott Wedgewood [Nathan Bastian]

Great team? No.
Heinous goaltending? Yes, but not worse than Grubauer.
Better than what Francis drafted (despite handicap of not picking Daccord/Dunn/McCann/etc.)? IMO, yes.
Fun exercise? Hell yes.
 

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