Ron Francis as Kraken GM ~ The Verdict Is In

[poobags]

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.

Please make a post like this every time you're right.

 

[majormajor]

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:

LW	C	RW
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]

LD	RD
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.

That is not better lol. That's Blackhawks level bad.

 

[shadow1]

That is not better lol. That's Blackhawks level bad.

Chicago is on pace for 25 wins, Seattle won 27 games their first season. So you're not far off.

Also, that defense is strong.

 

[bleedgreen]

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:

LW	C	RW
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]

LD	RD
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.

How is that team better? Didn’t Duchene get bought out right after? Why do people still choose Tarasenko over Dunn? Hasn’t it been more more than proven that Dunn was the right choice? He was that day, he is now - you’ve got Tarasenko as a third line winger. He’s one of the players intentionally exposed in hopes someone would take his contract as no one would take him in trade - just like Duchene. Kerfoot over Mcann?!? McCann has a 40 goal season since? A bunch of these guys became free agents and wouldn’t be there anymore. Gourde is a heart and soul player any contender would want, he’s a perfectly fine choice over the oft injured Palat regardless of potential offensive difference. Gourde is a fan favorite, that switch does not make sense and doesn’t make the team better.

Seattle said they wanted to play fast and forecheck hard from the get go, which is why stylistically some players wouldn’t work. Another reason Gourde over Palat makes sense there.

This is the funny part about the flak RF has taken the entire time. The team you just picked here sucks, wouldnt have played the style they wanted and many of them would be gone anyways.

 

[shadow1]

How is that team better? Didn’t Duchene get bought out right after? Why do people still choose Tarasenko over Dunn? Hasn’t it been more more than proven that Dunn was the right choice? He was that day, he is now - you’ve got Tarasenko as a third line winger. He’s one of the players intentionally exposed in hopes someone would take his contract as no one would take him in trade - just like Duchene. Kerfoot over Mcann?!? McCann has a 40 goal season since? A bunch of these guys became free agents and wouldn’t be there anymore. Gourde is a heart and soul player any contender would want, he’s a perfectly fine choice over the oft injured Palat regardless of potential offensive difference. Gourde is a fan favorite, that switch does not make sense and doesn’t make the team player.

Seattle said they wanted to play fast and forecheck hard from the get go, which is why stylistically some players wouldn’t work. Another reason Gourde over Palat makes sense there.

This is the funny part about the flak RF has taken the entire time. The team you just picked here sucks, wouldnt have played the style they wanted and many of them would be gone anyways.

I purposely didn't choose any of the players Francis took as a way to handicap myself. That was the whole point!

 

[Fatass]

Maybe they need to take a page out of the Vegas textbook and trade Beniers/wright for a legitimate superstar talent.

Yup. The Vegas club that won the Cup had very few of their own drafted players. Vegas was smart and used picks and prospects to add star level talent. Not too sure there is an Eichel out there to steal in trade though? He was a depressed asset because of the neck issues, and a big contract. So it was a risk.
Is there a younger elite centre who is a depressed asset Seattle could go for right now?

 

[bleedgreen]

I purposely didn't choose any of the players Francis took as a way to handicap myself. That was the whole point!

That’s funny, my bad. The point remains that Francis actually did well, had a plan and there were reasons for the way the team came out of that draft the way they did. It isn’t easy to build a “better” team out of what was available. It really showed a lack of league wide knowledge for people to take it the way they did. People were bagging on them for not taking Price and Voracek….there are still somehow people who bag on the choice of Dunn over Tarasenko.

An underrated aspect that wasn’t talked about enough then and is generally forgotten now is that some players let Seattle know they didn’t want to be there and made efforts to make sure RF knew taking them was a bad idea. He may have taken some of the names people expected him to take prior to that. If you’re starting a new team and want buy in from fans, drafting guys in open rebellion to being there in the first place and needing to find trades for malcontents is a poor way to start. Saying Vegas would’ve done it isn’t an apples to apples comparison, Vegas was going to have an audience no matter what they did. They could’ve been a holy shit show and the tickets still would’ve been sold. Seattle needed some level of continuity with the players, some level of identity and buy in from the players. Nothing that went for Vwgas was going to go for Seattle.

This is one of the better expansion teams I’ve seen in the modern era. Only Vegas was truly better. Florida had their early run but missed the playoffs 7 out their first ten years.

 

[chaser17]

Yup. The Vegas club that won the Cup had very few of their own drafted players. Vegas was smart and used picks and prospects to add star level talent. Not too sure there is an Eichel out there to steal in trade though? He was a depressed asset because of the neck issues, and a big contract. So it was a risk.
Is there a younger elite centre who is a depressed asset Seattle could go for right now?

Yes and Mark Stone for Brannstrom as well. Pacioretty scored a lot of goals for Vegas as well but Montreal won that trade in the long run with Suzuki. They refused to trade Cody Glass and he ended up busting anyways.