SEATTLE — Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke gave an update to a proposed internal audit on Wednesday, saying the team has talked with a number of individuals and firms about using their services in the near future.
The Kraken are looking for ways they can improve as a franchise after failing to make the postseason for a third consecutive year.
Whomever the Kraken decide to work with, Leiweke said, they will do so alongside general manager Jason Botterill, who is the sole decision-maker after Ron Francis stepped down as president of hockey operations.
“He’s not threatened by it, he’s encouraging it,” Leiweke said of Botterill. “The report will land on the owner’s desk. And it’s really not going to look just at the near term.”
Leiweke said the report will look back over the team’s five-year history and offer suggestions for improvement. The Kraken have been in the playoffs only once since joining the league.
One area that could have used improvement this season was offense.
The Kraken scored the fifth-fewest goals and no player finished with more than 55 points. Captain Jordan Eberle led Seattle with 26 goals.
“If you look at anything where we could have a big, incremental improvement, it would be just our offense and creating more offense,” Botterill said. “And a big part of that’s not just things in the offensive zone, but it’s being sharper from a defensive standpoint.”
Seattle goalie Joey Daccord took a step back after a couple of 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.
Botterill and coach Lane Lambert agreed that Seattle’s 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.
“The power play, from my standpoint, we’ve got to move the puck quicker and we’ve got to put more pucks towards the net,” Lambert said last week. “Penalty killing was [also] a problem all year.”
Only the Vancouver Canucks had a less effective penalty kill. After his first season leading the Kraken, Lambert took issue with more than just Seattle’s play on the ice. Whenever Seattle faced adversity during the regular season, he said he felt the team struggled to bounce back.
“I thought our team was a little fragile at times,” Lambert said. “We run on confidence, as do most teams, but this team here really runs high on confidence. And, when you lack it, struggles happen.”
The Kraken were eliminated from playoff contention on April 11, just three days after Francis said he would be stepping down. And now, Leiweke is turning to an internal audit just as he has with other professional sports franchises.
“I’ve yet to get hired somewhere where everything was running perfectly,” Leiweke said. “And this situation for the last eight years has [been] as great a challenge as I’ve 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’s what we’re going to do.”
The Kraken are optimistic about their future in spite of their on-ice issues.
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’t hurt either.
