The Seattle Kraken closed out their last game of the 2025-26 regular season with a 2-0 loss against the Colorado Avalanche on April 16, finishing with a 34-37-11 season record. As with many expansion teams, the first five years of the Kraken’s existence have been mixed at best. The biggest exception to their mediocrity was the 2022-23 season, in which they defeated the Colorado Avalanche (the defending Stanley Cup champions) in the first round of the playoffs before getting knocked out in the second round by the Dallas Stars. Outside of that campaign, though, the Kraken have zero playoff appearances and zero seasons with a winning record — and now more than ever, they face growing external and internal pressure to improve.
Seattle is a city full of thriving sports franchises, most notably with the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl in February. The Mariners also saw massive playoff success in 2025, making it to the American League Championship Series. Elsewhere, the Storm won four WNBA titles and the Sounders won two MLS championships in under two decades of existence. Add in the newly established Torrent of the PWHL and the likely possibility of the SuperSonics coming back to Seattle for the first time in almost 18 years, and the professional sports scene in Seattle looks increasingly crowded as the Kraken fight for attention.
Not helping matters is the success of the Kraken’s expansion counterparts, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup in 2023 along with two conference championships and five division championships since their first season in 2017. If Las Vegas is the epitome of a successful expansion team, Seattle falls on the opposite end of the spectrum. Whether this discrepancy is chalked up to bad luck — including a field of teams wary to make draft deals with the Kraken as a result of the Golden Knights’ massive success in its expansion draft — or an overeager approach by Seattle’s front office after its playoff appearance, the Kraken’s results continue to disappoint.
The team is making significant management changes as a result. In fact, it went through its biggest change of staff in the short history of the franchise on April 8 when Ron Francis stepped down as president. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke cited the move as an important step forward for his vision of the franchise’s future.
“Ron and I agreed that this is the right moment to make a thoughtful transition for both Ron and the organization and move in a new direction,” Leiweke said in a release.
General Manager Jason Botterill retained his position and will oversee the team’s hockey operations as executive vice president.
For a team that has already had three head coaches in five years, the latest management change will only increase the scrutiny from fans on the front office. For the 2026-27 season, management knows very well the task that’s set for them.
“This team is still a work in progress,” Leiweke said. “It’s an unfulfilled promise, and no one in the organization is satisfied.”
Even though the Kraken’s track record is decidedly lacking, the team still has some things going for it. Leading the way is center Matty Beniers, drafted second overall in 2021 by the Kraken before having a breakout rookie-of-the-year season in 2022-23. While he hasn’t had quite as successful of a season in his career since then, he’s still only 23 and has ample time ahead of him to develop.
Seattle also has a wealth of past draft picks working their way up to the professional level including Jake O’Brien, who was drafted eighth overall in 2025. This team isn’t devoid of talent, nor is it doomed in any sense to mediocrity, but the Kraken are still waiting for their breakthrough moment, which will need to be twofold. As the rest of the Seattle sports landscape continues to develop and ascend into the national spotlight, next season for the Kraken will be as much about finding success in the NHL as it is about retaining standing among the city’s other professional sports teams.
