Seattle SPORTs Now

                                Ron Francis (above) with Jordan Eberle and his family

After five years with the Seattle Kraken- four as general manager and one as president of hockey operations- Ron Francis and the Kraken have decided to part ways.

In some ways, this has been the most disappointing season in the five-year history of the Kraken. At the Winter Olympic break, Seattle was in a playoff position in the Pacific Division. Since the season resumed, Seattle’s NHL entry has only won five of 19 games.

-``No one is satisfied,’’ said Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke. ``We have not delivered on the promise of this team. We're going to go back to the model we started with. We're going to have a GM who makes the decisions."

Francis has made the decisions since before the Kraken even had a nickname. He took over in July 2019 and selected the players in the 2021 NHL expansion draft. While the Kraken didn’t achieve the success of the previous expansion entry- the Vegas Golden Knights made the Stanley Cup finals in their first season- Seattle made the playoffs in Year 2 and knocked off then defending champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

Fans hoped the Kraken would be an annual participant in the post-season from that point forward but this marks the third consecutive year that Seattle won’t compete in the playoffs.

Francis’s worst personnel move was probably right after the playoffs when he chose not to resign Morgan Geekie who continues to be an elite forward with the Boston Bruins. During his tenure, the Kraken have brought in free agents like Brian Doumolin, Kailer Yamamoto and Pierre-Eduard Bellemare, who’ve had minimum impact.

After Season 4, Francis was moved up to team president and Jason Botterill was named the new general manager. Botterill, who formerly served as Buffalo Sabres’ general manager, will continue in that role with the Kraken.

``We've got to do more to make this a hockey city, to keep players, to attract other players," said Leiweke, who admitted that Seattle isn’t a popular location for NHL free agents.

At a press conference announcing Francis’ departure, Leiweke wouldn’t confirm whether first-year head coach Lane Lambert would return next season but noted ``he coached his ass off this season.’’

The Kraken have two regular season home games remaining- Saturday afternoon against the Calgary Flames and the home finale on Monday night versus the Los Angeles Kings in what will be Fan Appreciation Night.

 

Farewell to Dave Lopes

The first major league player I ever interviewed passed away this week. Davey Lopes, best known as the second baseman on some powerful Los Angeles Dodgers teams died at the age of 80. He also managed the Milwaukee Brewers and was a major league coach with several teams.

Lopes grew up in East Providence, Rhode Island. He played at La Salle Academy, one of the better high schools for athletics in the state but surprisingly never made the Providence Journal All-State baseball team. The odds of a player not making All-State in a place as small as Rhode Island and then going on to play pro ball, never mind the major leagues, is a longshot.

Lopes would go on to make four National League All-Star teams, lead the league in stolen bases eight times, played in four World Series, winning one world championship.

He played eight years in LA with the same infield, Lopes at second, Steve Garvey at first, Bill Russell at short and Ron Cey at third. That foursome played for the Spokane of the Pacific Coast League. That championship team led by Lopes future LA manager Tommy Lasorda included several other future major leaguers such as Bill Buckner, Billy Grabarkewitz and Ricky Mahler.

Lopes ranks second all-time on the Dodgers’ all-time stolen base list behind Maury Wills, who was a Dodgers coach when I interviewed Lopes. I asked him if Wills was a big help in him becoming an elite base stealer. With quite confidence, he set he learned mostly on his own.

Don’t remember what I asked him about Lasorda but he smiled and rolled his eyes. I suspect that the Dodger players liked Lasorda but didn’t take him seriously. This writer was disappointed a few years ago while watching a Dodgers game on the MLB network, Orel Hershiser mentioned that sometimes Lasorda went to Hollywood comedy writers to get some of his one-liners.

A fond farewell to Davey Lopes, a Rhode Island legend.

 

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