Seattle Kraken Should Consider 5 Coaching Candidates To Replace Bylsma

Early last week, the Seattle Kraken announced that the team had relieved head coach Dan Bylsma of his duties, almost a year to the day that the organization fired Dave Hakstol, the first bench boss in franchise history.

Bylsma compiled a record of 35-41-6 in his one and only year in Seattle, with the Kraken missing the playoffs for the third time in four seasons of existence. They finished 20 points behind the St. Louis Blues (who had 96) for the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference.

In two separate, but related moves, the Kraken also announced that general manager Ron Francis would become the President of Hockey Operations, while assistant general manager Jason Botterill would be promoted to the lead General Manager position.

The re-shuffling leaves the Kraken searching for a head coach for the second consecutive summer. The moves come only one season after proclaiming that Bylsma was the one to lead the team into the future on the back of his success with the franchise’s American Hockey League affiliate. It may seem like a rushed decision, but Bylsma failed to improve the Kraken in a number of statistical categories.

With a burgeoning youth movement on the horizon in Seattle, the organization must get the next hire right. A younger, more modern-thinking head coach should be the main target, and there are several intriguing candidates who fit the bill.

Candidate #1: Peter Laviolette

After all that preamble about the importance of shepherding and connecting with the Kraken’s up-and-coming prospects, listing Peter Laviolette, recently fired by the New York Rangers, as an option for the head coaching position appears contradictory.

Laviolette has earned a reputation for leaning heavily on veteran players and for not showing the ability or the willingness to develop young players, especially during his most recent stints with the Rangers and the Washington Capitals

It also doesn’t help his case that Kappo Kakko was traded from the Rangers to the Kraken almost immediately after openly criticizing Laviolette’s decision to make him a healthy scratch following a run of poor results for New York. Given that the 24-year-old Kakko figures to be a part of the long-term future in Seattle, the odds of Laviolette assuming the vacant post seem low.

Still, Laviolette boasts a formidable resume at the NHL level, despite finishing the 2024-25 season with only 85 points and missing the playoffs. The 60-year-old bench boss ranks ninth all-time in games coached during the regular season and is seventh in regular-season wins. He won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and made it to at least the Conference Final on three other occasions. 

Laviolette crossed paths with Ron Francis during his first season as a head coach in Carolina and the final season of Francis’ playing career in the NHL (2003-04). That connection could help his case if the organization decides to go with a more experienced coach.

Candidate #2: David Carle

If the hockey world thought 35-year-old David Carle was highly sought after last offseason, the market for the head coach of the University of Denver might be even hotter going forward, though the school just announced that it had agreed to a multi-year extension with Carle to keep him off the market for the time being.

Carle has guided the Pioneers to two of the last four NCAA Division I National Championships and coached the United States to back-to-back World Junior Championships for the first time in the country’s history, winning both the 2024 and 2025 iterations.

The one thing working in the Kraken’s favour is that the organization is looking at a multi-year rebuild and could offer Carle some assurances that he wouldn’t be swept aside at the first sign of trouble. The coach of any Stanley Cup hopeful usually has a much shorter leash, and that could dissuade Carle from leaving his cushy gig in Denver for a job like that which is now open with the Rangers.

Carle could have a lifetime post with the University of Denver and enjoy a level of job security that does not exist in the modern NHL.  While the agreement will keep him out of the NHL for at least one more season, the pay, status, and allure of the big leagues could eventually prove to be too much to ignore.

Candidate #3: Jessica Campbell

It has been a whirlwind three years for Jessica Campbell who, since 2021, became the first woman to be a coach at the men’s world hockey championship with Team Germany, the first woman to be a full-time coach as an assistant in the AHL, and the first woman to be a coach in NHL history as an assistant with the Kraken as part of Bylsma’s staff.

The Kraken have made a name for themselves as one of the more progressive organizations in professional sports, and promoting Campbell into the top job would be a historic moment for the league and for the sport. Working against her is her age (she turns 33 in June) and lack of top-level experience in terms of being a head coach at any notable level.

The latter criteria didn’t stop the Montreal Canadiens from hiring Hockey Hall of Fame forward Martin St. Louis as their head coach in 2022, but he could at least point to a playing career at the highest level on the men’s side. There have also been a number of head coaches named to the position while being 30 years old or younger, but none of them had to also simultaneously leap over the gender barrier in a notoriously slow-to-adapt industry.

Campbell has forged a unique path to get to where she is today and could parlay her professional playing career (CWHL and Team Canada), growing coaching resume, and previous experience as a power-skating specialist into another watershed moment for North American hockey.

Candidate #4: Jay Woodcroft

The fourth potential candidate is the former head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, 48-year-old Jay Woodcroft. He was fired early last season after the team won only three of their first 13 games, but was a victim of horrendous puck luck, rather than being a bad coach. 

Despite Edmonton ranking first in the NHL at the time of Woodcroft’s dismissal by their share of expected goals, scoring chances, and high-danger opportunities, and sixth by shot share, the Oilers also posted a .863 team save percentage (last in the NHL). No coach can survive his goalies allowing that many goals without it becoming an issue, and Woodcroft paid the price.

Other than helping the Oilers become one of the NHL’s top teams at five-on-five over his brief tenure, Woodcroft also boasts the eighth-highest PTS% in NHL history (minimum 100 games coached) while also having guided the Oilers to the 2022 Western Conference Final. 

Given Woodcroft’s success in pushing the young Oilers to some playoff success, other rebuilding teams might be willing to take a flier on a young, but experienced professional with nearly 20 years spent as either a video coach, an assistant, or as a head coach. The Kraken could use his ability to successfully instill modern offensive principles and his ability to connect and communicate with blossoming talent.

Candidate #5: Todd Nelson

Like Bylsma last season, 54-year-old  Todd Nelson is a former NHL bench boss (career record of 17-25-9 in 2014-15 on an interim basis with the Oilers) with a ton of success in the minor leagues. 

Nelson’s coaching resume stacks up nicely against almost all of the currently available candidates. He has worked for the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers (2008-10),  the AHL’s Oklahoma City Barons (2010-2015), the Oilers (2015), the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins (2015-2018), the Dallas Stars (2018-2022), and most recently the Hershey Bears (since 2022) on either an assistant (Thrashers and Stars) or head coaching basis (Barons, Oilers, Griffins, and Bears).

While the Bears are routinely one of the AHL’s best teams due to their focus on using veteran players rather than developing prospects, there is no denying Nelson’s recent success. He has won the Calder Cup three times over his career (in both of his first two seasons in Hershey), and once again has the Bears primed for a championship run (second in the league standings this year). 

Nelson’s lone stint as an NHL head coach was marred by the Oilers’ attempts at tanking for Connor McDavid in the 2015 NHL Draft, but he posted a higher points percentage that season (.421) than Dallas Eakins (.310), whom he replaced midway through the year. 

Nelson’s success in the AHL likely hasn’t gone unnoticed, but the Kraken’s issues with Bylsma might scare them away from looking towards the minors for a replacement.

NHL Head Coaching Candidates: Honorable Mentions

Here are five additional honorable mentions, listed with their age and current coaching position:

• Rick Tocchet, 61 (Unattached – Previously Head Coach, Vancouver Canucks)
• Jeff Halpern, 49 (Assistant Coach, Tampa Bay Lightning)
• Jay Leach, 45 (Assistant Coach, Boston Bruins)
• Mitch Love, 40 (Assistant Coach, Washington Capitals)
• Jay Leach, 45 (Assistant Coach, Boston Bruins)

The NHL head coaching landscape isn’t much different compared to that of last offseason, as high-profile openings in Toronto and New Jersey were replaced by those in New York and Boston. The Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks also finished the season with interim coaches, and those larger media markets might also be more appealing than what the Kraken can offer, even while being in the throes of a rebuild. 

The Kraken can point to a blossoming crop of players aged 23 or younger as well as an ownership group willing to spend. If the organization does not hit on this appointment, they risk becoming more like the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Atlanta Thrashers in their immediate post-expansion years, rather than the Cup-winning Vegas Golden Knights. Just like last year, no pressure.