You could make a strong argument that this current Seattle Kraken offseason is the most important and possibly most impactful since the months leading up to their inaugural season.
On the heels of back-to-back playoff misses, the Kraken made bold changes such as moving on from head coach Dan Bylsma after just one season and shaking up the front office with the promotion of Ron Francis to President of Hockey Operations and Jason Botterill to General Manager.
The first move of this offseason, one that promises to bring an influx of new players via free agency, potential trades, and the draft, was to find a new head coach.
To that end, the Kraken hired Lane Lambert to the post, his second NHL head coaching gig. Lambert led the New York Islanders to the 2023 playoffs but was let go midway through his second season. An argument of course, to be made that such a move was quick even by swift hockey standards.
Now, it’s Lambert charged with bringing the Kraken back to the postseason.
In our one one-on-one conversation with Lambert, as seen on this week’s Inside the Arena Podcast, he had a message for Kraken fans that sums up how his team will play moving forward.
“I’m excited. You should be excited. Our players are excited. And I will tell you this, that we will be in every game and you will not leave the building cheated by our hockey team,” Lambert said.
He has a strong vision for this team, a confidence about his plan that you can’t help but feel good about it as well.
“I think it’s critical, but that’s just me. That’s just, you know, I’ve seen it, it’s worked, and I think that players relish that. As a player, and I was a player for a long time, all you want is to know what’s going on, and you want to have communication. And sometimes, the message isn’t always what you want to hear, but at least you know where you stand,” Lambert said of his approach as a head coach.
He comes on board with the Kraken not just at a unique time from the perspective of the 5th season in franchise history but also at a point where the young Kraken stars have proven themselves ready to contribute. While savvy veterans still provide necessary leadership and talent on the ice, Lambert will have to mesh that talent and lineups in a way that can move this team forward and back to the postseason.
So this next chapter for the Kraken is also one for Lambert on a personal level. We talked about his beginnings in hockey and how it’s a team sport off the ice too–with his family.
“It was my dad, and I have two brothers and we were living in a small town in Saskatchewan” said Lambert of his start in the game.
“The dads around the street built an outdoor rink, and we used to put our skates on when we came home from school. I was probably five or six at that time, came home from school. and we would play hockey. We would literally skate down the street because the streets were a little bit icy. That’s Saskatchewan in the winter. Skate down the streets, eat, and go back out, and we had lights up and everything because one of the dads was an electrician in town. So it was amazing, that’s really what, where it all started.”
Hockey being a family and team element continues with his wife and children today. The world of coaching can be a whirlwind with the moves around the world, so landing in Seattle is something of a dream come true for the Lamberts.
“I mean, they sacrifice a lot,” Lambert said of his family.
“And everyone does. In every facet of life, every business, I’m just speaking personally from my standpoint, you miss high school graduation because you’re in the playoffs. You can’t make it back to high school graduation or something like that, right? So they’ve sacrificed a lot for us to be able to be in this position. And I say us because we’re a family, we’re a team.”
A team that’s all in on Seattle.
All in, on getting fans in our city something they had a brief taste of in 2023 that left them craving more.
A perennial playoff hockey team.
“They give you life, they give you energy, and I think that Seattle as a sports town overall is fantastic.”