Kraken hire Lane Lambert as head coach, replacing the fired Dan Bylsma
SEATTLE — The Seattle Kraken hired Lane Lambert on Thursday night as the third head coach in team history.
Lambert replaces Dan Bylsma, fired after one season.
The 60-year-old Lambert was most recently a head coach for the New York Islanders from 2022 until he was fired on Jan. 20, 2024. He was 61-46-20 with the Islanders, and they qualified for the playoffs once during his tenure.
Last season, the former NHL forward was associate head coach with Toronto.
'I'm so excited to become the head coach of the Seattle Kraken,' Lambert said in a statement. 'When it came time to writing a new chapter, I couldn't think of a better fit.'
The hiring comes a little over a month after Bylsma was fired and the Kraken front office experienced a shakeup. Longtime general manager Ron Francis was promoted to president of hockey operations, with assistant Jason Botterill taking over day-to-day responsibilities.
Bringing aboard Lambert marked the first notable hire of his tenure as general manager. Botterill also confirmed April 22 that assistant coach Jessica Campbell will be retained for next season.
'After conducting an extensive search, we're thrilled to announce Lane as our new head coach,' Botterill said in a statement. 'We cast a wide net for suitable candidates. Lane impressed us throughout the interview process with his strategy and vision for this team.'
Lambert will have his work cut out to improve a squad that finished seventh in the Pacific Division last season, but the future could be a bit brighter for the Kraken. The franchise has 10 picks across the first two rounds of the next three drafts.
'This team has a talented group of young players poised to take the next step and a core group of veterans with great leadership qualities,' Lambert said '... I can't wait to get started.'
When addressing reporters at the end of April, though, co-owner Samantha Holloway expressed her dissatisfaction with cycling through two coaches in two years as the Kraken failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
'What we would like to be is a sustained playoff team,' Holloway said at Kraken Community Iceplex.
As an assistant coach, Lambert's teams have had no problem doing as much. Since 2015, teams Lambert has coached have advanced to the second round or better eight times. That includes a Stanley Cup championship in 2018 with the Washington Capitals.
Lambert spent part of six seasons in the NHL as a player with Detroit, the New York Rangers and Quebec.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC Sports
2 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Florida coach Paul Maurice has Panthers back in Cup final, fueled by his mix of laughs and hard work
Wayne Gretzky joins Dan Patrick to discuss the NHL conference finals, Alexander Ovechkin breaking his all-time goal scoring record and if he views himself as the greatest hockey player of all time. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Paul Maurice keeps the day-to-day routine simple. Show up for work early and have copious amounts of coffee. Trust assistant coaches to do their jobs. Sit in on meetings when needed. Hammer home a consistent message with players. Swear a little bit sometimes, swear profusely at other times. Hey, it works. In the Stanley Cup Final for a third consecutive season with the Panthers, Maurice's style — laugh-out-loud funny at times, incredibly smart and serious at others — continues to deliver results for Florida. He was 41-51 in his playoff career before coming to Florida; he's 41-21 in his playoff career with Florida. A coaching lifer, he already was well-respected within the game before the Panthers brought him aboard, but he never had anything close to a run like this until now. 'I'm not being disrespectful to the other teams I've coached,' Maurice said. 'The team here, this is the best team I've ever coached. It's not really that close.' Winners of the Stanley Cup last season, the Panthers will try for back-to-back titles starting Wednesday night when they visit Edmonton for Game 1 of a rematch. Florida beat the Oilers last year in seven games for Maurice's first Cup in a 30-year career. 'Oh, I'll never get tired of hearing that,' Maurice said. It's a hilarious game of tug-of-war that Maurice and the Panthers players are engaged in these days. Players don't want to be showered in praise for making a third consecutive Cup final; the coach insists that it's all about them and that he just pushes a few buttons here and there. The truth is that there's more than enough credit to go around. 'He keeps things light, but he expects us to work our hardest and he's very prepared and — I know I've said this before — he can get you up for a Tuesday night game against Columbus or whatever in the middle of the year and it feels like a playoff game,' forward Matthew Tkachuk said. 'His speeches and his ability to get us to run through a wall each and every game is a big gift.' The speeches aren't filibusters, however. Maurice thinks it's critically important to have the ability to go into the locker room, say exactly what needs to be said and depart without saying anything more or anything less. He's not afraid to tell his players that they're playing poorly. He's not afraid to tell his players that he loves them, either. He's also not afraid to make himself the butt of the joke. Florida was a 122-point, President's Trophy-winning team the season before Maurice arrived. The Panthers managed 92 points in Year 1 of his era. 'Coaching,' he quipped. The 30-point drop was in large part to the adjustment made by a stylistic change, and that change led them to the Cup final, but Maurice never misses a chance to make fun of how he turned a 122-point club into a 92-point club overnight. Panthers defenseman Seth Jones came to Florida around the trade deadline this season. He had a lot of learning to do — new systems, new expectations, new teammates, all of that. He also had to learn how to get coached differently, which he quickly realized wasn't a bad thing. 'It's different than what I've had,' Jones said of Maurice's style. 'I think he knows how to really take the temperature of the group and the situation of the group. And he can have a meeting where he's very intense, calling guys out or calling the team out. But he's also very good at throwing a joke in there, throwing a funny clip in there when we're doing video. He's very smart. I think he understands what the team needs at any given time. I don't think he gets too high or too low based on certain situations.' That, the Panthers have learned, is critical. Consider how the title series went last season. The Panthers won the first three games and were on the brink of the Cup. Then they lost Game 4. And Game 5. And Game 6. The brink of the Cup became the brink of a collapse, real fast. Maurice started talking to his players about freedom and playing with that feeling. Game 7 was flawless. The Panthers won, and at the parade about a week later, Maurice ended his rain-soaked, highly profane remarks by throwing his arms into the air and yelling 'Freedom!' at the top of his lungs to his team. 'He gets the buy-in from the players and he treats all of us the same, which I think is really important as a coach and not to treat guys differently,' Tkachuk said. 'He expects us all to work hard and treat each other with respect and everything, but he treats us all the exact same. He's been a great coach and we're super lucky to have him here.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oilers Fans Were Worried After Major Connor McDavid News
Oilers Fans Were Worried After Major Connor McDavid News originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers are back in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season and are set to face the Florida Panthers in Game 1 on Wednesday night. Advertisement This will mark the first rematch in the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back years since the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings faced off in 2008 and 2009. Ahead of the series opener, the Oilers held practice on Sunday, and McDavid took the ice as usual. But just 10 minutes in, he left to speak with trainers, sparking concern. He didn't return for the rest of the practice, which continued for another half hour. Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97).© Sam Navarro-Imagn Images With little information available at first, fans quickly grew anxious about the status of their captain. Fortunately, head coach Kris Knoblauch said he was good after practice. "No issues. He will be ready for Game 1," Knoblauch told reporters. Meanwhile, Oilers fans were genuinely concerned that McDavid might have suffered a serious injury. Following the all-clear from Knoblauch, they breathed a sigh of relief. Advertisement "Holy airball. WERE SAFE GUYS. OILERSNATION LETS RIDE," one fan said. "😮💨😅," another wrote. "Everyone relax McDavid is 💯 ok," added another. "Stressful 15 minutes of my life," said a fan. "I'm going to panic anyways," one wrote. Another fan attached a gif: Losing a player like McDavid would all but end Oilers fans' hopes of winning the Stanley Cup this season. They're already without forward Zach Hyman for the rest of the postseason, and losing arguably the best player in the world would be the final blow. McDavid has recorded eight 100-point seasons in his 10 years in the NHL. The 2015 No. 1 overall pick has won three Hart Memorial Trophies, five Art Ross Trophies, four Ted Lindsay Awards, and earned the Conn Smythe last postseason despite the Oilers losing in the Final. Advertisement This season, McDavid appeared in 67 games and recorded 26 goals, 74 assists and 100 points. Related: Oilers React to NHL's Major Connor McDavid Announcement Related: Oilers Fans Feeling Crushed After Coach Kris Knoblauch's Major Announcement This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 1, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Wild and Marco Rossi remain at contract impasse as trade possibilities emerge: ‘Only time will tell'
Teams have started to call the Minnesota Wild about restricted free agent Marco Rossi, but even with negotiations on a new contract going nowhere, Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin said Sunday he's not 'dying' to trade the 23-year-old center. That doesn't mean he won't, of course. Advertisement Guerin made clear during a conversation with The Athletic that there's a certain price point he's willing to go to in contract talks with Rossi — and, so far, Rossi's ask has been significantly higher. The Wild have made two contract offers — five years, $25 million in the winter, per league sources, and a shorter-term offer last week. While the five-year offer had previously been rejected (after a bridge counter the Wild didn't agree to), Rossi's camp has not yet countered the Wild's recent bridge offer. The sides are expected to speak again this coming week. However, given that Rossi received the third-lowest ice time of any Wild player in the playoffs (11:08 per game) with most of his even-strength shifts on the fourth line, it's very unlikely now that Rossi would accept a bridge deal and risk being deployed in the bottom-six during the term of his next contract. After the season, he said he was 'very disappointed' with how the Wild utilized him in their playoffs. 'I think sometimes you just have disagreements on where a player is at, and that's fine,' Guerin said. 'And sometimes it takes a little while longer to work through things. But out there, there's this belief that we don't like him or we're going to trade him. 'And look, he's no different than any other player. If we can make our team better by trading someone, we're going to do it. But that doesn't mean we don't like the player. And Marco is a player that we like. He had a good season again. So I don't know where all this is coming from. … Marco's a good player.' THAT'S A WILD OT WIN! 🤩 Marco Rossi wins it for the @mnwild in @Energizer overtime! — NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2025 Rossi ranks No. 2 on The Athletic's Chris Johnston's offseason trade board. He is ineligible for salary arbitration, which would have provided a one- or two-year term, but is eligible to sign an offer sheet with 31 other teams as early as July 1. So there is a pressure point for the Wild to potentially trade Rossi if a contract isn't agreed upon this month. Advertisement 'There clearly is a difference of opinion with respect to Marco's value,' Rossi's agent, Ian Pulver, told The Athletic on Sunday. 'We will continue in good faith to engage the Wild to attempt to reach resolution. We understand that Billy likes Marco, but for how much? And in what role going forward? (That) is the subject of great debate. 'Like the Wild, we believe we have advanced very fair and reasonable contract proposals. What the future holds for Marco and the Wild, only time will tell.' Guerin categorized the Wild's two contract offers to Rossi as 'significant.' 'They don't like it,' Guerin said. 'And that's fine. This is not a knock on them. They feel he's of more value. But to say I don't like him, if you knew what the value of what those contract offers were, you'd say, 'Oh, he definitely likes him and wants to keep him.'' The Wild's five-year contract offer to Rossi for a $5 million average annual value is in line with Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell and Washington Capitals center Dylan Strome. Rossi, on a seven- or eight-year term, is likely looking at comparables like the Ottawa Senators' Dylan Cozens ($7.1 million), Buffalo Sabres' Josh Norris ($7.95 million) and the Wild's Matt Boldy, who signed a seven-year, $49 million extension in January 2023. Rossi, the ninth pick in the 2020 draft, followed a 21-goal, 40-point season during his first full year in the NHL with a career-high 24 goals and 60 points last season. At five-on-five, he was on the ice for 56 goals compared to Boldy's 50 and 43 goals against compared to Boldy's 44. Overall, Boldy followed a 15-goal, 39-point rookie year in just 47 games with 31 goals and 63 points in 2022-23, 29 goals and 69 points in 2023-24 and 27 goals and 73 points last season. Boldy averaged nearly two minutes more per game the past two years than Rossi. Advertisement Calgary Flames 22-year-old winger Matthew Coronato recently signed a seven-year contract worth $6.5 million. It's hard to imagine Rossi agreeing to any long-term deal for less than that, but so far the Wild have shown no appetite to go anywhere in the vicinity. On a three-year term, Evolving-Hockey estimates Rossi is a $5.262 million player this summer. On a five-year term, the site has him at $6.067 million. On a seven-year term, it's at $6.688 million. For being undersized, Rossi doesn't shy away from going to the dirty areas. According to NHL Edge player- and puck-tracking data, 67 of his 136 shots were from the high-danger area (92nd percentile in the NHL), as were 18 of his 24 goals (94th percentile). Guerin denied a report from DailyFaceoff that he asked Philadelphia for Tyson Foerster or one of the Flyers' late first-round picks in a trade for Rossi, saying, 'I've talked to lots of teams about lots of players — not just Marco — and names come up all the time, but there's never been any serious discussion with anybody yet.' The Flyers are in the market for a second-line center, as are teams like the Vancouver Canucks, Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Flames and Montreal Canadiens. Asked if he's gotten much interest so far in Rossi, Guerin said, 'Yeah, teams see this stuff written and they call, but like I said, Marco's a good player and I'm not interested in making our team worse or postponing our team being better. So I'm not dying to get rid of Marco. That's the bottom line.' Most trades this month happen around the draft, which is June 27 and 28, but Guerin indicated he could be active much sooner. 'If we ever did something, I don't have to wait for the draft or anything,' he said. 'But again, that's not for Marco. That's for anybody.' This is a big offseason for the Wild, who are finally unshackled from a majority of the buyout pain for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Guerin reiterated Sunday that he is confident the Wild will be able to sign Kirill Kaprizov to a contract extension this summer and said he also will be looking at potentially external additions via free agency or trying to make bold moves via trade. He wants to upgrade the center position this offseason and potentially add a scoring winger. Advertisement One current Wild unrestricted free agent that the Wild may re-sign is veteran left wing Marcus Johansson if they can get the 34-year-old on a significant haircut to his recently expired two-year, $4 million contract. He could be open to returning on an inexpensive contract. In his second stint with the Wild, Johansson has scored 28 goals and 82 points in 170 games. The Wild also plan to tender defenseman Declan Chisholm a qualifying offer if they can't re-sign the restricted free agent before July 1. (Photo of Marco Rossi: Sergei Belski / Imagn Images)
