The Kraken doubled up on strong additions to hockey leadership Thursday, announcing Patrik Allvin as vice president and assistant general manager and Pascal Vincent as assistant coach. Both Allvin and Vincent arrive in Seattle with deep experience and success at building winning teams.
“Patrik is an excellent communicator in a team environment,” said Kraken general manager Jason Botterill. “He understands the importance of structure and a process in making decisions. You look at his experience evaluating talent in North America, Europe, amateur, pro, he’s had a lot of different titles over his career. He had success in Pittsburgh, winning three Stanley Cups, being a part of a group there [which included Botterill].”
Allvin was a 2024 finalist for NHL GM of the Year in that role with Pacific Division rival Vancouver. The Canucks won a division title for the first time since 2013, posting a 50-23-9 record and advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs before losing Game 7 in a hard-fought, tight series with Edmonton.
“Patrik will work very closely with me with a focus on pro scouting as part of his role,” said Botterill.
For his part, Allvin is “eager to get started” and reunite with Botterill. The former Vancouver GM was inspired in his conversations with Botterill about the Kraken opportunity plus has a first-hand perspective on the value of the high-decibel Kraken fandom at Climate Pledge Arena home games.
“I liked everything I heard from Jason about the good people in the organization,” said Allvin during a Wednesday night phone call after crossing the border into the U.S. “The practice facility is phenomenal, best in the league. The support of the Kraken in the city and region was evident every time I've been down there for games. As a visiting team, you can feel the fans’ energy and feel the identity of the team playing fast hockey.”
Allvin said both he and Botterill have “grown a lot” since Pittsburgh days, with Swedish-born Allvin in Vancouver and Botterill as GM in Buffalo and now Seattle. Botterill and Allvin spent 10 years together in Pittsburgh, including a Stanley Cup win in 2009 and back-to-back Cup wins in 2016 and 2017 while Botterill was assistant GM.
“Jason and I still have the inner drive to always get better and learn,” said Allvin. “We're always looking for different ways to improve and challenge each other. I trust him. He's very organized, very detailed, and he's extremely driven. I want to be around people like that. Long-term success comes from that inner drive. You are looking for different ways to help a team win and creating an environment in which you are empowering your staff and making sure you are pushing the staff to reach full potential as much as you are pushing the players. It leads to a healthy environment with high standards and a positive culture.”
Lambert on Vincent: ‘Favorite Right from Beginning’
When Jessica Campbell departed earlier this summer, Kraken head coach Lane Lambert was thorough in his search for a new assistant coach. He reached out to his many connections across hockey.
“Pascal’s worn every hat you can,” said Lambert by phone Wednesday night. “He's been a head coach at every level. He’s been an assistant coach at every level. He's been coaching for 26 years and at the pro level for the last 15 years. In all of the research I did, everything said about him checked all the boxes. Everyone said he is an extremely hardworking and loyal guy who loves to win and loves to develop players. For me, Pascal was the favorite right from the beginning based on his experience and what I was hearing about him. We feel very fortunate to get him into our mix. “
For the last two seasons, Vincent has been head coach for the Laval Rocket, the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Montréal Canadiens. He was named AHL Coach of the Year in 2025, leading the Rocket to 101 points and a league-leading 48-19-5 record. It was his second AHL coach of the year honor, winning the first in 2017-18 with the Manitoba Moose. He has worked as an NHL assistant coach across seven seasons, five with Winnipeg (2011 to 2016) and two with Columbus (2021 to 2023), before serving one year as head coach with the Blue Jackets in 2023-24.
Vincent was ecstatic over the cellphone connection on Wednesday, talking about his new role with the Kraken: “I've been hired and worked with a few teams in the past. It’s always special. But this time, there’s something different and better about this one. The city of Seattle is great, the arena is amazing, and the fans are loud. It's hard to tell you exactly why, but it feels right. It feels like I’m coming home somehow.”
Something felt profoundly right to both Vincent and Lambert in discussing the assistant coach opening.
“Lane is really good and proven at building a defensive structure,” said Vincent. “The one thing that is important to Lane, and I agree with him, is, yes, you want to build more offense, but not at the cost of cheating the game. Because if you start to cheat the game, then you may win some games, but at a cost. But you always want to build good playoff habits. That’s hard to do. It’s about building the right habits from the start of the season, the ones that will help us make the playoffs and then have success in the playoffs.”
Lambert said he has “a pretty good idea right now” of how Vincent fits into the work and duties of the coaching staff.
“Pascal is going to add value to every area of the game,” said Lambert. “We certainly want to continue to be good defensively. We want to add and be better offensively. He has some ideas from that standpoint. He will have a range and scope of responsibility. He sees the game a little better on an offensive level, just like [assistant coach] Chris Taylor does. It's exciting to add that value. And it’s important to bring someone in who is a little bit of a contrast to me. We’ve done that in this hire. Pascal and I have similar backgrounds in terms of how we’ve gone through the [coaching] ranks. But speaking to Pascal in the [hiring] process, I would say our demeanors are a little bit different, and that's a good thing. “
