Staffing Up, Stacking Up for New Season

Some 30 veteran players and prospects are already in town for informal on-ice workouts and off-ice conditioning ahead of rookie camp (starts Sept. 11) and Kraken Training Camp (Sept. 17). The hockey operations group is equally in go-mode, having executed a wide range of significant hires and promotions during the offseason aimed at elevating and maximizing player performance and development over what is now an 84-game regular season slate. Here’s a look at the changes across the front office and support staff: 

Hockey Operations Leadership Group 

The offseason started early for Kraken executive vice president and general manager Jason Botterill and the hockey brain trust when the team announced Patrik Allvin as the newest vice president and assistant GM on June 11. 

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. 

Allvin and Botterill worked alongside each other with the Pittsburgh Penguins for 10 years, 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.” 

Coaching Staff 

When Jessica Campbell departed earlier this summer, Lambert was purposeful and thorough in his search for a new assistant coach before the Kraken announced the addition of Pascal Vincent. Vincent arrives in Seattle with deep experience and success at coaching winning teams and developing young players.  

Lambert reached out to his many connections across hockey. Vincent’s credentials and qualities led the pack from the start. 

“Pascal’s worn every hat you can,” said Lambert. “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 ... 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.

The coaching staff will be bolstered this year by the addition of skills consultant David Min, who was a guest coach at last fall’s Kraken training camp as part of a NHL program to promote inclusion among coaching staffs. Min has been a valuable and respected coach for the Kraken Youth Hockey Association and Kraken Hockey League adult development camps as part of the NHLCA mentorship program. Min has been a valuable and respected coach for the Kraken Youth Hockey Association developing recreation to elite hockey players for the local community.

In an additional coaching move, Andrew Doty joins the staff as video analyst to pair with assistant coach for video, Tim Ohashi. Doty comes to Seattle after three seasons with division rival Calgary and three years with American Hockey League Henderson, a Vegas affiliate. His extensive knowledge of those two franchises will no doubt be a plus for the Kraken while Ohashi, a Stanley Cup winner with Washington in 2019, is widely considered a top-tier video coach in the NHL. 

Research and Development 

The Kraken’s research and development team, highly respected around the NHL for its analytics modeling under the guidance of assistant GM Alexandra Mandrycky and director Namita Nandakumar, added three new members this summer. Dan Cassario, a former Division III college hockey player for the University of Rutgers-Camden, joins as a developer after impressive early career achievements in the finance industry while Sabrina Escalona will serve in the data engineer role. Escalona, a Seattle native, served in a similar for the St. Louis Cardinals major league baseball franchise. 

Dolan Gilbert is another new member of the research and development staff, but will hold a duo role as the Kraken’s official emergency backup goalie (affectionately known as EBUG). The NHL mandated a new rule this season that designates each team carries a third goaltender dedicated as the EBUG. Gilbert will practice with the team (valuable when other goaltenders address injuries or need a rest day) and he is required to travel with the team in case the Kraken’s two active goaltenders are unavailable. 

Gilbert, who will handle research and development duties as part of the role, has been a fixture in both the Kraken offices this summer and on the ice for informal summer workouts. Like all EBUGs across the league, he will wear the jersey number 00. Gilbert, part of the NCAA Michigan State men’s hockey program the last two seasons, played sparingly but starred as a youth hockey goaltender. It will come as no surprise to the Seattle front office that Gilbert achieved All-Academic Big 10 honors in his two years at Michigan State. 

Amateur Scouting 

The Kraken’s strong amateur scouting group has generated a prospect pool widely ranked in the top 20 percent among all 32 NHL teams. Hiring new amateur scout Brad Ginnell will fortify that effort. Ginnell, a University of Calgary graduate, comes to the Kraken after a successful run as manager of hockey operations and recruitment with the Western Hockey League during the last two seasons. Ginnell played five seasons and nearly 250 career NHL regular season games before leveraging a WHL scholarship into an intern role and then the WHL hockey operations and recruitment role. He no doubt will be able to relate to the new generation of NHL prospects.   

Sports Performance/Strength and Conditioning 

The Kraken have been fortunate over the past five seasons to have the one-two combination of Nate Brookreson and Jake Jensen as strength and conditioning coaches. Over the summer, Brookreson was promoted to a newly created position, director of sports performance, making room for Jensen to take on the well-deserved role of head strength and conditioning coach. Both Brookreson and Jensen have extensive experience working with elite hockey players as well as top athletes across other sports.

Brandon Wickett, who spent last season with the Philadelphia Flyers as a performance coach, returns to the Kraken organization as assistant strength and conditioning coach. Wickett was head strength and conditioning coach with Seattle’s AHL affiliate Coachella Valley for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. He will be a welcome additional coach in the strength and conditioning room plus keep in communication with Kraken prospects’ training and trainers as part of his role. It adds up to more 1-on-1 time for Brookreson, Jensen and Wickett with Kraken players during a long and busy season. 

What’s more, Madison Yerigan joins the sports performance group as the full-time lead dietitian, overseeing meals and menus, recovery drinks, supplements and all things nutrition at the team’s training center in Northgate, at Climate Pledge Arena, on the road (both arenas and hotels) and advising players’ food habits at home. She will advise players on individual plans for performance, strength, stamina and recovery among other objectives. Her work will include lots of meal planning plus making sure there are ample and targeted foods and drinks (smoothies, protein shakes, hydration supplements) at vital times throughout the season, including but far from limited to post-game nourishment and maintaining high energy on extended road trips, back-to-back games and challenges of an NHL season. 

Athletic Training  

Head athletic trainer Justin Rogers and his staff of assistant trainers Cole Harding and Phil Varney and massage therapist Annelle Tomlinson welcome physical therapist Mike Funyak to the Kraken athletic training staff. Funyak spent three seasons as sports and orthopedic physical therapist for the AHL Syracuse Crunch, affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He worked three previous years as a physical therapist with the University of Michigan MedSport program, including long-term rehabilitation work with the U.S. National Team Development Program U17 and U18 teams. 

Mental Performance 

In newly created position, Matt Brown will be part of the Kraken organization this coming season. He will serve as director of mental performance. Brown has three decades of experience working on the mental performance aspects of being an elite athlete, working most notably with Canadian national team athletes. Brown will connect with Kraken players as well as the Coachella Valley Firebirds and Kraken prospects. Plus, he will support the franchise’s amateur scouts during the 2027 NHL Draft process.  

Player Development 

As reported early this summer, former Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz has onboarded with the Kraken player development group to specifically target the franchise’s young defense prospects pursue their own NHL dreams and such lofty accomplishments as Schultz playing 12 NHL seasons and winning two Stanley Cups.

“As a professional hockey player, Justin was tremendously talented, tremendously skilled,” said Kraken assistant general manager Ryan Jankowski, who has specialized in amateur scouting and evaluation for 20-plus years. “I remember watching him play as a draft-eligible, knowing he had those assets as a player, but he also had a lot of areas he had to tidy up to play in the NHL. He did that. That’s what we want to instill in the players we draft to help them become Kraken. The great part about Justin is he lived it. He learned how to do those things to become not just an NHL player, but a really good NHL player. Now he can pass that on to the next generation.” 

For his part, Schultz is thrilled to rejoin the Kraken organization, which includes GM Jason Botterill and new assistant GM Patrik Allvin, who were both part of the Penguins winning three Stanley Cups, including two back-to-back with Schultz on the roster in 2016 and 2017. In fact, the Penguins front office traded for Schultz at the 2016 deadline to be a major contributor to those Cup teams, including four goals and nine assists for 13 points in 21 games during the 2017 title run. 

Team Services 

No NHL team can do without a team services group to handle the mountainous task of travel arrangements as players and coaches crisscross North America many weeks from late September through April with the hope of even more travel needs in May and June. This season, the Kraken docket includes two games in Finland, adding to the team services planning. The work includes special arrangements with planes, buses and hotels just for a start. Another major challenge is having backup plans when weather or other schedule surprises come the team’s way. Plus, team services is the primary group to help players and their families take care of living arrangements and child matter in the Seattle area. 

The Kraken’s team services director this season is Kyle Shohara, well known to returning players and prospects as a main contributor in the Kraken communications group that worked closely with the team home and away. He will be joined by Taylor Cashman, manager of player and family experience, who comes to Seattle after handling a similar role as senior manager, hockey administration with the Minnesota Wild. She will be overseeing a comprehensive player and family support program designed to enhance the overall experience, well-being and stability of players and their families throughout the season. 

AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds 

When Coachella Valley assistant coach Stu Bickel accepted the head coach role with the AHL Iowa Wild, the Firebirds had a challenging task to fill a role so successfully handled by CVF’s original defensive-minded coach. But general manager Troy Bodie and head coach Derek Laxal are confident they found the right man for the job in Scott Ford.

Ford arrives in the Southern California desert with more than a decade of professional coaching experience. He spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets. Prior to joining Columbus, Ford spent nine seasons coaching in the AHL, including eight with the Milwaukee Admirals and one with the Chicago Wolves. During Ford’s tenure in Milwaukee, the Admirals captured three Central Division titles, qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs six times and appeared in back-to-back Western Conference Finals. 

“We’re thrilled to add Scott to our coaching staff,” said Bodie. “He’s a tremendous teacher of the game who has earned the respect of players and coaches. Scott understands what it takes to develop players, compete every day and build a winning culture 

Prior to his coaching career, Ford played 11 professional seasons from 2004-15. Ford skated in 522 career AHL regular season games with the Cleveland Barons, Providence Bruins, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Milwaukee Admirals, and Peoria Rivermen. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound defenseman served as captain of the Admirals during the 2011-12 and 2013-14 seasons before retiring following the 2014-15 campaign. 

Furthermore, the Firebirds added skills coach Mike Crocock to help with the development of future NHLers. Crocock played four seasons for NCAA Division I Sacred Heart after captaining Kingford in the QJHL. He went on to play six seasons in the ECHL, including the last three with Guildford as an alternate captain in the United Kingdom’s top pro hockey league. Last season, he served as skills coach with the Ontario Hockey League Brantford Bulldogs and founded IQ Hockey Lab.