Botterill grows with experience

When it comes to the general manager’s chair, second chances don’t come around all that often in the NHL.

You can be sure Jason Botterill appreciates the opportunity he’s been given to try and turn things around for the Seattle Kraken, who have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs once in the first four seasons of existence.

Born in Edmonton, but raised in Winnipeg, Botterill has been in the Kraken organization since he was hired as assistant general manager in January of 2021. He was promoted to executive vice-president and GM in April as Ron Francis moved into the role of team president.

“It’s an easier transition, just knowing the organization and being a part of it, knowing our staff and knowing our players,” Botterill said before the Kraken faced the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday at Canada Life Centre.

“You just understand the cadence of it and the timing of things. What’s been easier with this transition too, is that I know so many of the general managers. When I first came in, I was a very young GM and now, most of the GMs I’ve either worked with or had a relationship with, so that’s helped out too from that perspective.

“And still having Ron (Francis) in the organization as another person to bounce ideas off, from a mentorship standpoint, is very helpful.”

Botterill, now 48, has an impressive resume dating back to his time as a player who won three consecutive gold medals for Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship between 1994 and 1996.

A first-round pick of the Dallas Stars, Botterill achieved his goal of making it to the NHL, though his career was cut short due to injuries, including a series of concussions. Before he decided to retire at the age of 28, Botterill appeared in 88 NHL games with the Stars, Calgary Flames and Buffalo Sabres.

During his time in the American Hockey League, Botterill captured a Calder Cup title with the Saint John Flames on a roster that also included a pair of fellow Manitobans in current Brandon Wheat Kings head coach Marty Murray and defenceman Chris St. Croix.

Botterill went back to the University of Michigan and earned his MBA in business and had an internship at the NHL head office and with NHL Central Registry before embarking on his career as a hockey executive with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007 when he was hired as the director of hockey administration.

A promotion to assistant and associate general manager followed for Botterill, who was part of three Stanley Cups with the Penguins before he was hired to be the GM of the Buffalo Sabres in 20117.

There were certainly some bumps in the road for Botterill with the Sabres, in terms of how some of his trades and free-agent signings worked out before he was fired in June of 2020.

The trade he is often most criticized for — the one that sent centre Ryan O’Reilly to the St. Louis Blues for a package that included a prospect named Tage Thompson — has aged better than the reaction at the time, even though O’Reilly was the Conn Smythe winner when the Blues captured the Stanley Cup in his first season with them.

Botterill’s time with the Sabres included using the first overall pick in 2018 on franchise pillar Rasmus Dahlin, who is now the team captain, and dumping the expiring contract of Evander Kane to the San Jose Sharks for a conditional first round pick that was used to acquire defencman Brandon Montour from the Anaheim Ducks.

The Sabres haven’t qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2010 — before the 2.0 version of the Jets returned to Winnipeg — so it’s been a tough go for the organization for parts of two decades.

After he was fired, Botterill took plenty of time to reflect on the experience tenure, which helped him prepare for the future.

“It’s probably what (Jets head coach) Scott Arniel would tell you too,” said Botterill.

“You always take positives away from different experiences. Everywhere I’ve gone along the way, you try to learn from different people. I was fortunate in Pittsburgh to learn from Ray Shero and Jim Rutherford. Then you go to a situation back here in Seattle and you learn from Ron Francis.”

As an expansion team, Francis and the Kraken did a great job of bringing in hockey operations and team personnel from a number of different organizations to help steady the foundation and build the culture.

“Having all of these different ideas from these different organizations, it was a great learning experience from that standpoint,” said Botterill. “Even when we had success in Pittsburgh, it isn’t always great things. You learn from some of the mistakes you made. Same thing in Buffalo.

“There are things that I’m very proud of what we accomplished there and other things that you look to make adjustments moving forward.”

Despite being without a number of key players due to injury, the Kraken are off to a 4-2-2 start on the season as they return home to open a five-game homestand on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers, showing signs of early improvement under new head coach Lane Lambert.

“We’ve been hit with a lot of injuries here and we’re a team that has to win with depth, so it’s a little bit of a challenge here right now,” said Botterill.

“If you look at the Western Conference, we don’t have a first line that can match up with some of the top lines, such as Winnipeg or Edmonton or Colorado, we have to find a way to win with our depth and hopefully in the next couple of days here, we get a few of our players back.”

The Kraken have also done an excellent job on the development side, hitting a home run with their AHL affiliate in California, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

The Firebirds head coach is Stonewall product Derek Laxdal, while the GM (and Kraken assistant GM) is Troy Bodie, who hails from Portage la Prairie.

“We’re very proud of what’s been accomplished in Coachella Valley and excited for the development of the young kids down there,” said Botterill.

Around the glass

RETRO NIGHT

Credit to the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche for embracing the past and turning back the clock on Thursday night.

The two teams paid homage to their origins, donning sweaters of the Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques. Not only was it a blast to see those antiques in action once again, but the two teams served up some 1990s style hockey as well in a thrilling, wide-open affair.

In the end, the Whalers, er, Hurricanes prevailed 5-4 in a shootout, with Winnipegger Seth Jarvis continuing his sizzling hot start. He had a goal and an assist in regulation – giving him seven goals and four assists through the first seven games – but he also notched the deciding tally in the breakaway competition.

Former Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers chipped in with an assist, his second of the season, but is still in search of his first goal even though his team has already lit the lamp 29 times.

Carolina is now 6-1-0 and on top of the Eastern Conference, while Colorado is leading the Western Conference with a 5-0-3 mark. Is it too early to say this might be a preview of the Stanley Cup Final next spring?

Still on the subject of throwbacks, the Jets took their own trip down memory lane on Friday as they hosted 90s night at Canada Life Centre.

In addition to wearing their beautiful Heritage sweaters – would anyone be opposed to those becoming the primary uniform? – fans were treated to other retro features including music and on-screen graphics as Winnipeg took on Calgary in a classic Smythe Division battle.

SPEAKING OF WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Has anyone mentioned to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin that this is 2025 and not 2015? You’d hardly know it by their incredible play which has the Pittsburgh Penguins off to a surprising 6-2-0 start to the year.

Malkin, 39, is leading the team with 12 points (2G, 10A) through eight games. Crosby, 38, is right behind him with 11 points (6G, 5A).

Yes, Father Time may be undefeated, but the dynamic duo is fighting a winning battle right now. A Penguins team that most pundits figured would be fighting for the basement of the NHL standings is very much alive and kicking through the first few weeks of the season.

Winnipeg fans will get their one-and-only chance this season to see Malkin and Crosby up close next Saturday, Nov. 1.

STONE COLD

Winnipeg’s Mark Stone was off to the best start of his career, putting up 13 points (2G, 11A) through his first six games with the Vegas Golden Knights. Unfortunately, it’s going to be some time before he can add to that tally.

Stone, 33, suffered a wrist injury last Saturday against Calgary in the third period of a game in which he’d already recorded two goals and two assists.

Any hope this might just be a short-term thing was eliminated when Vegas put their captain on long-term injured reserve this week. That means Stone will remain sidelined until Nov. 15 at the earliest.

Vegas has plenty of experience playing without Stone, who has battled plenty of ailments over the years but managed to play 66 regular-season games last year – his most since the 2016-17 season with the Ottawa Senators – and record a career-high 67 points (19G, 48A). He also had eight points (4G, 4A) in 10 playoff contests.

What might this mean for his Olympic eligibility? The terrific, two-way forward was on the 4 Nations team which won gold last February and is certainly on the radar for the Canadian team that will be heading to Italy.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @WiebesWorld

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg