{"id":469461,"date":"2025-05-29T21:34:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T01:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=469461"},"modified":"2025-05-29T21:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T01:37:41","slug":"seattle-kraken-make-head-coaching-hire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/05\/29\/seattle-kraken-make-head-coaching-hire\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Kraken Make Head Coaching Hire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/03\/22\/kraken-prospect-jagger-firkus-has-nhl-caliber-skillseattle\/\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Kraken<\/a> have made a decision on their next head coach. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/kraken\/news\/seattle-kraken-announce-lane-lambert-as-new-head-coach-bn\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News emerged<\/a> on Thursday night the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lambela01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lane Lambert<\/a> has been hired to become the team&#8217;s third head coach in its history. Sportsnet&#8217;s Elliotte Friedman first broke the news. However, the team confirmed the hire soon after.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:zazcjahlcb3jfrhcriq7xpn7\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lqdy3wce7s25\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreiegle4sr5rryqadnod4vmpdhh3ouw5fzifkc2gegy2v6schluwzii\">\n<p lang=\"en\">The Seattle Kraken announce that they have hired Lane Lambert to be their Head Coach.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:zazcjahlcb3jfrhcriq7xpn7?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TSN (@tsnofficial.bsky.social)<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:zazcjahlcb3jfrhcriq7xpn7\/post\/3lqdy3wce7s25?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2025-05-30T00:30:01.238Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Lane Lambert Hired by Seattle Kraken for Head Coach Role<\/h2>\n<p>Lambert comes over after serving as an associate head coach with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/05\/28\/toronto-maple-leafs-roster-players-to-take-mitch-marner-spot-next-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>. He helped Toronto have one of the better offences in the league. The Maple Leafs forward group was led by Lambert and they finished in the top-10 in scoring.<\/p>\n<p>The 60-year-old also has head coaching experience with the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/05\/23\/new-york-islanders-name-their-new-general-manager\/\" target=\"_self\"> New York Islanders.<\/a> Lambert went 61-46-20 record in 127 games and guided the Isles to the 2022-23 Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, he was replaced around the halfway-point of his second season by then Islanders General Manager Lou Lamoriello.<\/p>\n<p>The Islanders under Lambert made the post-season in 2022-23 after missing out the season before under Barry Trotz. Lambert then found a role on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/berubcr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Berube<\/a>&#8216;s staff in Toronto and made himself a top candidate.<\/p>\n<p>The Melfort, Saskatchewan came out of interviews as a top candidate according to insiders. Other names<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/05\/27\/nhl-rumours-seattle-kraken-show-interest-in-toronto-maple-leafs-assistant\/\" target=\"_self\"> that were rumoured<\/a> to be interviewed were Mitch Love, David Quinn, Jay Woodcroft and Jeff Blashill.<\/p>\n<h3>What it Means<\/h3>\n<p>Kraken General Manger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/botteja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jason Botterill<\/a> is looking to put his stamp on the team. Lambert comes in replaces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bylsmda01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dan Bylsma<\/a>, who only<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/04\/22\/seattle-kraken-move-on-from-dan-bylsma\/\" target=\"_self\"> lasted only one season.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bylsma had success in the AHL with the Kraken&#8217;s affiliate in Coachella Valley. However, Seattle&#8217;s possession metrics and goal-scoring struggled. Lambert will be tasked with trying to turn that around.<\/p>\n<p>Kraken players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stephch02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chandler Stephenson<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/burakan01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andre Burakovsky<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/grubaph01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philipp Grubauer<\/a> all have connections to Lambert from the 2018 Stanley Cup Champion <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/05\/16\/carolina-hurricanes-alexander-nikishin-debuts-as-andrei-svechnikov-puts-series-versus-washington-capitals-to-bed\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Capitals.<\/a> Seattle fans are hoping that Lambert&#8217;s hiring can be the catalyst to a return to the post-season. However, it may take some time.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seattle Kraken have made a decision on their next head coach. News emerged on Thursday night the Lane Lambert has been hired to become the team&#8217;s third head coach in its history. Sportsnet&#8217;s Elliotte Friedman first broke the news. However, the team confirmed the hire soon after. The Seattle Kraken announce that they have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":469462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5369,4547,34,4548],"tags":[697,1635,4053,6894],"class_list":["post-469461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seattle-kraken","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-dan-bylsma","tag-jason-botterill","tag-lane-lambert","tag-seattle-kraken-news"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469464,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469461\/revisions\/469464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}