SEATTLE — Kraken general manager Ron Francis on Wednesday disputed an ESPN report that multiple players came to him in exit interviews demanding coach Dave Hakstol be fired.

Francis said “not a single player” made such a statement about Hakstol and reiterated the firing had nothing to do with exit interviews. Francis wasn’t the only one speaking out: Kraken veteran Jordan Eberle said he was “extremely disappointed” by the report and top scorer Jared McCann added it “left a bad taste in my mouth” — both disputing any player would issue such an ultimatum.

Hakstol was fired Monday after a third Kraken season in which the team finished 34-35-13 and out of the playoffs.

Francis said the only people in the exit interviews besides him were individual players — doing the meetings one at a time — and assistant GM Ricky Olczyk. And not once, he said, did any player tell him he wouldn’t play for Hakstol if the coach returned.

“Zero players issued any ultimatums of any kind regarding the coach — that I can assure you,” Francis said. “That’s not what those meetings are really about. Usually, it’s us telling players what they have to do to prepare for next season, or how we thought they did this season. No one sits there asking them ‘What did you think of the coach?’ That’s not what these meetings are there for.”

ESPN rink reporter Emily Kaplan said Monday afternoon on the network’s The Point segment that: “I was told, at the exit meeting with players, there was a handful of players — and pretty significant players — who made it clear to management that ‘I don’t want to play on this team in the future if Dave Hakstol is still the coach.’ And that forced them to make a change.”

The Kraken told Kaplan they feel the report was erroneous. ESPN has yet to issue any updates or clarifications to the initial report.

Francis had said at a news conference Monday, before Kaplan’s report, that exit interviews had nothing to do with Hakstol’s firing. “I think you’re careful on exit interviews,” he said, implying players often need a step back from a just-completed season. “I think you talk about things but that wasn’t what this decision was based on.”

On Wednesday, Francis said some players do express complaints in exit interviews every offseason, especially after a frustrating finish. He wouldn’t elaborate further but reiterated “nothing rose to the level of refusing to play for a coach, or even came close to that. Not a single player, never mind a group of players.”

Eberle agreed, saying of exit interviews: “It’s a tough time of the year to do it, because things are really fresh and it usually takes a few weeks for things to come into focus. But I did not hear from one guy that they wouldn’t come back if Hak was still there. I think that was just overblown.”

...continued

©2024 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.