The Seattle Kraken have built an identity that embraces a slower, more patient approach to team building. The long-term was front of mind on Day 1 in Seattle.
But this summer signaled a deviation from that approach.
Or, as Kraken co-owner Samantha Holloway explained, an evolution of that approach.
Holloway was a Day 1 investor of the Kraken, but from a peripheral perspective. She was a part of annual meetings and stayed in the loop with her father, David Bonderman, who co-founded and co-owns the team. But her primary focus when the NHL first expanded to Seattle was building a tech company in Denver.
Three years ago, she decided to get more involved with the Kraken. Months later, she sold her company and moved her family to Seattle.
“I have a business tech and psychology background, but … aside from loving and playing sports, I hadn’t been in the sports world,” Holloway said.
That background is something she credits with her being able to adapt to the sports world, from having a learning mindset to being able to iterate quickly and proactively.
But to truly take over as co-owner of the Kraken, Holloway had to get into the weeds to learn it all, from arena and broadcast operations to hockey ops. That meant spending 18 months or so in the office every day, in meetings with executives at different levels, to learn the business. From there, her role has evolved into a more strategic one, working closely with chief executive officer Tod Leiweke, president Victor de Bonis, chief operating officer Rob Lampman, and general manager Ron Francis.
She is getting her training in the sports industry on the fly.
“At the core, it’s an organization of people. And people are the same everywhere,” Holloway said, highlighting the importance of alignment and the culture of hockey. “Everybody truly has the same north star here.”
But there are some unique lessons the sports world brings.
“I’m an entrepreneur, so I’m used to having lots of ups and downs emotionally, but I do think that obviously being involved with sports is an emotional roller coaster because you’re so attached to the outcome,” Holloway said. “The product is people, which is different than selling software that doesn’t have feelings and families.”
Engaging those feelings is key in sports, especially when the on-ice results slump like last season — which is why the Kraken emphasize the fan experience as a team that is still growing its fan base.
“Sports is such a great unifying activity and something to do that takes you away from the stress of everyday life and brings people together. And I think that we have found a way to do that, no matter the outcome,” Holloway said. “I don’t know how long that lasts.”
And that ties to the Kraken’s on-ice results. After disrupting the playoff picture in 2022-23 and taking out the reigning champion Colorado Avalanche in Round 1, the team seriously regressed last season. With a 34-35-13 record, three teams separated Seattle from a wild-card seed. Their 81 points were 25th in the league.
That inspired a summer of change in Seattle.
It started with a coaching change in late April when Dave Hakstol and Paul McFarland were dismissed. The team named Dan Bylsma head coach a month later, after two successful seasons behind Seattle’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley. With Bylsma came assistant coaches Jessica Campbell and Bob Woods, who joined Dave Lowry, who was hired back in 2022.
Then came changes on the ice and somewhat in philosophy for Francis. On July 1, the Kraken signed a pair of free agents to seven-year deals — Chandler Stephenson for $43.75 million and Brandon Montour for $50 million.
In 10 years of management experience between Carolina and Seattle, Francis had only signed one other contract to that long of a term — Jaccob Slavin to a seven-year extension in 2017. So these signings went against the grain of his usual tendencies, and overall, the Kraken’s in their short history.
Why the leap into free agency?
“Ownership really empowered those leaders to make big decisions,” Holloway said. The idea wasn’t to tell management what decisions to make but to empower them to make moves that would make the team more competitive now while still growing for the future.
“You can do more than one thing at the same time, it doesn’t mean you’re not focusing,” Holloway said.
The challenge is avoiding spending just for the sake of spending after starting with a slower, more measured approach to start. Or using free agency too heavily to accelerate progression.
That has essentially been the Vegas model since Day 1. And as expansion teams who came into the league within a few years of each other, it’s easy to measure the two against each other even though their approaches couldn’t be more different.
Vegas has been aggressive and ruthless with their trades, signings, and LTIR usage — and has two trips to the final and a Stanley Cup ring to show for it. The Golden Knights have only missed the playoffs in one of their seven NHL seasons. Even the newly-acquired Utah franchise has tried to embrace Vegas’ bold approach and showed a willingness to shake up its roster with big acquisitions over the summer.
“It can be hard not to compare yourself because other folks are, but we are on our own journey that looks very different from Vegas and Utah, and we just stay grounded in that and do what we think we need to do to be successful in this market,” Holloway said.
Joining the league as the second of two expansion franchises can make the road ahead a bit trickier. The Golden Knights’ early success only added to that.
“I think we could say a lot about how we didn’t have the same deal, so to speak, as Vegas, but it is what it is. And things happen for a reason, and I think we’ve been able to build a very strong team from the ground up because of it,” Holloway said. “We’re setting ourselves up for long-term success. I’m not saying that others aren’t, but that’s how we went into it from the beginning. We’re going to build from the ground up. It’s going to take three to five years.”
As the Kraken continue to build its brand and expand its reach to more fans, ownership may eventually be able to apply what they have learned to another franchise in Seattle.
“We’ve shown as an organization that we can successfully launch a brand. We can launch an expansion team. We understand how this market works. We understand how to work with the community authentically because that is a big piece for us that’s really important to do things impactfully and the right way from the beginning,” Holloway said. “I think, should we be given the opportunity to bring back the Sonics or launch an NBA team here, we have the backbone. We have all the framework in which to do it, and we know how hard it is.
“We know the market, and we’re prepared to take that leap if and when it should become available.”
Holloway noted the efficiencies of one ownership group running two professional franchises in one building and how their experience with both the Kraken and AHL Firebirds provides a framework on how to run another team.
“It’s not like it would be twice the work. It would just be different work.”
But the payoff to that work is bringing a franchise back to a city that craves it. There was a ton of enthusiasm around the Kraken coming to Seattle, but there is an obvious connection between the city and basketball. “It’s exciting to know that it feels like the city will explode when an NBA team comes back,” Holloway said.
Until then, the focus is on the Kraken continuing to find their stride and expanding their reach.
Off the ice, the team is “trying to build a winning culture on and off the ice,” Holloway said. “Part of that is having lots of perspectives in the room and hiring in different ways, not for the sake of it, but because it’s good for business. We also live in a very diverse city, and we have fans that we want to represent. We need to understand who we’re selling to, and so we need to have all kinds of folks here to help us with that mission.”
That diversity is seen throughout the organization. At the top is Holloway, who is one of three women principal owners in the NHL, along with Ann Walton Kroenke of the Avalanche and Kim Pegula of the Sabres. And it trickles down to the assistant general manager level, with Alexandra Mandrycky, and into the front office with quantitative analysts Namita Nandakumar and Dani Chu, among others. Campbell is breaking boundaries behind the bench. And in other front-facing roles, it expands to the broadcast team with J.T. Brown, Alison Lukan and Piper Shaw on the TV side and Everett Fitzhugh on the radio.
From a business perspective, ownership will keep looking for the next big idea after launching a new broadcast this year. On the ice, the focus will continue to be split between development in Coachella Valley and a more competitive product in the short term.
“Great leaders attract other great people, and there are tremendous people that work here, and they’ve built something authentic from the ground up that is truly unique and not something you can do if you’re just buying a team and inheriting everything,” Holloway said.
(Top photo of Kraken co-owner Samantha Holloway: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
