July 1 - 3:32 pm: GM Ron Francis’ Take on His Two Newest Players
As NHL teams announced all sorts of major deals in the first hour of Monday’s 9 a.m. start of 2024 NHL free agency, hockey fans and media were buzzing. But Kraken GM Ron Francis? He was on the phone at 9 a.m. talking to ex-Vegas center Chandler Stephenson.
“With [Brandon] Montour, we actually had permission from Florida [to speak with the new Seattle defenseman before the official free agency opening bell],” said Francis. “I tried Stephenson right at nine o’clock this morning to try to convince him this is the place he should be.”
Mission accomplished. Francis and the Kraken agreed to terms with both Florida defenseman Montour and Stephenson is the opening minutes of Monday’s free agent market.
By 2 p.m., Seattle general manager Ron Francis stepped in front of a bustling media scrum at the team’s Kraken Community Iceplex. Big news draws a crowd.
“It’s an exciting day for the Kraken organization and our fans, right?,” said Francis. “It just goes to show that players want to come to Seattle. They want to play for this organization. They want to play in front of our great fans.”
Francis, a Hall of Fame player who won two Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh, clearly is asimpressed as the rest of us with Monday’s Kraken free agents, Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson, also being Cup winners.
“We think the addition of Montour, that's an offensive piece, and on the back end, he is playing 23, 24 minutes for a Cup-winning team,” said Francis, about the 6", 199-pound defenseman now leaving 2024 champion Florida. “He brings the Stanley Cup into the locker room with him."
Francis happily followed with Stephenson’s title credentials: “He is just a really good two-way guy. He plays with pace and has a sneaky skill. He brings two Cups into the locker room. They both checked a lot of boxes, and we're excited to add them to our roster.”
During the media meetup, Francis was asked if adding scoring was a primary goal heading into Day 1 of NHL free agency. The 30-year-old Montour has especially unlocked his offensive production and skill set in the last three of his 10-year NHL career (with stops in Anaheim and Buffalo), highlighted by 16 goals and 57 assists for 73 points during the 2022-23 regular season and adding eight goals and five assists in a 2023 postseason in which Florida won the Eastern Conference and made it to the Stanley Cup Final.
For his part, Stephenson, also 30, has totaled 53 goals and 127 assists for 180 points in 235 games over the last three regular seasons. And that’s from a player who is widely named as a top-10 defensive-minded forward when discussed by scouts and other hockey evaluators.
“Two years ago, we were one of the best teams in the league,” said Francis. “Offensively, last year, we were one of the worst. The truth is we're probably somewhere in between, but we’ve got to find out where that is. Defensively, last year, we were ninth-best in the league for goals against. There will always be things you're looking to try and tweak [in both the offensive and defensive pursuits].
“I think [adding Montour] will help with our power play. We have [Vince] Dunn now on the power plays, and Ryker [Evans] is a possibility as well. That helps. [Montour] is a guy that can skate and join the rush, which is what we're looking for. It’s the way we want to play. And same thing with Stevenson [who played more than 200 minutes on the Vegas power play last season and 100-plus as a penalty killer]. He's got a lot of pace to his game and that's the way we like to play.”
Francis was equally enthused about the defensive prowess of both players: “Montour has been to the Stanley Cup Finals, now in back-to-back years. You look at his minutes played during the regular season and the playoffs and he plays a lot of minutes and is put into a lot of different situations.
“Stephenson, he can play both ends of the rink extremely well. When we couldn’t get something done with [Alex] Wennberg before the deadline, it left a big hole for us. Getting Chandler added to our lineup is a huge addition,”
Francis pointed out this is the first in his eight seasons as an NHL GM that he has offered seven-year contracts (both players received that term) and first he has included signing bonuses into pacts. What’s more, both players are already 30 and will be not far from 40 years old when the contracts end (Francis, fyi, played into his early 40s).
“This time of year, you're not getting them if you don't go seven years,” said Francis. “The thing for us is they both skate so well. If you're betting on a seven-year deal. I think it's better [historically] if the player skates extremely well. That's coming from guy who never skated well and played a long time.”
