The Seattle Kraken fired coach Dan Bylsma on Monday, ending his tenure after one season that concluded far out of playoff contention.

And that’s not the only change coming after the Kraken failed to qualify for a second consecutive year.

Seattle is expected to move longtime general manager Ron Francis into another role and promote assistant Jason Botterill to replace him, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.

The Kraken regressed after Bylsma took over for Dave Hakstol, who coached them for their first four seasons of existence and got them to the playoffs in 2023. They finished 35-41-6 for 76 points — 20 back of the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference — after 81 the previous season.

“We thank Dan for his commitment and the energy he brought to our organization over the past four years at the NHL and AHL levels,” Francis said. “After a thorough review of the season and our expectations for next year and beyond, we’ve made the difficult decision to move in a different direction behind the bench. Dan is a great person and a respected coach. He played an important role in the development of many of our young prospects and was a big part of our early success in Coachella Valley. We sincerely wish him and his family nothing but success moving forward.”

Bylsma had been promoted from within after coaching the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals before losing to Hershey. He won the Stanley Cup as Pittsburgh’s coach in 2009 and remained with the Penguins through 2014, winning the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2011.

This was his third head-coaching job in the NHL after an ill-fated two-year stint with the Buffalo Sabres from 2015-17.

Bylsma is the third coach fired in as many days after the Ducks moved on from Greg Cronin and the New York Rangers dismissed Peter Laviolette.

Francis had been GM since the team’s inception, responsible for the expansion draft and everything else in hockey operations, including hiring and firing coaches. He got a three-year contract extension in 2023 after the Kraken reached the second round.

Taking over for Francis, Botterill is now in charge of finding a coach and repairing a roster that lacks elite talent.

Panthers star might play: Matthew Tkachuk will skate this morning. Whether he’ll play for the Florida Panthers in their playoff opener later in the day is anyone’s guess.

Tkachuk — who hasn’t played for the Panthers since Feb. 8 and hasn’t played any games since the 4 Nations Face-Off two months ago because of a lower-body injury — went through practice on Monday with the reigning Stanley Cup champions, his second on-ice workout in a three-day span.

But the Panthers want to see how he gets through morning skate before deciding whether he plays in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series at Tampa Bay that night.

“He’s got to get through the morning skate tomorrow,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after Monday’s practice. “And if he feels good ... and everybody’s thumbs-up, then he’ll go.”

The Panthers placed Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve. He missed the team’s final 25 games of the regular season, yet still finished with 22 goals, 35 assists and 57 points — third-most on the team in all three categories. He was also second on the Panthers this season with 11 power-play goals.

Landeskog activated, scratched: The Colorado Avalanche activated captain Gabriel Landeskog off injured reserve, but again delayed his much-anticipated return when he was scratched from playing Game 2 of their first-round series against the Dallas on Monday night.

Landeskog, who hasn’t played in nearly three years, was the first Avalanche skater to take the ice for pregame warmups after being activated earlier in the day. But when the roster report was released after that, he was a scratch.

It has been more than 1,000 days since the 32-year-old forward last played for the Avalanche on June 26, 2022, when they beat Tampa Bay to clinch the Stanley Cup.

A chronic right knee injury that led to two surgeries kept him off the ice through multiple attempts to get back.