If I were one of the executives hiring Ron Francis as the first general manager of the Seattle Whatevers -- and I'm still all-in on the "Sasquatch" or "Kraken," for the record -- my first question would have been a simple one:
"How much of that was your fault?"
Under Francis, the Carolina Hurricanes had a record of 137-138-53 with Bill Peters behind the bench, the only coach Francis had the chance to hire in his four seasons as general manager. They were an aggressively average team, a source of constant befuddlement for the analytics community:
How could a team that was third in the NHL in expected goals at five-on-five during that stretch end up 26th in goals per 60 minutes (2.