Seattle adds former Laval Rocket coach Pascal Vincent to staff

Seattle leaned into proven development expertise on June 11, adding Patrik Allvin as vice president and assistant general manager and Pascal Vincent as an assistant coach as the organization heads toward the 2026-27 draft, free agency and development camp. The moves, announced by general manager Jason Botterill, signal more than a simple staff shuffle. They point to a club trying to tighten the handoff between the front office, the coaching staff and the next wave of players pushing up from the American Hockey League.

Vincent is the hire that jumps out for anyone tracking the AHL pipeline. The Kraken identified him as the former head coach of the Laval Rocket, and his track record in the league is hard to miss. He won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award with the Manitoba Moose for 2017-18, then earned the AHL’s outstanding coach honor again for 2024-25 after guiding Laval to a 48-19-3-2 record and 101 points. The Rocket captured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s regular-season champion, finished with a .701 points percentage and improved by 27 points from the previous season. That is the kind of season that tells an NHL club a coach can manage young players, constant roster churn and the daily pressure of development without losing the room.

Allvin brings a different kind of weight. Vancouver relieved him of his duties as general manager in April 2026, but the résumé behind that job was substantial. The Canucks named him their 12th GM on January 26, 2022, and said he spent 16 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, winning three Stanley Cups there. The Athletic reported that he had also worked with Botterill in Pittsburgh, which makes the reunion in Seattle more than a coincidence. For an organization trying to sharpen its roster-building process, that shared history matters. It gives Botterill another voice that understands how to balance present-day NHL needs with longer-term pipeline planning.

The Kraken are also layering this around Lane Lambert, who was hired in May 2025 to replace Dan Bylsma and is entering his second season as Seattle’s coach. Vincent’s only NHL head-coaching stop came in Columbus in 2023-24, when the Blue Jackets went 27-43-12 for 66 points before he was relieved of duties on June 17, 2024. But Seattle did not hire him for that record. It hired him because the best part of his résumé is what happened in Winnipeg and Laval, where he proved he can develop players and win with them. That is the real message here: the Kraken are trying to make the path from the AHL to the NHL look a lot more deliberate.