Seattle Kraken promote Alexandra Mandrycky to assistant GM
SEATTLE - The Seattle Kraken announced Wednesday morning that Alexandra Mandrycky has been promoted from Director of Hockey Strategy and Research to Assistant General Manager.
She becomes the first woman in Kraken franchise history to hold the title of Assistant General Manager and the sixth active female Assistant General Manager in the NHL.
She will work alongside fellow Assistant General Managers Ricky Olczyk and Jason Botterill under General Manager Ron Francis.
"Alex has earned this promotion through her hard work and dedication to making the Kraken a better organization," said Francis. "Her knowledge and effort are assets that will continue to serve her well in this role."
FOX 13's Bill Wixey sat down with Mandrycky to learn more about what she brings to the franchise.
"I wasn’t necessarily a hockey fan but I was always a sports fan and we actually were doing a statistics class working with baseball statistics and I thought in my head like, ‘Does this data exist for hockey?’ And so I started Googling on the Internet and ended up stumbling on this hockey analytics movement," she said. "I had seen the movie Moneyball and I thought oh it’s basically ‘money puck’ and that’s how I got going in data with the game."
The Kraken hired Mandrycky in 2019 for her analytics work, which played a major role in shaping the roster for the 2021-22 season.
Mandrycky described to Wixey how data analysis informs the personnel decision and the play on the ice.
"I think it all comes down to having a conversation. You can have the most beautiful spreadsheet, but at the end of the day if Ron (Francis) is coming to us with a question of ‘Is this the player that we should try to trade for? Is this the line that should be playing together on the ice?’ Even though our argument may be based in data at the end of the day usually people are looking for yes or no and that’s what we try and boil it down to," Mandrycky said.
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"I think it just says the game is going in a different and enhance direction that you don’t have to be limited by your gender or background to have an impact on the game," she said.
Mandrycky will continue to lead the team's research and development group, and she he will oversee the amateur scouting group and be a part of the Kraken management group Francis relies on for key input and strategy.