from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com,
Ron Francis held his first pro scouting meetings during the last week of January. The general manager of the NHL's newest team, soon to be called the Seattle Kraken, gathered the scouts in Seattle so they could get to know each other and start preparing for the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.
They had no idea what was to come.
Francis hasn't been to Seattle since. Instead of moving there in the first half of the year as planned, the former GM of the Carolina Hurricanes has worked from home in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Instead of watching the rest of the 2019-20 season live, the scouts sat through a pause of more than four months and watched the postseason remotely as it was played without fans in the stands in the hub cities of Edmonton and Toronto. They never got to see the end of the American Hockey League season. It was canceled.
"This year's just been …" Francis said, his voice trailing off. "You kind of roll with the punches."
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