Kraken officially introduce Dave Hakstol as the first head coach in franchise history

Hmmm... not sure about this one. Any Flyers fans out there wanna chime in?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Kraken officially introduce Dave Hakstol as the first head coach in franchise history

The Seattle Kraken made history today by announcing the hiring of their first head coach in franchise history Dave Hakstol.


The 52 year old Hakstol was hired by the Kraken today after two seasons serving as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of course, he was also head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers for three seasons from 2015-2018. Prior to his hiring in Philly Hakstol was head coach of the illustrious University of North Dakota for 11 seasons.

With the Leafs, Hakstol was primarly responsible for the team's defensive corps and worked to match defensive pairings with offensive opponents during gameplay. The Leafs finished the 2020-21 regular season as the fifth best team in the NHL for preventing shots on goal and scoring chances. With the Flyers Hakstol became just the third-ever NCAA college coach to move straight to NHL heading coaching job and the first since 1982. Hakstol led Flyers to the playoffs in his first season managed to qualify for the post-season in two of his three full seasons.

Returning to NCAA hockey program for which he played four seasons and captained two, transformed U of North Dakota into Division I powerhouse. Made Frozen Four in first year, qualified for 11 straight NCAA tournaments and seven Frozen Fours overall.

"Tracking back to University of North Dakota days, Dave is a coach who cares about his players," said Kraken GM Ron Francis in a prepared statement. "At times, a coach's messages can get diluted. Players want to understand what the coach wants them to do. Dave communicates clearly and concisely. Players like that."

Frankly, this hiring is a bit surprising to me.

Not because I don't think Hakstol can do the job, but more so because his name hasn't been linked to the team in any reports leading up to today's announcement. All the talk prior to today has been about Rick Tocchet, Bruce Boudreau and David Quinn. There was some chatter about Mike Babcock and John Tortorella, as well but it's unclear if either of those two actually ended up interviewing for the position.

In the case of both Tocchet and Quinn though, they appeared to be neck and neck for the position, then Hakstol comes in seemingly out of nowhere. Call me crazy, but I think there's more to this hiring than meets the eye.