Getting it 'Right'

The first-ever head coach of the Seattle Kraken is the right person and right fit at the right time. The team announced Dave Hakstol Thursday as the choice of general manager Ron Francis and the team's ownership group.
"It is certainly is a job that interested a lot of candidates," said Francis during an exclusive interview Wednesday. "There is a lot to like about the job with our ownership group setting the franchise for success. Dave is a hard-working guy. I liked his confidence during the interview process.

"Dave has a strong understanding of the technical aspect of the game-how he wants his team to play in all three zones [on the ice]. He's up for the challenge."
"It's really exciting for me and my family," said Hakstol Wednesday after arriving in town with his wife, Erinn, and son, Brenden, while daughter, Avery, didn't make this trip. "I have paid attention to what's happening here, how the organization is coming together with Tod [Leiweke] and Ron. What ownership has been able to do is nothing short of spectacular."
Kraken ownership hired Francis almost two years ago, in part, to give him ample time for the due diligence necessary to identify who would be the best first coach. The GM and Hall of Fame player has cataloged dozens of coaches as a player and team executive, helping to determine parameters for the all-important Kraken job.
Francis openly preferred someone with NHL head coaching experience. He employed three distinct pillars for evaluating candidates: Leadership, character and player development.
Hakstol led the NHL Philadelphia Flyers for three-plus seasons from 2015 to 2018. He qualified his team for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in two of three full seasons in Philly, including during his first NHL season after the Flyers had missed the postseason the year before. Since 2019, he has served as an NHL assistant coach with Toronto.
"As a first-time coach in the NHL, you have to learn the league." said Francis. "It is fast-paced and a challenge to adjust on the fly. I think with the first situation in Philly and the years with [head coaches Mike] Babcock and [Sheldon] Keefe, Dave is comfortable with understanding the league."
Hakstol concurs that adjusting to the NHL is a tall task, right down to little personal familiarity with on-ice referees and linesmen officiating games. He once told one reporter not knowing the referees in his first season with Philadelphia was "like being in the back seat of a car with someone else driving."

As head coach at the University of North Dakota, Hakstol took his alma mater NCAA Division-1 team to the Frozen Four in his first year and seven times total in 11 seasons, finishing with a 289-143-43 record. During his UND playing days, he captained the squad for two seasons.
Francis and his hockey operations staff are keen on judging character by how players, amateur or pro, react when times are tough. "It's easy to have good character when you are winning," says Francis.
Hakstol was relieved of his Flyers head coaching duties in December 2018 holding a record of 12-15-4 with plenty of season remaining. After former GM Ron Hextall (now in same role with Pittsburgh) was fired, incoming GM Chuck Fletcher decided to go in another direction with the coaching staff.
Rather than follow advice from hockey friends to "disconnect from the game for a while," Hakstol responded instead by traveling to Sweden and other parts to "study the sport from above and get more of an outside perspective" to discover how he could be better as a coach.
By the fall of 2019, Hakstol joined the coaching staff of Toronto's Mike Babcock and remained with the team when the Maple Leafs replaced Babcock with Sheldon Keefe, providing an opportunity to work under two different coaching philosophies and systems.
Keefe raved to media that Hakstol's "demeanor is consistent every day in terms of not getting too emotional ... Dave's experience as a head coach has been invaluable to me."
Some fans and media members might wonder, isn't it a bit late in the process to hire a head coach with 27 days remaining before the 2021 Expansion Draft with the amateur draft to follow two days later?
"Dave's job is more focused on getting prepared for [September] training camp," said Francis. "He knows certain NHL teams and players, we will certainly listen to his opinions about them. But his work will be more about getting to know the [30] players we draft and know their games."
Hakstol's credentials in developing players is impressive. The North Dakota program became a pipeline to NHL during his tenure, including such standouts as Chicago's Jonathan Toews (three-time Stanley Cup winner), Matt Greene (two Cups with Los Angeles), T.J. Oshie (Cup winner with Washington) and Travis Zajac (playing for the New York Islanders in Game 7 of the NYI-Tampa Bay seminal playoff series Friday).

Under his watch, more than UND players went on to play in NHL, totaling nearly 8,500 games. Seventy of his former players reached at least the American Hockey League (AHL). Keep in mind those pro-ready players created a needed to retool season over season as the star players left (seven of his players were named Hobey Baker Award finalists for top collegiate hockey player).
At the NHL level, the average age of Hakstol's Philadelphia roster dropped from 28.2 to 26.3 during time behind the bench, indicating a franchise rebuild underneath the two playoff runs in three season. In Toronto, Hakstol has been part of mentoring a number of young Leafs star forwards and defensemen.
Not to be underestimated is Hakstol's own pro career as a player. He played five seasons of minor league hockey before retiring due to a knee injury to take a last-minute coaching job with the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers juniors team that had won only 17 of 46 games the previous season.
He turned around a dismal franchise over five seasons before accepting an assistant coaching role with North Dakota. His NHL track record started in Iowa, particularly once he declared all players need to bring an unyielding desire to win.
Ruslan Fedotenko scored 43 goals in 55 games for Hakstol and Sioux before moving on the score 173 goals over 12 seasons, winning two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh. Defenseman David Hale played two years in Sioux City with Hakstol, got drafted by Jersey, played three developmental collegiate seasons at North Dakota, then played seven seasons in the NHL.
"When you look at Dave's record, you see a life devoted to the game of hockey," said Tod Leiweke, Kraken CEO, during an exclusive. "He had to remake the entire roster in his first coaching job with that USHL roster.
"He kept doing it at his alma mater. It's legendary, the levels he won at North Dakota. On closer examination of his record in Philadelphia, it's clear he was holding a transitional team that held its own during the process, making the playoffs twice in three seasons."
Leiweke paused to consider Thursday's historic hire.
"It's Ron's decision," he said. "He has our full support and ownership knows he did the due diligence. Dave's team is going be resilient and play physical and play fast.