No Doubters About It

The doubters don't faze Dave Hakstol. There were early concerns about his head-coaching abilities during his first year at the University of North Dakota, which he subsequently guided to seven Frozen Four appearances in 11 seasons. His first NHL top job was in Philadelphia, where blaming the coach no matter the circumstance is a local tradition and, oh by way, Hakstol's teams qualified for two playoffs in his three full seasons during the midst of a rebuild.

With the Kraken poised to begin this completed magical hockey year, the media experts were widely ranking Hakstol among the top three NHL head coaches most likely to be fired in-season.

Last month, under the radar and amid the palpable excitement of Seattle playing second-round postseason hockey in the month of May, the doubters were officially forced to stand down. Hakstol was named one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award for NHL Coach of the Year, per voting by members of the NHL Broadcasters Association. Now members of the media that predicted his demise will instead be covering Hakstol as a finalist at the NHL Awards ceremony Monday night in Nashville.

The other finalists are Boston's Jim Montgomery and New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff. Fun fact: Hakstol and Ruff are both from the same small town of Warburg, Alberta, population 768, where Hakstol's family worked their dairy farm and the families knew each other.

Going from 60 standings points to 100 in the regular season will catch the attention of any GM or NHL broadcaster (who vote on the coach of the year award), plus any and all critics out there. But there's more to what Hakstol has done with this squad suddenly respected for depth scoring, relentless forechecking, elite penalty killing, and the much-desired Hakstol goal of "being hard to play against."

The postseason run, conquering defending Stanley Cup champ Colorado in seven games and taking Dallas to the limit, started in March and April of 2022. Despite no hope of postseason or matching Vegas in their first expansion season, those final two months of the inaugural season proved reasons for hope.

Those squad-building months, including such moves as pairing Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn, giving regular minnutes to the aforementioned Will Borgen, welcoming Matty Beneris to the lineup and lockerroom -- helped germinate Hakstol's current coach of hte year nomination.

During that time Hakstol told media he routinely liked what he was seeing from his team. He didn't let the team unravel but instead understood the value of playing competitive hockey no matter the plaice in the standing or chatter about whether the right coach was in place.

"There's hopefully a tipping point, right?" said Hakstol last summer a couple of days after the inaugural season ended. "Where the culture flips, the talent flips. We took a step in the last six to eight weeks. We started to play more like a team and sound like a team and feel like a team ... I really like that our team always worked hard. But in terms of really feeling like a group that has a little swagger together, it took a longer time."

Veteran forward and alternate captain Jordan Eberle confirmed that perspective over the weekend when asked about Hakstol being a coach-of-the-year finalist: "As bad as our record was, you laid a little bit of groundwork of how we need to play [after the 2022 trade deadline]. Then you add some additions like we did this summer and we kind of just hit the ground running."

"[Hakstol] has done a really good job of putting in a system of play that we're all accustomed to and that we've wrapped our heads around ... He's done a good job of mentoring guys whether myself or other older guys or the younger players."

Kraken GM Ron Francis had a list of 50 to 100 potential names when embarking on hiring a head coach. He interviewed eight individuals and picked Hakstol, impressed with his confidence among other attributes. What Francis sees daily that the rest of us don't see is Hakstol finding time to talk with players individually, sometimes to get to know guys and their family life a little better, and other times engaging in straight talk about the need to be a factor in all three zones on the ice.

Francis projected Hakstol's success in his quest for candidates with previous NHL head coaching experience.

"As a first-time coach in the NHL, you have to learn the league," said Francis during the hiring process. "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 in Toronto, Dave comes to us comfortable with understanding the league."

Francis was impressed with the steady and positive character of Hakstol's team last season with way more losses than hoped and only two actual periods (40 minutes total) in which the Kraken hockey operations group's projected optimal 12-forwards lineup actually played together in a Seattle regular season game.

"It's easy to have good character when you are winning," says Francis., who got to know Hakstol better when both were part of a Team Canada squad competing in the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation's World Championships in Slovakia when both men were first to arrive at the rink or office, plus one particular scouting road trip with lots of driving and personal conversation.

Along with strong character, Francis was impressed with Hakstol's penchant for player development, especially at the NCAA level but also in Philadelphia when the Flyers were decidedly re-tooling with younger American Hockey League prospects replacing veterans on the roster.

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), and T.J. Oshie (Cup winner with Washington) among others.

Under his watch, more than 30 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). At the NHL level, the average age of Hakstol's Philadelphia roster dropped from 28.2 to 26.3 during time behind the bench. Hakstol's Philadelphia teams compiled a 138-101-42 record over three-plus seasons.

As both fans watching his press conferences and media asking the questions, Hakstol's demeanor doesn't level up or level down per wins or losses. He's consistent, just like his team in the Colorado series in which 2022 Cup-winning coach Jared Bednar praised the Kraken for being consistently hungry to win puck battles over the victorious seven-game series.

So, no surprise that Hakstol took a congratulatory question from KJR 93.3 radio host Mike Benton with his usual steady and measured reply: "First, it's really an indicator of the good work that our players have done. It's a nice recognition of the hard work of the entire staff. Maybe more importantly, I believe it's an indicator of the progress as an organization, the steps that we've taken through this season."