Road Trippin'

What is now a historic connection in Seattle between new Kraken coach Dave Hakstol and general manager Ron Francis first powered up during a car trip between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Hakstol was part of the Team Canada coaching staff for the 2019 World Championships and Francis served on the management team.
"It was a few-hours car ride to Brno, Czech Republic, and back," said Francis during an exclusive interview. "Talking hockey and scouting a game."

"We went on a scouting mission to see two early opponents," said Hakstol late Wednesday upon arriving in town for Thursday's announcement. "What a great trip. We watched the game and took a lot of notes, but the special stuff was spending time together.
"What stands out is not the teams or players we were evaluating. It was Ron talking about his family, his viewpoint on different real-life type of things. We talked about youth hockey. What hits home is quality of the individual, quality of the human being that Ron is."
Francis said the two bonded over four weeks in the Team Canada coaches room.
"I'm an early riser," said Francis. "I get to the room first most days. But if I wasn't there first, it was because Dave was first. We were first and second every day."

"I guess we were fighting for the first cup," said Hakstol, laughing.
As it turns out, this was the second time that Hakstol took a road trip with a future boss without realizing it. In 2004, former University of North Dakota coach Dean Blais left to take a job with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
North Dakota athletic director Roger Thomas offered to give then UND assistant coach Hakstol a ride back to Grand Forks, ND, from a Minneapolis fund-raiser golf tournament. The 300 miles covered wide ranging real-life type of topics rather than hockey.
"I knew Dave, but I didn't knowhim," Thomas told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I was pleasantly surprised to see more facets of him personally."
Hakstol and Francis stayed in touch infrequently since the 2019 silver medal run (Sweden won the title in a shootout). The conversation turned more substantive once Toronto's postseason ended May 31.
"That's when this became a real possibility," said Hakstol, "when it came together."