Dave Hakstol
The 55-year-old Hakstol most recently served as the first head coach in Seattle Kraken history but was recently fired after the team took a step back from their sophomore campaign and missed the playoffs after reaching the second round in 2022-23.
Hakstol is a defensive-minded coach whose teams give up very little by the way of chances, THW’s Edgar Chaput told me recently. In that sense, he could be a logical successor to Bowness. Chaput added that although Hakstol was fired, comments from Kraken GM Ron Francis that the Kraken perhaps over-achieved in 2022-23 and ended up this season closer to where they deserve indicate the issue was personnel, not coaching. Hakstol was a Jack Adams Award nominee in 2023 after the Kraken won 46 games;THW’s Neil Villapiano wrote at the time that players were buying into what Hakstol was preaching. There were some recent that players no longer wanted to play for Hakstol, but the Kraken have refuted them.
Hakstol also served as the Philadelphia Flyers’ head coach between 2015-16 and 2018-19, making the playoffs twice, and has an all-time NHL head-coaching record of 241-213-69. Between head coaching gigs, he was the assistant head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs between 2019 and 2021.
One thing an NHL head coach has to be good at these days is relating to young players. Players are entering the big leagues younger than ever and need mentorship from caring individuals to develop, not just hard-assery, bag skates, and benchings. Caring about players on and off the ice was something Bowness was excellent at and garnered him a lot of good will and loyalty.
Hakstol has experience mentoring, which ticks another box. In his role as head coach of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux/Fighting Hawks from 2004 through 2015, he led UND to the NCAA Frozen Four seven times and amassed an all-time NCAA record of 289-143-43. He won conference coach of the year awards in 2009 and 2015 and was an eight-time finalist for national coach of the year.
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