By Jordan Long
The expansion NHL team Seattle Kraken select their team July 21st with the expansion draft. They also have the 2nd pick when the NHL Draft starts on July 23rd. Seattle was looking for a Head Coach but the search is now over as they hired Dave Hakstol.
Seattle was looking for a coach with NHL Head Coaching experience. There were plenty out there besides Hakstol. Those included John Tortorella, Dan Bylsma, and Mike Babcock. All of them have won Stanley Cups. In the end, they didn’t go with them but thought Hakstol was the right fit to help build this team and maybe even earn a playoff spot in their 1st season.
According to thenewstribune.com, General Manager Ron Francis said, “Dave possesses great experience, a strong work ethic, a solid technical understanding of the game and the remarkable ability to communicate clearly and effectively. I look forward to working with Dave as we strive to build a team our fans will be proud of.”
Hakstol brings in 277 games of NHL Head Coaching experience to Seattle. He was with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2015 to 31 games into the 2019 season. Philadelphia let him go after a 12-14-5 record to start the 2018-2019 season. After Philadelphia fired him, they ended up at 37-37-8 for a total of 82 points, missing the playoffs. Hakstol’s overall record is 134-101-42. The past two years he has been an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
With Hakstol, the Flyers made the postseason two times, 2016 and 2018. Unfortunately, his success in the regular season didn’t carry over to the playoffs. In 2016 and 2018 Philadelphia was defeated in the 1st round. In 2016 Washington beat them in 6 games. In 2018 it was another 6-game series, but this time Pittsburgh knocked them out.
Seattle hopes for better results with Hakstol. They would like nothing more than to reach the playoffs in their first year of existence. The example set for them is the Vegas Golden Knights. In their inaugural year which was 2018, they went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Washington Capitals. Seattle would like to do the same thing. They are anticipating Hakstol is the right coach to lead them there. Even if they don’t reach the postseason in their first year, Hakstol will have at least 3 or 4 years to coach Seattle. It will take some time for the players to learn his system. Seattle knows they are building a team. They need to be patient with Hakstol.
Now that Seattle has hired their coach, the next order of business is to get ready for the expansion draft. All NHL teams except for the Vegas Golden Knights have a protected and unprotected list of players. The protected players are 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie. These are skaters Seattle can’t pick from. Seattle will then choose one player from each team except Vegas on the unprotected list which builds their team. After that, all NHL teams participate in the NHL Draft. For Seattle, this was a great first step. They now have a coach to lead this organization moving forward.
Leave a Reply