Fired Seattle Kraken coach Dave Hakstol has spoken publicly for the first time since his dismissal in April.
“You always take a little time to gain perspective, and then chart a new course,” Hakstol said on the Leafs Morning Take podcast. “For me, it’s been a lot of really good family time.”
About the non-playoffs 2023-24 Kraken season, “It’s been a time to evaluate what things went right, and some of the areas where we came up short in terms of this third year. We weren’t able to find that chemistry as we went through this year.”
No matter that Hakstol led Seattle to 46 wins and the 2nd round of the playoffs one year earlier. He was a finalist for the Jack Adams award as the league’s top coach, and received a contract extension which was supposed to kick in this autumn. “We were really proud of the second year that we put together. We saw growth in our younger players; we saw real buy-in in terms of roles and chemistry from older players.”
Some of that growth extended to Season 3. “We saw Vince Dunn take another step. We saw Joey Daccord emerge. Matty Beniers had some struggles, which for me was not unexpected, but he’s a guy who’s going to continue to grow and bounce back and be a star in this league.”
NHL Coaching Carousel Reaches Breakneck Speed
Glenn Dreyfuss Photo
For the second time – Hakstol was previously let go in 2018 after three-plus seasons as coach in Philadelphia – he got caught in the cyclone of NHL coaching changes.
“That’s how quickly this league moves. You’re 2 1/2 years into your job and one of the top 10 in terms of tenure in the league, it puts a little extra stress and strain on the position. But that’s the position, let’s be honest. You don’t rest on successes from one year past.”
Prior to taking the Kraken job, Hakstol spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs. He was asked about the constant pressure to win in hockey-mad Toronto, but his answer applies equally to the ownership and ticket-buying public of Seattle.
“It’s really hard to stand pat. I understand that, especially for a fan base. You want to see progress in June and July. You want to see things improved on the roster. The reality is, sometimes improvement is not shown or actually proven until you get into the rigors of an NHL schedule, what they’re going to be as a team.
“In terms of building relationships, growing relationships, in kind of a new age world, it’s difficult to do that. When you go through a year when there’s ups, downs, struggles, inconsistencies, it’s even more challenging to expand those relationships. In a perfect world, we’d all like to have more time. The reality of it is, in the majority of cases, you’re working on a very short-term basis to make sure you’re getting the most out of everybody. Sometimes that works against relationships.”
Don’t Bet Against Hakstol’s Return
Esteemed columnist Ken Campbell wrote this in The Hockey News about Hakstol: “We’ve been told to never say never, but I’d be willing to bet we’ve seen the last of Dave Hakstol in the NHL.”
Campbell made that bet on December 17, 2018, just after Hakstol was jettisoned by the Flyers. Instead, he worked his way back as a Toronto assistant, then got hired as a wiser head coach with Seattle. The guy who took a second-year franchise within one game of a conference final, earned a Jack Adams nomination and a contract extension didn’t forget how to coach hockey in the following 10 months. That’s tantalizing for any team looking for a change.
I’m no Ken Campbell, but clip and save this: whatever his faults behind the Kraken bench, another NHL team would be well served inviting an even more seasoned Dave Hakstol to join its staff. After all, Dan Bylsma, the man anointed – and deserving of the chance – to take the Kraken back to the promised land, has been pink-slipped twice by NHL teams, too.
If he can do it, so can Hakstol.