[Friedman] Kraken fire head coach Dave Hakstol

[Scomerica]

Is Brind'Amour a legit candidate? Thatd be a great get, As previously said id make him the highest paid coach in the league and wouldnt think twice about it.

I think he's had delays in getting a new contract and the Hurricanes are being cheap. If the Kraken step in and offer him a big raise...who knows?

 

[brewski420]

I hope they keep Bylsma where he is. That is where he belongs.

 

[majormajor]

So far i've heard linked: Dean Evason who is supposed to be close to Francis, Rod Brind'Amour, Dan Bylsma (seems the obvious one but would he want the hassle of going back to the nhl stress), Karl Taylor- Milwaukee Admirals coach if we don't want to do the coaching merry go round.

Dean Evason had a flawed Wild roster humming for a couple seasons. Really tough coach.

Fun fact - the late 80s Hartford Whalers that Francis helmed were full of players that went on to become coaches. Dineen, Evason, Tippett, Quenneville, etc... and a whole slew of assistants and execs.

I just went back and looked, and Francis was captain while his assistant captains were Quenneville, Tippett, and Dineen.

 

[kihei]

If we can get Brind'Amour, cool. But if we can't, I hope we just don't interview recycled coaches who have already been fired somewhere else. There must be some talented assistant coaches or even European coaches worth considering; let's not ignore the possibility that one of them might not be a better fit than the usual suspects.

 

[Dowisetrepla]

I will miss the many faces of Coach Hakstol!

 

[wewantyoursoul]

I know this is from waaaaaay out in left field...and don't crucify me...I think you could do worse than throwing Eddie Olczyk out there (if he were interested). His in-game observations and suggestions are tremendously tremendous and usually spot-on. Not sure if he'd be interested in developing young guys or willing to invest the time it takes to coach a team. Just a thought.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Players were involved, per Kaplan:

Seattle Kraken Fanpage on Instagram: "ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported earlier today that a handful of pretty significant players on the Seattle Kraken made it clear to Ron Francis and management that they did not want to play on this team in the future

255 likes, 12 comments - krakenszn on April 29, 2024: "ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported earlier today that a handful of pretty significant players on the Seattle Kraken made it clear to Ron Franci...".

www.instagram.com

 

[Scomerica]

Players were involved, per Kaplan:

Seattle Kraken Fanpage on Instagram: "ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported earlier today that a handful of pretty significant players on the Seattle Kraken made it clear to Ron Francis and management that they did not want to play on this team in the future

255 likes, 12 comments - krakenszn on April 29, 2024: "ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported earlier today that a handful of pretty significant players on the Seattle Kraken made it clear to Ron Franci...".

www.instagram.com

Wonder which ones

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Players were involved, per Kaplan:

Seattle Kraken Fanpage on Instagram: "ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported earlier today that a handful of pretty significant players on the Seattle Kraken made it clear to Ron Francis and management that they did not want to play on this team in the future

255 likes, 12 comments - krakenszn on April 29, 2024: "ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported earlier today that a handful of pretty significant players on the Seattle Kraken made it clear to Ron Franci...".

www.instagram.com

Not surprised at all. A few folks here pointed out that the players were smiling and laughing at the end of loses or during games we were getting thrashed. That to me was a sign that this team has given up.

But Francis has to make sure to give the next coach the tools to help with offense. He said he recognized the need for more scoring. That is an area that is up to him to figure out.

 

[majormajor]

If we can get Brind'Amour, cool. But if we can't, I hope we just don't interview recycled coaches who have already been fired somewhere else. There must be some talented assistant coaches or even European coaches worth considering; let's not ignore the possibility that one of them might not be a better fit than the usual suspects.

They all get fired, even the best coaches. I think pro experience is a big help actually.

 

[Hockeyman1962]

Only 5 HC were with their club prior to start of 21/22 season. That's an insane amount of turnover in the HC ranks.

But, when there are fully guaranteed contracts, a hard cap, plus so many NTC/NMC and partial protection, it really limits the moves a team can make with personnel. Only move left is the HC. But, also why GMs can and should get canned faster if they make poor moves/signings.

ron francis is to blame in my book terrible expansion draft and has done nothing to build a better roster. he was a very poor choice for gm should of never been hired to begin with.

 

[kihei]

They all get fired, even the best coaches. I think pro experience is a big help actually.

And every coach gets hired by somebody for the first time. Brind'Amour was an assistant coach for seven years before he moved up to head coach in Carolina. Now he is at the top of many of our wish lists. Assistant coaches acquire pro experience, too.

 

[Scomerica]

I saw something about season ticket sales being flat and there being no waiting list. Guessing there is definitely ownership pressure on top of the team quitting on him

 

[majormajor]

And every coach gets hired by somebody for the first time. Brind'Amour was an assistant coach for seven years before he moved up to head coach in Carolina. Now he is at the top of many of our wish lists. Assistant coaches acquire pro experience, too.

They both can be great.

I think in general you don't want to exclude candidates based on things like what team they're coming from or what specific role they had. From the Brind'Amour interview posted today, he was an assistant coach for 7 years on bad Canes teams and wasn't considered head coach material, until their new owner came along and gave him the job right away. Good people can get stuck on bad teams or get a good opportunity and do well and get fired, or maybe make a mistake and learn from it, etc...

 

[gstommylee]

ron francis is to blame in my book terrible expansion draft and has done nothing to build a better roster. he was a very poor choice for gm should of never been hired to begin with.

The alternate is being in cap hell just for the sake of taking players with terrible contracts and having to give up draft picks and assets just to move those bad contracts which would have meant no playoffs 2nd year. No thanks.

What about our great prospect pool? Would you give that up just to have another GM? Vegas was an exemption which benefited from side trades that the other 30 teams had no interest in repeating and that has nothing to do with who our GM is. Also if the teams didn't screw themselves at the benefit of Vegas, vegas' expansion draft would been just as terrible too.

No matter who the GM is the person would still had to deal with the same issues in trying to design a winning roster. Hakstol would still been fired no matter who our GM is.

I saw something about season ticket sales being flat and there being no waiting list. Guessing there is definitely ownership pressure on top of the team quitting on him

That was like after year 1 where there was no waiting list.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

ron francis is to blame in my book terrible expansion draft and has done nothing to build a better roster. he was a very poor choice for gm should of never been hired to begin with.

We can blame Francis for a few things but the expansion draft is not one of them.

 

[gstommylee]

We can blame Francis for a few things but the expansion draft is not one of them.

The expansion draft is usually out of the team's control of whose available to pick and rather the 30 other teams wants to pay Seattle to take someone else and that is regardless of who's the GM.

 

[Kat Predator]

Part of the reason the expansion draft went differently was that Francis was an open book before the expansion draft. I know for a fact that GMs knew who he was interested in—younger guys on their less expensive second contracts—and made their protection lists to protect those guys. They left guys on big contracts exposed knowing Francis was not going to take them. Francis telegraphed he wasn't taking older veterans, big contracts, or damaged goods. Furthermore he was going to continue to be cautious in free agency. Vegas has clearly had a much different approach.

At the same time, the rules for the expansion draft were the same. Every team was able to protect its young talent on their first contracts. So the spigot closest to "building through the draft" was shut off completely by rule. Francis wasn't responsible for that rule, but it is his core philosophy that you build the core of your team via the draft—by bringing in young kids early, doing your own development, and having the pieces come up together in the same systems through the organization.

On the topic of this thread: Hakstol seems to have established about a 3 season shelf life. Better to make a transition in the off-season. It's also not clear that Hakstol was exactly the right kind of coach to follow through on the "build through the draft and from within" approach. The window of success he had was with a veteran team. Beniers was the exception.

 

[Scomerica]

Kraken fired Dave Hakstol because they need to hasten build to relevance

The Kraken exist in a crowded sports market, and can't afford to become invisible. Firing Dave Hakstol was necessary as they need to win to build back to relevance.

www.seattletimes.com

Basically summed up as the Kraken need people watching and to stay relevant after their big investments.

 

[redbrick98]

Dan Bylsma Incoming ? .... Jeff Marek/ EF Speculation

 

[RainyCityHockey]

Dan Bylsma Incoming ? .... Jeff Marek/ EF Speculation

Jay Leach(who was not fired) is way more likely to become the head coach than Disco Dan.

Though, I don't think it's going to be either one.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Kraken fired Dave Hakstol because they need to hasten build to relevance

The Kraken exist in a crowded sports market, and can't afford to become invisible. Firing Dave Hakstol was necessary as they need to win to build back to relevance.

www.seattletimes.com

Basically summed up as the Kraken need people watching and to stay relevant after their big investments.

Good article. Not that it said anything most of us on the boards did not know already but good for lesser hockey fans.

 

[The Marquis]

The question going forward is do the Kraken need veteran coaching or should they take a new approach and try somebody untested? I think they go with experience if they can afford it. Very curious who it is. Who, that's available, is well liked, but good at coaching hockey and doesn't come with an abundance of baggage that the Seattle market can't handle?

 

[gstommylee]

Eh i think the players has something to do with it which Gbaker dismissing the some of the players being unhappy as just gripping. Players basically saying "i don't want to be here anymore if head coach stays " is one way for sure to get a coach fired.

I think Hakstol would had lasted a bit longer if it wasn't for the players being unhappy but that's just my opinion.

My own thoughts rushing things to speed the plan up just to be relevant doesn't always lead to good things and could potentially back fire. Does seattle need upgrades yes but we need to be smart in what we give up to get someone or sign someone in FA, the last thing Seattle wants to do is make terrible signings or make stupid dumb trades that basically throws away our prospects and we aren't any better. That is one way to get the GM fired.

I'm not suggesting francis shouldn't try to acquire a player that would help but he needs to be cautious. The last thing i think any one of us wants is to go from have a great prospect pool to a eh not great and still be in the same spot as we are in now. Eh i just don't like the idea of having to do something just for the sake of doing something regardless if it benefits seattle or not.

If there aren't trades to be made don't force one or don't push yourself into signing a player at FA when it doesn't make sense aka the team shouldn't force themselves to signing a player at FA with a blank check.

Both those scenario is not only will turn wreck our prospect pools but its also how the team ends up with dumb bad contracts that don't benefit the team at all. We all seen the Mariners make stupid dumb trades that basically gutted their farm system and sign players to dumb contracts.

I feel like our GM is gonna get criticized badly no matter what he does.

 

[StreetHawk]

I feel like our GM is gonna get criticized badly no matter what he does.

From game 1 in 23/24 to the puck drop for 24/25, we so far have 8 HC changes. In season moves from Edm, Stl, Ott, NYI, NJ, to end of season with Buf, SJ, and Sea changing HC after the season with Columbus pending a new GM and likely making a HC change there as well. And who knows if any HC get relieved based on PO performances.

So, likely to be 9 and possibly 10 HC changes. So, question is then what about the GMs. Columbus and Ottawa let their GMs during the season. Figure everyone else who let their HC go, has a target that they need to hit in the next year or two to keep their job. Be it making the PO or getting further in the PO.

So, for Francis and the Kraken, what is the expectations they need to achieve over the next 2 seasons? Otherwise, is it time for a GM change as well. All of these HC changes, can't all just be on the HC. GM plays a big role especially in a hard cap league with so many players have some form of trade protection.