Kraken fire Dave Hakstol

[Scomerica]

Regardless what people think about Hakstol, this is the part that I find so puzzling.

It’s an expansion team, you hire that first coach with the intention of establishing some stability and a culture. Hakstol is a “culture” kind of coach, he had success working with college kids, he had success working with expansion draft castoffs. Nobody thought he was the guy to take a team to that next level… he was there to lay the groundwork for someone else to build on.

So he comes roaring out of the gate with an Adams-worthy job of getting that team shockingly close to a Conference Final in its second year, loses talent compared to the second-year roster (which is supposed to be a stage of building talent), then gets axed when they tie for 23rd the following year? It just doesn’t feel strategic. Either he was the wrong hire in the first place, or firing him this fast is a knee-jerk move. Either way, it doesn’t look good on Francis, who has seemed like he’s been in over his head with this GM role.

I have a feeling he would have got another season (on a short leash) if the teams form didnt completely nose dive for the last couple of months when they started falling away from the play offs race. Felt like he lost the locker room and you had veterans phoning it in, and whatever he said or did just didn't work. There's not really a way to come back from that.

I agree though, I didn't love the signings last year and the talent reduced last year which is on the GM.

 

[GKJ]

Seattle's problem is that they got every team's 6th best player and didn't parlay that into bringing in picks and stars like Vegas did. They stuck with a team full of 6th best players but nobody I would call the face of the franchise. They left a lot of talent unpicked at the expansion draft that could have really helped them.

I dunno, maybe GMs smartened up after Vegas and wouldn't deal with Francis like they did with Vegas. Hopefully there's a documentary one day about the Seattle draft with interviews about how they screwed it up so bad.

They also came in during Covid and everyone only wanted to make deals for salary dumps, which Vegas was willing to do.

To a man, coming out of each draft, on paper, Seattle may have had the better roster.

 

[Bleedred]

Now they can hire Travis Green, who was rumored to be on their radar before the Canucks panicked and extended him.

Please do it. Get him the f*** out of New Jersey.

I won't tell the Kraken they'll be worse for it. Well, I just did!

 

[Fatass]

Get better players.

 

[Avs2022]

Stupid. He’s a good coach. He smoked Bednar in the playoffs last year.

This is a bizarre take.

Hakstol is a run-of-the-mill coach. He was meh in Philly and meh in Seattle. His teams always are poor at scoring chance generation, because he relies on an antiquated style of play.

Seattle winning a round last year was a great story for them. It was 0% to do with Hakstol though. Colorado was thin (after having to cut pieces following their Cup run), injured, and missing Nuke because of the weird Russian hooker thing.

There are many good/interesting coaches on the market this offseason. Replacing Hak right now is smart.

I agree. Really dumb take by the OP. The fact that Avs had zero depth, no 2nd line, and only Mackinnon, Rantanen, Toews and Makar scored goals, and the fact it took 7 games to beat the Avs doesn't really say much about the series.

 

[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

 

[PaulD]

Stupid. He’s a good coach. He smoked Bednar in the playoffs last year. Completely out coached the Avs.

Was thinking same thing.

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

I think its a combination of GM's smartening up after Vegas AND Francis not being an aggressive type of GM.

His approach seems to work fine for a rebuilding team or a team not looking to compete right now but I feel he lacks the aggressive mentality to go for it. He has drafted well for us so far but it seems like management wants to win sooner than later so will be interesting to see how he does from this point on.

I won't be surprised if they chase Sam Reinhart...now that would be one helluva numero uno RWinger

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Terrible coach, like all college coaches.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Terrible coach, like all college coaches.

 

[mossey3535]

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

Wow, I had no idea....I dunno, was he Sutter level? Didn't hear rumblings that he was.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I see Hakstol getting a shot elsewhere. But realistically I see Hakstol ending up in a place like St. Louis.

But all that to say, I see the Kraken hiring Dan Bylsma honestly, as much as don't want to say it. But I think the firing was about the treatment of Shane Wright. Bylsma got along well with Shane Wright in Coachella Valley, plus is already experienced and a coach is likely going to get another shot given his previous experience.

 

[BelovedIsles]

Not sure he deserved this. Took a bottom 3rd roster to the 2nd round less than a year ago.

 

[waitin425]

What about his staff? The assistants?

 

[Fatass]

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

Maybe the players should shut up and play better? I guess they will get a Bruce Boudreau kind of feel good guy now. All sunshine and rainbows. Hope they get a real prick like Babcock.

 

[PALE PWNR]

Hak stinks

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Interesting move. I thought that Seattle's main downfall was Grubauer having an off year and losing his net to Joey Daccord. Or was Grubauer injured?

Sorry, I don't follow the Kraken much, so I'm legitimately curious.

They scored almost 1 less ES goal per game than last year. Biggest drop for any team in the League, and quite unusual.

Burakovsky wasn't much of a factor as he was recovering from an injury, Sprong who was ridiculously effective offensively in limited minutes last year walked in free agency, and multiple guys had a dip in production, Beniers (57->37 pts) Gourde (48->33 pts) Tanev (35->16 pts) to name a few.

Basically what everyone expected to happen, which was the offensive regression, did happen, but probably worse than even expected. Other than that they were more or less the same team.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Just learned that Dan Bylsma is the coach of their AHL affiliate

It appears he has done a good job based on the record

Is this the return of Disco Dan?

 

[ES]

Success on their second season backfired leading to this decision+

 

[ijuka]

another coach suffers from overachieving in the past. This year he performed just fine with this roster, just set up unrealistic expectations by performing too well last year. Goes to show that as a coach you cant perform too poorly, nor too well. Because GMs lack perspective.

 

[GrkFlyersFan]

Feels unfair, but Francis did the right thing. Last year was a fluke, Hakstol didn't suddenly morph into a good coach. Look at all the Flyers fan comments in here.

 

[Elysian]

This one doesn't make sense to me, though to be fair I didn't watch much Kraken hockey this year. Winning their first round of playoffs last yeat should have given him some extra leash.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Brindamour incoming?

 

[tfwnogf]

Kinda lost track of the Krak after their big win streak this season. They slumped pretty hard.

 

[NYR94]