Team building was Dave Hakstol's forte at UND; now he will try to replicate that success as head coach of Seattle Kraken

Jun. 25—During Dave Hakstol's 11-year tenure as UND's head hockey coach, he was perhaps best known for his ability to build teams.

He constructed them in purposeful ways, blending highly recruited top-end skill (one of his first commits as head coach was Jonathan Toews) with lightly recruited under-the-radar players brought aboard for specific roles (his last-remaining commit at UND is alternate captain Mark Senden).

He recruited specific types of people, too, knowing that hockey seasons are going to have rough patches, and you need players who are going to dig in at those moments, not finger-point and blame others.

"Not every player he brought in was a home run," former player Erik Fabian said. "But when it came to character, he didn't miss very often."

Hakstol also became renowned for developing his teams throughout a season.

Like clockwork, they went on runs after Christmas break virtually every year. They won four league playoff titles in his first seven years as coach and reached the NCAA Frozen Four seven times in 11 years. When he left for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015, he did so having won more college hockey games than any other program during his tenure.

"I know how we do things at North Dakota," head coach Brad Berry said. "And I'm sure Dave will have a lot of that in what he's trying to build in Seattle."

Hakstol was introduced as the first head coach in Seattle Kraken history Thursday afternoon at a press conference, where he expressed excitement about the rare opportunity to do at the NHL level what he did best in college — build teams from scratch by finding the right players and meshing them together.

"I view it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Hakstol, who was joined by his wife, Erinn, and son, Brendan. "We have an opportunity to build from the ground up. Detail and communication is going to be very, very important, not only over the next few weeks of building the roster, but from there, it's planning on how everything fits together."

Seattle general manager Ron Francis said he interviewed eight candidates, but chose Hakstol, someone he got to know during the 2019 IIHF Men's World Championship. Francis was on Hockey Canada's management team and Hakstol was an assistant coach.

Francis first contacted Hakstol about the Seattle job last summer.

Hakstol was an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs the last two years. Prior to that, he was the head coach of the Flyers for three-and-a-half years, reaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs twice.

"Tracking back to his University of North Dakota days, Dave is a coach who cares about his players," Francis said. "At times, a coach's messages can get diluted. Players want to understand what the coach wants them to do. Dave communicates clearly and concisely. Players like that."

Hakstol won't have to wait long to help build Seattle's franchise.

The NHL Expansion Draft is less than a month away, scheduled for July 21. That will give the Kraken their roster for the inaugural season.

Two days later, the NHL Entry Draft will be conducted. Seattle has the No. 2 overall pick. That will help the Kraken begin to build their foundation of prospects.

While drafting teams in the pros is a different building process than recruiting them in college, some philosophies will carry over.

"It's really about building with good, quality people to begin with," Hakstol said. "Building it the right way. Making sure we're building not only a team that can come out of the gate and play with a lot of pride, passion and have success, but also work toward building the depth of the organization for not only that early success, but to have that sustainable success. Those are the conversations I'll be part of."

Hakstol's success in doing that at UND caught Seattle's eye.

"In 11 years there (at UND) as head coach, nine of those years he had a winning percentage over .600," Francis said. "The other two, he had a winning percentage over .700. And that's in an environment where your changing your team on a yearly basis, and definitely every four years as guys graduate and move on. So, that bodes well for sort-of building the base and being able to communicate."

Hakstol's second NHL go-around

This will be Hakstol's second shot at an NHL head coaching job.

In 2015, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall brought Hakstol aboard to help guide Philadelphia's rebuilding project. Knowing Hakstol had success developing young, talented players at UND — Zach Parise, Jonathan Toews, T.J. Oshie, Drew Stafford, Travis Zajac and Brock Nelson to name a few — Hextall wanted him to work with their up-and-coming prospects.

Prior to his first year in Philly, nobody thought much of the Flyers squad.

Nearly everyone picked them to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That included the local media — the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Courier-Post and NBC Philadelphia — and just about every other news outlet, like USA Today, The Hockey News, TSN, the Washington Post, Newsday, CBS Sports and all seven of Yahoo's hockey writers.

"The downward spiral begins in Philadelphia and a full rebuild is expected soon," the Edmonton Sun wrote at the time.

Hakstol and the Flyers surprised most everyone and made the Stanley Cup Playoffs that first year, reshaping expectations for the organization. They missed the playoffs during his second year, but returned in his third season, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.

During Hakstol's fourth year, the Flyers organization went through upheaval when it fired Hextall as general manager in November and followed that up by firing the assistant general manager and an assistant coach shortly after that. Just a couple of weeks after the Flyers hired new general manager Chuck Fletcher, they fired Hakstol, too.

Hakstol said he learned from his time in Philadelphia.

"You take a piece from every experience you go through and everybody you have an opportunity to work with," Hakstol said. "You learn a little bit. I believe we're all pretty motivated to keep pushing the envelope and finding better ways to do things and become better in the way we can help our players be at their very best. At the end of the day, that's our job — help our players, help our team be at their very best and succeed."

Success at UND

Fabian, who later went on to a coaching career with the UND women's hockey program, said Hakstol excelled at picking the right players on his team and treating them fairly.

"He finds the right guys," Fabian said. "I don't know how much say he's going to have in picking his guys in Seattle, but that's a big factor. He gets the right guys. And the character you bring in is a huge determining factor in how you do."

Colten St. Clair, who spent four years under Hakstol as a player and now has launched his own coaching career with the Omaha Lancers in the United States Hockey League, said Hakstol knows how to draw the best out of his players.

"Hak is the ultimate leader," St. Clair said. "He knows how to relate to you when you don't even know it's possible. Wherever you come from, he gets you to believe in yourself and find a way to contribute to the team. He's very honest. He's very smart. He does the right thing for you, which ends up being the right thing for the team.

"When Hak walks into a room, his presence is known. You believe in what he's saying, because you know it's the right thing for you, and it goes miles and miles for you and your development as a player and in whatever you're trying to do in life."

St. Clair said he often tries to emulate the way Hakstol did things.

"I think you have takeaways from coaches you didn't like and you learn from coaches you love," St. Clair said. "Hak was a coach I loved."

Dave Hakstol's coaching career by the years

1996-00 — Sioux City (USHL) head coach

2000-04 — UND assistant coach

2004-15 — UND head coach

2015-18 — Philadelphia Flyers head coach

2019-21 — Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach

2021-present — Seattle Kraken head coach