Seattle Kraken Name Dave Hakstol Head Coach

The Seattle Kraken have announced their first head coach in franchise history will be Dave Hakstol, as general manager Ron Francis made the announcement on Thursday.

Francis did a wonderful job keeping the news under wraps as every hockey insider was making calls to find out some details. It wasn't until 11:00am EST on Thursday when the insiders all got the same text, by the looks of it. 

One name that has surfaced as a possibility for the head coach job with expansion Seattle is that of Dave Hakstol, the former Flyers HC who was assistant coach with the Maple Leafs this past season....@TSNHockey @TheAthletic

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 24, 2021

Kraken expected to name their first coach today. Hearing it is not Rick Tocchet. They’ve kept us guessing, but among other recent interviews whose name has not been out there: TOR assistant Dave Hakstol.

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 24, 2021

Shout out to Pierre LeBrun for being the first to tweet out the info. Hakstol was an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs last season and has previous experience as a head coach with the Philadelphia Flyers. The 52-year-old is a native of Alberta and played some minor hockey before making the jump to coaching. He was the head coach of the University of North Dakota for 11 seasons, with the Flyers for three years and was hired with the Maple Leafs two years ago.

And, It's Official:

SEATTLE, WE GOT OUR GUY!

Dave Hakstol (@hakstol2), has been named the the first-ever head coach in #SeaKraken history!

Get to know our new bench boss → https://t.co/uiBhw09CfE pic.twitter.com/fe9p7Hry64

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) June 24, 2021

Hakstol now gets to enjoy the expansion draft and will put in his two cents on who he'd like to see in front of him on the Kraken's bench.

Photo credit:  Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports