The Marquis
Moderator
I wasn't impressed the way he handled Wright's first year, that's for sure. Last year, the team collectively did not seem to play hard every night the way that they had in the past. In fact it had been, to my way of thinking, a point of pride how hard the team played in its first two years. Last year too many times, they just seemed to mail it in. It made too many games, especially in the second half of the season, an absolute chore to watch. I have no way of knowing but it seemed Hakstol lost the room. Plus, if you are the GM, you can't have your team playing listless hockey, especially at home. I thank Hakstol for his contributions, but I also think it was time for a change. We just couldn't risk another year like the last one.
Pretty much my thoughts as well.
However, I do think Hak may have lost the room, but not in a "f*** this!" manner, but more of a "why bother?" manner. The former is much worse, because I don't think you come back from that for a while because it means not only a coaching change, but probably means having to move a good number of higher profile players to find the room again (think Winnipeg a couple of years ago as being an example). I don't think the Kraken players were ever "f*** this!". They just didn't have the motivating factor of the first two season, because the coach was simply the wrong guy to get a team through "why bother?". He just doesn't come off as a guy who could turn the commitment around if it is ever lost and it clearly was. I do think Bylsma has the personality to be able to get things turned about from a buy-in perspective.
That all said, I don't think Hakstol was a mistake, he just wasn't the right guy for the team at the point he was fired. It's not like many head coaches in the NHL last 3 full seasons with the same club anyway. He did fine, but Francis moving on from him was 100% the right move.