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GM Hextall takes fresh approach by hiring Hakstol

Dave Hakstol was talking to a TV camera in another room of the Wells Fargo Center, a city that pays little attention to college hockey still buzzing and puzzled by his ascension to the NHL, and Ron Hextall descended from a dais and stepped in front of a black drape dotted with Flyers insignias.

Flyers general manager Ron Hextall. (Michael Pronzato)
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall. (Michael Pronzato)Read more(Michael Pronzato)

Dave Hakstol was talking to a TV camera in another room of the Wells Fargo Center, a city that pays little attention to college hockey still buzzing and puzzled by his ascension to the NHL, and Ron Hextall descended from a dais and stepped in front of a black drape dotted with Flyers insignias.

Before Hextall, the Flyers' general manager, began answering follow-up questions about his decision to hire Hakstol as the team's head coach, his predecessor, Paul Holmgren, approached him. The two had carpooled to the news conference from the Flyers' practice facility in Voorhees, and Holmgren grabbed Hextall's left hand, turned it palm-side up, and dropped a ring of car keys into it.

"I'll drive myself back," Holmgren said to him.

Ten months have passed since Hextall replaced Holmgren as GM, but for reasons of substance and symbolism, Monday marked the true beginning of Hextall's tenure - and of a new era for the Flyers franchise. He plucked Hakstol from the University of North Dakota, from one of the premier programs in the NCAA, settling on a candidate who has no experience either playing or coaching in the NHL. And anyone who wondered whether Hextall would follow through on his vows to be his own man and executive, to be willing to break from the Flyers' stale and stagnant recent past, doesn't have to wonder anymore.

This is nothing but different for the Flyers, and that makes it nothing but good.

"I wasn't going to choose the coach that was the people's choice, the popular choice," Hextall said. "I was going to pick the coach that I felt like - for this franchise from today, next year, and moving forward here - is the right coach."

Hextall's obvious antecedent here was Mike Keenan, who was the Flyers' head coach when Hextall debuted as a player in 1986 and whom the franchise hired out of the University of Toronto in 1984. "That's one of the things that was thought about in terms of Dave's lacking experience," Hextall said, and the Hakstol-Keenan comparison is an easy connection that allowed the Flyers, especially chairman Ed Snider, to pay lip service to the notion that Hakstol's hiring isn't all that radical for either the franchise or the NHL as a whole. Except it is.

Hakstol guided North Dakota to seven appearances in the Frozen Four over his 11 seasons there, but this move isn't in the same discussion as Rick Pitino's leaving Kentucky for the Boston Celtics or Billy Donovan's bolting Florida for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Hakstol is just the third coach to go from the NCAA straight to his first job in the NHL, and there are long-standing reasons this jump happens so rarely.

Hockey isn't a particularly progressive sport, at any of its amateur or professional levels. The surprise around the NHL that Hextall didn't hire an NHL head coach, an experienced assistant, or an up-and-comer from the minors or major-junior was all the proof one needed of that collective conservatism. And even if Hextall had been committed to choosing an NCAA coach - "We looked everywhere," he said - his options would have been limited. Jerry York at Boston College, Red Berenson at Michigan, Jack Parker when he was at Boston University: For years, the most accomplished college coaches have been so entrenched at their schools that it has been impossible to pry them away.

Hakstol was at North Dakota just long enough to establish a track record that would make him an attractive NHL candidate, but not so long that his roots were too deep. He has produced 20 NHL players - Chicago Blackhawks captain and superstar Jonathan Toews among them - coaching what Hextall described as a "pro style," and one has to think that Hakstol's success with college players aligned with Hextall's vision of constructing a Stanley Cup contender over time, with young talent already here and yet to arrive.

"One thing that defines Hak is he's got an incredible ability to build teams, and he has incredible patience," Dave Starman, a friend of Hakstol's and a former NHL scout who covers college hockey for CBS and ESPN, said Monday in a telephone interview. "The NCAA affords you that, but he's got incredible patience. He has the ability to know what he has and to build around it.

"The NHL guys are ready-made, but the one thing you need to do when you coach an elite-level player is come out there with a plan on a daily basis so they know you're trying to make them better. The thing with Hak is he doesn't [lie]. He tells you like it is, and he's really good at what he's telling you."

Understand: Hextall could have played this hire safe. He could have gone full-bore after Mike Babcock, could have pushed hard for Claude Julien or Todd McLellan or another familiar name. He didn't, and the fact that he chose Hakstol for this franchise, with its history, testifies to his fresh thinking. Soon, Paul Holmgren ducked through a door to exit that Wells Fargo Center room Monday afternoon, and Ed Snider followed him. There's only one man holding the keys and driving this car now, and it will be fascinating to see where Ron Hextall takes the Flyers from here.

msielski@phillynews.com

@MikeSielski