Dave Hakstol’s exit from Colorado did not happen in a quiet little vacuum, and the sequence around it made that impossible to ignore.
Just days after Jared Bednar locked in a four-year extension with the Avalanche, Hakstol was headed to Arizona State University to become its next head coach. The move landed with a thud simply because of when it happened: early in the season, after reports had already started pointing to a likely change.
There’s no evidence tying Hakstol’s departure to any tension with Bednar, and that’s important to say plainly. But the timing still feels unusual.
Rumors had been building for days that Hakstol was on his way out, with reporting that a deal with Arizona State was close. Colorado had only said it had given the university permission to interview him.
Then Wednesday night arrived, with the Avalanche hosting the Dallas Stars at Ball Arena. Before puck drop, reports circulated that it would be Hakstol’s final game behind the Colorado bench.
The Avalanche lost 3-2, Bednar addressed questions about his assistant afterward, and the situation still wasn’t fully clear. By Thursday morning, it was official.
That kind of shuffle this soon into a season is rare enough to stand out on its own.
Hakstol, though, is not a coach waiting around for his first real shot. He spent 15 seasons as the head coach at the University of North Dakota, then moved to the NHL and ran both the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.
He later worked as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs before joining Colorado. He has been in charge before, and he knows exactly what that responsibility looks like.
So if another head coaching chance mattered to him, Arizona State gave him one. With Bednar committed to Colorado for the long haul, Hakstol may have decided the time was right to go somewhere else. That’s speculation, but it’s a fair question to ask.
There’s also a personal layer here. Hakstol’s son, Brenden, plays for Arizona State’s club hockey team, so the opportunity to be closer to his son could have been part of the appeal.
It may have meant nothing at all. Without Hakstol explaining it himself, nobody really knows.
And then there’s the state of the Arizona State program itself. The school is dealing with serious fallout after Matthew Mayich suffered exertional heat stroke during a team workout in August. Mayich remains hospitalized, the situation has raised concerns about safety and accountability, and former head coach Greg Powers and the university reached a “mutual agreement to part ways.”
That leaves Hakstol walking into a program that needs steadiness as much as experience. His track record gives him both credibility and a résumé that should carry weight, but the challenge goes beyond coaching systems and special teams.
Restoring confidence and making sure players are properly protected will matter, too. Whether those circumstances influenced his decision is something only he can answer.
For Colorado, the part that keeps sticking is the timing. Leaving after a season is one thing. Leaving seven days into a new one is another.
Whatever went into the move, Hakstol’s work with the Avalanche shouldn’t be lost in the noise. The power play had its issues, but his value on the defensive side was real. He was also always kind to those of us in the media, and I appreciated that.
There’s no reason to invent a feud between Hakstol and Bednar. Nothing in the reporting supports that. But once you line up Bednar’s extension, the sudden departure and the muddled reporting before the announcement, it’s hard not to wonder how the whole thing came together so quickly.
For now, the timing speaks for itself. And until Hakstol says more, the questions are fair.
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