What does Dave Hakstol bring to Colorado Avalanche?

The Colorado Avalanche finally hired a coach to replace recently fired offensive assistant Ray Bennett. The team chose Dave Hakstol, former head coach of the Seattle Kraken. Hakstol was also an assistant coach in Toronto, where his focus was predominantly on the power play.

Hakstol was aslo the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. Before making the jump to the NHL, Hakstol coached at the University of North Dakota for 15 years, four as an assistant and then 11 years as the head coach.

So, let's take a closer look at what Dave Hakstol brings to the table in Colorado.

Assessing what Dave Hakstol's hiring means for Colorado Avalanche

The offense will get a much-needed makeover

Throughout much of the year, the Avalanche offense was frustrating. Similar sentiments can be had about the Avalanche since winning the Stanley Cup in 2021-2022. The numbers don't show offensive struggles, with the Avalanche at sixth in goals for and eighth on the powerplay. But the numbers don't paint the whole picture. The Avalanche have been plagued by poor neutral zone breakouts, zone entries, and failure to create quality shots on the powerplay. Of course the Avs are going to score a lot of goals. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and company are too talented to keep off the score sheet. What they need is consistency.

The Avalanche have been plagued by poor neutral zone breakouts, zone entries, and failure to create quality shots on the powerplay. Of course the Avs are going to score a lot of goals. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and company are too talented to keep off the score sheet. What they need is consistency.

I was very interested in what the Avalanche were going to do about this coaching position because I've been calling for Ray Bennett to be ousted since halfway through the 2022-2023 season. The Avalanche offense, specifically the powerplay, would consistently experience long droughts where they would struggle to generate quality offense.

The slingshot powerplay strategy was fairly new the year the team won the Cup, but the rest of the league had started to use it in some fashion the following season. Teams started to figure out how to defend it, especially on the zone entry, where we've seen the Avalanche struggle the most.

Dave Hakstol's experience is a plus for Avalanche

Let's take a look back at some of the numbers in Hakstol's career as an NHL head coach. I'd love to include his time in Toronto, but he was an assistant there.

Hakstol was the coach of the Flyers from 2015 to the 2018-19 season, where he was fired after 31 games that year. They made the playoffs in his first and third seasons. The offensive numbers are middling as they ranked 12th in goals for in 2018 and no higher than 18th in the other seasons. The powerplay wasn't necessarily bad as they were in the top half of the league each season, but only broke 20% efficiency once, in Hakstol's last full season as head coach. The biggest offensive weapon that Hakstol has had in his coaching career came during his Philly days. He had Claude Giroux in his prime. Giroux had a 102 point season in 2017-18.

Hakstol spent 2019-2021with Toronto and then was chosen as the first ever head coach of then expansion team, the Seattle Kraken. The numbers here are much worse than Philadelphia, and we can probably attribute some of that to them being an expansion team. In Hakstol's three seasons in Seattle (2021-2024), they ranked 29th, 4th, and 29th in goals for. That 4th place year was the year they beat the Avalanche in the first round, the only postseason appearance in Seattle. Despite that quality of offense, it wasn't done on the powerplay as they only ranked 21st there that season. They were 29th in the first season and 17th in his third. Similarly to his time with the Flyers, the powerplay only eclipsed the 20% mark once, and only barely at that.

The real puzzle here though is that it doesn't seem that Hakstol is an offensive-minded coach. His Seattle Kraken teams were built on defense-first, puck protection/possession schemes. His time in Toronto was specifically the defense, as he was an assistant. His time in Philly is similar, nothing stands out to say he's an offensive coach.

Why choose Dave Hakstol?

Before I dive into this, I'd like to give a huge thank you to Curtis Isacke of Sound of Hockey for his extremely detailed and put together analysis of Dave Hakstol's coaching schemes and tendencies. It is hugely informative and was a great help in the making of this article.

Puck Possession

Hakstol's entire philosophy is based around puck possession. Hakstol wants the offense to cycle the puck and wear out the defense. Other than his defensive zone concepts, Hakstol's players are taught to play puck-first hockey. One of the things I've noticed from the clips I've watched is that his offensive strategy relies less on the stretch pass, which is one of Colorado's most utilized plays. Hakstol still employs the stretch pass, but his defensive personnel have always been more of the big and defensive style rather than offensive.

On both his defensive-zone and neutral-zone breakouts, Hakstol's players are compelled to make more low risk passes and maintain possession through to the offensive blue-line. Zone entries though are a bit different. More often than not, Hakstol's teams do more dump and chase over carrying the puck over the line. This is likely due to the principle of maintaining possession, as its generally safer to get the puck in deep. Most often they carry the puck in when they have an odd-man rush or are on a quick transition.

Once in the zone, Hakstol's offensive sets look for quick shots to the net. Isacke points outtwo main strategies, the low triangle and the low-high setup. The low triangle is a staple of hockey in which the forwards cycle the puck behind the net and then at low angles to try and push the puck towards the slot. The low-high setup has the defense very involved with the forwards pushing the puck back to the point. The defense is quick to put the puck to the net for a shot or deflection or a pass across the blueline.

Applying this to the Avalanche

I think the biggest problem the Avalanche had last season was their ability to transition up the ice. Opposing teams often aggressively forecheck the Avalanche in the defensive and neutral zones creating turnovers. If Hakstol can instill a puck possession first mentality in the Avs players, it could definitely help the Avalanche get more clean zone entries or at least reduce turnovers in the neutral zone. Taking some of the risk out of the Avalanche offense should allow the skill guys more time to create offense if they can commit less turnovers.

Hakstol's low-high sets are something the Avalanche already do, specifically the third pairing when we've had players like Jack Johnson or Keaton Middleton. They excel at getting rid of the puck as quickly as they can. Shots from defensemen in Hakstol's systems generally come from the point. The Avalanche could benefit from getting the top four to buy into those principles and play a little more carefully. With the Avalanche's new found commitment to having a bigger roster, battling for pucks down low can be another strength with Gabe Landeskog and Brock Nelson added to the top six.

The most important thing to note about Hakstol's offense is that the defensemen are far less likely to pinch in on the offensive play. This is the complete opposite of Bennett's offense as the Avalanche have one of the most aggressive defense groups in the league. Obviously with Cale Makar, Devon Toews and company, you'd want to be aggressive with them. Hakstol has never had a defenseman of Makar's caliber, so maybe there will still be some aggressiveness with the defense, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them reel it back some.

Personnel

I honestly think that the choice of Dave Hakstol might actually be most attributed to the change in personnel on the ice over the past year. As I stated above, the return of Landeskog and the addition of Nelson are indicative of the front office's intent to get bigger. This can be seen even further with the extension of Josh Manson and, perhaps most especially, the signing of Brent Burns. Burns has excelled his entire career at creating offense by putting the puck on the net to create rebounds and deflections.

I think the major question with player fit is with the offense. Hakstol's coaching schemes benefit forwards who are speedy and defensively skilled and defensemen who are big and use their size to control the puck. The Avalanche probably have one of the fastest rosters in the league but the forwards aren't generally known for being the most defensive. The remaining bottom six players are a solid fit to Hakstol's system and the defensive group has gotten bigger as I stated above.

However, Colorado has been notorious for being outworked along the boards, specifically with the high-end talent on the ice. Maybe Nelson and Landeskog, and a full season of Nichushkin can help that. While Nathan MacKinnon has otherworldly talent, his defensive game along the boards is probably one of the weakest aspects of his game. Overall, I think the Avalanche players could fit into Hakstol's systems. Since Hakstol has never had talent like MacKinnon or Makar to coach, he may be able to broaden his schemes to their skill sets.

The powerplay

This is my biggest concern, as the powerplay since the Cup run has been wildly frustrating. The Avalanche have continued to be excessively passive on the powerplay, despite the abundance of offensive talent. A powerplay with MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Valeri Nichushkin, and Cale Makar should be firing the puck often instead of waiting for the perfect play. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how much time I've spent screaming at my TV for the Avalanche powerplay to just take a shot The lack of shooting is one of two things wrong with the Avalanche powerplay. The other issue was zone entries. The slingshot became so easy to defend as the play would get disrupted at the blue line more often than not.

Now don't get me wrong, the Avalanche powerplay has been pretty successful over the years, ranking in the top ten each of the past three years. This of course, can be contributed to the wealth of talent they have. But there have been long stretches of time where the powerplay becomes stagnant and cannot score. The struggles with the powerplay during the playoff loss to the Dallas Stars are ultimately what led the team to fire Ray Bennett.

Colorado's poor zone entries on the powerplay might be the most frustrating aspect of the man-advantage, as a team with that much talent shouldn't be that easy to defend. The Avalanche have been very predictable using the slingshot as the breakout with MacKinnon bringing the puck into the zone.

From the clips I saw, the Kraken did not use the slingshot very often, but employed a breakout that utilized two forwards back. The lead forward would be the puck carrier with the second forward just offset to the puck carrier. As they skate into center ice, they cross and the puck carrier then makes a play with the puck. This system is similar to the slingshot, but instead of the same forward bringing the puck in, there is now an option to have a different skater gain entry to the zone.

With that idea in mind, having MacKinnon and Necas come at the blue line together with speed sounds like a nightmare for defenses. This kind of misdirection and creativity might be able to spark some consistency for the Avalanche to gain clean entrances into the zone.

Hakstol's powerplay runs on the 1-3-1 formation with the man in the bumper position, as does much of the league. This formation allows for multiple powerplay sets, which makes it more versatile than formations that put two men at the point. The difference between the recent Avalanche powerplay schemes and Hakstol's is that Hakstol prefers to focus on puck possession down low. Hakstol's system relies more on creating offense off shots from the point, usually in the form of deflections and rebounds. The Avalanche tend to possess the puck at the half-boards and get shots from those players or the point.

If Hakstol can implement a system that can put the big Avalanche forwards in front and get the heavy shooters to put it at the net, the Avalanche powerplay should finish top 10 in the league again. The Avalanche have been plagued by awful puck possession when on the man-advantage and Hakstol's emphasis on puck possession should be a positive for the team.

My final thoughts

Just to be clear from the start, I think this is automatically an improvement just by removing Ray Bennett. I was initially skeptical about the choice of Dave Hakstol, but after doing the research, I think I can see what the front office and Jared Bednar are thinking. The Avalanche have become increasingly irresponisble with the puck over the past few years and correcting that behavior will help the team in all phases of the games. I'm actually excited to see what Dave Hakstol can do with this team. I think some discipline would be good for the players, as the locker room has gone through various issues since the Cup run.