Maple Leafs hire Dave Hakstol as assistant coach

Dave-Hakstol

Former Philadelphia Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol has been named the first head coach in Seattle Kraken history. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired Dave Hakstol as an assistant head coach, the club announced Saturday.

Hakstol, 50, most recently worked as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

“I’m excited to have the opportunity to join the Maple Leafs coaching staff,” Hakstol said in a team statement. “I look forward to building relationships with the players and getting to work with the entire group.”

The Warburg, Alta., native coached the Flyers to a 134-101-42 regular-season record in 277 from 2015-18, including a pair of post-season appearances in 2016 and 2018.

Hakstol was fired by Philadelphia on Dec. 18, 2018 after the Flyers got off to a 12-15-4 start to the campaign, which included losing 11 of Hakstol’s last 14 games in charge.

Prior to joining the Flyers, Hakstol spent 11 seasons as head coach at the University of North Dakota, leading the school to seven Frozen Four appearances.

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.