Philadelphia Flyers Name North Dakota's Dave Hakstol (Ever Heard Of 'Em) Their New Head Coach

Well fuck me straight to the moon, this man is NOT Mike Babcock. And here we go again, yet another college coach making his way to Broad Street. I don’t even know what to think about this. There were obviously a ton of other options out there and why not at least wait and see where everyone else lands? I don’t know, I’m just an idiot blogger. But I’m down with giving the Hakster the benefit of the doubt here, mainly because we have no other choice. Some quick things to keep in mind about Dave Hakstol.

– There are a ton of young guys in the Flyers prospect pool that need development. Obviously that’s going to be something that a former college coach is comofrtable with. So if anything, at least this hiring can be beneficial for the kids coming up on the blue line.

– Hextall’s son, Brett, played for Hakstol while he was at UND. So obviously Hextall knows what he is getting himself into with Hakstol. This is a huge risk that Hexy is willing to take so I guess I’ll just go ahead and take his word for it.

– If you say Hakstol out loud, it sounds a lot like Hextall. I don’t know how much that factored into this hiring, but I’m going to assume it was a lot.

– He’s never played for the Flyers and/or has coached for the Flyers before so at least we’re getting some new blood in the locker room.

– Within the time it’s taken me to write this blog, I think I’ve done a complete 180 on the guy. So now I like him. I’m all on board with Dave Hakstol right now. He’s going to be one of the greats. Mike Babcock 2.0 is here and we’re in on the ground floor of the whole thing. And hopefully the first time Giroux meets him, he’s wearing the same outfit he wore to celebrate Team Canada’s gold medal at the World Championships yesterday.

Speaking of North Dakota, here’s a list of new nickname proposals for UND that have been rejected so far including the Big Dick North Dakotans and the Anal Seepers