May 18, 2015
On Monday, shortly after the Flyers announced the hiring of North Dakota's Dave Hakstol, the team held a news conference to introduce their new coach.
Here's a full transcript:
Ron Hextall: On behalf of Mr. Snider, Paul Holmgren and the entire organization, we’re extremely proud and excited to name Dave Hakstol head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Dave Hakstol: Thank you Ron. Really I just wanted to start with some thank-yous. Obviously starting with Mr. Snider, Paul Holmgren, and to Ron, to have the opportunity to join the Philadelphia Flyers organization is an extremely proud moment for me. A couple of others… I want to mention my family. Without them I wouldn’t be sitting here and wouldn’t have a chance for success in this business. So my family, both back in Alberta as well as in North Dakota… a special mention for my wife Erinn and our two kids, Avery and Brendan, who are still back at home. Obviously it’s a special moment for our family. I really want to mention the University of North Dakota as well. So many great people back in Grand Forks, North Dakota that have had a huge influence, not just on my professional life but overall on my life over the past 15-20 years. I want to say thanks to an awful lot of people there. Too many to mention by name, but thank you to all of those people. And I am extremely proud to be sitting here today. Thanks.
On the process of how Hakstol was hired
Ron Hextall: Well, I had some familiarity with Dave. My son obviously played for him at North Dakota. So in watching my son over the years I grew an appreciation for Dave, the way he coached. I thought about him long before this as a head coach in the National Hockey League. I believe he was destined for it. He’s got a lot of pro qualities. He’s got a lot of experience as a head coach. So I started going through the process here, the guy that I needed to get to know the most was Dave. We met for parts of four days, we were on the phone a lot, and everything checked out the way that we hoped it would check out. I had a list of things that I wanted from a head coach, and went down the checklist in my mind and every box was checked except for the NHL experience. Quite frankly, for me, that was one that was least important. No different than a rookie player. Does Dave have things to learn? Absolutely. He’ll be the first to admit. He’s got a lot of time here to kind of get to know the league, get to know our team, familiarize himself with the area, look into forming a staff… we’ve both got a lot of work to do, but he’s got a tireless work ethic and I think the biggest thing is his knowledge of the game is extremely high-level. So I feel very comfortable with where we’re at. I won’t say it was early in the process because like I said, I had to get to know him I guess intimately, and as we went through the process it just kept coming to me that this is our guy.
On whether the hire is connected to the team’s young talent coming along faster
Ron Hextall: No, it certainly doesn’t mean any young player will get here sooner or later. It was one of the attractive things, that Dave has coached an age group from really 18 to 24, 25. That was one of the things you think about, yes. We have a lot of young players on our team, but we also have a number coming, so that was a factor for sure – how has Dave developed young players, how has he integrated young players into his lineup, how you bring players together. I think one of the strongest points that he has is his ability to push people. He pushes players, he gets the most out of his players. Again, you’re going through your long list of things and it’s one of the things you think about. He’s a very well-rounded coach. He was at North Dakota for 11 years as a head coach… that’s a lot of experience. Again, I’m very comfortable with where we’re at today.
On what track record tells him it’s going to be OK to have a college coach with no pro experience
Ron Hextall: In the end, when you’re making decisions like this, you take all the information, you process it – and it was a process – and you weed through it, and you make a decision with your gut. This is a gut decision and I feel extremely comfortable with it. As we worked through the process, he became our #1 guy. Towards the end that he was the target all alone.
Dave, there’s a difference between a college and pro player. What do you think your adjustment has to be?
Dave Hakstol: Well, there’s going to be several adjustments along the way, but I think number one, I believe in what we do and I believe in the things that I do, and I’m not going to change that. Do I need to alter the delivery of the message – maybe a little bit. The fact that I do not have experience at this level – I’m not going to pretend that I do. But I do have an awful lot of confidence in terms of knowing the game well, knowing how to relate and communicate with players, and that’s one of the first things as I get started here – and probably one of the most important things as we move through the summer – is communicating with and getting to know a lot of our players. That’s going to start to build the foundation for the plan that we have moving forward.
Why do you think not many coaches have jumped from college to the NHL?
Ron Hextall: Well, it’s a big jump. I think that’s fair to say. Trust me, I looked at the track record. Dave and I have talked about it. It’s a big jump. Obviously you’re taking athletes that aren’t paid, athletes that are paid. We’ve talked long and hard about that too. I don’t know the reasons necessarily. I delved into a lot of the people that were and weren’t successful. Dave, on his own, has pro attributes. To me, I looked at the success rate, or lack thereof. That came into my thought process early in the evaluation process here. I had a lot of questions for Dave in terms of [things like] the schedule – 82 games vs. low 40s. There’s an adjustment there. We talked about a lot of things, and I was very comfortable with his answers. He’s very direct, and he knows what he believes in. Like I said, in the end it comes down to a gut feel. Can Dave handle NHL players, the schedule, the differences in collegiate level vs. this level, and every time I asked myself the question, the answer was yes.
You’ve got a lot at stake on this gut feel.
Ron Hextall: Well, you’ve got to understand, that gut feel comes from all the information that you went over. We spent parts of four days together, we spent a lot of time on the phone, there were a lot of questions – a lot of the questions you guys are asking, we’ve kind of been through it all. In the end, do you believe in the guy or do you not? Every head coach in the NHL at some point is a rookie. Right? That’s reality. Some of them go through the American league, some of them don’t. Some of them are NHL assistant coaches. Quite frankly, if someone said to me you can bring in an NHL assistant coach or you can bring in a guy that’s been in college for 11 years as a head coach, I’ll take the head coaching experience. That’s the valuable part. If Dave had never been a head coach, different conversation. Being a head coach, being the guy in charge, making the tough decisions, putting your lines together, the gut feels you have on putting the right players out at the right time… he’s got all that experience. Yes, it’s at a different level, but he’s got that experience.
On working with NHL players
Ron Hextall: I think they’ll figure out in a hurry here who’s in charge. Dave’s a very take-charge guy. I can assure you of this. He’s got an immense amount of respect around the hockey world. I’ve actually found that out in the last two hours, how many people respect him, believe that he’ll do a great job for us. He played pro hockey, so he understands pro hockey. Like I said, some of the intangibles that he has are outstanding. His hockey mind is outstanding.
Dave, what was your initial reaction?
Dave Hakstol: Well, in our initial conversation, I had great interest in getting to know Ron more and getting to know more about the pathway. I think as we spent more and more time together, whether in person or on the telephone, I think we found a lot of similarities in mentalities, in philosophies on the game and on other things. As we went further and further getting to know each other, it not only made a lot of sense, it became an exciting opportunity – one that I think we both worked our way through with a lot of detail and led to this outcome.
Ed – how do you view this hire?
Ed Snider: I don’t really know that this is a break. Yes, college is somewhat of a break. Mike Keenan coached in college as well as in the minors, and was an outstanding coach for us. Fred Shero never played or coached in the NHL, and he was a great coach for us. We have a lot of history with people that come and coach for us that have never coached in the National Hockey League. I think that Ron is very thorough. I’m a big supporter of everything he’s doing. I’m very, very excited about our future. Ron said he spent parts of four days, I think he spent even more time than that with Dave. No one could have been more thorough in their investigation of what we thought of Dave. Then I was introduced to him. He’s a solid guy and I think we’re really lucky to have him.
Dave, have you thought about the intangibles that this job will require as far as the city, the fan base and the media?
Dave Hakstol: That was one of the big attractions as we talked further and further. Ultimately the history and tradition of this organization is something that’s very special. With that comes a lot of expectations, I think we all know that. That’s one of the real exciting things about this opportunity.
What is your coaching style?
Dave Hakstol: I don’t know if I can sum it up in one word. I can tell you the way I approach my business on a daily basis is in a very direct manner. I think expectations are quite simple of myself, of my staff and our players. Maybe to sum up in one word, accountability to one another, to our organization. In terms of style of play, the game is so fast. When you see games today, it’s played at such a high speed. You’ve got to be as good a team without the puck, you’ve got to work and play fast without the puck and with good structure. It’s about transition. But you’ve got to have the puck, you’ve got to get the puck in order to be able to transition up ice. You’re going to see with me an expectation that our defensemen are involved in an awful lot of our play in terms of our play with the puck. I think it’s essential both getting up the ice as well as in the zone.
How do you think the current roster fits with that style?
Dave Hakstol: I don’t think I’m ready to comment too much on what I’ve seen from last year. That’s something I have to get into now as we move into the summer and something that I will spend an awful lot of time on, both myself as well as along with our staff, evaluating exactly what our group is and from there forming the plan as we move forward.
How are you different as a coach now from when you took the UND job?
Dave Hakstol: I don’t know any coach that’s in the business that’s not excited to get better every day. We’re in it to have our teams improve, to help our players improve, and no different for ourselves. I’m a much different coach. Certainly experience plays a large factor in that. As you go through the different things not only in the game but in life, you change your perspective and your outlook on everything. I would say I’m obviously much more settled than the guy who took the job at North Dakota 11 years ago.
On balancing the expectation of winning with building a team
Dave Hakstol: Number one, winning is a mindset. Our job as a staff is to win with the group of players that we have. Obviously you talk about development, and that’s one of the things that as we have gone into each and every year, we’ve gone into each year with a mindset of getting better every day. You have to do that at the college level. You start with a new group of players, a lot of times you have new players learning new systems, and some players grasp things immediately and very quickly, others take time. Development is always part of the process. But at the end of the day, winning is the goal.
On his confidence that his coaching style will transfer over to pros from college
Dave Hakstol: Well, that’s a fair question, and it’s something that I’m very confident in. It’s going to take an awful lot of communication. I have to get to know our players, and I want them to get to know me. I want to have some clear expectations of the way we’re going to play the game. Obviously we want players that are buying into the philosophy of winning and what that takes. Really when you break that down, it comes down to doing all the little things day after day. Taking care of the details, being disciplined enough to do them day in and day out, and knowing and understanding why you’re doing them is going to be very important. That’s something that I’m confident that I can convey to our group.
Have you talked to any of your former players now in the NHL about what it would take to be a pro coach?
Dave Hakstol: No, I’ve never talked to them. We’ve talked hockey and we’ve done it in a relaxed setting, but I’ve never really sat down in that type of a setting.
What are the status of the assistant coaches?
Ron Hextall: Dave and I are going to sit down later today and start to gather ideas about what we want, and we’ll form a staff from there. All the assistants now are still part of our staff, and when we move forward here we’ll let everybody know. Dave and I, through our talks, it’s very important to him to have the right people, the right fit on the staff, and I feel the same way. We’re going to again get together on that today and start working our way through it. All those guys will have a chance to stay, but again we’ll see when we get through it.
How many other candidates did you talk to?
Ron Hextall: I don’t really care to go through the process. Like I said, from the start when I started delving into it, talking to Dave, meeting with Dave, it became apparent that he was the guy. Dave’s also the least high-profile guy. A lot of the other guys, you do a lot of your homework, your background checks and all that stuff. We did a lot of homework on a lot of people. But like I said, Dave was a guy I had to get to work on. I knew him to say hi to him and chat with him for a couple minutes, but quite frankly that was pretty much the extent of it.
Did you have a conversation with Mike Babcock?
Ron Hextall: I’m not going to comment on the process. We had our guy and he’s sitting to my immediate right here.
How has college hockey changed in that so many guys are coming out of college to the NHL, which didn’t used to be the case?
Ron Hextall: That’s probably a better question for Dave. I don’t think when you talk to hockey people, there’s no poor route, whether it’s the junior route or the college route. The college route probably gives you a couple more years to grow into your body, to mature, to get stronger. So you see some of the college guys come out, they’re a little more mature physically than the junior guys. I’m not sure I have the other part of that answer. The other thing I’d say in terms of Dave’s lack of experience… I wasn’t going to choose the coach that was the people’s choice, the popular choice. 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, and Dave is the right coach for this franchise at this point.
What was the process like going to Ed Snider?
Ron Hextall: He was great. When we started going down this path I told him kind of the short list that we had compiled. He said to me, get the best coach and the right coach. That was it, nothing else was talked about in terms of details. Get us the right coach, and we got him.
Did you get any input from your amateur scouts?
Ron Hextall: I think the hockey world likes the way North Dakota plays. I remember hearing Dave eight or nine years ago say we play a real fast game, and that’s the way the game has gone. When you think about it in hindsight he was probably ahead of his time there. So I had eyes on him, yes. I talked to Chris Pryor and a number of guys from our scouting staff, and I think everybody feels the same way. They played as pro a game as you can play at North Dakota.
Dave, do you take the lack of experience as an affront to you?
Dave Hakstol: No, absolutely not. I think I said it a little bit earlier, I don’t have experience at this level, so I’m not going to pretend that I do. I do have a great deal of confidence in what we do, in what my philosophies are, and in the fact that they’re going to be successful here. You have to go out and do the work. That’s the bottom line. I can sit and say whatever I want here today. Bottom line is I have to go out and do the work. You roll up your sleeves, you go out and that starts as we walk out of this room today. Preparation, hard work, detail – those are all things that produce results. Those are things that as I said start right now today.
Dave, have you had past NHL interviews or chances to leave before?
Dave Hakstol: I guess I don’t want to get into too many previous things, but yeah, it’s been a goal of mine. I think the most important thing there maybe to recognize is I loved the position that I was in at the University of North Dakota. In order to consider leaving my role there, it’s a tough question to answer, when’s the right time to leave. I can tell you that the opportunity that Ron and the rest of the Flyers organization have presented here is that right opportunity. A lot of it comes down to the time that I spent with Ron and other members of the staff here. A big part of it also is the history and tradition and how much meaning that has in this city. Obviously it’s an excitement about the group of players and some of the guys coming that also plays a large role into it.
Paul, does this hire remind you of any other hire or coach?
Paul Holmgren: No, I think Ron alluded to it earlier, the way North Dakota plays has kind of been on everybody’s… they play a pro style game and they have for a number of years, and that’s a credit to Dave. I think we all see it. It’s a fast game, and it’s getting faster. We’re all excited about today.
Ron, was it important to get fresh blood in here?
Ron Hextall: Not necessarily. We went out looking for the right coach for this organization to move forward, and Dave was the right guy. The experience thing, where a guy’s been – quite honestly, I was looking for the best coach, and that’s who we feel like we got.
Ed, does Ron’s bold move make you more comfortable about the decision you made to hire him?
Ed Snider: Absolutely. Ron thinks outside the box, but he also is a very deep thinker. I have great confidence in this hire and the future under Ron’s guidance.
After the main press conference, Hakstol, Hextall and Snider were available for individual interviews. Some highlights:
How much of it is a disadvantage to it being your first season in the league, will it take long to transition?
I’ve got to go to work and I’m going to make my way through it. I’m going to make sure I can do everything I can in terms of preparation and detail to make sure that time period is as short as possible.
How did you make the decision to come here?
I talked to a couple people that I know that I trust and had some great discussions with them. The process was made easy; we had an opportunity to talk hockey, philosophy, and a lot of other things. It came down to when was the right time to leave North Dakota and the program there. This was the right decision that became very apparent to me.
On the difficulty of the decision
Well, yeah as I said, what it came down to was having a little bit of time to digest the whole process. Sometimes time isn’t a luxury especially at this level. Everybody here was great at giving me that time to work through the process. Like I said, real hard decision to leave the position in North Dakota but this was the right opportunity, but maybe more importantly it was the right people to come and work for.
What do you mean by right people?
For me as I went through the process here, I spent some time in town and for me most of that time was spent with Ron and a few others in the organization. As I said, discussing a lot of different things, hockey, philosophies, when you go to work every day you have to work closely with everyone in the organization and I feel like I can do that here. I think there’s obviously challenges, we have to do a little bit better, but I think everything is in place here to work, to win, to grow, and to develop.
Identity of team characteristics at North Dakota vs. Flyers
If you look at the pace of the game and the way it’s played today, I think you have to have everyone contributing in that role. Everybody’s goal is different, but you have to have everyone contributing within their role to be successful. You have to do those things on a consistent and daily basis as we grow and develop.
What traits are you looking for in the guys you surround yourself with?
I’m going to work through that process over the next couple of weeks. I’m a rookie head coach at this level. I’m looking for good people, good work ethic, good minds, and then putting the pieces of the right staff together to move forward.
Sounds like you haven’t had the opportunity to talk to your players yet.
I haven’t and that’s something that’s one of the hard things of the world we live in today. It just wasn’t something I was able to do before I came out here. Those are special guys to me, so I’ll do that when I get back.
What did Ron sell you as the vision of where he wants to take this team?
He didn’t sell me really on anything. That’s probably the most important thing. We sat and we talked clearly and plainly and very honestly. I think the more discussions that we had the more and more we knew that we could work well together with some of the similar philosophies. His role is his role. I’m here to coach a group of guys. I still think it’s very important to have a similar philosophy with the General Manager.
What do they mean when they say you coached an NHL style of play at the college level?
I guess that’s maybe an easy term. I haven’t tried to describe the way we play I guess in that matter. We play hard. We play fast. We play honest. We value guys that show up and compete. We value guys that are willing to do the job without the puck. On the other end of the game…skill ability and creativity, some of the things you can’t teach…you have to have some of those things along with that ultimate compete level.
Do you believe how you will do in a situation that’s not one and done?
It’s a different dynamic. There’s no question. Right now our main focus is having the opportunity to be able to do that. There’s a lot of work to do from today through the start of the season and throughout the regular season in order to have that opportunity. Obviously that is where we want to be.
What are you looking forward to the most?
Having to deal with people. Obviously there’s different challenges. I think it’s hard to be an NHL player in this day and age also when there’s a lot of stresses and pressures along with just trying to be a good player. There’s a lot of great people that are in the game. There are a lot of great people on our roster here. I’m going to communicate with all of them. I’m going to get to know them. I hope that they get to know me well. We’re going to have a philosophy where everybody is on board so I’m not going to start on the bad sad of the coin. I’m going to start with we have great people and we’re going to go to work together.
How does North Dakota relate to Philly and the Flyers?
Well I think the passion…if you’ve ever been out in North Dakota you’d understand the passion. You know obviously on a smaller scale it’s a lot like Philadelphia. They go into every season with high expectations. They are really, really passionate, so there’s something to connect.
Can we read too much into what this means about your status and how much you are able to do exactly what you want to do?
I’ve been [able to do] from Day 1 what I felt was right for the program. Paul’s a great resource; Mr. Snider is a great resource. Obviously he’s my boss and I’ve talked to Paul a lot but in the end these are my decisions to make. Mr. Snider and Paul both said this right from the start a year ago and it’s truly been that way. They were both impressed with Dave from the first time they met and we all knew that this was our guy.
You’re always going to be judged by your results but do you feel like you are stepping out on a limb. Do you realize or see the limb that you are stepping out on?
With all of the implications I understand everything but I was never a guy when I played to make the careful move or careful play. It was always do what you think is right, do it your best, and that’s what I feel like I have done by hiring Dave. I believe he is going to be a terrific hire for this organization.
Can you win and develop at the same time and how hard is that on a day to day basis and when are you going to make those decisions on what is best overall?
Well I never believed that the National Hockey League is a development league. I believe that the American league is. So we expect our team to go on the ice in October and win hockey games. Obviously you’re going to have young players on your team from year to year but they get better. Their focus at this level is not under developed and it is about making your players better every day so I don’t care if you got a 34 year old maybe you can improve one thing a day. The younger players are naturally going to get better with the things they have to work on and things the coaches will work on. Our game plan at this level is to go out and win as many games as possible and if players need time in the American League they can spend developmental time.
How do you assess bringing in a guy brand new guy to the NHL when you have quality players who have been in the NHL for a while?
Dave has coached some really good players, again obviously they are at a different stage in their life but they have been stars since the time they were 12 years old so he understands egos and things like that. Is there a risk? Of course there’s a risk. There’s a risk with any coach. I feel extremely comfortable with Dave and his ability.
Since it seems like Dave has a commanding voice…is this because this team needs a strong disciplinary focus?
When I look at Dave, yes that’s a strength, he’s very commanding and very demanding. He gets the most out of his players. He doesn’t accept mediocrity; he doesn’t accept an off night. I think the biggest thing is he is not unfair. If you look over the history of pro sports there are coaches that are really hard; maybe a little bit unfair or a little bit too hard on teams. I know Dave has the ability to demand and get the best out of his players but also be fair.
Is that something that the team wanted?
I think it’s one of Dave’s finest qualities.
When did you make up your mind?
I hate to throw this out there…we were closing in on it late last week. We had a few little things to talk about over the weekend. He had to talk to his wife. It’s been a process. I’ve spent more time with Dave lately then I have with my wife the last couple of weeks.
Was there a chance he wasn’t going to leave? He had such a good situation. Were you worried about that?
I thought in the end he would, but that’s a great situation. Anybody that’s ever been there, they are building a top program in the nation. In the end you go to the NHL. He wouldn’t have done it if he felt like it wasn’t the right situation for him. But he’s got a family and home in North Dakota. He’s been there for years. His wife is from Grand Forks. I didn’t necessarily think the first time that I talked to him he would come but in the end there were factors that made it work.
Is there a shorter leash on the players now?
There’s a short leash on the players. You know you need to perform well. If you perform well you are going to get minutes. If you don’t perform well your minutes are probably going to decrease.
Does the owners reputation of always needing to win…does that mind set need to change?
I don’t know where this reputation comes from. Does Mr. Snider want to win every game? Yeah he does. If that’s a knock, I don’t follow it. He has been supportive throughout the weeks. We’ve talked about our future. He wants to win the first game in October. I don’t know where this talk about him comes from…he’s misunderstood. He is an absolutely terrific owner and I [haven’t] met every owner in the league so I don’t know where to put him. He’s been terrific with me. He’s very patient. He loves hockey. He loves the Flyers. He’s been terrific.
Every time you want to bolster a part of the organization…he supports you and backs you up?
We’ve been spending a bunch of money on development. He’s great with where we are at now and where we are going. He’s on board. He’s totally on board. He believes in what I believe in. Everyone talks about it. I don’t know if people don’t think these are my decisions but trust me he’s been nothing but supportive.
Did you get to talk to your son about the decision?
Not as much as I would’ve liked to, I can tell you that much. We’ve talked over the years. I mean my son played for North Dakota.
Are you sure you want to go with a college coach?
From Ron’s point of view it’s a gutsy move but he’s very confident and very thorough. He is the most thorough guy I’ve seen in a long, long time. He really did interview this guy for four days, all day long… pretty amazing stuff. I’m confident that he knows what he’s doing. I met Dave at the end of the process. I’m confident that he’s a very solid young man and I think it’s great for our organization. We need a fresh approach.
Had you ever heard of him?
Yeah I knew about him and North Dakota from the little bit I know about college hockey. I knew that he is very successful. I never realized how long he had been there and that he was an assistant coach before he was the head coach and he played there. He also played in the international hockey league, a low level pro league. It’s not like he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.
Do you agree with people that this is a hard move to sell to the fan base?
I think everybody is an unknown quantity until they get here. Even recycled coaches are unknown qualities because they lost their job somewhere else. Bottom line is he’s a coach, he didn’t lose his job, it took a lot of talking for him to leave there. He had a very, very sweet thing there. You know when you’re a college coach you can be there maybe forever. We all know what it’s like at the pro level so it’s gutsy on his part too.
Why do you think you need a fresh approach?
I think that we have a lot of young players coming. We have a lot of veterans that are still relatively young. I mean look what Giroux and Couturier did and also Voracek. You know we had a lot of guys in the World Championship that played very well and accounted for themselves very well. We aren’t hopeless. We have a damn good nucleus of players and we know that we have to sort out our defense and we think that’s coming very well and I think that’s a fresh approach. Our defense is going to be a totally different kind of defense over the next few years than we ever had. It’s going to be fast, mobile, young. It’s going to be keeping up with what’s going on in the league today with speed and everything else that we needed.
What would you say to the fans that were dying to get Babcock here?
I don’t know if whether it was the fans or the writers. Bottom line is that wasn’t the way Ron wanted to go. He wanted to go with a guy that he had in mind for a long, long time.
There wasn’t a person you had in mind?
Nope. I don’t judge coaches like a GM does. I listen to the GM and what their opinions are. It’s hard for me to judge a coach. It really is. You know, coaches a lot of times are a product of the players that the GM gives them.
You say Ron is one of the most thought out General Managers that you’ve been around in a long time…
He is one of the most thoughtful in depth kind of guys in anyone, not just GMs. This guy really, really is a deep thinker. He doesn’t make snap decisions. This has been going on since Craig was fired. This isn’t new. He didn’t just start talking to this guy. He wasn’t interested in anybody else after a few of his sessions.
Was there a time you didn’t think he would leave North Dakota?
Yeah, there were times like that in the course of this process. He had a wonderful situation in North Dakota so like I say, it’s not only gutsy on Ron’s part it’s gutsy on Dave’s part too. He has to have a lot of confidence in himself to make the move he made because he was set for life at North Dakota.
Is there somebody you think about when you think about Ron reminding you of someone?
Keith Allen. I don’t think he ever made a bad deal. Some of them were sideways but I can’t think of a bad deal the guy ever made. He never got the credit that he should have but he is in the [Hockey Hall of Fame] and he deserves to be.
Would you have predicted that the new hire wouldn’t have NHL experience?
No. But a lot of coaches haven’t had NHL experience. Fred Shero never had NHL experience. We took him out of the minors. Mike Keenan didn’t have NHL experience. We took him out of the minors. They were both extremely successful coaches for us and they were never Flyers despite what I keep reading. I’m hoping in this case we have another Mike Babcock. I’m hoping he will be here for a long, long time. We do know the statistics exist and the shelf life isn’t long and he had a life time job.
