TEMPE – In July 2011, a group of NCAA Division I programs announced a plan to form a new conference, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which would launch for the 2013-14 season. Dave Hakstol, then the North Dakota coach, was actively involved in the conference’s development.

Fifteen years and a lifetime of hockey later, Hakstol’s world has come full circle as he returns to the conference.

“It’s pretty special, I gotta be honest with you,” Hakstol said Tuesday at Mullett Arena when he was finally introduced as ASU’s new coach, 12 days after he officially took the helm. “I can remember the first couple of meetings where there was only a couple of us with a yellow legal pad jotting things down.”

This time, however, he returns as the coach charged with righting an Arizona State team that has been rocked by tragedy.

After two seasons in the NCHC, Hakstol left college hockey to become coach of the Philadelphia Flyers ahead of the 2015-16 season, becoming the first coach in over 30 years to jump directly from the NCAA to the NHL.

Now, along with returning to the conference he helped launch, Hakstol is tasked with restoring a program that has been rife with controversy following an outdoor workout that left defenseman Matthew Mayich hospitalized after he collapsed from heat stroke at Sun Angel Stadium on Aug. 20.

Hakstol, who left his role as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche to join ASU, said he recognizes the significance of his new position.

“I’m aware of some of the things that these players are possibly dealing with,” said Hakstol, who took over for Greg Powers, the longtime ASU coach who departed the program per a mutual agreement with the university. “Yet, I make no assumptions. We kind of hit things head-on on a daily basis, and the overriding thing that these guys want: they want to be coached. They want to find success, and they’ve done a great job of that in terms of what they’ve brought to the rink mentally and physically.”

Hakstol spent 11 seasons as North Dakota’s coach before moving to the professional level. He reflected on the start of the NCHC during his introductory press conference at Arizona State.

College hockey faced a unique landscape at the time, including the introduction of Big Ten hockey after the addition of the program at Penn State and the eventual dissolution of the men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Hakstol said coaches had to start planning ahead as they considered the league’s future.

“There were stresses coming to our current league (at the time) with the advent of Big Ten, and Big Ten hockey,” Hakstol said. “As we wrote things down and, you know, tried to formulate a plan, it became kind of a daunting task.”

Since its inception, the NCHC has established itself as the nation’s best conference, with eight national titles in the past 10 seasons. Even while Hakstol’s journey took him to the pros, from Philadelphia to Toronto, Seattle and then Colorado, he continued to follow the conference he helped build. 

“The amount of success that the NCHC has had on a national level is amazing,” Hakstol said. “The level of college hockey is amazing, and I used to think it was amazing, even the year that I left.”

He joins an ASU program that has been working to establish itself in its third season in the conference after previously competing independently. 

After an emotional start to the season with Mayich still on life support in a Valley hospital and the program in the midst of an investigation surrounding his collapse, the 4-2 Sun Devils are taking a turn and entering a new phase under Hakstol’s leadership, able to draw on both his college and professional coaching experience.

ASU Athletics Director Graham Rossini introduced Hakstol by listing some of his major accolades.

“Eleven seasons at North Dakota, 11 NCAA tournament appearances, seven Frozen Fours, a remarkable record of sustained success at one of college hockey’s most respected programs,” Rossini said. “Head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken, first-ever head coach, along with time with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche, Dave brings 11 seasons of NHL experience and a deep understanding of player development preparation and the standards required to compete at the highest levels of the sport.”

Internationally, Hakstol was part of the coaching staff for Team Canada, which won silver medals in the 2017 and 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships.

Before joining ASU, Hakstol was named a finalist for Division I coach of the year multiple times. His other honors include USHL Coach of the Year for 1997-98, WCHA Coach of the Year for 2008-09, NCHC Herb Brooks Coach of the Year for 2014-15 and a 2023 finalist nomination for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach.

Despite already having an array of professional experience, Hakstol said he believes ASU’s current program has potential for future growth, making it one of the major draws in his decision to join the program.

“When I look at the foundation that has already been laid here within the program and the hard work of everybody previously involved with this program, including the alums, and then I look as we look to the foundation of the future, I just think there’s so much here,” Hakstol said. “There’s a ton of challenges here, but way more opportunity to continue to grow and build this program.”

One of those challenges is to better develop players for the next level of hockey, including the NHL.

“I believe that’s one of the next steps for for our program, and we’ll work hard to make sure that this is a great place for players to choose – to come and not only grow and develop and have an opportunity to play in the National Hockey League, but we want them to be able to be successful and win while they do that with a great group of people in the dressing room,” Hakstol said.

With ASU’s first conference games of the season set for Friday and Saturday against St. Cloud State at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in Minnesota, Hakstol is taking a fresh step back into the conference he helped build.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.