Ron Francis and Dave Hakstol didn’t know they were participating in a four-week audition.
They bonded at the 2019 IIHF world championships in Austria and Slovakia, where Francis was part of Team Canada’s management brain-trust and Hakstol was a member of the men’s team coaching staff.
“I got to know him as a person and watch his work ethic, building that respect for what he can do,” Hakstol said.
Francis was named the first general manager for the expansion Seattle Kraken later that year. After his first NHL head coaching gig with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2015-18 — making the leap from coaching the University of North Dakota — Hakstol was hired as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs before the 2019-20 season, working under Mike Babcock and then Sheldon Keefe.
Francis kept him in mind as he cast his net for the first Kraken coach. On June 24, it was announced that Hakstol got the job — a surprise to some, given that his name wasn’t among the ones rumored to be in the running.
But Francis wasn’t surprised in the least that Hakstol ended up being his guy.
“As we went through the process, he was certainly a guy that I had interest in talking to. He’s got the experience. It was maybe a big jump from college the first time, but now he’s been in the league for six years, he’s worked under some different coaches and has a bit more experience, so we’re comfortable in that regard. We were always comfortable with his hockey acumen,” he said.
ESPN spoke with Hakstol recently about getting this coveted job, the upcoming expansion draft, learning from failures, and whether the Vegas Golden Knights have set the bar uncomfortably high for Seattle.
ESPN: Let’s start at the very beginning: What was your reaction when you heard Seattle’s nickname and saw its colors for the first time?
Hakstol: [Laughs] I didn’t know what it was at the time. I had learn what it was.
ESPN: You mean what a Kraken was?
Hakstol: Yeah. But something I’ve learned over time is to be open to new things, right? Once I started seeing the merchandise and learning what it was and seeing how attached the fans were to the name, it’s really cool. Seattle’s going to be a great spot for the NHL. You’re going to see a lot of the merchandise, not only in Seattle but around the NHL.
ESPN: How did this stay so quiet? Were you watching all the speculation about possible coaches and thinking “wow, I’ve really kept this under wraps?”
Hakstol: Around 7:45 a.m. PT, the day of the announcement, it started to get out a little bit. I don’t think we really tried to keep anything quiet. We just dealt directly with one another. There was no special effort to keep things quiet. I obviously paid attention to everything that was going on. Speculation is part of the business, and there were a lot of really good people that were a part of the process. It’s a pretty special opportunity there.
ESPN: You’ve obviously interviewed with an NHL team before. Was there anything unique about this process in talking with Seattle? Like, for example, if you talk with the Flyers, you know you’re coaching Claude Giroux. So you might get asked about coaching Claude Giroux. But here, there isn’t a single player yet.
Hakstol: Yeah, that’s unique, when there’s no players that are obviously in place. But the most important part of the [hiring] process, in knowing that it’s the right spot, is the people that you’re working with. I had a chance to get to know Ron a few summers ago and then through the interview process. That’s still the most important thing. Players aren’t in place, but philosophically, we can be on the same path and really work well together.
As we were over at the world championships, I understood what [Francis] was seeing on the ice. He places a ton of value on players that can think the game. Intelligent players. The pace of the game is a really big aspect. But most importantly, the competitiveness.
ESPN: So in other words, Ron Francis likes guys that who play like Ron Francis.
Hakstol: Yeah, I think that’s probably an accurate statement.
ESPN: Francis spoke a lot about second chances at your press conference. You’ve said in the past about failure that “if you evaluate it, deal with it, learn from it, a lot of good can come out of it.” I don’t want to qualify the Philly experience as a “failure,” but what did you learn about yourself in evaluating it?
Hakstol: The bottom line was there were successes and there were failures, and as you add it up, we didn’t get to the finish line. I didn’t get to the finish line of what I had hoped to accomplish. That’s the bottom line. But I learned more about the everyday business of coaching and building an NHL team, from start to finish every year. That’s the biggest part of the experience that I take away.
Now, I have some experiences doing this once on my own. And I worked with a couple of really good coaches in Toronto to see their way of doing things. That’s all made me a better coach than I was six years ago.
ESPN: You were an outstanding college coach. I have to imagine dealing with college-aged players is a lot different than dealing with NHL players. What have you learned about managing pros?
Hakstol: How important every interpersonal relationship is. You have to grow those relationships. It doesn’t matter if that player is playing seven or eight minutes or he’s playing 20 minutes a night. You really need to do a great job in relationship building with each and every player, and communicating with each and every player, because there’s going to be ups and downs. There’s going to be some good and some bad.
ESPN: Obviously, part of that communication process is having players in the dressing room who can help sell your message, who can be your guys in the room. Are you looking to maybe bring in some guys that you already have a relationship with or that you’re familiar with that could be maybe eyes and ears in the room?
Hakstol: The process for [the expansion draft] … Ron and his staff have been preparing for that, and they’re going to approach that draft with all the knowledge that they built. I’ve been asked my thoughts about guys along the way, and if I have clear opinions on them, I’ll offer those opinions. If the right player is available, and that previous relationship exists, I think that’s a head start. It’s a benefit, but not a main focus. Everything after [the expansion draft on] July 21 is about building relationships with all the new players.
ESPN: It sounds like Francis and the front office are selecting this roster. That maybe you can give your input, but you’re not sitting there with a back-of-the-napkin expansion list, and saying “hey, get me this guy.”
Hakstol: Yeah, that’s accurate.
ESPN: Is that a bit of a bummer?
Hakstol: Everybody has their roles and everybody has their things they have to execute. I actually look at the opposite way. I do have a part. I do have a seat at the table, to know and understand how we’re building. I do get an opportunity to give my opinions where they fit. It’s a great way to start.
ESPN: The front office is very analytics-driven. I know that was the case in Toronto, too. You seem like someone who is open-minded about them but likes to keep a foot firmly planted in the “this is still a human game” realm. Which side wins out in the end?
Hakstol: Coming up of the college game, we used very little analytics. We used some basic analytics data, but certainly not in the modern sense. But I learned a lot about it through my time in Philadelphia and as an assistant in Toronto. And I think it’s a great tool. It really is.
There’s an awful lot of good information that can help us as coaches. We’re gonna use and take that information. We have a lot of very smart people in the analytics department. I want to take full advantage of the information they can provide us, so that we can connect that with the human side of the game.
ESPN: Are you ever worried that going with your gut too much, with a numbers-driven front office, could create a conflict?
Hakstol: No. I gotta be who I am, and I’ll do that. I think the real key there is that you work hard and gain all the information. Because all that goes into gut feeling, right? The preparation, the mindset that you have. Those all help.
ESPN: You worked with newly hired assistant coach Paul McFarland in Toronto, but adding Boston’s AHL coach Jay Leach was a surprise for a lot of us. How did he come to join your staff?
Hakstol: I was just fortunate that after an initial phone call he had interest. It’s not a long-standing relationship. We didn’t know each other before the interview process. I’ve just been really impressed with what he’s done. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a player that didn’t love playing for him, and had gotten a lot better. He’s got a unique ability in that sense. I was thrilled to have him join us in Seattle.
ESPN: Have you spoken to anybody that was involved with the Vegas Golden Knights when they started, to get some advice?
Hakstol: I know [Gerard Gallant] well and we’ve stayed in touch. We saw each other two world championships ago … you know, maybe I’ve been in too many world championships? That’s not a good sign, right? [Laughs]. But in 2017, we were in Paris and Cologne together, and that’s when I got to know Turk well, and he had accepted the job in Vegas. I kind of got an early look at things through him as he was going in, and then had the benefit of seeing the great job that he did there.
ESPN: Was it weird having him in the mix for this job?
Hakstol: I wouldn’t say it was weird. He’s a great man, great coach. The world is too small to be affected by that. Anything good that happens to him, I wouldn’t be anything but happy.
ESPN: There was a time in recent NHL history when the expectations for an expansion team were quite low. Then came the Golden Knights and their run to the Stanley Cup Final in Year 1. Did they ruin the process for the Kraken? For example, you guy have better odds to win the Stanley Cup than Detroit and Buffalo.
Hakstol: [Laughs] I think it changes the comparisons, without a doubt, but I don’t think it changes the standards from within. We have our own standards. We’ve gotta live to them every day. Will the comparisons be there? Absolutely, 100%. We’re all really well aware of that and prepared for them.
ESPN: Finally, a lot of us hadn’t seen you in a while. We didn’t realize you had a goatee now. Did you grow it as a point of demarcation in your career? To be a “new” Dave Hakstol in Seattle?
Hakstol: [Laughs] No, I had to go into quarantine when I got to Toronto in late November, and I didn’t shave for two weeks. Bam, there it was. My wife and my family weren’t up there with me, so the goatee stayed. I started out with a full beard, and that was awful. So I shaved it and it stayed with me. At least for now.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.
Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”
He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”
While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.
Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.
Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.
“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”
Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.
“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.
“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”
As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.
“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.
It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.
“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”
In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.
“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”
The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.
“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”
Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.
“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”
Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.
The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.