Ranking the Biggest Challenges for Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Dave Hakstol

The Philadelphia Flyers fired head coach Craig Berube after the end of the regular season, and there were many who thought that team owner Ed Snider would bring in a big name like Mike Babcock or Todd McLellan to replace him.

TSN's Darren Dreger reported that they were the two front-runners in mid-April.

On Monday, the team made an announcement that was surprising to those who are not in tune with what is going on in the world of college hockey. Dave Hakstol was named the next coach of the Flyers and will step behind the bench with an impressive amateur resume.

He has run the bench of the University of North Dakota for the past 11 seasons and made the NCAA tournament 11 times, including seven Frozen Four appearances and three conference titles.

In many respects, this is a curious move given the state of the Flyers, but it's one that appears to be worth the risk in the eyes of general manager Ron Hextall.

With that in mind, here are the biggest challenges Hakstol will have to overcome as he transitions to the NHL level.

It may seem odd that coaching young players is a challenge Hakstol may have to overcome because he is making the jump from a place where all his players were young.

But there's a difference, and that difference is money.

As an amateur player— whether it is in high school or college— if you want to be successful and play, you listen to your coach as long as what they are saying doesn't contradict what you have been taught to do on a professional, personal or ethical level.

However, there are situations in which young players become emotional, moody, egotistical and so on, and they tune a coach out.

That is a fixable situation which involves the player's backside becoming affixed to the bench. In that situation, there is very little the player can do because they are at the mercy of the coach. In the NHL, young players have guaranteed contracts, agents, endorsement deals and thousands or millions of reasons to tune out their coach.

Hakstol showed at the University of North Dakota that he can have success, but if he isn't getting the result he wants from some youngsters on the Flyers, he will have to find a new way to "convince" them to do exactly what he wants.

"[Hakstol] doesn’t accept mediocrity. He doesn’t expect an off night. The thing is he’s fair. He’s not unfair," Hextall told CSNPhilly.com's Tom Dougherty.

That is a solid assessment of the Flyers' new coach, and it certainly sounds like he will try to handle things like former Flyers coach Peter Laviolette did.

I am not saying that anyone will give him a problem, but even an experienced AHL coach like Dallas Eakins had trouble getting through to some young players on the Edmonton Oilers.

Hakstol was behind the bench for 473 games during his tenure with the University of North Dakota. He spent 11 seasons in the NCAA, so on average he coached 43 games a season.

The NHL's regular season is 82 games long, and a team can play in a maximum of 28 playoff games.

That is a potential difference of 67 extra games in his first season, which can be daunting for a coach making the jump from the NCAA to the NHL. Hakstol even talked about it at his introductory press conference on Monday, and it is something that will be talked about for a bit until he gets into the swing of things.

When your schedule is limited like it is in the NCAA, top players often log big minutes each and every night.

While NHL teams want to go all out and win every game, coaches deploy their players differently to ensure that they are effective for the entire season.

Hakstol is going to rely on his top players just like any other NHL coach would, but he needs to be cognizant that he is guiding a team through a full season that includes multiple games in a week—not one that schedules primarily weekend games.

Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, but the community is very tough on the Flyers—especially if you are a coach or goaltender. Hakstol is an outsider and won't have the luxury of relying on the glory days of his past in the event that he struggles.

It is fair to say that Craig Berube was generally liked, and he was fired nonetheless for not taking a less than optimal team to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

There is an old adage that suggests Rome wasn't build in a day, and that certainly applies to the Flyers with Hakstol stepping behind the bench. The adage continues to say that when Rome started to burn, it only took hours to destroy. That is something to keep in mind if the fans get anxious and impatient.

The Flyers have a number of talented players such as Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds, but there is no guarantee that the team will be a top competitor in what is a very tough Metropolitan Division.

If Philadelphia gets off to a bad start, I am not expecting the city to take too kindly to the new bench boss. If Philly plays well, the city will love and embrace him.

Hopefully, it will be gentle with its new coach because he can really help the team in due time.

This was touched upon briefly in the schedule aspect, but it deserves further elaboration.

NCAA hockey generally follows a set schedule that will have teams play a game on Friday and Saturday, and during breaks they often participate in mini-tournaments.

Playing only two games a week allows a coaching staff to set a game plan to key in on an opponent, and that is a luxury Hakstol won't have at the NHL level. He is going to have to come up with a game plan that can be used against multiple teams because there isn't enough time in a season to draw up strategies that will stop every club and its top star.

Speaking of stars, being able to coach against elite players is another challenge Hakstol will have to overcome.

In the NCAA, there are a handful of Jack Eichels, Johnny Gaudreaus and Chris Drurys. It is very easy, at least in theory, to develop a game plan to limit their effectiveness.

The NHL is the greatest hockey league in the world, and there are too many stars and above-average players to keep track of—let alone develop game plans for. Hakstol may struggle early on, but he is a smart enough coach to adjust as the season progresses.