The Greg Powers era at Arizona State University is over. Longtime college hockey head coach and former NHL mentor Dave Hakstol is the Sun Devils’ new bench boss.
Hakstol takes over after a tumultuous autumn for ASU, which ended with Powers and the university coming to a mutual decision for him to step down after 11 years at the helm of his alma mater with a 165-183-25 overall record. Despite the fact that the head coaching position at ASU is endowed in his name, Powers’ fate was sealed in the aftermath of Sun Devil player Matthew Mayich’s collapse on Aug. 20.
Mayich, 21, a Toronto native and a 2023 St. Louis Blues draft choice who played last year at Clarkson University, allegedly collapsed from heat stroke following an outdoor workout in Tempe, Ariz., that was led by a former Green Beret, Tim Ziesel, with members of the ASU coaching staff apparently present at the time. The defenseman was subsequently placed in a coma that he remains in to this day, with his attorney, Rob Carey, having previously stated there will likely be no meaningful recovery. Investigations remain ongoing.
According to azcentral, Powers did not resign and was not fired, but he and ASU came to “a mutual agreement to part ways.”
Powers declined to answer questions regarding the Mayich incident or the training session at the National Collegiate Hockey Conference media day in September. Prior to ASU’s season opener at NCAA Division I independent Lindenwood on Oct. 1-2, several ASU players sent a letter to university president Michael Crow, requesting that the Sun Devils’ coaching staff be put on administrative leave. Powers was subsequently put on paid leave and did not coach that weekend, as former Alabama-Huntsville head coach Mike Corbett guided ASU to a split of the two games. Corbett was behind the bench again last weekend as the Sun Devils split their home-opening series with visiting Holy Cross at Mullett Arena.
Greg Powers had been at the Sun Devils’ helm for over a decade
Powers, 49, an Indianapolis native, accomplished some notable things in his tenure. A former goaltender with the Sun Devils club hockey squad, he later coached that same team to an ACHA national club title in 2014 after taking over in 2011-12. He was already recruiting players from the USHL to play at the club level in Tempe before the Sun Devils were elevated to the NCAA Division I level in 2015-16 thanks to a generous private benefactor.
Powers led the Sun Devils to back-to-back NCAA tournament berths as an independent in 2019 and 2020, although the latter appearance was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both of those years he was a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award that goes to the NCAA Division I hockey coach of the year. Several of his former players have gone on to the NHL, led by goaltender Joey Daccord.
Two years ago, ASU joined the NCHC, the top league in college hockey that has produced three consecutive national champions, four of the last five, and eight in all since its formation in 2013-14. Powers’ final game as Sun Devils head coach was a 4-1 loss at eventual NCAA champion Denver on Feb. 28.
Who is Dave Hakstol?
In Hakstol, 58, the Sun Devils are getting one of the top coaches in NCAA hockey history who has done everything but win a national championship. At North Dakota from 2004 to 2015, Hakstol fashioned an overall record of 289-143-43 with his alma mater. UND made the NCAA tournament in each of his years at the controls, including seven NCAA Frozen Fours, while also winning four WCHA postseason tournaments, two WCHA regular-season titles, and one NCAA regular-season crown.
The Warburg, Alta native left UND in 2015 to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, where he lasted three-and-a-half seasons with one Stanley Cup Playoff appearance. He then served as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs for two years before taking the reins of the expansion Seattle Kraken in 2021-22, where he spent three years and led the NHL’s newest club to the second round of the playoffs in just its second year of existence. He spent last season and the beginning of this one as an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche, where he focused on the power play.
ASU will play two nonconference games at UMass-Lowell this weekend, with Hakstol expected to be on the Sun Devils’ bench, before opening NCHC play on Halloween weekend at St. Cloud State.
