Arizona St. in talks with Dave Hakstol to coach hockey team - ESPN

Arizona State is in talks with current Colorado Avalanche assistant Dave Hakstol to become the next head coach of its men's hockey program.

The Avalanche have granted permission to Hakstol to speak with ASU about joining its staff. Discussions are ongoing, and ASU is expected to make a decision on its next hire at some point this week.

«We've granted him permission to talk [to ASU],» Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Monday. «That's kind of all I know right now. [GM] Joe [Sakic] thinks it's important, and we think it's important that we do that. Let him feel it out, and we'll go from there.»

ASU placed former coach Greg Powers on administrative leave late last month. The decision came after defenseman Matthew Mayich, 21, collapsed from severe heat stroke during an early-morning outdoor workout on Aug. 20 — the first day NCAA activities were allowed ahead of the new season — at Sun Angel Stadium on ASU's Tempe Campus.

Mayich has been in the hospital since the workout and is unlikely to recover, according to his family's attorney, Rob Carey, who said Mayich suffered an exertional heat stroke that reduced the flow of oxygen to his brain.

ASU's own internal look at the case revealed the hockey program didn't «submit a plan of training activities for review by ASU's strength and conditioning coaches» before the workout and that the students were exercising in nearly 90-degree temperatures. Still, Powers was not removed from his position until after an anonymous letter from seven players on the team was sent to university president Michael M. Crow on September 29.

In it, the players refuted some of the school's findings in its investigation, claiming Mayich was among many who received «no water» during the session