PHILADELPHIA — Once the surprise news hit Philadelphia, Flyers die-hards — heck, NHL fans everywhere — all sounded a bit as if they should have been Jeopardy contestants.

Who is Dave Hakstol?

Not even an easy clue would have given an indication on who was Flyers general manager Ron Hextall’s top target to try and lead the franchise to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1975.

Hextall strayed so far off the grid with his choice, Marge Gunderson couldn’t have cracked the case, especially as the usual candidates — such as Detroit’s Mike Babcock — swirled in the rumor mill as potential replacements.

“I wasn’t going to choose the coach that was the people’s choice, the popular choice,” Hextall said Monday. “I was going to pick the coach that I felt like for this franchise from today, next year, moving forward was the right coach. Dave was the right coach for this franchise.”

The Flyers can only hope the Hextall-Hakstol tag team is a championship combination.

A stranger in NHL rinks, Hakstol did boast one of the top collegiate resumes at the University of North Dakota. The 46-year-old Hakstol went 289-143-43 with a .654 winning percentage over 11 seasons and reached the Frozen Four seven times in that span. In 2014-15, he led North Dakota to a 29-10-3 record with a .726 winning percentage and a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four.

His program had become a pipeline to the NHL with players such as Jonathan Toews (Chicago), Matt Greene (Los Angeles), T.J. Oshie (St. Louis) and Chris VandeVelde (Philadelphia) all developed out of the North Dakota system. Hakstol’s program has produced 20 NHL players and 46 have played professionally at some level.