In the words of Wild general manager Bill Guerin: “Something had to change.”

That something came in the form of coaching changes. The Wild fired head coach Dean Evason on Monday before later announcing former Nashville and former New Jersey coach John Hynes as the team’s seventh head coach in franchise history. He’s spent eight seasons as an NHL head coach with a career 284-255-63 record.

Wild assistant coach Bob Woods, who coached the team’s penalty kill, was also relieved of his coaching duties on Monday. The team announced Tuesday that Patrick Dwyer will be a Wild assistant coach and focus on defense and the PK. Dwyer has been an assistant coach with the Iowa Wild since July 5.

Though the list of problems for the Wild is much longer than simply stopping with the man behind the bench, it was Evason who took the fall for the team’s 5-10-4 start to the season.

“’We can’t trade 23 players,’ is the old saying,” Guerin said Tuesday, during a news conference introducing Hynes. “But I just had that feeling that it wasn’t going to come back.”

Guerin cited confidence, swagger, ability to make plays and the overall feeling that players will accomplish something when they step on the ice as pieces that are missing from the team. He didn’t feel like that list of things was headed in the right direction; it actually got worse.

Rookie defenseman Brock Faber said it’s the players who have underperformed and lost hockey games, but they need to look internally, play for the guy next to them and do what they can to win.

“We have a good hockey team in here,” Faber said. “We have a playoff hockey team in here when we’re playing the right way. I think this is a wake-up call for a lot of us.”

Dean Evason spent parts of five seasons as the Wild’s head coach. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Players react to in-season change
This is the second time Guerin has made a mid-season coaching change. On Valentine’s Day in 2020, he fired Bruce Boudreau with the Wild three points out of a playoff spot at the time. Evason went from assistant coach to interim head coach that day.

“The one thing I really do like about Dean is his passion, his fire for the game,” Guerin said when he hired Evason as head coach. “I am hoping that that translates to the players. I think these guys really like Dean a lot.”  

A few seasons later, this was a move that seemed to be written on the wall, with the ink becoming more permanent as the losses mounted. It didn’t seem to be a matter of if but a question of when Evason would take the fall for an extremely underperforming Wild team.

Evason was first hired by the Wild as an assistant coach in June 2018 under then-general manager Paul Fenton. Previously, Evason was the head coach for the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL for six seasons.
Wild players Tuesday mentioned the respect they have for both Evason and Woods. Marcus Foligno used the word “shocked” regarding Evason’s firing while also recognizing the frustrating start to the season turned into a bad snowball effect.

“Losses pile up, this is what happens,” Foligno said. “Unfortunately, there are coaches that have to take that fall on the knife for players like us. It’s not fair, but at the same time, it’s a wake-up call – and we’ve had enough of these this year to understand what’s needed and we need to get out of it.”

Players had a brief meeting with Hynes before Tuesday’s morning skate ahead of the evening’s home game against the St. Louis Blues. Hynes has some familiarity with a few players. He knows goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the Pittsburgh days, and coached Jon Merrill in New Jersey and the national development program. He also coached Patrick Maroon and Marcus Johansson in New Jersey.

“I think you have to come in and, first and foremost, get to know the players,” Hynes said. “It’s on the fly, but I believe that when you come into this situation, everybody’s hurting.

“I think it’s important to really come in and connect with those guys, connect with the coaches, get feedback – particularly from the players on some of those things that they’re seeing and feeling.”

With a new voice leading them, perhaps the team will get back to finding its identity.

“I think we’ve had spurts of it,” said captain Jared Spurgeon. “But we haven’t put it together in full games. There’s a period of half periods where I think we’re getting back to it, and then we get away from it and start chasing games. I think that comes with consistency and obviously holding each other accountable.”

John Hynes speaks with the media at his introductory news conference as the Wild head coach. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

Hynes, Guerin go way back
Players should expect consistency behind the bench for a while, too. Guerin said Tuesday that he and Hynes settled on contract terms, though he wouldn’t give any specifics to the deal except to say: “This is not a one-year thing.”

Guerin and Hynes have a long relationship, going back to Guerin’s days working in player development and his time as an assistant general manager in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Guerin made it clear he believes in Hynes with the detailed and passionate way he has coaching hockey.

Hynes was the Predators head coach starting on Jan. 7, 2020, just a few weeks before Evason took over the Wild. Hynes coached the Devils from 2015-19. He was previously a head coach in the AHL for five seasons, leading the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins to a 231-126-27 record and five consecutive appearances in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

A Boston University player with four Frozen Four trips and a 1995 NCAA championship, Hynes made two stops as an assistant coach with Mass-Lowell (2000-01) and the University of Wisconsin (2002-03) along with his nine seasons behind the bench for USA hockey’s National Team Development Program as an assistant coach from 1998-2000 and 2001-02, and head coach from 2003-09.

The coaching change didn’t come down to one game, according to Guerin. He added that he thought the team played well during its Global Series games (a shootout and overtime loss) in Sweden recently. But things still just “didn’t feel right,” Guerin said.

“There’s kind of that ‘it’ factor, and you feel that and you know it,” Guerin said.

Any ‘it’ factor for Hynes won’t include, as Guerin put it, reinventing the wheel or making wholesale changes. Instead, both Hynes and Guerin acknowledged it will be some little tweaks.

“It’s important to be able to play a fast game, and come in and have some plans to get out of our zone with speed, get on the attack, get north, be able to hem teams in the offensive zone,” Hynes said.

The post Wild Hire Hynes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Fenton’s splash move that day was signing veteran winger Mats Zuccarello to a five-year, $30 million contract that had a full-no move clause for the first three seasons. The decision raised eyebrows from many who felt Fenton had bid against himself to sign a player who was set to turn 32 before training camp opened. Fenton made another signing that day that drew far less attention and zero scrutiny by giving a two-year, $1.9 million contract to forward Ryan Hartman.

Today, both moves look very good, but it’s the Hartman signing that is the best story. The fact Zuccarello is on the Wild’s top line with star winger Kirill Kaprizov isn’t surprising. The fact Hartman is centering them could not have been forecast by anyone. But that’s exactly where Hartman has landed, going from first-round disappointment and potential journeyman to a player who, for now, has solved the Wild’s issue of not having a top-line center on whom they can rely.

The 27-year-old Hartman had two goals in the Wild’s 5-1 victory last Friday in Chicago to give him a career-high 32 points in only 36 games. He entered Monday night’s game against Montreal one off his career high of 19 goals and was second in the NHL in plus-minus at plus-31. That production is a big reason the Wild are in excellent shape in the Central Division standings and could be a tough out in the playoffs.

Not bad for a guy who went from being a first-round pick (30th overall) of his hometown Blackhawks in 2013 to a player who found himself bouncing from Nashville to Philadelphia to Dallas in trades before signing with the Wild.

Ryan Hartman and Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo watch Hartman’s eventual game-winning shot elude goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury in Minnesota’s 3-0 Stanley Cup First Round Game 6 win over the Golden Knights on May 26, 2021 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Fenton didn’t pursue Hartman thinking he would be getting a top-line center, but instead felt he was signing a player who would provide grit on the wing, could kill penalties and might occasionally score a goal. Hartman established career highs in goals and points (31) during his rookie season in 76 games with Chicago in 2016-17. He had eight goals and 17 assists in 57 games the following season when he was dealt to Nashville.

“He just brings the grizzle that I like,” Fenton told The Athletic after signing Hartman. “I would like our team to play with a little more hardness and passion and excitement and I think he’ll not only do it himself, but he’ll bring people along with him.”

Hartman had nine goals and 11 assists in 69 games in his first season with the Wild, and added seven goals and 15 assists in 51 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. He also scored two goals but was a minus-5 in the Wild’s seven-game loss to Vegas in the opening round of the playoffs.

Guerin liked what he saw from Hartman and signed him to a three-year, $5.1 million contract extension last April. Considered a team-friendly deal at the time, it now looks like a steal for the Wild.

Hartman’s style of play is exactly what Fenton, and then Guerin, wanted as they both realized the previous version of the Wild was far too soft and looked for excuses more than answers. Hartman’s willingness to mix it up was welcome from Day 1, but the fact that he is now playing like a guy who deserved to be taken in the first round is a huge bonus. Especially at the low cost he’s commanding for a team that is about to enter salary cap hell for the coming three seasons.

The Flyers, meanwhile, made a major mistake by sending Hartman to Dallas in June 2019 because they were concerned that the restricted free agent might get more than $2 million if his case had gone before an arbitrator.

Philadelphia’s blunder — made by former Wild GM Chuck Fletcher — was both the Wild’s and Hartman’s good fortune. As was the fact that Dallas didn’t extend Hartman a qualifying offer and allowed him to hit the market. Hartman’s ascension to the Wild’s top line is a testament to his hard work, the fact that 2020-first round pick Marco Rossi isn’t yet ready for the NHL and that Joel Eriksson Ek is more at home on a line with Marcus Foligno and Jordan Greenway than he is with Zuccarello and Kaprivoz.

Playing with those two allows the speedy Hartman a chance to use skills that he likely didn’t get an opportunity to show during his time in Chicago, Nashville or Philadelphia. He is thriving in the goal-scoring department because Kaprizov and Zuccarello are both tremendous playmakers, and Zuccarello would often rather pass than shoot.

That was on display Friday in Chicago as Kaprizov and Zuccarello got the assists on both of Hartman’s goals. “The first goal was a great pass by Kirill,” Hartman said. “The second one (Zuccarello) … I was behind him, and he’s got eyes in the back of his head, and he knew I was coming. He sells the shot. Some great passers obviously. (Zuccarello’s) been doing it forever and Kirill’s been doing it, I mean, his whole life, but at this level for not long. But it’s pretty evident how good his passing skills are.”

Hartman still has to have the ability to bury his chances and he’s been doing it consistently this season. The fact he’s doing it playing on a contract that carries a paltry $1.7 million salary-cap hit makes it even sweeter if you’re Guerin and means that Fenton did a few things right.

The post Grand Theft Hartman appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Bruce Boudreau is determined to lead Wild back to postseason

St. Paul — Bruce Boudreau is in an unfamiliar position. It’s left him wandering around his house. This Minnesota Wild coach, who wears his passion for the game on his sleeve, won’t be behind a bench coaching in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.

 He said it sucks.

But don’t expect him to tune in to the wall-to-wall coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs games. Well, at least not right now. He’s done OK without hockey for the past few days, at least.

“I haven’t even turned on the NHL Network or anything,” Boudreau said Tuesday following a season-ending news conference. “I don’t want to hear anything about who’s favored, who is not favored in the playoffs.

“I hope it sits in everybody’s craw the way it’s sitting in mine because then you’ll be determined never to let it happen again.”

The Wild are missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in seven years after a 37-36-9 season that left them in last place in the Western Conference’s Central Division with 83 points and out of one of the two Wild Card spots. The Wild haven’t won a playoff series since 2015, getting ousted in the first round the past three seasons.

Who could blame Bruce Boudreau for looking to the heavens for divine intervention in the midst of what was his most trying season behind the Minnesota bench? (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The 2018-19 campaign saw some success for the Wild, even at the top of the standings for a bit, before they fell out of the playoff picture with a few weeks to go. They didn’t win two games in a row in the month of March through the end of the season. Looking at the fact that they were shut out in four of their final six contests, it’s not hard to see why things went off the rails. The Wild were shut out 11 times this season and finished with a below-.500 record at home (16-18-7).

The good news for Boudreau is that he’ll be retained for next season in the final year of his contract. Despite a new general manager coming in prior to this season, trading away core players like Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter, Boudreau was not one of NHL coaches to lose his job at the season’s end.

It was a tidbit he learned during Tuesday’s news conference at Xcel Energy Center with general manager Paul Fenton. Boudreau said he and Fenton hadn’t discussed it.

“I knew I had another year left on my contract, and my job is to coach until I’m told not to coach anymore,” Boudreau said.

Fenton made it clear that Boudreau will coach the Wild next season and that he’s the guy that will lead the team back to where they all want it to go.

“I have total confidence in him,” Fenton said. “You look at this track record for the number of years that he’s been an NHL coach, it’s amazing. So Bruce is our coach next year.”

Fenton added that he had not discussed the future of any other Wild coaches with owner Craig Leipold yet.

It’s understandable that Boudreau doesn’t know what to do this spring. This marks the first time in his NHL coaching career that he hasn’t made the playoffs, throwing out the 2011-12 season which he split between Washington and Anaheim.  He coached both of those teams, plus the last two seasons with the Wild, to playoff berths for a total of 90 games. Unfortunately, he also has a 43-47 record in the playoffs and no Stanley Cup to show for it.

The 37-36-9 Wild record this season is the lowest amount of wins for any NHL team he’s coached, again with 2011-12 and the lockout-shortened season in 2012-13 with Anaheim (30-12-6) as the exceptions. Those are also the only two seasons where his teams have failed to reach the 100-point mark in a season.

Despite the disappointment of this season, Boudreau still holds on to optimism for next year. Hitting the 100-points mark shouldn’t be insurmountable, in his mind.

“We had 101 points last year. One hundred points won the division this year,” Boudreau said. “I mean, if we can get a little bit better and a little healthier, I don’t see why we don’t get 100 points every year.”

How can the Wild make that happen? A simple formula is to take the nine points in the overtime/shootout losses column and convert those into wins. That would have given them an additional 18 points right there. Or think back to this season where games should have been won. It was head-scratching to see the Wild show up for solid victories over top opponents around the league like Tampa Bay, Calgary and Washington, and then lose to clubs like New Jersey, Florida and Chicago.

Off the top of his head on Tuesday, Boudreau already had at least 10 games where his squad was the better team or blew multi-goal leads in the final 20 minutes.

“So if you can escape those things and move forward and be a little more consistent, then I think in my mind, it’s not a hard problem to get to 100-plus points again,” Boudreau said.

After Tuesday’s NHL draft lottery, it was determined the Wild will pick 12th in this summer’s NHL Draft. Whatever moves Fenton makes with the draft and in the offseason, he referred to it not as a rebuild by a work in progress that he’s trying to do “on the fly.”

Fenton added that he’s happy with the young players that have come in from this year’s trades, players like Ryan Donato and Kevin Fiala.

Zach Parise, who confirmed to the media Tuesday that he played through a broken foot and knee injury toward the end of the season, also acknowledged there’s a lot of work to do for this team to get back to the postseason. There’s no sugarcoating that.

“It’s hard to sit here and say nothing needs to change when you miss the playoffs and, like I said, when you’re what, almost 30th in the league in scoring,” Parise said. “I’d sound like an idiot standing up here saying that nothing needs to change.”

As for Boudreau’s time this spring, he’ll likely still find a way to be around the game. It just won’t be at the NHL level for the moment.

“I’m going to Fort Wayne to watch my kid in the playoffs in the East Coast League, but that’s as close as I’m getting right now,” Boudreau said. 

The post The Boss Is Back appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Loss of Dumba deals huge blow to struggling Wild offense

In the midst of a three-game skid that has the Minnesota Wild (17-15-2) currently out of the playoff picture, the team’s general manager Paul Fenton told the media on Dec. 21 that defenseman Matt Dumba is expected to have surgery next week after receiving a second opinion. Dumba left the Dec. 15 game against Calgary with an upper-body injury.

“He will be out for a significant time,” Fenton said.

The GM also did not elaborate on the type of injury other than to say “upper body,” saying he really wants to protect the player. Fenton also would not confirm how/when Dumba got injured, but it’s not like he was trying to keep mum about something.

“When the player says, ‘I don’t know when it happened,’ that’s what I’m going on,” Fenton said. “(Dumba) does not know when it happened.”

While the 24-year-old Dumba has been a durable player so far in his career, playing 81, 76 and 82 regular-season games his first three full seasons with the Wild, this injury will certainly derail would was a promising season to shatter his career-highs in various statistical categories.

His 12 goals this season lead NHL defenseman and were just two shy of his career-high 14 goals he tallied last season.

“He had a great chance to get 25,” said teammate Zach Parise. “I mean, who knows?

“I think just from an individual standpoint for him, it’s got to be pretty depressing.”

Fenton said Dumba is “in a state of shock” and is “visibly upset.” Dumba is in the first year of his five-year, $30-million contract he signed with the Wild over the summer.

Celebrations like this had become commonplace for Matt Dumba this season prior to his injury (MHM Photo by Jonny Watkins)

The Wild are certainly going to miss having Dumba on the blue line, especially lately when the team has struggled to finish off chances and put the puck in the net. His 12 goals are tied for second on the team and his 22 points are tied for fourth, both with Eric Staal. Dumba had a seven-game point streak in November (5-5—10) and is also second on the team in hits with 60.

Dumba’s cannon of a shot, notably a weapon on the power play where he’s scored six goals this season, could help cure the team’s struggles. The Wild are winless since he left the game in the first period against Calgary.

The word that has been uttered is “frustrating.”

“It’s frustrating because we’re playing well enough, I think,” said coach Bruce Boudreau. “Our defensive game is really good, and if we can continue to allow two goals or less, eventually we’re going to start scoring three goals or more.”

Even playing well, according to Boudreau and some of his players, the Wild dropped eight-of-11 games with a pair of three-game losing skids mixed in. The penalty kill is 15-for-15 over the past eight games, and shots on goal during the latest three-game skid were 35 shots, 26 and 41. So the chances are there. But power plays haven’t come in the usual bunches lately, with just six opportunities over the latest four-game stretch.

It’s tough to score 5-on-5 and with a lack of power-play chances lately, the opportunities just aren’t there, according to Parise.

“I just think there are a lot of things that happen before scoring a goal that we’re just not doing, not doing them well enough,” Parise said. “It’s not a coincidence that we’re not scoring.”

It’s not just one player either. But to single out a few, Mikko Koivu (who missed four games with a recent injury) hasn’t lit the lamp since Nov. 15 against Vancouver. Jason Zucker is scoreless in the past six games and has just three goals and one assist in the past 11 games. His linemate Mikael Granlund has dazzled somewhat with his playmaking abilities to get some assists – nine in the past 11 games – but he’s gone nine games without a goal of his own, and four of his nine assists came in the 7-1 drubbing of Montreal. Staal also has no points in this three-game skid and has just three goals and two assists since Nov. 27.

It can be easy to feel frustrated and sorry for yourself and as a team, Koivu said, who added the differences are small in games, win or lose.

“It will change eventually if you keep getting those chances individually and as a line,” Koivu said.

Could the slumps be a case of players trying to do too much to get out of the rut?

“Well, usually that’s what happens,” Boudreau said. “When things aren’t going well, everybody wants to do too much. You want to make the perfect play.”

Parise recognized that doing too much or over-thinking comes into play when players aren’t scoring, though he added he doesn’t think the Wild are in that spot. Still, the Wild have been shut out twice in their past five losses. They’ve scored just four goals over those five losses (with the 7-1 and 5-1 victories sandwiched in between). Dumba’s cannon of a shot from the blue line could sure come in handy.

After a game Saturday against Dallas, the Wild won’t play again until Dec. 27 in Chicago following the holiday break.

“I think it’s going to be nice to spend some time with family and get away from hockey and not think about the game for a few days,” Zucker said.

The post Down And Out appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

New Wild GM says all the right things in Minnesota debut

St. Paul — Paul Fenton, who officially took over as general manager of the Wild this week, used his introduction to the media and public Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center to observe that his new club “is not very far” from contending for the Stanley Cup.

He’s singing owner Craig Leipold’s tune.

Leipold, who interviewed a handful of candidates to replace the fired Chuck Fletcher, said at Tuesday’s news conference that it was unanimous among them “that we are a team that’s just missing a piece.”

Asked what that one missing piece might be, Fenton laughed and noted drily, “I didn’t say that.”

What he must do in Minnesota, he said, is “tweak” the team’s workings “to try to get us to win a Stanley Cup. That’s what our goal is going to be from Day 1.”

Well, yeah…

It’s a given, on the occasion of a new leader taking over any sports franchise, that smiles and optimism prevail.

Said Leipold: “This is a very, very exciting day for us.”

Agreeing that the challenge is an exciting one, Fenton cited the Wild reaching the playoffs for the past six seasons and noted that the franchise “obviously doesn’t need to be overhauled. … This organization has a very good substance to it, and I want to bring a family atmosphere.

“The biggest thing I want to bring here is inclusiveness and passion that people are willing to go that extra mile to help this team win.”

Fenton, 58, is nothing if not committed. He worked for Leipold when Leipold owned the Nashville Predators and leaves Nashville after 20 years on the job, the final 12 as assistant GM.

A native of Springfield, Mass., he met his future wife, Nona, when he was a junior in high school and she was a sophomore. This year they will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.

A former player for Boston University where he was a one-year teammate of 1980 U.S. Olympic goalie Jim Craig, Fenton said he grew up loving the hockey culture of Massachusetts and soon learned that there is an even greater fabric of the sport in Minnesota.

His comment on the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament: “Nothing like it.”

Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold and new team GM Paul Fenton (Minnesota Wild/Hannah Foslien)

The former Winnipeg Jet who figures he will have no problem adjusting to the weather differences between Nashville and Minnesota, Fenton talked about the challenge of taking over a franchise just a month before the 2018 draft, looming meetings with team personnel including players and scouting staff, watching some hockey and traveling between his old residence and the Twin Cities.

“I don’t think I’m going to sleep the next month,” he said with a grin.

But he’s relishing it.

“It’s been a whirlwind, but it’s been a fun whirlwind.”

Fenton made his reputation by pulling many of the right strings to boost the Predators into the Stanley Cup Finals a year ago and into the second round of this year’s playoffs. He’s not afraid to deal.

In Minnesota, he said, “I’ll look at small trades; I’ll look at big trades. Whatever is going to improve this organization going forward.”

Defenseman Ryan Suter played in Nashville under Fenton and came away with a positive opinion.

“You look at the success Paul’s had in Nashville, from drafting guys to trades that he’s made,” Suter said. “He’s always made his team better, and as a player that’s what you want the guy in charge to be doing.”

Fenton has plenty of experience for the job, but now needs to get to know the people in his new organization. Even coach Bruce Boudreau is a new guy to the incoming GM. Fenton is hopeful the two will mesh.

“I’m not going to tell Bruce how to coach,” he said. “I’ve never been a coach.”

Boudreau, too, must adapt.

“I’ll coach whoever he gets here,” Boudreau said.

Ah, yes, but just what do the Wild need?

There were repeated mentions at the news conference about the requirement for size and speed to be successful in the NHL, but Leipold considers the Wild a team with good size.

Sort of.

“We need to play heavier,” he said.

Boudreau praised the depth of the teams advancing the farthest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, and Fenton talked about those factors plus a team’s leadership and intangibles that lead to success.

Finding all that, in a nutshell, is the No. 1 requirement for Fenton’s new job.

“I’m here to put a stamp on this thing,” he said. “We’re not leaving until we do the right thing.”

The post Fenton Takes the Reins appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.