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By Robert Brent -
When the Minnesota Wild take the ice for the 2024-25 season, it will be the team’s first full season under John Hynes. Unlike last year when Dean Evason started the season as head coach, Bill Guerin and Hynes will have the opportunity to fully build and tweak the team in Hynes’ image.
That makeover is pivotal for Minnesota, a team many feel lost its identity last year. If the Wild are going to bounce back next year, it will be essential for Hynes to develop a new trademark style. Hynes has spoken about how important a team’s identity can be for its success.
A Case of lost identity
For most of the team’s existence, the Wild have favored low-event games they won with defense. Since 2013-14, the Wild have placed in the top half of the league in total goals against eight times. The 2023-24 season was their worst defensive season. They gave up 248 goals, good for 20th in the league.
The Wild’s lack of defensive prowess had some obvious contributing factors. Two of the team’s most important defenders, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon, missed time with injuries. The goaltenders didn’t play great, either. Filip Gustavsson (-.11 GAA Better Than Expected) and Marc-Andre Fleury (-.30 GAA Better Than Expected) gave up more goals than expected, given the quality of chances they faced. The penalty kill was particularly poor, ranking 30th in the NHL.
Last year, the Wild were an oft-injured club with poor special teams, an aging roster, and a few bright young stars. That’s not an identity, at least not a winning one. Minnesota’s lack of distinguished style concerns fans and media, and the team acknowledged that. The Athletic had several quotes from exit interview day that tell us where the Wild failed last year, but a couple stand out as being particularly crucial.
“I’ve always said in years past how much I would have hated to play against us,” Ryan Hartman said. “And this year, I don’t know if I could have said the same thing.”
Marcus Foligno echoed those sentiments and added a bit more fuel to the fire.
“I just felt like we didn’t have that energy,” Foligno said. “That usually wasn’t the case seasons before. … I just felt that this year we really, when it came to being down a goal or two, it felt like we were a little bit sorry for ourselves.”
John Hynes gives clues to Minnesota’s new approach
Hynes' first order of business as the new head coach of the Wild should be to develop a new brand of Wild hockey. Hockey personalities tend to offer purposely vague quotes. However, we can gather clues from how Hynes has discussed his team this preseason. Look no further than Hynes stressing the importance of playing to his desired identity after an exhibition tilt with the Winnipeg Jets.
Some important traits include playing directly, getting out of their own zone, and being fast on the attack. These are desirable traits that coaches value, but Hynes has specifically singled out those virtues on multiple occasions. He also praised Jakub Lauko for playing a fast and heavy game.
When you compare Hynes' comments with his coaching history, you can see how the Wild will likely play. Minnesota will look to solidify its structures and play a simplified, aggressive, low-event game. Low-event was the name of Hynes' game in previous stops in Nashville and New Jersey. Hynes desires that the team plays direct, simple, and hard points towards the Wild adopting a similar style. He appears to emphasize speed more than in previous stops, but fast doesn’t necessarily equate to eventful hockey.
Are the Wild equipped for a new look?
It’s clear that Hynes wants the Wild to play a game predicated on speed, effort, accountability, and physicality. Whether Minnesota can live up to that task remains to be seen.
At first glance, the Wild could have trouble playing a physical game. Hockey fans and front offices often equate physicality with being a large team. The Wild are not. They ranked last in average player weight last season and will climb only gradually to 29th this year.
However, size isn’t the only factor in playing a “heavy” game. The Florida Panthers are only incrementally bigger than the Wild, and teams fear them for their play style. To play heavy, a club needs buy-in from the players and defensive accountability that allows the team to make classic proverbial “sandpaper” plays.
Minnesota has its defense locked in for this season. It’s an area of the team that Bill Guerin has invested a lot in. Brock Faber will be another year older and hopefully improve in his sophomore season. Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon will enter the season with a clean bill of health and will hopefully stay that way. The Wild defense is also a very balanced unit. Faber does a bit of everything, Spurgeon and Brodin are defensively responsible, and Zach Bogosian and Jake Middleton are classic bruisers.
Looking at the forward group, Minnesota looks prepared to play the John Hynes game. The team will ice a few new faces this year that should contribute to a culture change. Marat Khusnutdinov will have every chance to make an impact this season. He plays a gritty style despite his small stature.
Signing Yakov Trenin doesn’t do much for the Wild’s depth scoring but does provide the team with a penalty-kill specialist who plays hard and fast. Jakub Lauko is another new player who fits the difficult to play against mold. Lauko has impressed many in the preseason, including John Hynes, as a player who matches the way the Wild want to play.
It may be different from the answer some Wild fans want to hear. With exciting players like Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, it’s easy to want the team to be a high-flying offensive juggernaut. That probably won’t work for Minnesota, at least not yet. When prospects like Danila Yurov and Zeev Buium jump to the NHL, a skill-based approach might make more sense.
For now, The team is far more equipped to play a low-event style that plays a hard, responsible, and opportunistic style. Luckily, this is a methodology that John Hynes implements frequently. If the Wild are to be a successful team in 2024-25, it will be because they return to being the team that plays low-event hard to play against hockey while still allowing their stars the freedom to shine. It’s an identity the team lost last season that they must once again cultivate moving forward.
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