Mike Yeo fired as Minnesota Wild head coach

Yeo was named as the third head coach in Wild history in June of 2011, and in his 4 and a half years in Minnesota, he's taken the Wild to the playoffs in 3 seasons, advancing to the second-round of the playoffs twice. His record during his tenure (including playoffs) was 184-149-44.

This has not been the first time we've seen a Yeo-coached Wild team fall in a massive slump. In fact, these slumps were a regular occurrence during his tenure, with each season having a stretch of losing lasting around one month.

There would be no saving this year's team. Chuck Fletcher has tried for weeks now to upgrade his team's offense to no avail. They couldn't count on an improvement in goaltending- again, it was pretty good in January. Without a way to upgrade the team, this was the only option the Wild had for a major shake-up.

But for all of Fletcher's faults, Yeo needs to bear some culpability, too. As mentioned earlier, Yeo has presided over a lengthy slump in each of his 5 seasons in Minnesota. At some point, one has to assume that he has an issue with getting teams out of funks. In addition, his defensive system may have contributed to the Wild's lack of offense, he frequently made puzzling personnel choices, and his special teams (particularly the power play) has been generally poor.

At the same time, it's hard to not think of the entirety of Yeo's tenure as at least moderately successful. He's piloted a team without superstar talented to the post season three times, becoming the first Wild coach to win playoff series in two different years. He genuinely seems to be a very good defensive coach, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him enjoy success with another franchise, particularly if he learns from some of his mistakes here.

The Wild have yet to name their next coach, which will likely be on an interim basis. There aren't any clear front-runners for the job on a permanent basis at the moment. Some might question firing Yeo without an obvious replacement, but the Wild may not need someone who is necessarily better at the moment. They may simply need a different voice in the room. And with only 27 games left to right the ship and make the playoffs, Minnesota had to at least try seeing if a different voice could spark their flailing club.