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  • Wilderness Walk: Why The Wild Hired John Hynes


    Image courtesy of © Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    In case you live under a rock but care about the Minnesota Wild, the team fired head coach Dean Evason and assistant Bob Woods on Monday. And in their place, they have hired a brand new head coach, John Hynes.

    Hynes is a familiar enough name around the NHL. He started his big-league career in charge of the New Jersey Devils' bench and then moved on to the Nashville Predators, where he was most recently. But the funny thing is, with those two teams, he has never won a playoff series in the three chances he has had.

    Maybe it's the roster though, and that's entirely likely. During his tenure in New Jersey, from 2015 to 2020, the team was not the Devils we know today. No Jack Hughes for the majority of it, and still holding on to the weird and bad team in the past with players like Travis Zajac. He did have a couple of stars, like Taylor Hall for that very brief period of time, but they were not supposed to be contenders whatsoever.

    In Nashville, it is a little bit harder to parse. He had some success stories, like Roman Josi dominating while he was there and seeing some progression out of young players, but also made frustration decisions for the fan base like leaving skilled young players to rot in the bottom six.

    While the reason Wild general manager Bill Guerin hired Hynes is less clear in his NHL work, it becomes obvious the farther back you go. Of course, Hynes was the Wilkes-Barre Penguins head coach when Guerin was the assistant general manager in Pittsburgh. They have already had this dynamic of GM to coach, but just in the AHL.

    This is Guerin's guy and he saw an opportunity.

    Fortunately, they did actually have some success together. The AHL Penguins team went 189-126-27 when Hynes was in charge and they never went a season without winning at least one playoff round. He never won the Calder Cup, but that team was consistently one of the best AHL teams during that five-year stretch.

    We can just focus on that if we want to stay positive.

    That's Wild

    • Dean Evason's firing was about more than just the coach. It was a point to make for something larger. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • John Hynes isn't the solution to what truly ails the Wild. [The Athletic]
    • Is the season over? With the playoffs so far ahead of them, should the Wild focus solely on the future instead? [StarTribune]

    Off the trail...

    • Why the notion that teams who finish in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving are likely to stay there, might not be true this season. [ESPN]
    • The Florida Panthers-Ottawa Senators game appeared to be a hoot. The Tkachuk brothers really got at it and sparked a wild brawl that saw everyone on the ice get kicked out. [Yahoo Sports]

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    2 hours ago, Luke Sims said:

    Nepotism.

    Maybe. Also of note is that if you change coaches mid-season the inventory of experienced coaches is not large. Unless you are hiring just for the remainder of the year you go with the coach that you know. Coaches that have no NHL experience are employed right now also and grabbing them would not be a good look. You could bring the coach up from Iowa but then you disrupt what they are trying t do with the prospects. Hynes may or may not be the answer (I suspect not) but he may have been the better choice. Gallant is out there but I would not want him.

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    But the funny thing is, with those two teams, he has never won a playoff series in the three chances he has had.

    Oh man, my sides are busting.  That's definitely a funny thing.  Oh Joy.

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    What if Hynes is a stopgap coach and not the one to take us to the future? What if Guerin sees Hynes as part of a front office option too? If he is relieved as coach, he can still be a part of the organization and with ties to Guerin, he could just be a part of this thing longterm. 

    Or, maybe with a better roster, Hynes is more successful?

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    27 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    What if Hynes is a stopgap coach and not the one to take us to the future? What if Guerin sees Hynes as part of a front office option too? If he is relieved as coach, he can still be a part of the organization and with ties to Guerin, he could just be a part of this thing longterm. 

    Or, maybe with a better roster, Hynes is more successful?

    It's Hynes' job. Guerin has said it's not temporary, he's the guy.

    Crazy they'd fire DE now to hire Hynes. 

    Edited by Willy the poor boy
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    Hynes may not be better on paper but it's fair to say a change was needed and Dean had years to improve face-offs and special-teams. Neither happened and both screwed the Wild this year. That's somebody's responsibility, the HC certainly would be suspect. 

    From that perspective, you pretty much get the next best available guy.

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    If we start winning faceoffs, finishing checks, and shore up the PK, I'd call that a win. I'm sure I'm leaving out some other details like, oh, maybe throwing soft east-west passes to flat footed defenders only to be intercepted by opponents with momentum?

    In case anyone missed it, John Hynes has no hair to pull out at that point!

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