Harsh Winter in Minnesota – Evason Fired/Hynes Hired

A huge axe has fallen in the State of Hockey. Not the axe of Paul Bunyan as you may expect, but of Wild President, Bill Guerin instead. It was announced this evening that Head Coach, Dean Evason and Assistant Coach, Bob Woods have both been fired, effective immediately. It’s not a big surprise given the fact that they’ve lost seven-in-a-row and are just two points out of last place in the Central Division with a 5-10-4 record.

John Hynes, former head coach of the New Jersey Devils and Nashville Predators was quickly hired to replace Evason as announced this evening. Unless Hynes can turn the team around this year, I’m seeing him as a short-term solution. He’s a head coach with some success to his credit (not in the playoffs exactly), and he was available. By cutting Evason loose early in the season, Guerin must have felt that he’s the best available. I hope he’s right – can’t do much worse. The Wild has too much talent on their team to be sitting in seventh place in the division.

The Wild seemed to have been building a bright future after putting up a 46-25-11 record (103 points) on the season last year. However, that success has certainly not carried over to the 2023-24 campaign, yet. The Wild organization and fans everywhere hope that a change of its leadership puts a holiday spark in the team that will last into next year.

Most games this season have looked as though the team was just going through the motions, to be honest. Sure, there were some standout performances on different nights, but this year’s team needs to unhook the plow, raise the anchor or whatever metaphor you like, in a hurry or more heads are going to roll. Their overall effort has sucked this year, and the standings show it. It was far more interesting to watch the Wild when they relied on the neutral zone trap for years – or paint dry. Take your pick.

Now, to say that the results this year are totally on Evason isn’t necessarily fair. If a team wins a Stanley Cup, it’s not 100% because of the coaching staff. The players still need to go out and execute. The Wild have had players in the injured list to start the season, but almost every team does. They come with playing hockey. That being said, a coach needs to be creative and find ways to keep the team competitive while waiting for those players are out. It’s not like we don’t have talent on the team besides Jared Spurgeon, who missed the first 13 games of the season.

The Wild defense this year has been bad. So bad in fact, they are third-to-last in goal differential for the entire NHL at -20 goals. The Chicago Blackhawks are behind the Wild in last place in the division and hold a goal differential of -21 goals. Neither team are even close to the San Jose Sharks at who are at -55 goals, but that’s really not much to brag about either. There has been some good news with the defense this year as rookie, Brock Faber – a Minnesota native, is continuing to develop. He digs pucks out, gets physical and is showing much of the same promise as he did in last season’s playoffs.

The Wild offense is mediocre, at best. They are averaging 3.0 goals per game, which itself, isn’t that notable, but they’re allowing opponents to average over four goals per game. That’s not good math. Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson have not been good either. Both averaging about 3.5 goals per game or more, have yet to dazzle in net.

So, we’ll see. After Guerin lit into the team before they left for Sweden during the NHL Global Series in mid-November, the writing was on the wall that improvements had better come, otherwise people were going to go. Whether Hynes is the needed change for the organization or not, time will tell. I know for sure however, I would not want to be on Guerin’s bad side. Ol’ Billy has made some bold decisions as the GM and President of Hockey Operations for the Wild. Tough as they may be, I think a change was sorely needed. Hopefully, Hynes will inject some energy into the Wild. That would be a nice change. Let’s play some hockey, boys!! Go Wild!!