The Minnesota Wild are in free-fall mode right now. Their loss on Sunday to the Detroit Red Wings marked their seventh defeat in a row. For a team with aspirations of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs, this is unacceptable. Minnesota general manager Bill Guerin agreed as he fired head coach Dean Evason on Monday.
Evason gets the axe after coaching parts of five seasons in the State of Hockey. Two of those seasons saw the team record more than 100 points in the regular season. In fact, he led the team to the best regular season in franchise history in 2021-22.
Guerin took the time on Monday to acknowledge the work Evason put into the Wild franchise. “Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as head coach of our team,” the Minnesota general manager said, via NHL.com. “I am very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization.”
Evason was replaced with former Nashville Predators bench boss John Hynes as Wild head coach. Hynes brings nine years of head coaching experience to Minnesota. He spent the first four and a half seasons with the New Jersey Devils before joining the Predators during the 2019-20 season.
Hynes helped Nashville make the Stanley Cup Playoffs on three occasions. However, his teams failed to make it past the first round. During the bubble playoffs of 2020, the Predators didn't make it out of the Qualifying Round.
Something had to give in Minnesota, and it finally happened. Let's see if Hynes can help the Wild turn things around, or if things continue to snowball even after the change behind the bench.