Minnesota Wild Fire Dean Evason and Bob Woods; Hire John Hynes as Head Coach

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The Minnesota Wild have started this season with a disastrous 5-10-4 record while being outscored by a combined 20 goals during that span.

It has led to general manager Bill Guerin and Co. making the dramatic move to fire head coach Dean Evason after just 19 games. Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report the news. Assistant coach Bob Woods was also fired.

According to Russo, veteran coach John Hynes has been named the replacement. He most-recently served as the head coach of the Nashville Predators from 2019-23. Prior to that, Hynes was the New Jersey Devils head coach from 2015-2020. His teams have earned four playoff appearances during that span.

All of this comes on the heels of Minnesota having lost seven consecutive games, including a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. As I predicted earlier this week, Evason is taking the fall for a terrible Wild team that has nowhere else to turn, thanks to regrettable offseason moves from president of hockey operations, Bill Guerin.

Evason had replaced Bruce Boudreau as Minnesota’s head coach late during the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign. He ended up posting a combined 147-77-27 record in parts of five seasons with the Minnesota Wild. His .639 points percentage was sixth among active NHL head coaches before he was fired.

As for Hynes, he was let go after last season in Nashville. He’s considered a respected coach around the hockey world. Whether that translates to Minnesota turning this thing around remains to be seen.

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