The Wild have relieved head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Bob Woods of their duties effective immediately, the team said in a statement Monday evening. Two hours later, they named former Devils and Predators bench boss John Hynes as their new head coach.
Wild GM Bill Guerin gave the following comment on the decision to part with Evason:
Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as Head Coach of our team. I am very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization. I would also like to thank Bob for his hard work during his time as an Assistant Coach with the Wild. I wish Dean, Bob and their families all the best in the future.
Evason had been a member of the Wild organization since he was brought on as an assistant in 2018, while Woods joined the Wild bench one season prior. The 59-year-old Evason began his coaching career with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen as an assistant in 1998-99 after finishing out his playing career in Germany, working his way up the junior hockey ranks over the next handful of seasons. His first NHL job came courtesy of an assistant role with the Capitals immediately after the 2004-05 lockout, coaching Alex Ovechkin in his first seven NHL seasons.
After departing Washington in 2012, Evason spent the next several seasons working in the Predators organization as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. There, he helped guide more than a few future NHL stalwarts – namely Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis, Filip Forsberg, Calle Järnkrok, Viktor Arvidsson, and Kevin Fiala, among many others. After joining the Wild, he earned a promotion to head coach within two seasons when the Wild fired Bruce Boudreau late in the 2019-20 campaign.
Just a couple of years later, Evason had coached the Wild to their best season in franchise history. The 2021-22 campaign saw the Wild break the 50-win mark for the first time since their inception in 2000, nearly sitting atop the Central Division with 113 points. That was in an extremely tough group with the 119-point Stanley Cup champion Avalanche and the 109-point Blues, whom the Wild bowed out to in the first round of the playoffs. The Wild remain without a playoff series victory since the 2015 postseason and have not advanced to a Conference Final since the 2002-03 season.
So with the Wild now far out of the playoff picture with a 5-10-4 record, sitting bottom five in the league in both goals for and against, a change was necessary and expected. Injuries and goaltending have certainly played a factor in their poor play – captain Jared Spurgeon missed the first 13 games of the season, and Filip Gustavsson’s and Marc-André Fleury’s combined .878 SV% is near the bottom of the league.
They’ve likely been unlucky, too. The Wild have controlled a slim majority of scoring chances and a strong majority of high-danger chances during 5-on-5 play, a common theme for an organization that’s usually one of the more defensively stout in the league. But the culture around the team is evidently turning sour quickly, Kirill Kaprizov is on pace for a career-low 26 goals and has a team-worst -10 rating, and most of their depth defensemen have been significant liabilities. This roster is not all that different from the one that’s finished top-three in the Central Division for three straight seasons, and it’s certainly one that still has playoff aspirations.
Minnesota has not won since November 7 against the Islanders and is winless in seven straight.
Woods, who had worked on the Capitals’ bench with Evason briefly as an assistant in the early 2010s, is now on the open market after more than six seasons with the Wild. It’s unclear whether the Wild will opt to fill his vacancy.
Hynes, who was let go by the Predators after last season, is technically in the final season of his contract with Nashville. That means the Predators had to grant permission to their divisional rival to speak to their former head coach and that Hynes will be paid by both Minnesota and Nashville this season.
Now behind the bench of his third NHL franchise, he faces an uphill climb to get Minnesota back in the playoff picture. Hynes will suit up behind an NHL bench for a ninth consecutive season, as he was fired by the Devils and hired by Nashville midway through the 2019-20 campaign.
The Wild will certainly get a boost in the standings once Fleury and Gustavsson improve their play between the pipes, a likely scenario given their stellar performance last season. However, they again have the misfortune of being in quite a competitive division. The Avalanche and Stars occupy first and second place as expected powerhouses, while the Blues, Predators and Coyotes all sit at or above the .500 mark and, especially in Nashville’s case, have posted decent underlying numbers.
Hynes’ main job is simply to restore confidence in his group. This roster has the ability to play better – especially Kaprizov, who, despite the okay point production, has looked like a complete non-factor on some nights. The team also hopes a significant change behind the bench can boost their league-worst penalty kill, which is operating at just 66.7%. Penalty killing was an area of strength for Nashville last season, who finished tied for fourth in the NHL with an 82.6% success rate.
The Wild will be on the hook for the remainder of Evason’s contract, which runs through 2024-25 at just under $2MM per season.
The Athletic’s Michael Russo was the first to report the Hynes hire.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bad move.
Fire or Hire?
Same tired names. Same coaching carousel.
I guess Quenneville js not up for reinstatement yet.
All MIN did in the offseason was subtract bodies, so I’m not sure why it falls on Evason to pay for their cap situation.
Wouldn’t quenneville just be another tired name? He’s already had 4 stops.
@TJECK109 — He does have 3 cup rings. And a bit of a nasty stain on the old resume, unfortunately.
Quenneville is the best NHL coach alive, Not sure what his reinstatement status looks like, Bettman likes to drag people through the mud and worship him before are reinstated.
Can’t argue the cups, but it was a loaded roster. But still lots of credit for getting it done
Career .538 win %
Prior to the incident he missed the playoffs once, lost in the first round 4 other times and was fired in season by the Blackhawk’s.
He’s 65.
Not saying he couldn’t help Minnesota but not the savior he’s being made out to be. Better off going with a youth movement
How does Hynes keep getting work?!
Because it’s Minnesota. Can’t make a positive decision in coaching to save their lives. Same old song and dance.
I think in this situation it’s probably familiarity with Hynes and Guerin having been part of the Pens org together.
Guerin should start to feel some heat if this doesn’t work.
Because he’s a Boston boy. And not just a boston boy, but he comes from the mid-90’s BU Terriers teams.
Gallant keep getting passed over tells me he wants to be part of the decision making process that GMs don’t want to give up
Not sure the MIN job is enough of a Cup contender over the next few seasons for Gallant to put down the mojito and get back to work.
Wow. Bad move.
If the Wild are looking to obtain mediocrity, Hynes is their guy!
Hynes teams have never won a thing and the guy keeps getting jobs lmao. What does he have on these GMs
@amk1920 — It might be coincidence, but the last time I went to the big box store and asked where the Polaroid film packs went, the cashier said, “Don’t know — but that John Hynes guy just ran out of the store with the last 3 cases.”
To be fair, Hynes was a great juniors coach & had AHL success with the Baby Pens.
So i says “wrecked em, damn near killed em”
As a Preds fan, I’m sorry.
And here I thought GMBG wasn’t going to take my “I dare you to fire Dean Evason!” thought seriously (Bill – it was a joke). As @PoisonedPens said, it isn’t Evason’s fault for the cap-constrained roster construction. They must’ve tuned him out already. It’s becoming an all-too-familiar theme in the NHL lately.
@Mac – Take a look at the scores from the day after Thankgiving and how the homes teams got destroyed in their own rinks (too much turkey?) as exhibit A. for how much players care these days. Hate to say it, but there it is.
@Gbear — The last week has featured games where a whole mess of “Are you kidding me” moments were witnessed, including the FLA-OTT game tonight. The referee incompetence types are not helping things, either. The “too much turkey” line used to be a funny Ha-Ha, but it’s almost like they want to use it as an excuse or crutch now. Well, only 60-65 more games of unpredictability. BTW, who knew that RJ92 (now RJ12) didn’t need to have the paddles applied anymore. ;)
@Mac – Happy for RyJo. Amazing what happens when you’re surrounded by offensive talent.
Once you get into the club. You keep getting hired regardless of past. Few teams like Montreal thinking outside box and hire St. Louis.
Evason has been an excellent head coach from day one in Minnesota, This is a cowardly act by the unqualified Bill Guerin who can’t navigate the cap and has made several bad moves!!!! How much term and money did Guerin give to the unproven Gustavsson? How much dead money is on the books with Parise and Suter because of Guerin’s arrogance?
Gustavsson cap hit is 3.75 million a year for 3 years. Hardly an overpay after season he had last year. Without buyout cap would be in even more trouble. Not to mention the clubhouse cancer that would still be there. Wilf, please get a clue!
Guerin got excited about Gustavsson’s VERY SMALL sample size, Gustavsson is a pedestrian backup at BEST!
So true
I hate it for Evason…. and I feel terrible for wild fans… this is a massive downgrade, this could be what makes Billy Guerin lose his job…
Why? Minnesota never made it out of the first round with Evason, and his claim to fame seems to be looking like an angry seething psychopath behind the bench.
problem lies above what Evason could do, he doesn’t exactly make the roster decisions (ie. buying out 2 huge contracts) all he could do was try to maximize the talent he had, they didn’t give him a ton, you have Kirill, Rossi and Boldy, but outside of that it’s not that great of a team (when you have Hartman and big bad Jake Middleton as 2 of your top guys, you have a serious bad roster problem)kirill and Zuccarello are ahead of the 2 but those guys aren’t exactly known for offense
Looks like a GM problem to me. His seat should be very warm.
You are CORRECT!
Yep, holding on to Dumba for no reason when he could have brought at least a decent pick and a prospect certainly didn’t help.