Two games into the John Hynes era, it appears the Minnesota Wild have solved all of their problems.
Hynes took over for the fired Dean Evason last week and the Wild have responded with a pair of wins over Central Division rivals. The penalty kill has been pristine, the players are skating hard. Kirill Kaprizov looks like himself again and Connor Dewar scored a hat trick in Thursday night’s win over the Nashville Predators.
At this rate, the Wild could make a run at the playoffs and Hynes could make his case for the Jack Adams trophy. But to invest in a two-game sample size would be ignoring the bigger issue and that’s because the Wild need more than just a coaching change.
Think of the Wild as that house for sale in your neighborhood. On the surface, it just needs a fresh coat of paint. But on the inside, there are foundational problems and termites in the floorboards. This is the state of the Wild and it was to be expected at the beginning of the season.
The Wild had come off of three straight first-round playoff exits and were entering the deepest stretch of salary cap hell stemming from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. With $14.7 million – or just over 17 percent of the salary cap – in dead money, general manager Bill Guerin’s options were limited to improve the team in free agency.
The Wild’s biggest addition of the offseason was trading for Pat Maroon, and Minnesota ran back its entire coaching staff for another bite at the apple. The latter decision seemed to be the bigger whiff as the Wild passed on an opportunity to hire Peter Laviolette in favor of giving Dean Evason one last try.
The result was a giant “Ope” as the Wild won just five of their first 19 games and Laviolette led the New York Rangers to a 16-4-1 record this season. But to pin all of the blame on the coaching staff would also be ignoring the bigger issue.
The Wild are a team that seems comfortable in their skates. Guerin decided to extend Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno to multi-year extensions prior to the start of the season complete with no-movement clauses.
“You have to give something to get something,” Guerin said of the no-trade clauses earlier this week. “I believe in these players. I don’t regret it at all.”
While Guerin has to wear any move he makes, it’s also to see what the Wild are getting in exchange for that long-term security.
Zuccarello leads the Wild with 23 points, but has just five goals in 18 games. Hartman has seven goals but has more penalty minutes (14) than points. The same goes for Foligno, who scored 23 goals in 74 games during a breakout 2021-22 season but has nine goals in his last 86 games, including two goals in 21 games this season.
The lack of motivation echoes the Wild’s past culture before Guerin took over in Aug. 2019. Parise and Suter were the main characters in Minnesota’s “country club” atmosphere but other players such as Jason Zucker, Eric Staal and others no-showed on a nightly basis, driving then-head coach Mike Yeo to obscenity-laced tirades during practice.
While there is no video footage of Evason losing his mind, there are other instances such as Guerin’s “kick in the ass” meeting before the team’s trip to Sweden and Evason’s comments to The Athletic’s Michael Russo after his firing.
“We tried everything,” Evason said. “Billy tried yelling at them. I called them out. I called meetings. We did all this stuff and we were in the process of building them up and I thought going in the right direction.”
A seven-game losing streak proved otherwise and Guerin’s response was to hire Hynes. In stints with New Jersey and Nashville, Hynes has a .526 regular season winning percentage during his career but also has four first-round playoff exits, including three straight with the Predators from 2019-22.
With a track record similar to Evason, Guerin is hoping that the Wild can get back to their roots. But Hynes has also emphasized speed during his first week on the job.
“I’d say right now that’s the biggest thing,” Hynes said on Tuesday. “Getting the pace and the tempo higher…but I think what also helps with that is strong structure which allows you to play quick.”
The structure might have to be something Evason hasn’t tried, as Guerin has built a roster made of grit the past few years. Veterans like Foligno, Zuccarello and Hartman rely on their savvy to get the job done and Evason suggested in his interview with Russo that Kirill Kaprizov is still working his way back from a knee injury suffered last spring.
Although Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Brock Faber fit that description, the rest of the roster needs work and could lead to a rebuild that the Wild need. But “rebuild” is a dirty word to Guerin, who rebuffed the idea during this week’s presser.
“We’re also not rebuilding,” Guerin said. “I’ve never said we’re rebuilding. If we did that and got rid of players then you have to replenish your team or you’re taking a chance that you’re going to bring in people you don’t like as much. I like these guys. I feel they’ve been big contributors and will continue to be.”
Even if Guerin likes his team, Wild fans might not agree when they look at the standings. Even after the two divisional wins, the Wild sit six points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and have just the same amount of wins (7) as their Sunday opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks.
With one of the best minor league systems in the NHL, the Wild have the talent to flip the switch. But Craig Leipold’s desire to make the playoffs every year creates a complicated scenario for a team that voluntarily dove head-first into salary cap hell.
Even looking at some of the best teams in the league, a rebuild was necessary to get to where they are. Colorado parlayed a few bad years into Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar and lead the Central Division. The Dallas Stars also needed a few years to become a consistent cup contender.
Even the Rangers, who are tied with the Boston Bruins with an NHL-high 33 points, apologized to their fans when they took a step back in 2018 before becoming a power in the Eastern Conference.
There’s no guarantee a rebuild will have the same result, but it’s better than trotting out the same lineup whose ceiling is getting dumped in the first round of the playoffs.
Maybe Hynes can get the Wild to the playoffs. Maybe some things can be fixed with time. But for now, the Wild require more than just a fresh coat of paint.
