Wild fire coach Dean Evason amid losing streak, hire John Hynes as replacement
Amid a seven-game losing streak, the Minnesota Wild have made a coaching change.
Monday afternoon, Wild General Manager Bill Guerin announced his decision to fire head coach Dean Evason and Bob Woods, an assistant coach.
“Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as Head Coach of our team,” Guerin said in a prepared statement. “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.”
The team announced that former Nashville Predators and New Jersey Devils coach John Hynes will serve as Evason’s replacement. He was formally introduced on Tuesday.
The move comes a day after the team lost 4-1 in Detroit, pushing them down to the third-worst record in the entire league.
The Wild (5-10-4=14) haven’t won a game since Nov. 7, when they beat the New York Islanders 4-2.
Evason joined the Wild as an assistant coach in 2018. He was named the interim head coach when Bruce Boudreau was fired on Feb. 14, 2020, and then became the organization’s fifth full-time head coach after that season.
Despite leading the team to great success in the regular season, including back-to-back seasons with over 100 points, the Wild haven’t been able to advance past the first round of the playoffs.
But after Guerin handed out extensions ahead of the season to forwards Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello, the team has struggled mightily through the first two months of the season, having scored fewer goals (57) than only three teams while tying Columbus for third-most goals allowed (77).
Hynes is 284-255-63 in eight NHL seasons. The Predators fired him on May 30, six weeks after missing the playoffs. They lost in the opening round in each of three previous years, starting in 2020 when he was hired midseason to replace the fired Peter Laviolette. The Devils fired Hynes about a month before he was plucked off the market by the Predators.
Minnesota is back in action Tuesday night when St. Louis comes to town.