The Minnesota Wild enter an incredibly important offseason, as they look to finally win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. They got through the Dallas Stars in the first round, but were only able to manage one victory against the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. Their loss in Game 5 was particularly devastating, as the team blew a 3-0 lead and lost 4-3 in overtime to officially get eliminated from the playoffs.
Considering the expectations of the team, there was fan angst towards head coach John Hynes. There was obviously the Game 5 loss, but Hynes' decision to bench Jesper Wallstedt for Filip Gustavsson in Game 2 against the Avalanche backfired as well. Some of those fans wondered if Hynes was the right coach for the job to lead them to a Stanley Cup Final and to win it all.
Hynes has one supporter, and it's perhaps the most important one, and that's General Manager Bill Guerin. While speaking with reporters on Monday, Guerin backed Hynes, believing he is the right coach for the job.
"I thought John did a great job this year," said Guerin. "You guys know I'm a big believer in John and what he does and how he operates. I see it firsthand. Not just the amount of work that goes into it, because anybody can sit at a desk and a computer for hours upon time and say they did a lot of work. To me, that's fine. It's the detail in which he does it in. If you could've seen the detail of the work and the time that these guys put in in between Game 2 and 3 to make those adjustments, to deliever the message to the team, I mean, those are the things that I'm talking about. That's why I believe in John, it's because of the detail in which he goes through it."
Bill Guerin confirms John Hynes will remain as Wild head coach
It's not a surprise that Guerin backed Hynes, considering they were sitting on stage for their end of media sessions. Guerin and Hynes are in lock step as to how they want to operate the Wild roster. This season showed there was significant growth for the team, especially since they won their first playoff series since 2015.
Guerin brought up the adjustments Hynes and the team made between Games 2 and 3 against the Avalanche. As fans know, the Wild lost Game 2 by the score of 5-2 after making the switch in net from Wallstedt to Gustavsson. With the team trailing 2-0 in the series, the Wild bounced back to win Game 3 by the score of 5-1, behind three-point performances from Kirill Kaprizov and Brock Faber (one goal, two assists each) and a 35-save outing by Wallstedt.
Guerin continued, saying that Hynes' messaging is one of his strengths and why he is keeping him around to coach the team next season.
"We sit in his office quite a few times a year and talk about messaging to the players, to the power play to the penalty kill, to the players as a whole. What's the message? How are they going to grasp it the best? I really thin that's one of the things that separates John from other coaches, is the time that he puts into the messaging. It's not just, 'This is what I say. I'm cramming it down your throat. Do it.' He gives them the reason why we're going to do this, why we're going to have success doing it."
Hynes was brought in during the 2023-24 season after the Wild fired Dean Evason. Hynes coached Minnesota to the playoffs last season, where they lost in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights. But this season, the Wild went 46-24-12 to easily clinch a playoff spot, but given the Avalanche and Stars had better records, the Wild had the third place seed from the Central Division. To help their odds to make it through the gauntlet ahead of them, they acquired star defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks. His presence did help, as he led the entire team in points with 15 in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Wild, the decision-making was costly, given how dominant this season's Avalanche team is.
Make no mistake about it, even though Guerin backs Hynes, the pressure is on for him to gte past the Stars and Avalanche next season to win the Stanley Cup. They have one more year left of Hughes on his current deal, while Kaprizov's eight-year, $136 million contract officially kicks in. Guerin has said that he is going to continue making the team stronger, specifically finding a No. 1 center. Given the results of this season and how the offseason unfolds, Hynes will face a ton of pressure next season to bring the Stanley Cup to Minnesota.
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