Darby Hendrickson joins Nashville Predators as assistant coach

The Nashville Predators got some coaching help from a division rival when they brought in former Minnesota Wild assistant Darby Hendrickson on Friday morning.

“We are excited to add a person and coach of Darby’s caliber to our organization,” Predators GM Barry Trotz said in a statement. “After spending more than a decade as a professional player, he has now been a quality coach in the NHL for a long time.”

The Wild dismissed Hendrickson late last month after 14 years of service behind the bench for the team, which the former Golden Gopher and Minnesota hockey lifer represented as a player from its inaugural season in 2000 until 2004.

Now, Hendrickson reunites with former teammate Andrew Brunette to help lead a Nashville outfit that overachieved last season thanks in no small part to attention to detail on the coaching side. Adding an assistant who aided six different head coaches in the Twin Cities should only bolster the Predators’ ability to adjust on the fly.

Since the Wild axed Hendrickson so coach John Hynes could find an assistant that better suits his vision for the team, it’s ironic the former now joins Brunette in Nashville, the same franchise that fired Hynes last offseason. The coaching carousel will only add to the intrigue the next time the two division rivals meet.

Though the Preds are coming off of an excellent season which saw them ride a second-half hot streak into the postseason as the No.7 seed, they face an uphill climb to repeat the trick ahead of what promises to be a second-consecutive transitional offseason.

A year after parting ways with Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene, Trotz traded veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the beginning of the offseason. If he does the same to franchise goaltender Juuse Saros, Brunette and Hendrickson will have their work cut out for them.