Minnesota Wild fire coach Dean Evason, hire John Hynes

The Minnesota Wild have announced that head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Bob Woods have been relieved of their duties with the club.

The news comes in the midst of a seven-game losing streak for the Wild. The club is second last in the Central Division with a 5-10-4 record and 14 points, just two over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Evason coached the Wild for five seasons, making the playoffs in each of the past four years. Despite this, the Wild never advanced out of the first round, but did take Vegas to Game 7 in 2021. In 2021-22, Evason helped the Wild to 53 wins, the best of his career.

“Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as Head Coach of our team,” GM Bill Guerin said. “I am very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization.”

As first reported by The Athletic’s Michael Russo, longtime NHL coach John Hynes will take over as the team’s seventh bench boss.

Hynes previously served as New Jersey’s coach over five seasons, winning one playoff game in that span. He spent the past four years with the Nashville Predators, advancing to the playoffs three times but failing to get out of the first round. The Predators missed the postseason with Hynes in charge last year.

At 3.95 goals against per game, the Wild are second behind the San Jose Sharks in that category. They have a season-long goal differential of minus-19. According to Money Puck, Filip Gustavsson (-7.1) and Marc-Andre Fleury (-7.4) are 74th and 75th respectively in goals saved above average – only Stuart Skinner at -8.6 is worse.

According to CapFriendly, the Wild has $617,069 in projected cap space. The team still has to pay Zach Parise and Ryan Suter a combined $14.743 million in buyout money toward the cap, with the price falling to $833,333 per player per season from 2025-29.