With August gone, we are officially in September, which means training camp and preseason are just weeks away. While all Minnesota Wild player report cards have been handed out, the head coach and front office staff still need grades.
That means head coach John Hynes and general manager Bill Guerin must receive their grades. In this article, we’ll look at a rough part of each individual’s season where they need to improve and then a good part that they can capitalize on for this upcoming season. Then, we’ll come up with an overall grade for each individual. We’ll start with a rough part for Hynes and Guerin and move on.
Hynes Special Teams & Guerin’s Eagerness
After the Wild’s up-and-down season, it’s easy to blame both Hynes and Guerin since they are in charge. While they weren’t on the ice playing, they still need to improve, and for Hynes, that is finding some consistency with the special teams. When Hynes started with the team, he turned their season around and seemed to be heading in the right direction. However, the newness wore off after some time, and the team started to show its issues again.
He did find some success with the special teams throughout the season, but it could have been more consistent, and it sometimes cost them. In some games, they had a great power play, while in others, they had a rough penalty kill. Typically, coaches hand off their special teams to an associate coach, but they still can change things, and Hynes will need to do that this coming season if things don’t improve, especially their penalty kill, which only mustered a 74.5 kill percentage.
Switching to Guerin, it was harder to find things to improve at since he’s not the coach and he’s not on the ice. He takes care of more of the behind-the-scenes work, such as making choices for who’s on the team and contracts, which are equally important but don’t get as much attention compared to the goal-scoring on the ice.
However, this past season, he made some signings that probably could’ve waited and might have cost them some valuable cap space. While most trust in Guerin’s approach and should with his pedigree, the signings did cause some head-scratching. Those signings were Marcus Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, and Ryan Hartman, who all received more than one-year deals this past season.
Each deal made sense; however, many weren’t excited about the terms, except Hartman’s. Extending Foligno for his physical presence and leadership was a great move, but four seasons may be a bit long if he can’t produce, and similar can be said about Hartman and his three-year deal.
It was expected they would keep Zuccarello around for another season, but again, two may be a bit long if they expect to move young kids into the lineup. However, with other teams in the mix, this is likely what the team had to do to keep these players around. Hopefully, these deals will be worth it, and we should see soon enough.
Hynes Learning & Guerin’s Confidence
Now it’s time to look at what Hynes did well this season, and that was his willingness to learn from the team. When he first joined the Wild after the dismissal of former head coach Dean Evason, he didn’t rush to make changes to the lineup. Instead, he allowed the team to show him how they worked, and then he slowly added his own tweaks along the way.
Starting his coaching tenure by learning about the team first earned the team’s trust quicker. Along with the way he joined the team, he also impressed with his ability to make changes once the team was comfortable with him behind the bench. He didn’t hesitate to make line adjustments, including goaltending, when things weren’t working.
However, he wasn’t quick to abandon their goaltending when it struggled. Like his general manager, he had faith in his team. Guerin thrived in this area because of his confidence in his team, which he helped build. When asked if his team had what it takes, every time his answer didn’t waiver: Yes, they do have it, and they’ll get there.
Although some of Guerin’s signings were questionable, one stood out as a great deal: his most recent signing, Brock Faber. He signed the star defenseman to an eight-year deal that will keep him in Minnesota through his peak years. Faber will likely outplay his deal, and the Wild are lucky to have him, which Guerin made sure of when he traded Kevin Fiala for Faber in June 2022 along with a first-round pick in that years draft.
Hynes & Guerin’s Grades
After reviewing the rough and strong parts of Hynes and Guerin’s seasons, it’s time to give them their respective grades. Hynes will receive his grade first, and he earned a B+. His grade wasn’t lower because he didn’t have a full season and off-season with the team, which would’ve given him time to adjust to the team without having to do it on the go.
It also wasn’t higher because despite the team’s win streaks, they couldn’t make it into the postseason, and they did have the chance with him as coach. This coming season, he’ll be able to prove what kind of coach he is after having a full offseason to make game plans and adjustments to get into the postseason.
Now it’s Guerin’s turn for his grade. After looking over his signings this past season and the confidence he showed in his team, he also earned a B+. His signings, while questioned, have their reasons. As the Locked On Wild Podcast pointed out a couple of weeks ago when discussing the topic of contracts, outside of Wild staff, no one has the full details of what goes into those signings, so it’s hard to say who and what influenced those decisions, so he’s earned some slack there.
Related: Wild’s GM Bill Guerin Right Choice for Team USA
That’s the main reason his grade wasn’t lower, but it also wasn’t higher because they didn’t make the postseason. While most of that blame falls on the team on the ice, Guerin could also make changes to the roster despite the cap space constraints, whether that included bringing up a player when a veteran was struggling or making a trade at the trade deadline. It’ll be interesting to see his decisions this coming season and if he can help get them back to the postseason as they intend to.
