The Minnesota Wild are riding high after the Quinn Hughes acquisition, and head coach John Hynes is reaping the benefits of having a superstar added to his backend. The Wild face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night, who have a familiar face behind the bench in Dean Evason, who Minnesota fired halfway through the 2023-24 season.
The Wild hired Hynes to replace Evason, and he nearly led them to the playoffs after starting in a bad spot from Evason's tenure. Minnesota worked its way back to the playoffs last season before its first-round elimination by the Vegas Golden Knights, and is now in a great spot to build on that this season as one of the league's top teams.
Despite any lingering bad blood over his firing, Evason kept it light with the media on Thursday morning. When asked about the Wild's improvements, he stated, “They're coached better,” according to Michael Russo via X, formerly Twitter.
While there was a tongue-in-cheek tone to the joke, it isn't the first comment Evason made since the Hughes acquisition. He also joked to reporters about Bill Guerin's aggressiveness in the deal, according to Mark Scheig via X.
“I should text Billy (Guerin) and say you should have made a trade like that when I was the coach,” Evason quipped. “But I didn't.”
It seems like Evason is trying to laugh through the pain of being unable to coach this version of the Wild. As the Blue Jackets slip down the standings, Minnesota and John Hynes are in a position to make a deep playoff run if they can make it through the vaunted Central Division.
