The Wild this season allowed 20 goals in their first three games, all losses. It was easy to make immediate assumptions that their offseason strategy and early-season approach — fueled by General Manager Bill Guerin and head coach Dean Evason, respectively — were off-base and were going to lead to a significant regression from last year's franchise-record 113-point season.
In praise of the Wild's top combo: Bill Guerin and Dean Evason
The Wild have navigated major transitions in the last few years without sacrificing success. The general manager and head coach should get a lot of credit.
January 5, 2023 at 11:08PM
But then a gradual correction became an accelerated groove. First the Wild fought back to .500, and since they have zoomed past it. Now they're 22-13-2, winners of nine of their past 11 games, the most impressive of which might have been Wednesday's 5-1 takedown of Tampa Bay.
What's particularly impressive is that he Wild has done so while navigating significant injuries to players like Jordan Greenway, Ryan Hartman, Brandon Duhaime and Marcus Foligno and while adapting to a manner of winning that is different on many nights than it was last season — something I talked about on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Guerin and Evason are at or near the top of any list of the best executive-coach combination in major Twin Cities sports.
Guerin inherited a messy situation in 2019 following the firing of Paul Fenton after barely a year on the job. The Wild had an aging roster and had failed to make the playoffs in 2018-19 after six consecutive trips to the postseason, but Guerin's mandate from ownership was to try to stay competitive.
The Wild have done that even with Guerin making the calculated decision to buy out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter — a move that brought clarity and certainty but plenty of salary cap pain.
That the Wild are in position to be in the playoffs again this year, the first during which the Suter and Parise buyouts are significantly felt, is a testament to smart roster-building and the acumen of Evason in getting the most out of players.
Evason replaced Bruce Boudreau in the midst of Guerin's first year as GM in 2019-20 and has compiled a record of 118-55-14 — a .668 points percentage that is No. 3 all-time among coaches with at least 100 games.
This year, Evason has helped the Wild evolve into a more complete team. Despite that horrendous opening three-game stretch, the Wild has allowed just 103 goals on the season — second-fewest in the Western Conference.
Whether this translates into a deep playoff run and the possibility of a championship at some point remains to be seen. But from here, the Wild looks like a very well-run team.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
