RandBall: Minnesota Wild's move of firing Paul Fenton surprising only in its accelerated timing

One big discussion on a recent trip with friends, which ended in a couple weekends ago, was this: Which Minnesota head coach or executive was the most likely to be fired next?

A lot of the discussion centered around the Vikings, given the nature of what feels like a make or break season. The caveat was the Wild. But the general group consensus there was that if the Vikings had a good season and maintained their stability, maybe something could happen with the Wild by early 2020 or next summer.

And of course a few days after the trip ended, we got a much quicker answer than we anticipated when the Wild fired Paul Fenton after just 14 months as general manager.

It reminds me of something I wrote several years ago during a particularly rough patch for a lot of the major local teams. I declared at the time that the Timberwolves were the least dysfunctional team in town — less so than the Wild.

I like to think at this point that I wasn't wrong. I was just the little bit early.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.