Minnesota’s Roster Holes Can Be Found With John Hynes’s Top-Heavy Lineup
The offseason of 2024 for the Minnesota Wild is a little bit cloudy. Following a dismal 2023–24 season characterized by injuries and poor play, concerns regarding Minnesota’s roster and its long-term goals are starting to surface.
The year 2023–24 was meant to demonstrate, in one way or another, whether they could make it to the postseason. Rather, they were completely absent from the event. The group must determine which players are contributing to the issue and who can help in order to stop that negative trend.
John Hynes, the new head coach, might be the best person to do it.
There are two reasons why Hynes might be more adept than his predecessor at identifying the roster’s shortcomings. The first is simple: he gives the coaching staff new perspectives.
Amid a seven-game losing skid, Hynes took over as head coach in place of Dean Evason less than two months into the campaign. Evason had nearly five years of experience with the team because he had been coaching in Minnesota since 2018. Presumably, he had developed connections with players such as Ryan Hartman, Freddy Gaudreau, Jared Spurgeon, Mats Zuccarello, and Marcus Foligno.
This familiarity can work to their benefit in terms of motivation, but it can also become a hindrance. Because they had gained his trust, Evason frequently turned to his seasoned veterans in pressing circumstances. In certain instances, though, those players gained that trust years prior. Players age over the course of five years, and their performance might deteriorate dramatically.
The youngest members of the team assumed leadership positions when Hynes arrived. Hartman and Zuccarello were replaced on the top line by Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, while Marco Rossi established himself as a regular in the middle of the six. With the intention of feeding the team’s best player, Hynes put rookie sensation Brock Faber on the ice with Kaprizov’s line.
These were the proper decisions for the team at the time, but these new roles came with significant expectations. They also have the bonus of helping to shape the team’s future leaders into positions of greater responsibility. It’s promising that Hynes may include more youngsters in the starting lineup for the following season. Hynes is a better choice to start the youth movement since he is more likely to hold a legitimate open camp competition, especially with Marat Khusnutdinov, Liam Ohgren, and Riley Heidt on the roster bubble for the upcoming season.
Hynes’ propensity to fill the top spot on the lineup card is the second reason he is better at identifying the team’s vulnerabilities. Playing such groupings together as much as possible, he places his best players on the top line and his best defenders on the top pair.
Evason, on the other hand, typically moved his best players about the lineup. This was due to a number of valid factors. It is more difficult to gameplan against balanced lineups. Evason made it harder for rival coaches to use a shutdown line against all three groups by splitting Boldy, Kaprizov, and Eriksson Ek among the top three lines.
By distributing his finest players, Kaprizov was also able to foster a relationship between Hartman and Zuccarello, which enhanced the strength of that line. Evason also helped Boldy and Johansson develop chemistry in 2022–2023. These were significant advantages for the Wild in the heat of a postseason match.
This philosophy’s drawback is that when the team’s greatest players overstate their linemates’ output, it becomes difficult to do self-scouting. It sets up an unwinnable debate: Was Johansson the key to Boldy’s “22–23 late-season scoring tear” or does Boldy make Johansson relevant?
Any analytical defense of the contracts at the time of the signings was accompanied by a disclaimer that there might be other factors at work that the figures didn’t adequately represent. It’s evident that the calculations were accurate now that Hynes has divided Hartman and Johansson from their superstar linemates.
This leaves a middle-six group that could have been filled by rookies but was full of pricey veterans. Although the Wild cannot reverse previous actions, they can at least fairly assess their forwards going ahead.
Hynes plays well with general manager Bill Guerin because of his propensity to put together lineups that feature a lot of players. Guerin’s ability to recognize opportunities and carefully nurture them appears to be his greatest asset. However, as demonstrated by the fact that he locked in the leadership group a year ahead of schedule in the previous season, he has a tendency to fall in love with his roster. Spots for those similar prospects are blocked by long contracts for veterans, but Hynes could be a solution.
Rather of icing the veterans alongside the team’s stars as essential supporting players, Hynes is prepared to play the veterans together even if they appear interchangeable. Put another way, he’ll let the bottom fall out if the roster lacks the depth to contend.
That fits Guerin’s idea of a high-accountability team culture just fine. Gamers will take their places at the appropriate slots. Hynes will adapt if a younger player can take the place of an older one.
Guerin is more responsible for his roster because of this mindset. Some nights the lineup card may appear unkempt, but it is a testament to the caliber of players Hynes has available. Minnesota cannot hope to contend with the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, or Vegas Golden Knights in the postseason by attaching market-rate veterans to its elite players.
Dean Evason should be commended for his efforts. Nobody could have altered the lineup’s chemistry in a way that would have allowed this team to make a significant postseason run. Eventually, he ran out of options due to a string of unfortunate injuries, which made it clear how large some of the roster’s gaps had become.