New Wild Coach

[Shane683]

Sounds like the Wild will announce tomorrow that Mike Yeo is the new coach. I was kind of hoping for McTavish.

[Bear55]

Interesting. I kind of figured they would go with Mac Tavish because he is the safe play but I do like the Yeo pick.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/124030464.html

[scsavre]

Grapevine made it sound like MacT wanted more money or he would rather coach winnepeg. The more I think of that Winnepeg job is going to be a good one.

I have to admit I am pretty surprised that Wild went with the young inexperienced coach again. The guy is only 37.....I sure hope it works. I dont know much about him. I hope he can motivate a lockerroom full of third liners and AHL players.

[Bran32]

I like it!, Wasn't thrilled about McTavish at all! Yeo did well with the Aeros and a bunch of guys that will probably up with the Wild next year because I think they will go young but I hope they keep Bruno around for at least one more year!

[mulefarm]

Between Maturi, Kahn and Fletcher we have the makings of the 3 stooges. Yeo maybe OK, but what we really need is some real NHL caliber players. If Clutterbuck and Kovi are your top players you have a long way to go. I bet we draft another soft euro?

[OnAFly]

Soft euros like Koivu....yeah, he's a softy alright.

Clutterbuck - 23 years old, scores 19G, 34Pts last year and skates as hard as he can every shift while playing physically. A lot of teams would love to have either of those players.

Yeo seems like a good pick. From all accounts I've heard he not a green as Richards was and he's tends to get more respect from his players. We need a guy who can walk into the locker room and put a little fire under the players after a loss, not guy that says, "well, we tried our best." From what I've heard Yeo is a guy that can do that.

[Bear55]

I agree OnAFly, he actually has a lot more experience then Richards, I think 5 years as an NHL assistant that included 2 runs to the Stanley Cup finals with Pitt. One cup win and one cup loss gives him a lot of playoff experience that will hopefully come in handy at some point down the road. He also left a pretty cushy job in Pittsburgh to be an AHL head coach because he knew that was the path to an NHL head coaching job. It's a risky move but I think it could pay off for us.

[spearchucker]

Yeo won a cup in Pittsburgh as an assistant to Blysma (or whatever his name is?) Hopefully we can make some trades on July 1st and get some goal scorers. I think MacTavish is waiting on the Winnipeg job and the Wild didn't have time to wait. Yeo took a team without much offense to the Calder Cup finals, so he can't be that bad.

[Musky Buck]

Time will tell if yao Ming can get us on the map again. Does it really matter which coach we get right now, bet Jaques Lemaire is way happy he didn't stay to see the ship sink, it will take a few years for sure and our drafting folks should be fired before the coach but hey when James Sheppard and Colton Gillies get rollin we'll be fine lol.

[scsavre]

I just pray we don't sign any more muli million dollar 3rd liners this offseason. Actually in most organizations they'd be 4th linrs.

I don't know what we are gonna do at the draft. We are so used to the drafts being worthless that we should just trade our entire draft for a couple good forwards. How about our draft, burns, mittens and barker for parise and a second liner.

[Bear55]

Well we do have a whole new set of guys making the draft picks these days. It might take a few years to find out if they know what they are doing, I do like the picks we made last year, might be some players in that group. We picked up a couple of very promising goalies the year before too.

[OnAFly]

So far a few of our prospects from last year are doing well. Time will tell if they are going to end up having an impact, but throwing the towel in because the last regime drafted well doesn't make sense.

BTW - It's tough to trade Mittens when he doesn't play for us anymore

We should buy out Barker...that guy is a boat anchor.

[10,000 Casts]

Mike Yeo Named Wild Head CoachFriday, 06.17.2011 / 8:00 AM / News By Glen Andresen - Managing Editor

Chuck Fletcher's long and exhaustive search for the third head coach in the Minnesota Wild's franchise history is over.

With the NHL Entry Draft and free agency looming, Fletcher won't get a break from making important decisions. But he will get some input on those tough choices from the new coach of the Wild, Mike Yeo, who is now the youngest coach in the NHL at 37 years old.

“Mike possesses a great passion for coaching and is a strong communicator,” said Fletcher. “He has been a winner at every level throughout his extensive coaching career.”

There's no question that winning has followed Yeo wherever he's gone. His teams have advanced to the finals five times in his 11-year coaching career in the American Hockey League and the National Hockey League. As a player, he won a Turner Cup as a member of the Aeros, and he also coached last year's Wild prospects to an undefeated record at the Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan.

It was 366 days ago that Yeo was tabbed to lead the Houston Aeros, the Wild's primary developmental affiliate. In his first year as a head coach, he led the Aeros to a 46-28-1-5 record and an appearance in the Calder Cup Finals. He accomplished this with a mix of veteran pros and young prospects looking to crack the Wild's roster. However, he had very few first round picks (Colton Gillies was the only Wild first rounder to play the full season with Houston) at his disposal, and he dealt with a slew of key players jumping on flights from Houston to St. Paul, including Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella and Casey Wellman.

Yeo had aspirations of becoming an NHL Head Coach, but even he admits his dream is being realized earlier than expected.

"I'll be honest, I did believe in myself and I don't think you really get anywhere without having that vision and doing everything you can to make it happen," said Yeo. "Everything aside, I am well aware that I'm pretty fortunate to be in this position at this age and I'm well aware that along the way I've had a lot of help. From the teams I've had to coach, to the people I've had a chance to work with, all have been huge contributing factors to getting me to this point."

Some had speculated that Fletcher would feel obligated to hire a coach with a wealth of experience as an NHL bench boss following the dismissal of Todd Richards in April. The GM decided he'd rather go with a young coach who has proven, and won a lot of games in a short amount of time.

For Fletcher, finding the best man for the job superseded any need for someone with a large number of years behind a bench.

"It came down to some real good candidates at the end, but I think a few things separated Mike in my opinion," said the Wild GM. "I just love the intangibles he brings: He's a very good communicator, he's a very good teacher and, probably as importantly, he's a very good listener. I think he's somebody that's looking to learn all the time, looking for new ideas. He's willing to work with people, yet, he also has an edge. When he makes up his mind, he's pretty adamant about how he wants things to go and he doesn't let things slip … He was one of the best combinations, in my opinion, of technical expertise and good communication skills. So, he brings a lot to the table and for a young man, he has a tremendous amount of experience."

After having his playing career cut short due to a knee injury, Yeo joined the Pittsburgh Penguins organization as assistant for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. After six years there, which included two Calder Cup appearances, Yeo became an assistant in Pittsburgh and was a part of two Stanley Cup Finals, including 2009 when he hoisted the grandest trophy in all of sports.

During his year with the Aeros, Yeo distinguished himself as a master of preparation and getting players to "buy into his system." He stressed team speed, getting into the offensive zone and managing the puck while there.

“He’s a great coach,” said defenseman Nate Prosser, who spent last season in Houston and is poised to challenge for a roster spot this fall. “He knows so much about the game, and the systems he brought in worked unbelievably.

With a lot of young guys, there are a lot of questions, and [Yeo and his Houston staff] have a lot of answers.”

He'll inherit a team that he's familiar with, including several of those players that are expected to be ready to make a full-time jump to the NHL.

"We've got a lot of good players in Houston that are knocking on the door," said Yeo. "Not only how they grew this year, but I think more than anything, what they did in the playoffs. I was there firsthand to watch it and to see the way that those guys paid the price ... So, I've got a good understanding of what those guys bring and I expect them to really challenge for a real competitive training camp."

Yeo is excited to be the guy that will make those decisions and can watch those players flourish at the next level.

"I think one of the biggest ways [Houston prepared me for this position] was as far as planning your own team. Whether it's going into training camp and having a good plan in place, [or] making sure that coming out of training camp you're doing the right things to make sure that your team is playing the right way day in and day out. But also, you're building the right identity, you're building the right culture within your team, you're building a team that wants to go to war with each other each and every day."

The new Head Coach admits that he'll have to tweak his coaching philosophy slightly moving to the NHL level, but has some high aspirations for his new team.

"Certainly, you have to look at your personnel and that what you have is going to fit with the style and identity that you want to bring," said Yeo. "But with that, the game that I want to bring is very similar to the Pittsburgh Penguins. I think if you look at them, it's easy to say 'Well, they have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin' but what's really impressive about them is the way that they lost those guys this year and the way that they were able to sustain being one of the top teams in the NHL. For us and what we're going to bring to the table, we're going to be a team that's tough to play against."

As Yeo' begins to consult with Fletcher on a search for assistants, as well as attend next week's NHL Draft, he's also making it a priority to speak with his new team.

"First and foremost, I have to get with the players," said Yeo. "There's going to be a period here in the next couple of days where I'm going to have to get my life in order as far as things back in Houston and finding a way to get ourselves settled here, but in that time I have to make sure we get in touch with the players and start planting the seed for what it is we want to get accomplished here, for the way that we're going to do it and starting to build those relationships with those guys. Because at the end of the day, we're all teammates, we're going to start going to war together, so I'd like to start getting on that ball right away."

[10,000 Casts]

Risky move and I still don't get why they fired Todd Richards.. They just traded Maxim Noreau for a young center that might be a goal scorer in a few years and might compete for the 3rd-4th line along with everybody else..

All I care about is bringing up Matt Kassian, He should have been up all last year instead of Staubitz.

[spearchucker]

BTW - It's tough to trade Mittens when he doesn't play for us anymore

We should buy out Barker...that guy is a boat anchor.

He plays for us until at least June 30th.

I am all for buying out Barker. It will be our only option because nobody will want his $3.5 mil salary.