The writing is on the wall for Minnesota Wild head coach BruceBoudreau. He seems to have lost the locker room. Here are three coaches who could replace him if the Wild decide to move on.
Even before the 2019-20 NHL season started, Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau was on the hot seat. His team had just hired a new general manager and GMs tend to like to hire “their guy” as the coach. Had Bill Guerin been hired earlier, it’s likely Boudreau wouldn’t have even started the season as the head coach of the Wild.
A 1-6-0 start has the Wild at the bottom of not just the Western Conference, but the entire league. Changes are likely going to happen all across the organization. That likely includes behind the bench.
Boudreau isn’t an ideal coach for a rebuilding team. The Wild, even if they utterly refuse to admit it, are a rebulding team (or at least they should be). Boudreau was hired by Minnesota to help get the most out of an aging core. He’s squeezed all the juice out of this roster. There’s nothing left for Boudreau.
Moreover, Jason Zucker recently had some harsh words for his coach.
Zucker: "I think more than (a meeting's) going to have to jumpstart us to be honest with you. It’s going to be each individual guy from Bruce on down. Bruce has got to be better. We’ve got to be better. Everybody’s got to be better. That’s it."
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 18, 2019
Zucker later apologized for his comments, but he’s not completely wrong. Boudreau seemingly has lost the locker room. And once you lose the locker room as a coach, your days are numbered. Boudreau is a good coach. You don’t win as many games as he has without being one. But there’s a significant difference between being a good coach and being the right coach.
It seems it’s not a matter of if Boudreau will be replaced by the Wild. It’s a matter of when they will replace him. So let’s take a look at three potential replacements for Boudreau as the Wild are forced to look themselves in the mirror.