Nashville Predators expected to hire John Hynes as head coach
After firing Peter Laviolette as their head coach, the Nashville Predators are going to replace him with former New Jersey Devils head coach John Hynes.
The Nashville Predators shocked the NHL on Monday night when they fired head coach Peter Laviolette. Though the team was underachieving, it was still surprising to see general manager David Poile fire his head coach after giving him a vote of confidence.
What made it even more surprising was the fact that the Predators didn’t name an interim head coach. Usually, when a team fires someone, they immediately replace them. This wasn’t the case with Laviolette.
However, according to Elliotte Friedman, the Predators are expected to name John Hynes as his replacement. Hynes will be behind the bench on Tuesday night when the Predators play the Boston Bruins. He was fired earlier this season by the New Jersey Devils after he failed to help them live up to their great expectations.
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UPDATE: The Predators have officially hired Hynes.
Hynes and Poile has worked together in the past with Team USA hockey, so seeing these two reunite isn’t completely surprising. It’s worth noting, though, that Hynes is just the third head coach Poile has had with the Predators. He’s patient to a fault with his head coaches. Only time will tell if Hynes can turn the Predators season around.
Defensively, Hynes makes sense for Nashville. His calling card has always been shot suppression. The Predators could certainly use help there, especially with their terrible goaltending. Nashville’s greatest strength is their blueline, so Hynes should help out there.
The big question, though, is if Hynes can fix their offense, power play, and goaltending. Those three things have been ailing the Predators all season. Poile seems to be hitching his wagon to Hynes. If he can save the Predators season, all is well. But if Hynes can’t, maybe the Preds should look a little bit higher in the organization for change.
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As a head coach, Hynes has a career record of 150-159-45. All of his 354 regular season games over five seasons have been spent with the Devils. Hynes helped the Devils reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs during the 2017-18 season. That was the only time the team made the playoffs under his tutelage.