Michael Russo: Dean Evason 5th full time head coach

[16thOverallSaveUs]

I’m pretty happy I was a big fan of his utilization in his short stint

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[ThatGuy22]

only a 2 year contract. Seems like it's just extending the "temporary" nature of his employment through the two wonky seasons.

 

[Ban Hammered]

Meh.

 

[AJ Thelen]

Weird timing.

 

[Digitalbooya]

I’m cool with it.

 

[Lapa]

I like it.

 

[MuckOG]

Based on the small sample size, I liked what I saw...

 

[Wild11MN]

Weird timing.

Agreed, weird timing.

I think I'm good with this decision. Might have been wiser to do some sort of search first though.

 

[nt3005]

I think this was a pretty savvy move by Billy G. This offseason is already going to be chaotic, no need to add in a coaching search. Its essentially keeping him as a placeholder and seeing what can happen.

Although the interesting part might be the 3 assistant coaches who have expiring contracts... including our long time goalie coach.

 

[BlackBusa24]

I would have preferred a search myself... Although I'm not very high on him as a coach... Certainly not better than boudreau...

 

[MuckOG]

I would have preferred a search myself... Although I'm not very high on him as a coach... Certainly not better than boudreau...

I was against the firing of BB at first, but I thought Evason did a pretty good job. Fiala definitely played better under Evason than BB.

 

[keppel146]

Free Fiala, and glad we are giving him an opportunity

 

[grN1g]

If he gives the talent the time instead of catering to vets im ok with this.

 

[BagHead]

I think this was a pretty savvy move by Billy G. This offseason is already going to be chaotic, no need to add in a coaching search. Its essentially keeping him as a placeholder and seeing what can happen.

Although the interesting part might be the 3 assistant coaches who have expiring contracts... including our long time goalie coach.

I have to agree. Normally I'd be all for doing a coaching search and including him in the list of candidates, with a bit of an inside track on the job, but with how truncated and weird this off-season will be they might as well make part of it easy. There's enough disruption as it is. I really thought this would be Torchetti 2.o, in that he'd be a coach that got the team playing well after the previous coach had been fired, and then get canned in the off-season. Glad to see he's getting a real chance.

 

[TaLoN]

I was against the firing of BB at first, but I thought Evason did a pretty good job. Fiala definitely played better under Evason than BB.

Coming out of a slump in January, his high level of play actually started in BB's last 6 games as coach.

BB's last 6 games, 5g,5a,10pts. Even going back to 12 games while including the end of the slump, still 13pts (+3a).

In 12 games with DE, he had 9g, 7a,15pts.

Small sample size for both in his hot streak. No conclusion can be made on that IMO.

 

[57special]

Easy come, easy go. Guerin can try him out, and if it doesn't go well, fire him. Doesn't have to pay the big bucks and go through an adjustment period that you'd have to with a more established guy.

 

[a79krgm]

I'm ok with it …but why now? Couldn't Guerin reward him with contract AFTER the Wild beat the CanucKnuckleheads?

 

[2Pair]

Coming out of a slump in January, his high level of play actually started in BB's last 6 games as coach.

BB's last 6 games, 5g,5a,10pts. Even going back to 12 games while including the end of the slump, still 13pts (+3a).

In 12 games with DE, he had 9g, 7a,15pts.

Small sample size for both in his hot streak. No conclusion can be made on that IMO.

The conclusion is that Boudreau took 50 games to realize something that he should've known coming into the season, and rightfully got fired for it.

 

[a79krgm]

The conclusion is that Boudreau took 50 games to realize something that he should've known coming into the season, and rightfully got fired for it.

I'm not following. What should have BB known? That Fiala ended the 2018-2019 season as a pure give-away machine? No surprise he started the next season the same way.

 

[AKL]

I'm not following. What should have BB known? That Fiala ended the 2018-2019 season as a pure give-away machine? No surprise he started the next season the same way.

Boudreau started two of the purest offensive talents we have in the system swapping out between fourth line and press box duties. Ryan Donato scored 16 points in 22 games. That's a 60 point pace for a month and a half. He deserved to start in the press box? Fiala clearly was dripping talent. Why would you put him with Rask and Hartman?

 

[2Pair]

I'm not following. What should have BB known? That Fiala ended the 2018-2019 season as a pure give-away machine? No surprise he started the next season the same way.

Anyone who watched him play could see that he was far and away the most talented forward on the team. Boudreau decided he didn't like him because he didn't like Fenton. The "pure give-away" machine is just the bullshit that he and others that disliked the trade used to justify shitting on Fiala. Good players that are willing to try and make plays are going to make turnovers as well. It's called being a hockey player.

 

[AKL]

I feel like I've done something like this before, but just to put the "turnover machine is bad player" narrative to rest, here it is again. A list of players that led the league in GvA/60 (with a meaningful number of GP, let's say 40):

Barzal
M. Tkachuk
Pastrnak
Malkin
Trochek
Getzlaf
A. Svechnikov
Panarin
Draisaitl
Kreider
Marner
Buchnevich
Klingberg
Muzzin
J. Hughes
Huberdeau
Chiarot
Bear
Gaudreau
Kulikov
Larkin
McDavid

Should I keep going or is 22 enough?

Did I make a point?

How many of those 22 players would we take on this team in a heartbeat? 17?

How many of those would instantly be our best player, or at least our best forward? 12?

 

[a79krgm]

Anyone who watched him play could see that he was far and away the most talented forward on the team. Boudreau decided he didn't like him because he didn't like Fenton. The "pure give-away" machine is just the bullshit that he and others that disliked the trade used to justify shitting on Fiala. Good players that are willing to try and make plays are going to make turnovers as well. It's called being a hockey player.

Fiala kept turning pucks over and not getting pucks deep. The Wild were losing. Russo wrote something bad about him almost every game. The kid lost his confidence. Kevin said he was playing poorly and credited Boudreau for helping him. Very straight forward. The only "bullshit" here is the idea that Boudreau "didn't like him".

 

[2Pair]

Fiala kept turning pucks over and not getting pucks deep. The Wild were losing. Russo wrote something bad about him almost every game. The kid lost his confidence. Kevin said he was playing poorly and credited Boudreau for helping him. Very straight forward. The only "bullshit" here is the idea that Boudreau "didn't like him".

Boudreau's best buddy Russo? The same Russo that hates Paul Fenton more than anyone around? Fiala took the high road and said all the right things. That doesn't change the fact that Boudreau did a terrible job of coaching this season.

Fiala still turns the puck over more than anyone on the team. The difference is that he's been given the linemates and icetime to make up for the turnovers. That's called coaching.

 

[AKL]

Boudreau's best buddy Russo? The same Russo that hates Paul Fenton more than anyone around? Fiala took the high road and said all the right things. That doesn't change the fact that Boudreau did a terrible job of coaching this season.

Fiala still turns the puck over more than anyone on the team. The difference is that he's been given the linemates and icetime to make up for the turnovers. That's called coaching.

To be fair, Staal actually commits more turnovers and more GvA/60 than Fiala.
Fiala also has the third most takeaways (behind Greenway and Hartman) and sixth most TkA/60 (.03 behind Koivu).

Even last year in Nashville, the player who was a bigger threat to give away the puck than Fiala was none other than Filip Forsberg.