MINNEAPOLIS | Coaching firings are commonplace in professional sports. Faced with this reality, players usually pay little attention to it. Except when that coach is the one who helped you climb the ladder to the NHL. At that moment, the shock is felt a little more.
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This is what Frédérick Gaudreau experienced when the management of the Minnesota Wild fired Dean Evason on November 27.
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“It was sad to see him go. Dean and I had a great relationship for several years. Since my seasons in Milwaukee, in the American League,” said Gaudreau, reached by phone Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s the coach I played the most for. And I’m probably the player he managed the most often. “She’s a person I really like,” he continued.
Evason was at the helm of the Milwaukee Admirals, the Nashville Predators’ farm club, when Gaudreau began his career in the American League in 2014-2015.
Charmed by his determination and work ethic, Evason took him under his wing and gave him the tools necessary to allow him, three seasons later, to participate in the playoffs and the Stanley Cup final.
The little details
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He is also the one who attracted the Bromontois to Minnesota in the summer of 2021, allowing him to reach a new status.
“I know that Fred found it difficult,” admitted Marc-André Fleury. He didn’t have a straight path to reach the NHL. He followed Dean to Minnesota and it was with him that he became a regular. He must have felt bad for him.”
A status which allowed him a personal high for points (44), in 2021-2022, and for goals (19), last winter.
This time, his statistics are more modest (2 goals and 3 assists in 20 matches). It must be said that the 30-year-old center player was kept on the sidelines for 10 games due to an upper body injury.
But the main person concerned is not too worried.
“Statistics are what people look at when they don’t see the games. I don’t put any emphasis on that, he maintained. I believe more in the importance of playing the right way and the importance of the little details. In that regard, my game continues to improve.”
And John Hynes, his new trainer seems to trust him. Tuesday night, in Boston, he sent him into the three-on-three scrimmage in overtime.
Way to go
Moreover, the change of coach had the effect hoped for by general manager Bill Guerin. Since Hynes took office, the Wild have a record of eight wins and three losses.
“It’s actually getting better, but it’s not that things weren’t working with Dean,” Gaudreau insisted. When the snowball rolls in the wrong direction, it becomes difficult to stop. We were there. There was an energy that was difficult to overturn.”
Now that the wheel is back on the right side, Gaudreau and his teammates are trying to make up for the delay they have accumulated. Since they are only four points behind eighth place in the Western Conference, anything is still possible.
Let’s say the turn was made on time.