Wild, Stars, Devils say their coaches are safe, but should they be?

The NHL’s three biggest struggling teams all say their head coaches are safe from the chopping block. Is it wise for them to move on early?

The Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils currently stand as three of the NHL’s four bottom teams as the middle of October rolls along. It’s not a stretch to say that their head coaches are on the hot seat, as the teams have just seven points combined between the three of them after 19 total games played season.

American Thanksgiving in late November is usually the tipping point for NHL teams on whether or not their season is salvageable. Some teams, like the Philadelphia Flyers last year, hold out longer for one reason or another, but usually NHL teams fire their head coaches within the first few months of the season’s start.

For the Devils, Wild, and Stars; however, reports suggest that all three teams are content to stand pat with their head coaches two and a half weeks into the season. TSN’s trio of hockey insiders — Pierre LeBrun, Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger — spoke at length about each of the three teams coaching situations on Tuesday night’s segment of Insider Trading, and shed some light on the situation.

“All the elements are there where you understand the speculation,” LeBrun said of the Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau. “But in speaking with (GM) Bill Guerin on Tuesday, he said ‘listen I respect Bruce Boudreau, I’m going to be patient here.’ When he says patient not just with him, but with the entire roster before he starts making big changes.”

The Wild have gotten off to a 1-5-0 start this season, and are second-last in the NHL in terms of goal differential (-11) on the year. Devan Dubnyk has yet to win a game in net this season, while the roster remains in tatters after former general manager Paul Fenton failed to piece things together.

Boudreau is in his fourth and final year with the Wild, as his contract with the team expires at the end of the season, and hasn’t gotten the team out of the first round of the playoffs. The head coach is a prime candidate to be fired, as he is a hold-over from two general managers ago and hasn’t had nearly the success in the regular season, or the playoffs, that he had in Anaheim or Washington.

It is hard, however, to justify Boudreau’s firing now in the middle of October. The Wild were never projected to make the playoffs this season after firing their previous general manager, and the team is clearly within a transitional period. It’s more likely to see Boudreau last the year in Minnesota to finish out his contract, then have the Wild sign a head coach of general manager Guerin’s choosing in the offseason.

The Stars, on the other hand, were projected to have more than a fighting chance at a playoff spot, yet so far this season with a 1-5-1 record, they have struggled.

“Tough start for the Dallas Stars out of the gate as well, but the Stars organization believes that they are a better team than their record clearly indicates,” Darren Dreger said. “There’s no sense of panic coming from management or the coaching staff.”

The 2019-20 season will be the second for head coach Jim Montgomery with the Dallas Stars, and his second overall in the NHL. Last season, Dallas bowed out of the playoffs in the second round after finishing fourth in a tough Central Division.

This year, the Stars have the league’s third worst goal differential (-10) and have been hit with a rash of injuries, including forward Corey Perry and defenseman Roman Polak. Dallas no doubt should be better than they are, especially with the talent they possess in their locker room, and it’s easy to see why Montgomery could be on the hot seat with an underperforming roster.

Still, resisting the urge to panic is probably the right one by the Stars’ front office. Montgomery showed promise with the Stars last season, and this slow start could easily be rectified by stringing together some wins before the end of the month. Dallas’ schedule also hasn’t been kind to them, as they played three games against the last two Stanley Cup champions in St. Louis and Washington, followed by streaking Boston and Buffalo teams.

That just leaves the Devils, who have the best overall case to fire head coach John Hynes. The Twitter world was duped on Tuesday, as a fake Devils’ account spread a report that the team had fired Hynes and his staff from their positions, a report that turned out to be false.

“The heat is also on with the New Jersey Devils, they’ve not been playing well at all,” Bob McKenzie said during Insider Trading. “So much so that today there was fake Twitter news that the New Jersey Devils had actually fired head coach John Hynes and his entire staff, and it was not true at all. It’s not something that general manager Ray Shero is considering at this time.”

While the Devils reportedly aren’t considering canning Hynes and his staff, news broke on Wednesday that assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald will be joining New Jersey’s bench as an assistant coach. Though it’s not an outright move to fire Hynes, the play gives general manager Shero an additional eye in the locker room and on the bench to keep tabs on the situation.

The Devils, however, have been as bad as advertised. The front office made major strides in the offseason, but have yet to see those moves come to fruition. New Jersey is miles behind the 30 other NHL teams in goal differential (-16) as Cory Schneider and MacKenzie Blackwood haven’t inspired confidence in net. The core of Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier and this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick Jack Hughes have been lackluster offensively as the team has blown four-goal leads twice so far in the season.

Of all the coaches on the supposed hot seat early on this season, Hynes is the one most in danger, and probably the one that should be let go sooner rather than later. The Devils need a shake up to wake them up, and the two horrific collapses against the Florida Panthers and the Winnipeg Jets are signs of a team not ready for the challenges before them.

It’s unlikely an NHL head coach will be fired within these next few days, but if the Devils continue to show poor performances in the games ahead, we may be seeing a coaching vacancy in New Jersey on the horizon.