The Minnesota Wild’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, suddenly need to look for a new head coach.
Whether it was expected or not, Brett McLean, who was Iowa’s head coach was named as one of Adam Foote’s assistants with the Vancouver Canucks, leaving the AHL position and now Minnesota will need to fill that hole.
McLean has been in the Wild organization since 2017. Entering the coaching ranks as an assistant with the Iowa Wild for the 2017-18 season, then being promoted to an assistant coach in Minnesota before taking over the head coach position down in the AHL for the last two seasons.
Where will the Wild turn now? Will they just promote someone like current Iowa assistant Ben Simon, who previously held the head coaching job with the Grand Rapids Griffins for several years? Or, are they going to look outside the box for an opportunity to get an up-and-coming coach from one of the junior leagues? They have options and it will be interesting to see what path they take.
- More on McLean leaving the Wild organization for the first time in his coaching career and how the Wild will go about replacing him. [The Athletic]
- The New York Rangers and Wild could be perfect trade partners this summer. [Hockey Wilderness]
Off the trail…
- Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final was a barnburner. What a game. Takeaways from the Oilers taking the 1-0 series lead and what to look for in Game 2. [ESPN]
- Rogers, the telecommunications company up in Canada, did a fun and weird thing. They took ice from a couple of Oilers’ hometown rinks, and dropped some scrapings down in Edmonton’s arena. Huh. [CBC]
- More coaching news! The Boston Bruins officially hired Marco Sturm to be their new head coach. [NHL.com]