ST. PAUL, Minn. — Earlier this month, The Athletic spoke with Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes for an annual Q&A before training camp.
Most players have been in town for several days or weeks, but Wednesday is the day they officially report, and they hit the ice for the first time Thursday. Part of the new collective bargaining agreement, there’s no longer fitness testing, and camp will be abbreviated, with four exhibition games before the now-84-game season starts Oct. 1 on the road against the Nashville Predators. The home opener is Oct. 3 against the Boston Bruins.
Hynes is close to signing a multiyear contract extension, according to league sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address negotiations that aren’t public. He is entering his fourth season in Minnesota and his third full season, with a 125-79-23 record, and last season he coached the Wild to their first first-round series win in 11 years.
In Part 1 of our Q&A, Hynes addresses the challenges of a shortened training camp, potential line combinations, how he’ll use some of the team’s new pieces and more. Come back Tuesday for Part 2, which he discusses the road-heavy start, his disenchantment with letdowns after big wins last year, whether Hunter Haight and Charlie Stramel have a chance to make the team, what he expects from Jesper Wallstedt this season and how he plans to improve the team’s penalty kill.
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(Note: Some questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.)
What does the shortened training camp change for you?
It doesn’t change much. You have to put a little more in on some days. It takes out some of the lag days, to be honest, where sometimes you could just practice. But it won’t change Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. That first exhibition (Sept. 19) against Chicago, we probably won’t play (many) veterans. So I’ll have a chance to have pretty close to a full Wild practice on Day 3. Then we have Day 4 off, then we come back and play Chicago on (Sept. 21). That would probably be some more younger-veteran guys for us, maybe a couple of older guys that want to play in it. We would have a practice group and game group on that Monday. Then we would have two groups practice on Tuesday. Then we play at Dallas on Wednesday. That would probably be a younger group going there because of the trip, so then you basically get another full-team practice. Then we have a day off. Then we have a game against Dallas. Then we practice, practice, day off.
So it’ll wind up being probably seven or eight close-to-full-team practices, if not full-team. So you still get a lot of time with the group. It should be good how we have it laid out.
So, unlike most years, you’ll have two groups at the start as opposed to three?
Yeah, starting camp, it’ll be two groups. And I’ll still split it a little bit for the first couple of days. Normally, on those first few days, you have like 11 forwards and six defensemen. Now we’ll practice with 12 forwards and eight defensemen in basically each group. So we’ll have NHL lines. I might have Haight in a group with a couple NHL guys, so it’ll still be split. Then I might have (Brock) Faber and (Quinn) Hughes as a pair, and then have (Jonas) Brodin and (Jared Spurgeon) as a pair on the other team. Then it might have (Olli) Määttä and (Zach Bogosian) on one, and then (Daemon Hunt) and, say, (Carson Lambos) on the other.
So the teams would be pretty well stacked. Out of the gate — I don’t want to say the camp will be more competitive, but we won’t have the junior kids. It will be your NHL team and your Iowa team for the most part. So the standard of play will probably be a little bit higher.
Does Maxim Shabanov get the first crack with Kirill Kaprizov, whether it be with Ryan Hartman or somebody else?
Yes. We really want to see Shabanov in that spot — see what he could look like. What does he look like possibly with (Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy)? What does (Blake) Coleman look like with Boldy and Ek? What would Coleman look like, let’s say, with Hartzy and Kirill? We’ll try Shabanov there. (Bobby) Brink, we’re going to take a look at him there, too. So I think those are the options.
I also would like to see where (Danila) Yurov is. If you take where he was at last training camp last season and see how he prepared (over) the summer, he’s a good player. It’s tough because you can’t experiment too much, but I do think that we would look at those combos.
I prefer Hartzy at center versus the wing. But if Yurov looks fantastic and Hartzy looks good, and maybe Shabanov and Brink aren’t there yet, maybe you (must) have Yurov in between, say, Hartzy and Kirill, if it comes to it. Ideally, I’d like to have Hartzy at center.
I talked to (skating and skills coach) Andy Ness, and he said (Shabanov) looks good. He’s quick and fast. He’s got poise with the puck. He makes plays. He liked him in the (captain’s practices). You have to give him a chance. He is a new guy, and he does have the skill set that fits where we should give him the opportunity. That’s how I look at it. His skill set fits there. There is an opening in that spot, in (Mats Zuccarello’s) spot.
Now it will come down to how it looks and how it works with them.
Depending on the exhibition games, even if Kirill plays later in the camp, I would still try maybe a Shabanov-Yurov-Brink type of line. Maybe something like that works in the (exhibition) games if some of the big guys don’t play. I’m going to try to give him Shabanov every opportunity to play with the more talented, skilled players. Same with Yurov.
In terms of Eriksson Ek and Boldy, is your mindset that it would be really hard to put Boldy with Kaprizov permanently and load that up? In other words, you’ll keep it in your bag of tricks if you need to do it in-game but not necessarily permanently?
Yeah, that’s how I feel right now. There are certainly going to be times in games (when) that will happen, depending on how things shake out a little bit. What do some of the combos look like? Can Brink take the next step? Is Shabanov ready to do it? I do think it is important.
I’d rather not have them together full-time for a couple of reasons. Obviously, it’s probably good for matching and things like that … but both (can) make other players better. So, is it going to happen this year? Yes. I can tell you yes now — they are going to be on the ice together. Would it ever be a lot? Maybe for a short term. But ideally I wouldn’t like to have them together on a full line.
Blake Coleman is a very decorated pro, with a couple of Stanley Cup titles, and he seems to be a bit of a Swiss Army knife, giving you the flexibility to play him at center, wing, top two lines, penalty kill, all of that. How excited are you for his arrival?
(I’m) really excited to have Cole. I’ve always had a good relationship with him. When he was a younger player in New Jersey, he made that jump from the American League to the NHL and was a really good player.
He’s got a great personality. He’s a great teammate. He’s high energy. He’s got a good presence about him. His experience speaks for itself, obviously, with the two Cups and his versatility on the ice. He’s an ultra-competitor. He can play multiple roles, multiple situations. He’s fast. He’s tenacious. He (can) score. He’s really good on the penalty kill.
He also has elements very similar to (Marcus Johansson), where I know he (can) play with top guys. But if certain guys fill those spots and there’s chemistry there, even (with) him playing in the third slot, he fills a lot of different roles, in my opinion. Four-on-four, penalty kill, net front on the power play, possibly.
Also, I think his experience and personality, and the way that he plays the game and goes about his business, it’s what you need in a good room.
How are Eriksson Ek and Brodin doing after their injuries in the playoffs?
(They) are doing really well. Ekky looks great. Fantastic. Full go. And Brodes is the same way. Brodes has been skating four days a week. Fully healthy, healed, ready to go.
It’s a big year for Hartman — a contract year. What do you expect from him? He looked like he matured last year from a discipline and temper standpoint.
Yeah, Hartzy grew a lot last year. His discipline, demeanor, and mindset were what we needed. He still was an intense competitor, but his penalty discipline was very good. I thought he stayed focused. At times, you even saw teams kind of go after him and try to goad him into some things. I thought last year was a carryover from the Vegas series, where they kind of ran him a little bit early in the series. No retaliation, just played. That’s what we need from him.
He’s such an effective player for us that we need him on the ice and doing things that give us the best chance to win, which comes back to that discipline. He certainly took a step in that, so we’re looking for him to continue that. Then I just think continuing the consistency in what makes him an effective player, bringing the same things every night, staying on page with his game.
When he’s moving his feet, playing smart, making good puck decisions, he is highly competitive — when that combo comes together, Hartzy is a really effective player. So just looking for more continued growth from him in those areas.
Michael McCarron signed a six-year deal. Are you looking at him as your third-line center?
There’s going to be competition for that when you look down the middle. (There is) Hartzy, Ekky, Yurov, McCarron, (Nico) Sturm. (Nick) Foligno can play center. Matt can certainly play there, but I think the center position is not set in stone right now as far as who’s going where. Some of that needs to play out.
And part of that is probably that you don’t want Yurov on your fourth line, right? So if you do want it to go Hartman, Eriksson Ek, McCarron at center, could we see Yurov at wing a little bit, or is that not something you guys want to do?
There’s always potential on wing, but he is such a good centerman. The way that he controls the ice. He skates very well. He really reads the game. As a centerman, for breakout support, coming into D-zone coverage, I like (how) he can cover the ice and distribute the puck — the way that he skates.
Ideally, you’d like to keep him in the middle. But (as) I said, I think it’s not just kind of slotting them in. I think there’s going to be a little competition to see. I don’t want to come into camp and assume that McCarron’s the fourth-line center, Yurov’s the third-line center and Hartzy’s this center or Ekky’s here.
We know the skill sets of the players. Now let’s let them play, compete and help us decide what the right combos and slots will be.
How excited are you about Hughes and Faber for a full year now?
Very, very excited to see those two guys together. I think we alluded to it a lot last year. Those two guys getting chemistry and playing together, then not playing together, then coming back together — they’re two highly, highly talented players, but they do work well together. So that’s exciting. And now they have, what is it, 40 games plus playoffs under their belt, basically?
I think that’s exciting for (them). But even just the team in general, some of the things that Quinn brought to the team — things that he can execute and do — you can get through those things in training camp and get them honed in for the regular season. It’s exciting to have him and Fabes together from the start.