PLYMOUTH, Mich. — John Hynes came away from his meeting a few weeks ago with Vladimir Tarasenko excited about the chances of the former St. Louis Blues star having a career resurrection with the Minnesota Wild after three years of declining production.
Tarasenko, 33, is a six-time 30-goal scorer who has scored 17.3 goals per season the past three years. Earlier this month, the Wild coach flew to South Florida to have dinner with him. He spent five hours at Tarasenko’s house, where Tarasenko’s wife, Yana, made a Russian feast for the family and Hynes.
“They even packed leftovers for me,” Hynes said. “They gave me some chicken, some dumplings, some potatoes. I ate it, cleaned off the to-go containers and left them at the front desk for Yana to pick up the next day. It was a great night.
“We understand and know each other more, but to me, it was really important because he’s had so many different experiences and he’s been with some different teams now, and he’s won two Cups. Like, what makes him tick? Where’s he at? I think he’s in a good spot. And I learned a lot about him as a person …
“I learned so much about his family and his dad and grandparents and just his upbringing and background. Same thing with Yana. And then, you know, his different stops along the way. What was good? Why certain things didn’t work. Where he’s at. What he’s looking for.”
Hynes told the story Tuesday at USA Hockey men’s Olympic orientation camp, where the U.S. assistant coach sat down with The Athletic to talk about the Wild heading into next month’s training camp, which opens Sept. 18.
Here are the other topics he addressed in a Q&A.
(Note: Some questions and answers are edited lightly for clarity and length.)
One of the biggest excitements entering camp is the arrival of Danila Yurov. Will he have to work his way up the lineup, or could you even see starting him in a significant role?
In talking with management and the scouts and everything, it’s a little bit of an unknown, right?
He spent the summer working out (in Connecticut). In camp, his play and his readiness will dictate where we use him — getting him in and the first few days of practice; we’ve got three days before the first exhibition game. We would anticipate right now that he would get some good looks in the exhibition games. I think it’s probably too early to tell where he will be.
He could come in, and he could look like he’s ready. I’ve had situations where, like, a Nico Hischier or a Jesper Bratt came in and you weren’t sure. And all of a sudden, you can tell in training camp, like, they’re pretty much ready. Other times, you might look at it and you could see it’s there, but maybe it’s not fully cooked yet.
Some of that will determine where he plays. Is he ready to play center? Maybe he’s ready to play center and he’s ready to be an impact player right away. If he’s not, maybe he’s ready to play, but maybe it’s not at center right away. Maybe it’s at wing. I think long-term, it’s a center.
So I’m excited to see him. I’ve heard great things about him, but there is a lot of unknown there, just as far as the readiness coming from Russia.
With the lines, I could see maybe Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello reunited with Joel Eriksson Ek in the middle and maybe a Matt Boldy-Marco Rossi-Vladimir Tarasenko line. Obviously, everything is subject to chance, but do you look at it similarly?
Yeah, I would think so. We’ve kind of toyed around with it a little bit, and I went down and spent some time with Tarasenko a couple of weeks ago, which was great. So, I’m excited about him and where he’s at. It is kind of those combos now, now that Marco was locked in. It’s like, “OK, maybe it is Zuccy and Kirill back and then you have Bolds and Tarasenko.” What center’s in that? I’m not sure yet.
Vladimir Tarasenko has scored 14 goals and 32 points in 37 regular-season games, and 12 goals and 16 points in 17 playoff games against the Wild. (Joe Puetz / Getty Images)
As you said, maybe Yurov pops.
That’s what I mean. I think there’s potential for the top six, top nine, but Yurov’s a question mark that could change that. Tarasenko as well, you know, being a newer guy coming in. … He’s had a good summer. I think you’re right on, but I think at times the Rossi, Zuccarello, Kirill line was pretty good. Particularly early in the year, that was a great combo. And then you had the Ekky-Boldy combo.
If Yurov pops, you could even have a Marcus Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Ryan Hartman line.
That would be big. But I think also, I’m excited about (Nico) Sturm. With the player of his style, it could possibly give you the opportunity, at times, too, to play him in situations defensively where you could free up maybe a Marco or an Ekky. Maybe Nico gets a couple of D-zone starts that they don’t have to play against top players.
The dynamic of the team has changed a little bit with that, but it could change a lot depending on Yurov’s readiness.
And then you have Liam Ohgren in the mix, and Yakov Trenin had a great playoff. And Marcus Johansson’s back. I heard Riley Heidt looks great. It will be interesting to see how you put all this together.
It is. It’s gonna be challenging. Like you said, Ohgren took some good steps, had some good experiences. I think he’s going to be making a push. You’ve got Heidt, Trenny, Sturm. Where it all fits is going to be interesting, but there’s some pretty good depth. And I think there’s gonna be real competition for the spots and where guys play on lines.
Would you say that if Tarasenko plays with Boldy, it’ll most likely be Boldy on the left just because we’ve seen Boldy play great at both wings, and Vladi seems to thrive more on the right?
Yeah, I think so. I know Boldy can do both. I know Vladi can, too, but I think when he plays his best, he’s been on the right side.
Did you talk to Marco after he signed?
I texted him right away, and he called me back right away. We had a good chat. He’s excited to come back. And we talked about his role. He was a top-six forward all of last year, and I don’t envision that changing. We had a great talk.
How much time do you expect Jonas Brodin to miss at the start of the season?
Not very much. I would say in training camp, he’ll be doing some things, not doing some things. I haven’t pinned down the trainers yet. I’ll probably be doing that next week when we have our coaches’ meetings.
But I would anticipate not a significant amount of time at all.
You brought in Jack Johnson on a professional tryout, but you have the potential of having two rookies in your opening night lineup in Zeev Buium and David Jiricek. Is there any concern with having a couple of rookie defensemen potentially in the lineup?
I’m excited to have both of them because I do think that their skill sets are something that we can use.
Zeev has been here since July 27. David, I think, he was here Aug. 3. So both have put in the time to work here with our strength coaches. They made significant gains in their strength, and they have made that sacrifice for the summer. So, I’m encouraged by that, because I think that gives them the best chance to be ready to go in training camp at the start of the season.
The addition of Jack, he’s gonna come in and compete for a spot. I think we need the depth, obviously, with Brodes’ timetable a little bit questionable right now. But I think with the rest of the D corps as of now healthy and ready to go, I think that those two kids are gonna get a good opportunity to come in and play. I think they’re prepared for it, and I’m confident that they’re gonna be able to be impact players. But people have to earn it.
We still have (Carson) Lambos down in Iowa. In the league today, guys of their ability and their ilk, if they’re physically ready to be able to do it, they can play. It’s a great opportunity for them. If they seize it, then that’s great. If they don’t, then we have to make other plans.
Where does Marcus Johansson fit? He was a top-six winger all of last season. Is he willing to play the fourth line?
It’s all going to depend on play and readiness of different players, but you could have a Foligno-Hartman-Johansson line, which would be good. You could have Jo on the fourth line. I don’t know where he’s gonna fit, but he’s smart, he can skate, he can play with good players, he can play with high-end offensive players. But I also think he can be on a line that can check other teams’ top lines as well.
I think he’s kind of a jack of all trades.
How do you see the goalie split between Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt?
We haven’t gone too far yet into the splits, but when you look at the schedule, both are going to play. If Gus is playing great, you gotta use him. But we also have to be smart. When you look at the schedule, the back-to-backs, the three-in-fours, we need Wally to come in and play well. He’s another guy who’s been here since Aug. 3. So he’s made the commitment. Now I’m hoping that he’s gonna come in and have a strong camp and be ready to play.
Any system tweaks?
There might be a few. We looked at some special teams things this offseason. Some of that also could be personnel. Some of it’s a little bit tactics or tweaks.
From a five-on-five standpoint, I would say some small, minor tweaks. I think talking with the players at our end-of-the-year meetings, the feeling from the team was the style of game that we played in playoffs — the uptemponess, the pressure we were able to put on from an offensive perspective, like checking and transition and things like that, some of the tweaks we made going into the Vegas series — the players came out feeling like we didn’t get to the second round but it felt different than some other playoff series in the past.
I think the style of game and the mindset that we played with, I think we gotta get that going again.
(Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Imagn Images)