{"id":825872,"date":"2026-08-26T00:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825872\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:30:20","slug":"minnesota-wild-nearing-extension-with-john-hynes-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825872\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Wild Nearing Extension With John Hynes \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Wild are \u201cclosing in on extending\u201d head coach John Hynes, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hynes is entering the final year of his contract but it appears Minnesota isn\u2019t going to have him coach with just a single season left on his deal. According to Russo, \u201cthe extension is expected to be announced as training camp approaches\u201d next month.<\/p>\n

Hynes, 51, has been the head coach of the Wild since early in the 2023-24 season. He took over<\/a> from former head coach Dean Evason in late November of 2023, after Evason was fired amidst a 5-10-4 start to the season. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hynes was able to turn around the Wild\u2019s form that season, going 34-23-6 the rest of the way, though that was not enough to reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n

For the following two seasons, Hynes has been able to steer the Wild to the playoffs despite some real challenges thrown his way. In 2024-25, face-of-the-franchise winger Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> was limited to just 41 games due to lower-body injuries.<\/p>\n

Despite losing their top offensive generator, the player Minnesota\u2019s entire lineup is built around, for half the season, Hynes\u2019 Wild were able to win 45 games and reach the playoffs. They would lose in six games in the opening round of the playoffs to the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

This past season, Hynes was able to sustain the Wild\u2019s momentum as they morphed from consistent playoff participant to a franchise with legitimate short-term Stanley Cup aspirations.<\/p>\n

He was able to integrate star defenseman Quinn Hughes<\/a> into the Wild\u2019s lineup after a stunning mid-season trade, and helped oversee rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt<\/a>\u2018s development into one of the top young goalies in the NHL. (Though much of the credit for that must also go to other members of Hynes\u2019 staff, namely goalie coach Frederic Chabot.)<\/p>\n

With Hughes in tow, the Wild communicated to the rest of the league their clear intent on winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. That didn\u2019t happen, but Hynes was nonetheless able to win his first playoff series as an NHL head coach by defeating the Dallas Stars in a hard-fought first round series.<\/p>\n

Hynes\u2019 decision to bench Wallstedt, who led Minnesota to victory in the first round, in the aftermath of the team\u2019s 9-6 loss in the first game of round two generated some criticism<\/a>, as did the team\u2019s poor penalty kill in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, it\u2019s hard to be left with anything but a positive impression of Hynes\u2019 body of work behind the bench in Minnesota. It\u2019s clear he\u2019s earned the trust of Wild GM Bill Guerin, who also included Hynes on the coaching staff of Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. Hynes was an assistant coach for the American team Guerin constructed, an outfit that took home the gold medal in dramatic fashion against Team Canada.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to 2026-27, though, it\u2019s clear Guerin\u2019s trust in his head coach is set to be tested. The Wild are once again expected to be one of the league\u2019s best teams, and this season comes with the added pressure of Hughes\u2019 expiring contract.<\/p>\n

Hughes can hit free agency next summer, and the Wild will do everything in their power to convince him to sign an extension to extend his stay with the team. After a rocky, up-and-down tenure in Vancouver, it\u2019s likely Hughes will want to land with a team that gives him a strong chance of competing for the Stanley Cup. It\u2019s up to Hynes to once again prove to Hughes that he\u2019ll get that chance with the Wild.<\/p>\n

Although Hynes\u2019 work so far as the head coach in Minnesota has undoubtedly merited the extension he\u2019s reportedly set to receive, it\u2019s clear his tenure in the Twin Cities will be defined by how well he\u2019s able to navigate the 2026-27 season, arguably the most important campaign in franchise history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Wild are \u201cclosing in on extending\u201d head coach John Hynes, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[92658,4828,10669,385,99],"class_list":["post-825872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-john-hynes","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-newsstand","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}