Bill Guerin clearly is not screwing around.
The first-year Minnesota Wild general manager, known for his feistiness when he was a four-time All-Star who hoisted the Stanley Cup three times in a 19-year playing career, fired fourth-year head Bruce Boudreau on Friday morning and replaced him with assistant coach Dean Evanson on an interim basis.
The move comes the morning after a 4-3 shootout loss to the New York Rangers in St. Paul and a day before the Wild host San Jose on Saturday.
Boudreau, 65, has the second-highest winning percentage (.576) out of the Top 40 coaches with the most wins in NHL history and is 22nd in all-time wins, just 16 shy of 600.
In stints with three different teams since 2007, all but two of Boudreau’s 12 full seasons as a head coach has resulted in a playoff berth — including his first two Wild squads — and 8 of those 12 teams won their division (but none in Minnesota).
In other words, Guerin is continuing his house-cleaning by turning away an established, proven winner, two days after trading one of the team’s most accomplished and popular players in veteran Jason Zucker.
And it happens with the Wild just three points shy of a playoff berth with 25 games remaining.
Boudreau’s first two Wild teams lost in the opening round of the playoffs after he was hired specifically to lift the team above that mark. His third team went 37-36-9 last season and missed the playoffs.
Guerin replaced Paul Fenton, who lasted just one season as GM after replacing Chuck Fletcher, who was fired after nine seasons, all which yielded playoff teams, none which reached the conference finals.
