CALGARY, Alberta – Last season, after 19 games and an injury-riddled 5-10-4 start by the Minnesota Wild, coach Dean Evason was dismissed and John Hynes came in to take over the team.

Heading into Saturday’s afternoon meeting with the Calgary Flames, Hynes’ 2024-25 team had played 19 games, and was sitting at 13-3-3. With a full year in Minnesota on his resume now, it is increasingly clear that players have bought in to the coach’s tactics and style, after missing the playoffs last season.

“Anytime a coach takes over in the middle of the season, it’s a bit of a process,” said Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian after their Friday afternoon skate at Scotiabank Saddledome. “At times, we were the team that we are right now in certain stretches, but I think the consistency is much better this year. It’s showed.”

Of course, cynical Minnesota sports fans who are quick to consider any stretch of success a mirage will point to 2011, when Mike Yeo was in his first full season as the Wild’s coach. Following a Dec. 10 win in Arizona, the Wild were 20-7-3 with the best record in the NHL. They finished sub-.500 and missed the playoffs that year. Still, as the Wild keep winning — most notably on the road — we’re getting past the point that what Hynes is doing can just be classified as a hot start.

“To be honest, that’s kind of what the focus is on, that is you’re starting to see some things really take hold, right?,” Hynes said Friday. “The second half of last year into the training camp, to now, so we’re kind of coming up on what a year together basically. So, it’s more automatic. You’re starting to see the mindset of the team, the maturity.”

With 13 wins and 29 points through their first 19 games, this is statistically the best start to a season in franchise history, surpassing their 12 wins and 26 points to start the 2018-19 campaign.

Travis Boyd makes hometown team debut

Minnesota Wild forward Travis Boyd (72) is photographed during the team’s media day in St. Paul on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press).

He wore maroon and gold, not red and green, on March 27, 2015, the last time Travis Boyd represented his home state in a hockey game. On that afternoon, at a NCAA regional in New Hampshire, Boyd and the Gophers lost 4-1 to Minnesota Duluth to end his final college hockey season.

On Saturday in Calgary, after an emergency recall due to the injuries suffered by Kirill Kaprizov and Marat Khusnutdinov in Edmonton, the 31-year-old native of Hopkins, Minn., turned in his first game in a Wild sweater. Boyd signed with the Wild over the summer as a free agent after spending the previous three seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, although he was limited to just 16 games in 2023-24 following an upper body injury that required surgery. He had recorded two goals and 11 points in 13 games with the Iowa Wild this season, prior to the call-up.

Boyd was an all-Big Ten second teamer as a Gophers’ senior, and played more than 300 NHL games for Washington, Toronto, Vancouver and Arizona prior to signing with the Wild. He became the 35th Minnesota-born player to skate for the Wild.

Related Articles

Marc-Andre Fleury’s game still blooms in new Wild role

Road dominance continues as Wild rally to win in Edmonton

Wild notebook: Oilers showdown a test of the league’s top 97’s

Injuries behind him, Hibbing’s Scott Perunovich looking forward with Blues

Jonas Brodin’s late blast seals Wild win in St. Louis