Many knew the Minnesota Wild weren’t in the position to make any blockbuster moves this free agency. They did make many minor signings to boost their American Hockey League roster in case of future injuries like they had to deal with this past season. Their one major signing was to add size in Yakov Trenin, but their other news was adding a new associate coach to replace Darby Hendrickson, who was let go back in late May.
Hendrickson didn’t take long to find another job as he joined former Wild teammate Andrew Brunette in the Nashville Predators organization. Brunette is currently the Predators head coach, and Hendrickson will be one of his associate coaches. Jack Capuano, who has a full NHL pedigree behind him, will take over Hendrickson’s spot. In this article, we’ll look at Capuano’s background, what he can bring to the team, and how this will help the team in the future. We’ll start with his background and why he’s qualified for this role.
Capuano Knows How to Coach
It was hard for Wild fans to watch Minnesota native Hendrickson go, but as the only Wild coach to survive multiple coaching changes, it was likely time to move on and start fresh. That’s where Capuano comes in, and he brings quite the coaching background with him. Most recently, he was with the Ottawa Senators as an associate coach for the past five seasons, and before that, he had two seasons with the Florida Panthers.
Before that, he was head coach of the New York Islanders, which, according to both Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic, is likely one of the things that drew general manager Bill Guerin to bring in Capuano, “it’s believed a prerequisite was NHL coaching experience” (from ‘Wild hire Jack Capuano as new assistant coach: What’s his role?’, The Athletic, 07/01/2024). He spent 12 seasons with the Islanders in different roles. He had the head coach position for parts of seven seasons and he was also an associate coach. Before that, he spent time with their American Hockey League team and also some time in the ECHL.
He’s coached at the international level and played at the NHL level. He knows what it takes to coach and to play, so he understands both sides. Hopefully, he can use that experience to bring a new perspective on winning.
Capuano Brings Experience
Most coaches who reach the NHL level have a lot of experience behind them, whether playing, coaching, or both. Capuano has both, and that should be an advantage because he can understand things from the players’ point of view as well as the coaches’ point of view, and he can combine both of those perspectives.
He found a way to get wins with the Islanders when he was their head coach and left with a record of 227-192-64 plus three playoff appearances; according to the same article mentioned above from The Athletic, those wins put him in second for most wins as a head coach behind Al Arbour who had 552.
Bringing that winning expertise is exactly what the Wild need. While Hynes is great, it takes a whole core of leadership to get a team far into the playoffs, not just one coach. The same idea behind it takes a whole team to win, not just one player. He can bring new ideas and hopefully change things for the better. Hynes had good things going last season; he just needs some help to keep his team consistent.
Capuano Can Help Defensively
According to Russo and Smith, Capuano has worked with Hynes in the past plus another thing that caught Guerin’s attention was Capuano’s work with defenseman Jake Sanderson, which leads to the assumption that he’ll work with the Wild’s defense. Sanderson is a great defenseman, and if Capuano helped develop him, he’ll be great at helping keep Brock Faber, Declan Chisholm, and the other young defensemen for the Wild headed in the right direction.
Faber is already a great player, but he’s still extremely young, and they’ll want to make sure he keeps improving. Having a coach who can support that is exactly what they need. Along with the defense, it’s also been suggested that he’ll help with their penalty kill, which desperately needs attention.
The penalty kill was constantly inconsistent with really high highs and low lows. Hopefully, he can find a way to stabilize it and keep it going rather than the rollercoaster they’ve been dealing with.
Wild Made Good Choice
Hendrickson was a great coach, but the NHL is a business, and it was time to move on. Capuano has the experience to help lead this team in a new direction and find consistency. Hopefully, he fits in seamlessly and can get right to work on new ways to help them win games this season.
