HOUSTON, Texas – Spring is supposed to be a time of renewal, but the Minnesota Wild confirmed today that it won’t be for Houston Aeros coach Kevin Constantine, whose three-year contract with the team won’t be renewed. The news isn’t surprising.
After nearly every position with the parent club Minnesota Wild turned over last summer, Constantine and his staff were one of the few holdovers on the hockey operations side. His success the prior two seasons, particularly a deep playoff run last year, earned him the chance to play out the final season of his contract. But, this year, the team missed the playoffs for only the third time in the Aeros’ 16-year history. And for Constantine, it’s the first time in his 19 year career to miss the playoffs, apart from two seasons in the NHL where he was replaced mid-season. After the last home game of the season, Constantine reflected on the situation, opining that the abundance of bad first periods was a significant factor in the team’s disappointing performance. “Probably the one most glaring thing you look at is, we were always coming from behind. If we could have figured out just a better way to prepare or get the guys going or just help them get off to better starts that would one thing you could say we’d like to have done differently.” However, sources indicate that Minnesota wasn’t unsatisfied with his performance. Instead, they wanted to implement a system that’s more in line with Wild coach Todd Richard’s system, so transitions to the NHL are as efficient as possible for players. That said, one of the limiting factors for the Aeros this season actually was the extensive number of call-ups to Minnesota, and most of them were fairly successful. The Aeros lost defensive cornerstone Clayton Stoner early in the season, along with a number of other players such as left wing Robbie Earl and defenseman Jaime Sifers, who each had substantial call-ups. Additionally, injuries hit the team in critical places. Andy Hilbert and Peter Zingoni were both expected to be significant assets up front, but Hilbert only played 33 games and Zingoni, 47. A late season injury to Brandon Rogers left another gaping hole on the blueline as he missed much of the last quarter of the season, and D Ryan Lannon, though a healthy scratch many times early in the season, played only 27 games due to an injury later on. Even under the best of personnel circumstances, the West Division was the toughest in the league. The Aeros finished in the basement of the division, but had a .500 record and would not have been realistically eliminated from playoff contention so early in any other division. Goaltending was rarely as solid this season as it had been in the prior two seasons either, and for a team without a lot of offensive prowess, better goaltending over the course of the season might have made the difference. Anton Khudobin, who had an all-star October and November, faltered in December and never really regained his form, apart from some very good minutes played for the Wild during a call up in March. Wade Dubielewicz picked up where Khudobin left off in December but struggled visibly in the new year. Barry Brust was good for the Aeros while healthy and not assigned to the ECHL, but after the Olympic break, he re-injured the foot that has been plaguing him for over a year and finally required surgery. Looking ahead, numerous Aeros players will hit the free agent market this summer, along with the change in coaching and, presumably, coaching philosophy. The only thing you can take to the bank at this point is that General Manager Jim Mill is set for a busy off-season putting the pieces in place for a more successful 2010-2011 campaign.
Contact Heather.Galindo@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.