In Nashville, it did not take long for the Predators to find their new bench boss.
A day after firing Peter Laviolette, the Preds tapped former New Jersey Devils’ head coach, John Hynes, to pilot the team through the remainder of the season.
“John Hynes is a bright young coach and great leader who has a track record of both effectively developing young players and successfully motivating veterans,” Predators general manager David Poile said. “We love his coaching resume and are confident that he has learned from every stop during his career, and has the best skill set to get the maximum potential out of our team.”
The Devils had fallen off the radar in the Eastern Conference before Hynes was fired. He was saddled with a morose Taylor Hall on the roster and was simply unable to win with a situation like that.
He moves to Nashville and team with its own problems, not unique to the Predators.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to join an organization with a history of success, a team with immense talent and a phenomenal fanbase,” Hynes said. “This organization has a strong foundation, from its ownership and executives to the entire front-office staff, and I’m excited to come in and try to maximize this team’s abilities.”
Hynes will have his work cut out for him.
Nashville is 19-15-7 on the season, and Hynes will need Roman Josi among others, Matt Duchene, to step up into the bigger roles they were expected to fill.
Hynes was 150-159-45 in five campaigns with New Jersey.
The Predators’ web site listed off a number of NHL players who have benefited from Hynes’ coaching in the past.
The web announcement for the hiring cited helping Taylor Hall to an MVP award and Nico Hischier to a spot as one of the NHL’s top young players, Kyle Palmieri, who established career highs in goals (30) and points (57) during his first season in New Jersey in 2015-16. Prior to his trade to Anaheim, forward Adam Henrique reached the 50-point mark under Hynes in 2015-16 and followed it up with a 20-goal, 40-point season the year after. Additionally, current Edmonton Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson posted a career-high 24 points (3g-21a) in 2014-15, Hynes’s first season with the Devils; defenseman Sami Vatanen tallied 28 of his 32 points in 2017-18 under Hynes following a trade from Anaheim; and he helped develop current NHL regulars such as Damon Severson, Miles Wood, Will Butcher and Jesper Bratt.
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