Former Wild forward and coach Andrew Brunette is up for the Jack Adams Award this season for best head coach in the NHL.
Andrew Brunette, the Nashville Predators head coach, is a Jack Adams Award Finalist for the second time in his coaching career.
Brunette, 50, started his coaching career in Minnesota with the Wild after he retired from the NHL. He returned to the Wild after playing his last season in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011-12.
The former Wild-scoring forward was a part of the Wild's staff from 2012 to 2019. He left to be the assistant coach of the Florida Panthers in 2019 and took over as the head coach in October of 2021.
Florida didn't keep him but instead brought in Paul Maurice. Brunette then went to New Jersey where he was the associate coach. The Predators hired him in the offseason to be their next head coach after they fired John Hynes, who is now the Wild's head coach.
Brunette played 16 years in the NHL with six different teams. He spent six years playing for the Wild. Brunette recorded 119 goals and 321 points in 489 career games with the Wild. He finished his NHL career with 268 goals, 465 assists, and 733 points in 1,110 games.
In his six years with the Wild, Brunette scored 20 or more goals in three of them and scored one of the most iconic goals in Wild history. His game seven overtime winning goal beat the Colorado Avalanche in the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs in round one.
The Wild were projected to possibly be swept in that series but ended up beating the star-studded Avalanche in seven games after being down 3-1 in the series. Minnesota made it to the conference finals that year after being down 3-1 again in the next round to the Vancouver Canucks.
That is the only time in franchise history that the Wild have won two rounds in the playoffs.
Brunette is now behind the Predators bench as the head coach. He led the Predators to a 47-30-5 record. In late February the Wild were trailing the Predators in the standings and both fighting for a playoff spot. Brunette's team went 16-0-2 from February 17th to March 26th. They went from 28-25-2 to an impressive 43-25-4 record.
Bruno is now up for the Coach of the Year award. His Nashville Predators are facing the Canucks in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs right now. The Canucks have a 3-2 series lead.
Game six is tonight. Funny enough, former Wild head coach Mike Yeo, is now the assistant coach for the Canucks. Brunette was the Wild's assistant coach when Yeo was the head coach for the Wild.
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