On this day in 2020: Wild Fire Boudreau

It was exactly four years ago to this day that the Wild moved on from Bruce Boudreau as their head coach after nearly four seasons with the team. Dean Evason was named the interim head coach and was eventually turned into the head coach. 

Boudreau went 158-110-35 in his tenure with the Wild and was hired back in 2016. In his first season, Boudreau led the Wild to an impressive 49-25-8 record which was second in the Central Divison.

Despite a great regular season, the Wild were eliminated in the first round in only five games by the St. Louis Blues. The Wild had another 100-plus-point season the next year after going 45-26-11 but were eliminated in the first round again, this time to the Winnipeg Jets in five games.

After going 37-36-9 the next season the Wild missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years and made the playoffs the next four seasons. After missing the playoffs in the 2018-19 season, Boudreau's job wasn't the safest considering the Wild also changed General Managers again. 

It was Boudreau's third General Manager in just three seasons. The Wild started the 2019-20 season 27-23-7 but Boudreau and the Wild parted ways despite winning seven of their last ten games at the time. 

Evason took over as interim coach and eventually got the interim tag removed before the playoffs. He went 8-4-0 in the regular season but watched the Wild get eliminated by the Vancouver Canucks in the qualifying round. 

He later coached the Wild for the next three full seasons and was fired in his fifth season after a 5-10-4 start. The Wild replaced Evason with John Hynes who is 19-13-1 so far as the coach. Evason went 147-77-27 in five seasons with the Wild and made the playoffs in the first four seasons as the coach. 

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