Wild fire coach, assistant

The Minnesota Wild fired Coach Dean Evason and assistant Bob Woods on Monday after losing seven consecutive games and 14 of their first 19 to start to the NHL season. General Manager Bill Guerin announced the moves without confirming Evason’s replacement. According to multiple reports, former New Jersey and Nashville coach John Hynes will take over. The Wild planned a news conference with Guerin and the next coach for today, prior to their game against St. Louis. Evason, 59, had three full seasons in charge of the Wild, who gave him his first head coaching job in the NHL on Feb. 14, 2020, when Bruce Boudreau was fired and he was promoted from his assistant role. He went 147-77-27 in 251 regular season games and 8-15 in the postseason without winning any series. During the pandemic break, Guerin decided to drop the interim tag and give Evason the job once the Wild resumed practice. They lost a best-of-five series to Vancouver in the qualifying round that year, then dropped best-of-seven first round matchups with Vegas in 2021, St. Louis in 2022 and Dallas in 2023.

NHL expands All-Star Weekend

The NHL has expanded its upcoming All-Star Weekend in Toronto to add a women’s 3-on-3 event and bring back the popular player draft. The league announced the new “NHL All-Star Thursday” in a press release Monday. Members of the new Professional Women’s Hockey League will take part in a game at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 1. Four All-Star captains matched with celebrities will draft their teams for the skills competition on Feb. 2 and 3-on-3 tournament on Feb. 3. The NHL also will honor the 1967 Maple Leafs, Toronto’s last team to win the Stanley Cup, as part of the festivities. The women’s hockey involvement continues a recent trend of involving some of the best players in the world in NHL All-Star Weekend. Canada’s Sarah Nurse scoring on New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin was a highlight of the skills competition in 2023, and Kendall Coyne shined in the fastest skater event in 2019.