New Wild bench boss Bruce Boudreau has added a Hall of Famer to his staff.
Minnesota announced that they have hired Scott Stevens to serve as an assistant coach. He’s filling one of the vacancies left by the departures of Rick Wilson and Darryl Sydor.
Stevens participated in 1,635 regular season games and the retired defenseman had 196 goals and 908 points over that span. He won three championships with the New Jersey Devils and was the 2000 Conn Smythe Trophy winner.
More recently he served as an assistant coach with the Devils from 2012-14 and the team’s co-coach alongside Adam Oates for part of the 2014-15 campaign. After that experiment ended Stevens wasn’t retained as an assistant coach.
Boudreau is getting ready for his first season with the Wild after Anaheim fired him following its first round exit. He has a 409-192-80 regular season record between Washington and Anaheim, but he hasn’t guided an NHL team to a championship.
Scott Stevens will be qualified as the first asst, will run D and penalty kill. Scott Niedermayer called Boudreau on Stevens behalf #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 7, 2016
Boudreau on Scott Stevens: "I think he’ll have instant respect." #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 7, 2016
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With an aging core, the Wild could be Boudreau’s biggest challenge yet