The Nashville Predators have named John Hynes of Warwick, RI their new head coach. In an announcement made on Tuesday according to www.nhl.com, Hynes replaces Peter Laviolette of Franklin, MA, who was fired on Monday.
This will be Hynes’s second head coaching job. He coached the New Jersey Devils from 2015 to 2020. However while Hynes was coaching New Jersey, he only made the playoffs once. That came in 2017-18 when the Devils finished fifth in the Metropolitan Division and eighth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 44 wins, 29 regulation losses and nine losses in extra time for 97 points. The Devils beat out the Florida Panthers by one single point to qualify for postseason play. They lost in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In fact the Devils have only reached the Stanley Cup playoffs once since reaching the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. Eight years ago under head coach Peter DeBoer, the Devils beat the Florida Panthers, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers before losing in six games to the Los Angeles Kings.
Hynes actually started coaching the Devils during the 2019-20 NHL regular season. However, New Jersey only posted a record of nine wins, 13 regulation losses and four losses in extra time for 22 points. He was replaced by Alain Nasreddine of Montreal, Quebec on December 3.
The Predators meanwhile have had a disappointing 2019-20 NHL regular season. With a record of 19 wins, 15 regulation losses and seven losses in extra time, the Predators only have 45 points and are five points back of the Winnipeg Jets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Hynes only becomes the third Predators head coach in franchise history. That is quite remarkable when you realize the Predators began play in 1998. Since that time, Barry Trotz coached the Predators from 1998 to 2014, and Laviolette was the bench boss over the last six seasons. Also since the Predators joined the NHL over two decades ago, they have only had one general manager and that is David Poile.
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