Hockey’s greatest coach ever, Scotty Bowman, says Mike Yeo will coach again in the National Hockey League.

“A lot of guys move around,” Bowman said after the Minnesota Wild dismissed Yeo last week. “He can bounce back. He just has to be patient until something comes along, because there are five or six changes every year.”

Bowman, a genius strategist who coached a record nine Stanley Cup champions, said he is impressed by Yeo’s tactical skills.

“Sometimes you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bowman said. “Things change. The goalie (Wild’s Devan Dubnyk) is playing (impressively) now like he did last year. Look at Montreal — they won nine straight games (to start the season), then lost their goalie (Carey Price to injury) and now they can’t get into the playoffs.

“Look at the job (Yeo) did last year.”

After the Wild fired Yeo, the team won its next four games. Had the front office given Yeo more time to work his team out of a horrendous slump, he was asked the other day, is he confident he still could have led the Wild into the playoffs?

“I believe wholeheartedly that I could have,” Yeo said. “Now there obviously are some people that felt differently and felt (his dismissal) was needed. People have got to make decisions about what was best for the team, and I respect that.

“But we showed that it could work. I would put our best game when I was coaching this group up against any team in the league. I felt we played our best when our backs were against the wall, so I know it’s worked in the past. But that’s obviously a biased opinion.”

Yeo, who at age 42 was the third-youngest coach in the NHL, led the Wild into the playoffs in three of his first four seasons, losing last season in the second round to eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago.

Word is one high-ranking Wild official whispered that Yeo’s firing could come back to haunt the organization.

Wild star Zach Parise is certain Yeo, who was in his fifth season in the NHL, will coach again.

“What’s the average shelf life — 2½, three years? So he had to be doing something right,” Parise said.

Jim Mill, who spent 6½ years as assistant to general manager Chuck Fletcher in charge of the Wild’s American Hockey League operation, hired Yeo to coach the franchise’s Houston Aeros team, then hired Yeo’s Wild successor, John Torchetti, to coach the Aeros when Yeo was promoted to the NHL.

Torchetti, 51, wanted so badly to be in hockey that 25 years ago he drove a cab during the day to support himself while working for virtually free as an assistant with the Greensboro Monarchs of the East Coast Hockey League.

“Torch is a hockey lifer,” said Mill, now a pro scout for the New Jersey Devils. “Torch is a great coach, and Yeosy is a great coach. Mike’s extremely intense in a much more composed and wonderful way, and Torch wears his heart on his sleeve. It doesn’t mean their hearts are any different.”

Dubnyk said the recent difference in the Wild is “we’re playing fast. We’re getting back to that fast game we play.

“Mike (Yeo) is a great coach and did a lot of great things for us. But anytime you bring somebody in with a clean slate, it kind of kicks everybody in the butt and gets them going because you’ve got to go back out there and prove to Torch why you deserve to be playing. It’s a strange thing in sports, but sometimes you need that.

“(Torchetti) isn’t concerned about what you’ve done in the past — it’s about what you’re doing now, and that’s got to kick-start some guys.”

Terry Steinbach was among former Oakland Athletics teammates at 14-year major leaguer Dave Henderson’s recent funeral at Safeco Field in Seattle.

“Awesome service,” the former A’s-Twins catcher said. “It was one of those ‘sad’ and ‘good’ deals — good to see everybody again, sad to meet under those circumstances.”

This is Steinbach’s second season out of the major leagues. He was Ron Gardenhire’s bench coach when Gardenhire was fired two seasons ago. And it’s the second summer since Steinbach, 53, was in middle school that he hasn’t been in baseball. He would consider returning to the majors if the right situation were available.

Gardenhire, 58, remains interested in managing again, but he hasn’t received an offer yet.

The Twins will open their Target Field season April 11 against the Chicago White Sox with slightly more than 14,000 full-season ticket equivalents.

Star Rachel Banham and the Gophers women’s basketball team visit No. 6 Maryland on Sunday afternoon on ESPN2.

The Terps are coached by Brenda Frese, who bolted from Minnesota as coach 14 years ago.

When the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Phoenix Suns 124-84 last week, on the floor for the Clippers was Bloomington Jefferson grad Cole Aldrich, scoring six points. For Phoenix, former Osseo star Jon Leuer had eight points, ex-Gophers star Kris Humphries four points. Aldrich and Leuer were AAU teammates in Minnesota.

To the hometown fans’ delight, Tyus Jones, the former Apple Valley point guard, had a season-high nine points for the Timberwolves in their 134-122 victory over Boston last week.

“This season has been a lot of learning,” Jones, still 19, said. “My body’s got a lot stronger. This has been a good year so far.”

Jones said he has no regrets about turning professional after a spectacular freshman season at Duke.

“You can’t make a decision like that unless you’re 100 percent in, and I’m very happy that I made the decision that I did.”

Jones, who doesn’t turn 20 until May, is guaranteed $2.6 million through next season.

Ex-Gopher Nick Bjugstad, 23, in the first season of a $24.6 million, six-year contract, returns home with the Florida Panthers to play the Wild on Sunday with 10 goals and 10 assists in 44 games this season.

Former Gophers-Timberwolves guard Bobby Jackson is a broadcast analyst for the Sacramento Kings.

That was St. Paul’s Dave Langevin, who won four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders and now is in the home appraisal business in the Twin Cities, stopping by to see former teammate Butch Goring, who also won four Stanley Cups with the Isles, during the Wild’s game against New York on Tuesday at the X.

Goring, 66, during 16 NHL seasons, wore the same helmet he wore since his youth playing days at age 12 in Canada.

“Since 1962; it was a fiberglass helmet,” said Goring, now TV analyst for the Islanders. “More than anything else, I felt comfortable with it. It was almost like my skates and my gloves — it was just there, and I never found any reason to take it off.”

By the way, Goring said St. Paul native Kyle Okposo of the Islanders “is going to be a rich kid.”

That’s because Okposo, 27, the former Gopher from St. Paul playing for $4.5 million this season, can become an unrestricted free agent after the season.

“The only question is where’s he going to play and for who,” Goring said.

The NHL trade deadline is Monday.

“So the Islanders have to make a decision whether to try to trade him or try to sign him or continue to play with him with the probability that they’ll lose him.”

Goring said he doesn’t have a feeling what will happen with Okposo.

Okposo’s free-agent market is estimated at nearly $7 million a season for five years. The Wild are in no position to afford an Okposo contract.

Said Islanders coach Jack Capuano of Okposo, “I had Kyle since Day One at (minor league) Bridgeport and coached him in Europe, and since the first day I met him, the thing about Kyle is character and leadership. And nothing has changed.”

North Stars alums Lou Nanne, Brad Maxwell and Brian Bellows were hilarious appearing at a recent Dunkers breakfast at the Minneapolis Club.

Nanne, 74, who will speak before the Capital Club on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, returns for a 52nd boys state hockey tournament as a Ch. 45 TV analyst.

“It’s a terrific three days and I enjoy it — it’s exciting,” Nanne said.

Nanne rattled off tournament stars he has covered during 51 years, including Tim Sheehy, Dave Spehar, Henry Boucha, Paul Martin, Neal Broten, Ryan McDonagh, Doug Zmolek and Mike Crowley.

“The one thing that stands out is that every player, every defenseman that had a tremendous tournament I can remember went on to play in the NHL,” Nanne said.

With his tie for 11th in last week’s Northern Trust tournament at Riviera in Los Angeles, Spring Lake Park’s Troy Merritt has improved from No. 69 in Ryder Cup points to No. 48. The top eight point getters receive automatic berths for the U.S. Ryder Cup team for matches at Hazeltine National on Sept. 27-Oct. 2.

Current top eight point getters, in order: Jordan Spieth (who missed the cut at the Northern Trust), Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Zach Johnson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed. Watson, who won the Northern Trust, moved up from No. 13 last week.

Ex-Twins Paul Molitor, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven and Dave Winfield, all of whom also played for other teams during their careers, are among 69 living Baseball Hall of Fame members.

Happy birthday: Hall of fame boxer Emmett Yanez from St. Paul turns 96 on Thursday.

Passing: Beloved former Farmington football coach Earl Wetzel died of an apparent heart attack at age 69 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Former Olympic long-distance runner Van Nelson and author Patrick Mader speak at a Dunkers breakfast on Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club.

DON’T PRINT THAT

The Timberwolves received about 10 trade inquiries, including several for Ricky Rubio before the deadline, but weren’t intrigued by any.

It still looks like Ervin Santana will be the Twins’ Opening Day starter April 4 in Baltimore.

And it still looks like interim Gophers athletics director Beth Goetz will end up with the permanent job. She has been the favorite since Norwood Teague’s forced resignation.

Look for St. Paul to have a huge role in the 2018 Super Bowl that will be held in Minneapolis, including construction of a monumental ice castle and hosting two major NFL parties at Xcel Energy Center.

Vikings defensive end Brian Robison, 32, who has fun interviewing teammates for a weekly website video, has considered post-career broadcasting, but it’s not a priority.

“I understand the work that goes into it, and I’ve been blessed to be able to financially secure my family, so when I’m done, I just want to be able to spend time with them,” Robison said last season. “I’ve been going through this for nine years, and you miss a lot of key times with them.”

Robison is signed for a non-guaranteed $9.1 million for the next two seasons.

“But as we know, that means nothing in our league,” he said.

Last Sunday’s Wild-Blackhawks outdoor game at TCF Bank Stadium had an estimated revenue gross of nearly $7 million for the NHL.

Despite the huge success, the Twins haven’t given up on hosting an NHL Winter Classic game featuring the Wild. The Twins’ Target Field, though, has 10,000 fewer seats than the Gophers’ venue.

An outdoor college hockey game featuring the Gophers at Target Field remains a possibility.

Minnesota sports lost one of its class guys with the Wild’s dismissal of Mike Yeo as coach last week.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the NFL has the Vikings open their new stadium against the Packers in September.

The Twins remain in conversations with multiple Korean-based brands for endorsement opportunities for new slugger Byung Ho Park.

Ex-Twins pitchers Joe Nathan and Brian Duensing remain unsigned free agents.

Bill McGuire, owner of St. Paul’s Major League Soccer expansion franchise, wouldn’t expand on rumors that his team could be nicknamed the “Loons,” and that it could begin MLS play as early as next year.

Some tickets for the Twins’ spring training opener against the Boston Red Sox on March 3 in Fort Myers, Fla., are on sale for $83 apiece via Vivid Seats.

As part of Hiway Federal Credit Union’s corporate partnership with the Wild, a gold hockey puck has been hidden somewhere in Ramsey or Hennepin County. Each week, beginning on Friday, clues leading to the location of the puck will be given on Hiway’s website and via the credit union’s Twitter feed.

The person who finds the puck will receive the weight of the puck in gold — it’s worth approximately $5,800.

Despite releasing guard Andre Miller last week, the Timberwolves still have to pay the remainder of his $1.5 million salary.

The St. Paul Saints are close to finalizing plans to honor a couple of hall of famers at CHS Field this season.

OVERHEARD

Mike Yeo, on losing his Wild coaching job: “It’s like a marriage — when it ends, it doesn’t end well.”