At 6:30 a.m. on Friday April 29, Bruce Boudreau received a text message from Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray. Once he saw the note, Boudreau knew his time coaching the Ducks was probably over.

Boudreau’s Ducks had lost to the Nashville Predators in Game 7 of the first-round of the playoffs. It was the fourth straight Game 7 loss for the organization. Even though Boudreau had won four Pacific Division championships with the Ducks, he knew playoff failures in big games had defined his tenure.

“I knew (he didn’t text me) to congratulate me,” Boudreau said in a phone interview with Puck Daddy. “I knew it was coming before I went in and I made sure to phone my kids and talked to my wife and let them know what was probably going to happen.”

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And when the Ducks made the decision, Boudreau quickly became the hottest commodity on the coaching market. He interviewed with the Minnesota Wild and the Ottawa Senators in the week after he was let go. It also appeared the Calgary Flames fired Bob Hartley in order to go after Boudreau.

One day after Boudreau interviewed with Ottawa, the Wild moved quickly, landing the veteran coach to reinvigorate the franchise. According to Boudreau, he never had a “formal offer” from Ottawa. He also felt like he jibed with Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher – known as one of the savvier operators in the business. After the Senators hired Guy Boucher, they said Boucher was their No. 1 choice and had the resources to meet Boudreau's price tag of near $3 million per-year.

“Meeting with Chuck I felt … I felt the same way with (Ottawa GM) Pierre (Dorion) but there was a little more – it was so easy to talk to them and their philosophy was great and I thought they had a really good team,” Boudreau said. “And I thought they always played hard against us so I was hoping and praying they were the ones that would come to the front and asked me to coach.”

Added Boudreau, “We knew it was going to happen quick and it did happen quick.”

A lot of attention with Boudreau has revolved around his offensive philosophies and trying to open up the Wild’s defensive-minded systems. But he also needs to coax more talent out of some of the Wild’s younger players.

Forward Mikael Granlund was once considered a budding star, but has never eclipsed 44 points in a full season. Defenseman Jonas Brodin is considered a mobile minute cruncher (20:25 per-game last season) but hasn’t turned into that No. 1 or No. 2 defenseman the Wild hoped when he was a rookie. Jason Zucker’s best year came in 2014-15 when the forward had 21 goals in 51 games. He had just 13 goals in 71 games this year. All three are age 24 and younger.

If these players can tap into their potential, then the Wild will have a better chance of taking another step. If they don’t then Boudreau will need to rely on the team’s aging core, which could make a fifth-straight playoff appearance for the Wild seem less likely.

“I’ve seen (their younger players) all play and thought they were great and again, how can I help them grow? I think there are a couple of ways. One is just natural maturation and two is I think if they put in the work, they’re going to get better,” Boudreau said. “I’ve seen so many players from a young age to middle hockey age in the mid-20s improve so much and I don’t see why these guys can’t either.”

Added Boudreau, "A lot of them haven’t hit their ceiling of how good they’re going to be. And I think they’re a very competitive team in the Central Division which I classify right up there with the best division in the league. If they haven’t hit their ceiling to be able to watch them grow I think there’s another step to be taken by the team and individual players."

This past year, there was some drama with Wild forward Zach Parise and his using Adam Oates as a skills coach. Yeo indicated he believed Oates’ presence with Parise hurt the team. When asked, Boudreau said he didn’t have an opinion.

“I haven’t really encountered it yet,” Boudreau said. “It’s too early for me to answer that question. We’ll see as we go along here.”

In his introductory press conference with the Wild, Boudreau indicated he preferred to limit the minutes of defenseman Ryan Suter more moving forward. While Suter’s showed no signs of slowing down – and put up his best statistical season of his career – Yeo had a tendency to overuse the blueliner. In four years with Minnesota Suter averaged 28:44 of ice-time.

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