ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s been nearly 14 years since Jared Spurgeon made his NHL debut on his 21st birthday, but the Wild captain and his wife, Danielle, haven’t forgotten how hard training camp can be for a player on a two-way contract.

These players, and in some cases their families, will arrive in town weeks before camp and could be living in a hotel for upwards of a month.

So last weekend, after years of hosting Halloween, New Year’s and Super Bowl parties and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for teammates, the always-welcoming Spurgeons invited the entire team to dinner at their home in Edina, including roster hopefuls and potential minor-leaguers.

At the end of a night in which Jared and Danielle entertained more than two dozen people, there was one couple Danielle really fell for — a free agent pickup named Reese Johnson, who has 141 games under his belt with the Chicago Blackhawks, and his new wife, Tyler.

“They left, and I was telling Jared how I really enjoyed Reese and his wife,” Danielle said, laughing. “I was talking to Jared about how great they were, and Jared laughed and goes, ‘That’s the guy who actually hurt me in the preseason.’

“I go, ‘Oh, that’s so funny. I didn’t know that. But anyway, love them!’ I mean, as Jared even said,…

Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes’ summer was longer than he would have liked, but he kept busy.

While his NHL team missed the playoffs, Hynes was the head coach for Team USA in the World Championship in Czechia in late May. He spent time with his wife, Sarah, and their three daughters in their offseason home in Nashville. The family will stay in Tennessee this season as the middle daughter, Julia, finishes her senior year in high school.

Hynes now feels more at home in St. Paul, Minn., though, than when he took over in late November. He said joining a team in-season provided challenges in making major adjustments on the fly. But with a full training camp, opening Thursday at TRIA, there’s room for Hynes to put his fingerprints on this team.

“It’s a fresh start,” Hynes said.

Hynes’ staff has been tweaked, with veteran NHL coach Jack Capuano replacing long-time Wild assistant Darby Hendrickson, who took a job with the Nashville Predators after being let go. And after getting to know most of his players through the final five months of the season, from one-on-one talks on the plane through summer check-ins, Hynes has a game plan for how to attack the next month. The good news is that everybody is healthy entering camp, Hynes said, including captain Jared Spurgeon and

PWHL Minnesota general manager Natalie Darwitz is leaving the organization, team sources told The Athletic on Thursday night.

The news comes just eight days after the team won the PWHL’s first-ever Walter Cup championship and four days before Minnesota is set to host the 2024 Draft and first-ever PWHL Awards.

“It’s pretty shocking,” one team source said.

Darwitz, 40, was hired in September 2023 to lead Minnesota — which, like all PWHL teams, is owned by the league — heading into its inaugural season. According to a team source, Darwitz was told earlier this week she would not be back as general manager for the 2024-25 season and was offered alternative options within the league. The league also gave Darwitz the option of putting out a statement saying that she had chosen to move on, the team source said. She is not expected to be at the draft table for Minnesota on Monday night.

The PWHL would not confirm the news of Darwitz’s departure.

Darwitz is synonymous with women’s hockey in Minnesota. She grew up in Eagan, Minn., and won two NCAA championships with the University of Minnesota. She won three Olympic medals with Team USA and was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018. Darwitz was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in May, during Minnesota’s…

RALEIGH, N.C. — As tributes poured in last month when legendary broadcaster Bob Cole died, Mike Guentzel googled “Hockey Night in Canada 2017 playoffs” to relive the soundtrack of a playoff in which his son Jake, then a quiet, wide-eyed rookie, had a postseason run for the ages.

In helping lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a second consecutive Stanley Cup, Guentzel became the first rookie in NHL history to lead the postseason in goal scoring with 13. He came within one goal of matching Hall of Famer Dino Ciccarelli’s rookie NHL record set in 1981 and tied for the most postseason points in history by a rookie with 21.

Cole called many of those goals.

“It was just amazing to hear Bob Cole talking about my son and the excitement in his voice,” said Mike Guentzel, a former longtime college and junior coach and now a pro scout with the new NHL Utah franchise after coming over from Arizona. “You forget about those memories and what happened, but it was cool to reminisce back to that and to hear Bob Cole talking about Jake. I’m like, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’”

That playoff run, after scoring 16 goals and 33 points in a 40-game regular season, turned out to be a family affair for Mike and his wife, Sally, and their two other sons, Gabe, who’s now 36 and a father of…

ST. PAUL, Minn. — For years, Luke Kunin watched as his girlfriend, then fiancée, then wife, Sophia, supported his career.

She was a shoulder to lean on when things got tough in Minnesota. Moved to Nashville when he was traded there. Was a constant during the toughest season of his pro career — last year with the San Jose Sharks, when he tore his ACL.

So Kunin can’t wait to walk into Xcel Energy Center — the arena where he began his NHL career as a Minnesota Wild rookie seven years ago — on Saturday with the shoe on the other foot. The 1 p.m. CDT game will be his first time watching Sophia play at the highest level in person, as she’ll take the ice with Minnesota’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team to face Boston in its regular-season finale ahead of next month’s playoffs.

“I’ll get to see what it’s all about,” Luke said. “I’ve watched her games on the internet all year — as much as I can with our schedule — but I think of all the things she’s sacrificed for me over the years so I can live out my dream. I can’t wait to be there to support her and watch her live her dream.”

Luke and Sophia Kunin’s relationship has helped them come through so much to arrive at this point. Meeting as teenagers. Watching each other excel in hockey….

TEMPE, Ariz. — In a game in which goals were hard to come by for 40 minutes, the Minnesota Wild and Arizona Coyotes combined for three in a 39-second span early in the third period Thursday, and Joel Eriksson Ek broke a 2-2 tie 7:16 into the period with his 29th goal of the season to help lift Minnesota to a 5-2 win at Mullett Arena.

Mats Zuccarello, who missed Sunday’s game because of a family emergency, returned to the lineup and assisted on three of the five goals.

Brock Faber scored an empty-net goal and had an assist, Connor Dewar added an empty-net goal, Kirill Kaprizov continued his scoring ways with a second-period power-play goal and Zach Bogosian, fresh off signing a two-year, $2.5 million extension, scored a clutch third-period tying goal as the Wild won their second straight. The Coyotes, playing without Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba for trade-related reasons and Nick Bjugstad with his wife in labor, fell to 2-14-2 since Jan. 24.

• Kaprizov scored his fourth goal in two games and joined Marian Gaborik (2005 to ’08) and Brian Rolston (2005 to ’08) as the only Wild players to notch three consecutive 30-goal seasons.
• Clayton Keller and Michael Carcone scored seven seconds apart to ruin Fleury’s shutout early in the third period. It was the fastest two goals the…

Our NHL style rankings have seen a fair share of players donning hats and blazers, even full suit combos. Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman, who’s in the midst of a career season, has taken it one step further by donning Stetson hats with his outfits. He credits a Calgary-based World of Vici store stylist for his suits.

“I just have a guy here in Calgary that wanted to play a little dress-up this year,” Coleman said.

As for the hats, Coleman got himself hooked after wearing an Open Road Stetson while attending the Academy of Country Music Awards in Dallas last summer. Owning one turned into owning multiple hats. Even Coleman’s wife, Jordan, grabbed some during the Flames’ road stop in Dallas last November. Coleman also received a Stetson as a birthday gift.

“What’s that old expression? Look good, play good, feel good,” Coleman said. “It’s fun to mix it up a little bit. I was pretty simple earlier in my career. Now that I have the luxury to go get some new stuff, I’ve enjoyed it. My wife used to poke fun at my suit game. I think she’s probably the happiest of anybody.”

Coleman now is considered a style rankings regular for The Athletic. He’s been a part of stiff competition with some of the league’s best dressers, including Auston Matthews, Adam…

ST. PAUL, Minn — Camila Foligno held her father’s hand as her eyes glanced around a room full of female hockey players Saturday afternoon.

The 3-year-old wasn’t a stranger to pregame activities at Xcel Energy Center, having watched her dad, Marcus Foligno, play there many times for the Minnesota Wild. But this time, she took in the scene as the Minnesota’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team got ready to take the ice for its home opener. Camila and her older sister, Olivia, 5, just started skating, but Marcus wanted them to experience this historic event. Foligno, wearing one of the team’s purple jerseys, colorfully read the starting lineup for the players, who slapped their knees as a drumroll.

“In the pipes, we’ve got Maddie Rooney.”

“On defense, we’ve got the ‘Big Unit,’  Lee Stecklein.”

She listened as Foligno yelled other nicknames, like “Coyner” for Kendall Coyne Schofield and “The High-zee” for Taylor Heise, the former Gophers star and prized No. 1 pick. When he finished, Camila, Olivia and their dad went around the room to slap hands with each of the women. At the end, Foligno smiled and pointed to Camila.

“That,” he said, “could be the next ‘Big Unit.’”

Very few people read a starting lineup like #mnwild Marcus Foligno….

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Dean Evason isn’t hiding.

The man who lives mere blocks from TRIA Rink and Xcel Energy Center and used to walk to and from work even on the snowiest and coldest winter days and nights was sitting in plain sight at Keys Café on Wednesday, two days after he was fired as Minnesota Wild coach.

He shook the hand of the host, whom he knows well. He enthusiastically greeted one of the waitresses, who was excited to see Evason and tell him about her chipped tooth, which she’s upset makes her look like Jim Carrey in “Dumb and Dumber.”

On Tuesday morning, not even 18 hours after Bill Guerin called him into his office to deliver the bad news, Evason rejoined CorePower Yoga and took part in a sweaty, 120-degree hot yoga class.

“My legs are dead today,” Evason said as he took a bite of his egg sandwich and washed it down with a vanilla latte.

He’s got a golf trip in the works. He’s got dinner plans Wednesday night at La Grolla, the Italian staple his buddy owns. He plans to visit his three kids. His wife, Genevieve, is a flight attendant based in Montreal for Air Canada. She does long-haul flights to Europe, and he plans to soon jump on flights she’s working and sit “hopefully in business class” so he can spend 24-hour stints with her in places like…

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It was 2011, Bill Guerin’s first year as development coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins and one of his first times traveling to Wilkes-Barre, Penn., to work with the Baby Penguins.

Guerin was living on Long Island, so it was always a special occasion when he showed up.

“He comes in all fresh, brings us Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and comes in full of energy: ‘Hey boys, let’s go on the ice,’” Wilkes-Barre’s coach at the time, John Hynes, recalled. “We go out there skating, and about 20 minutes into practice, we’re doing a battle drill and Billy skates up to me: ‘Hey Hynesy, isn’t this a little aggressive for a morning skate?’

“I go, ‘Billy … the game’s tomorrow.’”

Guerin erupted with laughter last April as Hynes relayed this story on the morning of what was — unbeknownst to either — Hynes’ second-to-last morning skate as coach of the Nashville Predators.

“I was standing there thinking, ‘We’re going long. Now he’s got these guys doing all this physical stuff. I’ve got to say something,’” Guerin said, still laughing.

“Poor guy left his wife and family to come to Wilkes a day too early,” Hynes said, laughing harder.

At the helm of the Hynes #mnwild pic.twitter.com/VVY9Kp8LZz

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild)