The Minnesota Wild announced today that Stu Bickel has been hired as the head coach of the team’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
Iowa general manager Matt Hendricks issued the following statement regarding the decision to hire Bickel:
We’re very excited to name Stu as our head coach. His ties to both Iowa and Minnesota make him an outstanding fit for our organization. He brings valuable experience from his playing career and has been part of successful teams as an assistant coach. We believe he’s ready for this opportunity and will establish a strong, winning culture in our locker room.
Bickel fills a vacancy left by former Iowa head coach Greg Cronin, who departed the team to become an assistant coach on Jim Montgomery’s staff with the St. Louis Blues. The hire is a homecoming of sorts for the former NHL depth defenseman, as the 39-year-old spent most of the 2014-15 season in Iowa, before concluding his playing career via a two-year stint with the San Diego Gulls.
After retiring in 2017-18, Bickel joined the University of Minnesota hockey program as a graduate assistant coach. After two seasons there, he left to serve as head coach and assistant GM for the Minnesota Magicians, a now-defunct club in the NAHL. Bickel’s Magicians went 24-21-3 in the shortened 2020-21 campaign and made a run to the league semifinals.
Bickel’s one year in junior hockey led to a role in the AHL with the Springfield Thunderbirds, on the staff of future St. Louis Blues head coach Drew Bannister. Bickel helped Bannister coach the Thunderbirds to a 43-24-9 regular season before making a run to the Calder Cup Final.
He was then lured away from Springfield to join the staff of Stanley Cup-winning head coach Dan Bylsma with the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
In Coachella Valley, Bickel went to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals, losing each time to the Hershey Bears.
But while Bylsma and fellow assistant coach Jessica Campbell were promoted to the NHL to coach for the Seattle Kraken, Bickel remained in Coachella Valley for an additional two seasons as an assistant on the staff of Derek Laxdal. The Firebirds have posted winning records on each of the last two campaigns but have failed to move beyond the second round of the playoffs.
On one hand, it’s somewhat surprising that the Wild have chosen a new bench boss for Iowa without any prior experience as a head coach at the professional level. Iowa has not won a playoff series since 2018-19 and has missed the playoffs in three consecutive seasons, a notably poor recent track record considering 23 of the AHL’s 32 clubs qualify for the playoffs each year. The team is under real pressure to improve, and prioritized hiring an experienced head coach in their last cycle.
But just because Bickel is a first-time AHL head coach, just as former Iowa Wild coach Brett McLean was, does not mean he’s not up for the job. His resume as an AHL assistant coach is extremely impressive – three Calder Cup Final runs in his first three seasons – and there is reason to believe he is just scratching the surface of his potential as a coach. Furthermore, his familiarity with the organization and Iowa specifically works in his favor as well.
The most important thing – beyond just getting back to winning ways – will be whether or not Bickel can consistently deliver NHL-ready call-up players to the Wild. Minnesota has seen the development of some of their prospects stall upon reaching Iowa, with players such as 2021 first-rounder Carson Lambos, 2021 second-rounder Jack Peart, and 2020 second-rounder Ryan O’Rourke failing to make expected leaps to the NHL.
Bickel will be tasked with reversing that trend.
Minnesota is aggressively chasing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup while it has superstars Quinn Hughes and Kirill Kaprizov in their prime and under contract, so while Bickel may be all the way in another state, the role he plays coaching AHL Iowa will be a quietly important one for the Wild’s Stanley Cup hopes.
Photos courtesy of Taya Gray/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK
