The Minnesota Wild today announced sweeping changes to their front office, including the promotion of former Assistant General Manager Brent Flahr to Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. Andrew Brunette and Shep Harder have both also been promoted to Assistant General Manager.
Matt Majka has been promoted to President and Alternate Governor, though he still will leave day-to-day operations to GM Chuck Fletcher and his team. Interestingly, Flahr remains GM of the Iowa Wild, a position usually held by AGMs around the league.
Brunette, a veteran of 1110 NHL games and one of the better all-time Wild players, will continue to work in the front office after a short stint as an assistant coach in 2014-15. He is the latest example of a former player moving into hockey operations, and is taking a big step on the path to becoming a GM should he want to.
The Wild had the most successful regular season in their history this year, but were eliminated early from the playoffs once again. After getting to the Conference Finals in just their third year, the Wild haven’t since gotten past the second round of the playoffs. Their current front office staff have built a solid team through both the draft and trade market, and will continue to look to improve this summer to get over the playoff hump.