Wild’s John Hynes named coach for USA at 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship

The United States has named the man who will lead the team into the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship.

On Friday, USA Hockey announced Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes will be the bench boss for Team USA at the upcoming tournament in Czechia.

This will be the second time the Rhode Island native has been the head coach for a world championship team, as Hynes was behind the bench for the United States in 2016, when they lost in the bronze medal game to Russia.

“We’re fortunate to have John leading our team,” Brett Peterson, general manager of the 2024 U.S. Men’s National Team, said in a release. “His passion and energy, coupled with his vast experience, including on the world stage, will certainly serve us well in our efforts to bring back gold to the United States.”

Hynes has worked for USA Hockey in various coaching roles over his career. He was the head coach for the national teams that won gold at the 2004 and 2006 IIHF Under-18 World Championships, and was an assistant on the team that won the United States’ first gold medal at the 2004 IIHF World Junior Championship. Hynes also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 2019 World Championship.

He hopes to lead the U.S. to its first medal at the world championships since 2021, when the country won bronze in Latvia.

The former UMass-Lowell head coach has been working the professional ranks since 2009, and won the 2011 Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award for coach of the year in the American Hockey League while with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ primary affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

He debuted in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils in 2015 and led the team to a playoff berth in the 2017-18 season. The Devils fired him in the middle of the 2019-20 season, but he was quickly hired to replace Peter Laviolette with the Nashville Predators. He coached three full seasons in Smashville before getting fired after the team missed the playoffs last season.

Hynes got back on the coaching horse this past November, when the Wild hired him to replace Dean Evason.

The Americans begin play in Ostrava on May 10, when they face Sweden in Group B action.