ST. PAUL, Minn. — Matt Hendricks, the soon-to-be third-year general manager of the Iowa Wild, has opened up an external search to land on the next coach for Minnesota’s AHL affiliate after Greg Cronin left Monday to become one of Jim Montgomery’s new assistants with the St. Louis Blues.“I’m fielding calls right now, putting lists together, combing through it, trying to shrink it down to something definitely a little bit more manageable,” Hendricks told The Athletic on Tuesday. “Criteria, for me, the head coaching experience was very important, I felt, last year. Right now, I don’t have that feel. I do still want experience.“But the phone calls coming in right now are all the way from the NHL down to the USHL and everything in between.”Hendricks said he’s not in a rush. He just wants to find the right coach and person, but he loved a lot of the characteristics Cronin had.“Cro, he helped set a culture down there, a very positive one,” Hendricks said. “The season was a tough start with the bodies that we had lost to Minnesota up top. But through Cro’s detail and his work, after Christmas, things tended to stabilize, and the wins started coming. And where we were for the last 30 games of the year, I can honestly say I was pleased with our day-to-day efforts. Whether it was practices, games, there was just a workmanlike confidence that those guys had that they had a chance to win every night.“I think that all stems from Greg and the way that he would go about his business on a daily basis. The routines he had with his players and his staff. The way he would grade the individual players each night after each game. He had criteria that they had to try and meet, and I feel that’s important. And then being able to juggle the importance of trying to win but also trying to develop.”Hendricks will run the search, doing the first phase autonomously. Once he shrinks the list, he’ll pull in the Wild’s three assistant general managers and player development staff to begin interviews.Hendricks said the rest of the Iowa coaching staff will return.Depending on whether or not they make the big club, Iowa currently could have up to five more prospects turning pro next season: forwards Charlie Stramel and Rieger Lorenz, defensemen Viking Gustafsson Nyberg and Ben Dexheimer, and goalie Chase Wutzke.Minnesota is also expected to sign about a half-dozen players to two-way contracts (including a solid No. 2/3 goalie who would fill in for rehabbing Filip Gustavsson to start the season in Minnesota before going to Iowa) to complement the current Iowa roster (Hunter Haight, Riley Heidt, Stevie Leskovar, Riley Mercer, etc.), AHL-contracted players and pending restricted free agents (Carson Lambos, David Spacek, etc.) who need to be re-signed.Iowa has missed the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, and Hendricks wants that to stop.“Our goaltending struggled, which means our penalty kill struggled,” Hendricks said. “Our power play again struggled. Even when we got real healthy, I don’t think we had quite the amount of offensive firepower that you need. That’s something that we’re hoping to address.“But after Christmas, our goaltending stabilized. William Rousseau came up and gave us some really good games. Mercer came up and gave us some really good games. The last 30 games, we were at a .600 or above winning percentage. We were playing a good brand of hockey and winning games the right way.”Still, Hendricks added, “I want to be (in the playoffs). When we had our Black Aces skate during (Minnesota’s) playoffs, I couldn’t help but think, ‘Yeah, this is a great experience for these players, but, man, I really wish we were playing some games into late April down in Des Moines.’”Jun 16, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms