What they're saying about Mike Yeo

What they're saying"I have a different label than them: I'm a coach, they're a player, but we are teammates in this. My responsibilities are different than theirs, but at the end of the day, what it is we're trying to get accomplished is the same."

-- Mike Yeo, new Wild coach

"There's no question who's in charge. But he's a listener, he's a communicator, he knows how to motivate players, he knows how to get players to buy into what he's selling and why they should. That's a hard skill to master."

-- Chuck Fletcher, Wild GM

"I thought Chuck [Fletcher] would roll with the veteran guy, but a good coach is a good coach, and Yeosie is a good coach, there's not even a question about that. He had a quiet determination about him as a player. He was very knowledgeable, he was very thoughtful about the game, very passionate about winning -- all the credentials that go into a good leader."

-- Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, who coached Yeo five years in Houston

"Once you talk to him, you know that he's got it. This is one good coach."

"He is a gifted young man with a very high hockey IQ. He treats everyone with respect and he is very capable of looking into your eyes and telling you the hard things -- things you might not want to hear. It takes a strong person to do that, but something every successful coach needs."

-- Longtime Penguins scout Chuck Grillo, the former GM of the San Jose Sharks and owner of Minnesota Hockey Camps.

"He was in charge of the power play basically out in Pittsburgh. You're working with 5-10 of the best players in the world out there, and he had their respect. It was all about detail and he stuck up for himself and for what he believed in. It's hard to tell Sidney Crosby to try something else once and a while but he did it and that shows a lot. He worked for everything he got."

-- Hastings' Jeff Taffe, who played for Yeo in Pittsburgh