Wild can't afford to gamble

The Star Tribune's Michael Russo mentioned several names of potential Wild head coaching candidates and divided them into categories for Tuesday's paper. Let's work through those names in an attempt to guess what direction the Wild will and/or should go:

• Randy Carlyle: The 60-year-old won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007 and would bring a strong voice to the locker room. His all-time coaching record of 364-260-80 suggests he is a solid choice. On the other hand, Carlyle has also been fired twice (by Anaheim and Toronto), and his teams have tended to play better earlier in his tenure than later.

• Marc Crawford: Had a great first run as head coach, winning the 1996 Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. But that was 20 years ago, and his past three coaching stops have been far less successful.

• Paul MacLean: Coached Ottawa for parts of four seasons, making the playoffs twice before getting fired during his fourth year in 2014-15.

• Guy Boucher: Took Tampa Bay to the Eastern Conference finals in his first season (2010-11), but the Lightning slipped from 103 to 84 points in his second year, and he was fired early during his third season.

• Kevin Dineen: Similarly, Dineen made the playoffs with Florida his first year (2011-12), had a swift regression the next year and was fired early in his third year.

• Kirk Muller: Missed the playoffs all three seasons with Carolina.

• Phil Housley: Minnesota native who coached Team USA to the World Junior Championship in 2013 and is a well-regarded Nashville assistant but again has limited experience.

• Luke Richardson: Another coach with a good minor league track record in the Ottawa organization.

• John Torchetti: A career grinder whose only NHL head coach chances have come in an interim role, Torchetti is a character who came in and did a credible job to at least get the Wild to the postseason.

• It feels as if the Wild needs to go bigger with this hire than the status quo, so Torchetti has to be considered a long shot. The middle tier of names doesn't offer much excitement.

• GM Chuck Fletcher has tried two up-and-comers already for his two full-time hires (Todd Richards and Mike Yeo), and they have produced mixed results. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't do it again.