The Minnesota Wild’s Mike Yeo

Photo: Courtesy of Minnesota Wild

Head Coach Mike Yeo at a recent Minnesota Wild game

Mike Yeo, the new head coach of the Minnesota Wild, is as much heart and soul as he is guts and determination—a guy who made it a point to have face-to-face meetings with each of his players before training camp began (including the ones in Finland), and a guy who, bit by sweat-stained bit, worked his way up to becoming the youngest head coach currently in the NHL at the tender age of 38.

Yeo, who recently settled in Woodbury with his wife, Tanya, and their kids, 14-year-old daughter Braeden and 12-year-old son Kyler, describes his coaching style as “strict, but fair.” He pores through books on motivation so he can learn how to best embolden his rather young team, and frequently gets up in the middle of the night to jot down notes on things to cover in the next morning’s practice. “It’s a 24-hour-a-day job,” he says with a laugh.

His passion for the sport propelled Yeo from AHL player to AHL assistant coach to a five-year-stint as NHL assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he garnered a much-coveted Stanley Cup ring in 2009.

Yeo’s dream now is to bring that kind of success (and, it seems, his characteristic zeal and grit) to the Minnesota Wild. “It’s a grind to get there, but it’s so worth it,” he says. “It’s a feeling that once you have it inside, you want to do everything to try and make it happen again. And there’s nothing I would love more than to have it happen right here.”

Mike Yeo, the new head coach of the Minnesota Wild, is as much heart and soul as he is guts and determination—a guy who made it a point to have face-to-face meetings with each of his players before training camp began (including the ones in Finland), and a guy who, bit by sweat-stained bit, worked his way up to becoming the youngest head coach currently in the NHL at the tender age of 38.

Yeo, who recently settled in Woodbury with his wife, Tanya, and their kids, 14-year-old daughter Braeden and 12-year-old son Kyler, describes his coaching style as “strict, but fair.” He pores through books on motivation so he can learn how to best embolden his rather young team, and frequently gets up in the middle of the night to jot down notes on things to cover in the next morning’s practice. “It’s a 24-hour-a-day job,” he says with a laugh.

His passion for the sport propelled Yeo from AHL player to AHL assistant coach to a five-year-stint as NHL assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he garnered a much-coveted Stanley Cup ring in 2009.

Yeo’s dream now is to bring that kind of success (and, it seems, his characteristic zeal and grit) to the Minnesota Wild. “It’s a grind to get there, but it’s so worth it,” he says. “It’s a feeling that once you have it inside, you want to do everything to try and make it happen again. And there’s nothing I would love more than to have it happen right here.”

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