Lemaire To The Devils

ESPN is reporting just now that Jacques Lemaire, recently departed coach of the Minnesota Wild, has signed on to coach the New Jersey Devils. More info as we get it.

UPDATE: And Russo confirms.

Wild thangs

Just a little cross promotion if you're interested in Wild stuff:

I posted my thoughts on Constantine as Lemaire's potential replacement over on Ms.Conduct. Been reading lots about it from newspapers, from fans, etc. and have been letting my own thoughts percolate for a couple of days. But I think I addressed all the things I've heard that have bugged me a little bit.

Also, I'm the farm team correspondent for Wild Nation Radio, and we recorded our first broadcast last night. I thought it went well, in spite of hating listening to my recorded voice.

It's about an hour long but if you make it to the end, you can hear my prediction for the Aeros vs. Peoria series. Yes, I actually made a prediction. Go here to listen.

TwinCities.com: Constantine unlikely to coach Wild

Most of this story was about why Lemaire won't coach Montreal. Pretty funny stuff from Jacques here. Also mentions that Constantine coaching the Wild seems unlikely and that Wild Asst. Ramsey does not consider himself a serious candidate.

Stay tuned folks, this is going to get interesting. At least for people that follow the Wild.

Constantine to coach Wild? His comments on that speculation

Photo by Fred Trask

Constantine didn't deny the speculation that he is one of the top candidates for the Wild job, but for Aeros fans, he gave about the best answer you could ask for.

Here are the quotes from our brief chat last night ... Later, I will post some good stuff about what he thinks Lemaire has meant to the Wild organization.

This is Kevin Constantine about 45 minutes after the Aeros lost 4-2 in the Alamo City last night:

The question? How are you going to deal with the rampant speculation involving you and the now vacant head coaching job in Minnesota?

Constantine -- "My life is such a one-day-at-a-time thing, and that is really not a concern of mine right now. That is a concern for other people. My job right now is to get this team (Aeros) ready to play every day, and I have never had a problem staying on task, so I will just stay on task.

My take is that he is going to stay on task.

(UPDATED) Jacques Lemaire Steps Down In Minnesota. Could This Mean Something In Houston?

Andrew wrote earlier tonight that he thought this might be Kevin Constantine's last regular season road game as the coach of the Aeros. And if you've been checking the links over on the right side of this blog, you might have figured out why that it is. But just in case...

Following the Wild's 6-3 victory over the Blue Jackets, Wild coach Jacques Lemaire announced that he is stepping down as the team's head coach. It's too early to know what the Wild have in mind, though I'm sure Wild GM Doug Risebrough, assistant GM Tom Lynn, and owner Craig Leipold probably suspected that this move was coming, especially since there was thinking that Lemaire would retire after last season.

Thus we come to Kevin Constantine. There was speculation when he was hired to coach the Aeros that he was kind of hired as Wild coach in waiting. Well, that and he was hired to get a bunch of underperforming knuckleheads in Houston performing as they should be performing.

We could still be a long way from knowing anything however. I would think that there will be no announcement about anything until the NHL and AHL playoffs are over. I'm also sure that there are going to be discussions about the future of Risebrough in Minnesota, so everything could be up in the air for awhile to come.

UPDATED: Russo's updated blog post provides a few more details. While Lemaire was allowed to quit, it appears that he might have been asked to step down. Lemaire also makes it clear that he wants to coach again. And Constantine is listed as one of the prime candidates for the job.