MINNEAPOLIS _ Paul Fenton's rocky 14-month run as general manager of the Wild has abruptly ended.
Fenton was fired Tuesday by owner Craig Leipold.
"After giving much thought to this difficult decision, I informed Paul today that he was not the right fit for our organization going forward," Leipold said in a statement. "I believe we have a good hockey team, a team that will compete for a playoff spot this year, and I look forward to hiring a general manager that will help us win a Stanley Cup."
Leipold said the search for a general manager is underway. Assistant GM Tom Kurvers will be acting general manager.
Fenton did not immediately return a request for comment.
Hired away from the Nashville organization on May 22, 2018, Fenton was charged with improving the team's postseason performance. The Wild made the NHL playoffs six consecutive seasons, but advanced to the second round only twice, under previous GM Chuck Fletcher.
The Wild got worse and Fletcher wasn't out of work long _ he was hired as general manager in Philadelphia during the season.
Fenton, 59, was the third general manager in team history, following Doug Risebrough and Fletcher. He was hired as Leipold considered young up-and-coming candidates before deciding to go with experience; Fenton had been an assistant to Nashville's David Poile for 12 years. Leipold owned the Predators from 1998-2007 and was familiar with Fenton, who started in the Nashville organization in 1998.
His first draft with the Wild, in 2018, was controversial from the start when the team took a flier on Filip Johansson, an under the radar defenseman who has struggled in a lower level Swedish league, with the 24th pick. Fenton's free-agent signings in the summer of 2018 were also unremarkable, as he added only fourth-line forwards and third-pair defenseman Greg Pateryn, while re-signing defenseman Matt Dumba and 30-goal scorer Jason Zucker to long-term deals.
During a season that was marked by a key injury to defenseman Dumba, Fenton traded popular players Charlie Coyle (getting Ryan Donato from Boston), Mikael Granlund (getting Kevin Fiala from Nashville) and Nino Niederreiter (getting Victor Rask from Carolina) as the team fell out of playoff contention.
The Wild had a more traditional first-round pick in June, taking left winger Matt Boldy with the 12th overall choice. Fenton's big free-agent signing was top-six winger Mats Zuccarello, but there were also constant rumors he was shopping Zucker.
The team's top prospect, Russian winger Kirill Kaprizov, was a Fletcher draft pick who was a leading scorer in the Kontinental Hockey League last season and isn't expected to join the Wild until the 2020-21 season, if at all.
Fenton had a rocky relationship with the media and an old-school approach to guarding information that was confusing to some players. Details of his contract were never made public, but his three-year deal was believed to run through 2021.
The Wild open training camp on Sept. 12. Among Fenton's uncompleted offseason tasks were a contract extension with defenseman Jared Spurgeon; and contracts for Joel Eriksson Ek and Fiala, who are restricted free agents.
As well, coach Bruce Boudreau, 131-87-28 in three seasons with the Wild, is entering the final season of his contract. A new general manager might consider an extension for Boudreau, who was a good foot soldier under Fenton as players were being traded from a team that was in playoff position.
"I knew I had another year left on my contract," Boudreau said at a season ending news conference. "And my job is to coach until I'm told not to coach anymore. I come in every day, and I work as hard as I can. And when they don't want me to work anymore, they will tell me."
