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Wild promote Brunette to power-play consultant

AndrewBrunette

Looking for a bump in production with the man advantage, Minnesota has promoted former Wild forward Andrew Brunette to the role of power-play consultant, according to the Minnesota Star-Tribune.

“[Brunette’s] an invaluable resource,” Wild head coach Mike Yeo explained. “Our power play had the opportunity to be a lot better last year than it was.

“We were sixth in the league in total power-play shots on goal. That tells you we’re just not doing enough to score goals.”

The Wild PP operated at a 17.9 percent clip last season -- 16th in the league -- and that number was a disappointment considering the club added two key PP fixtures in the offseason in Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

Suter led the team in power play time on ice per game average (3:46) and Parise was third, with 3:25.

“There are things Bruno can help us with to generate more shots, to generate more quality shots, to teach us different times to take pucks to the net, different positions to be in front of the net that only a guy with that kind of experience can teach.” Yeo said.

Brunette is highly qualified to take on this gig. He was already working in Minnesota’s hockey ops department and is barely removed from playing (was with Chicago in 2011-12).

He also made his mark during his playing career as a PP specialist.

Brunette scored 114 power play goals during his career and was a deft setup man as well, tying Joe Sakic for Colorado’s team-lead in power play assists in 2006-07, with 27.