WHEELING — As far as late starts go, Mike Bavis probably couldn’t have gotten a later one. Hired in early August after Mark Dennehy left for the AHL only a month into his Wheeling Nailers tenure, Bavis eagerly hopped on board.

If that late start was the only concern it would be one thing. But it wasn’t. The previous coach — no, not Dennehy. The previous previous one — and the club had what could only be considered a messy divorce and the residue from Jeff Christian’s stay here left an indelible stain on a large portion of the team’s fan base.

Maybe in a way then, the timing was perfect. Bavis didn’t have time to worry about perception, outside noise or any other factors that didn’t include building a team that could do something its two predecessors could not, which is qualify for the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Most would agree that wasn’t going to happen overnight. After all, a lot of the players already under contract for this season were signed by Dennehy. And with the combination of defenseman Dan Fick and forward Cam Brown the only true holdovers and moving to the always-loaded Central Division, this had the potential to be a long season.

It was a slow start, to be sure. But here we are in early January and Wheeling (16-14-2 — 24) was tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central heading into Friday night’s road game at Indy, one point back of Fort Wayne in what has become a virtual merry-go-round in terms of places 3-6.

”As a coach it’s fun to have a group that started out in one place and you’ve watched it evolve,” Bavis said. ”Sometimes as a coach you think, ‘geez, I thought I knew this guy and his ceiling.’ Then you kind of step back and say, ‘wow, I didn’t realize he had that in him.’ ”

And that progress is being built with one brick of trust at the time. Last season the Nailers set a franchise record for number of players employed at one time or another with 51. Bavis has taken a patient approach, cautioning everyone that we can’t always identify a good hockey player simply based on statistics.

As an example he used Brown, who as a rookie was nearly a point per-game player but got off to a slow start in the scoring department in his second season. On Thursday Brown was named ECHL Player of the Month and is currently with the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

”He’s been a good player all along for us, but the points didn’t come easy early on. To see him get red-hot and get to the American League, that’s a good feeling as a coach,” Bavis said. ”I think Cam finding his confidence, his touch around the net and finding a guy that can work with him … all of these guys have to have a guy that can make plays with them and think the way they do. Nick Saracino certainly clicked with him at one point and they did what they did in terms of this league.

”It was never a question of whether Cam Brown was a good player. Players who score can run into streaks where they don’t score and you have to try to get them to not overthink it and have it be a burden to them.

”If they have the offensive ability to finish and pass the puck, they will find it.”

At the outset of the season, Wheeling was having difficulty keeping the puck out of its own net and putting it into the one occupied by the opposing goaltender. Offensively it was the Troy Josephs show, but if he didn’t score rarely did anyone else.

But in the last month something has clicked. The Nailers are getting offensive contributions across the board and the goaltending, well, let’s just say Matt O’Connor and Jordan Ruby both more than kept the ship afloat while established ECHL star John Muse was on callup.

”The players have done a great job of ‘next man up’ and giving ourselves a chance to win,” Bavis said. ”Within a season you have these different ebbs and flows and different players’ games coming up. I mean, who ever thought Alex Rauter would put up the points he has and be playing the role he has?

”Troy was really a big part of what we were doing early. After he left (to the AHL) Nick and Cam really got red-hot in terms of making plays and contributing. Zac Lynch has come on.

”You never really lock into ‘it’s got to be this guy’ because it’s a long enough season that guys have to contribute and bring their games up.”

In other words, it takes time.

”This was a team that really was in transformation, when you think about the number of players that did not return,” Bavis said. ”For myself being a new coach here and the culture I would like to have around the team, that was a work in progress.

”And it continues to be a work in progress.”

So far, so good.

Shawn Rine can be reached via email at: srine@theintelligencer.net