Article: Jake Middleton's Playoff Performance Highlights A Flaw With Guerin's Vision

[Robert Brent]

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[Citizen Strife]

Middleton's issues are pronounced, but I think there's something more at play that could counteract it: offense from the blueline.  Getting Buium a taste was one thing.  But he has to do what everyone except Spurgeon seems to fail at: provide way more offense.  Spurgeon, Faber, Brodin, and Middleton aren't great offensive threats.  The bottom depth even less so.  That was something Middleton did pre-injury and Spurgeon kept up pretty well.  But even Faber wasn't what you'd call an offensive presence.  

The Wild only really have Kap, Boldy, and (for now) Rossi as offensive guys.  Foligno and Hartman did that in the playoffs.  But I don't think any team is "scared" to let the Wild roam around.  The better teams can counterract the mistakes they'd make by just going, "You just keep on peppering the goalie.  We're not scared of you.  We'll just run and gun right past you and score anyway."

I believe this to be personnel rather than a Hynes philosophy.  Evason played with more reckless abandon, but that came with it's own risks.  The team by and large doesn't have the offense yet to just shrug off any mistakes or scare other teams into avoiding said risks.

I'm not saying that's why Middleton struggled.  I'm just hoping that by getting some better offensive balance, it won't be SUCH a burden on playing perfect defense or goaltending.  Nobody's perfect.

Edited May 6 by Citizen Strife

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Given the investments in defense recently, Middleton as a top 4 defender doesn't seem to be Guerin's long-term vision. Middleton as a 3rd pairing defender seems just fine. Hopefully developments from Buium and Jiricek will be substantial this summer and Middleton could end up as a 3rd pairing defenseman when the Wild head into 2026, assuming he's still around.

[Patrick]

According to AI Guerin has signed 30 players to contracts as GM of the Wild.  Of those 30 I would list 5 as "size and grit" guys.

They are:

Trenin, Foligno, Bogosian, Maroon and Middleton.

Additionally he has traded for but not re signed:

Brazeau and Sundqvist.

Maybe(hopefully) BG's obsession with size is a bit overblown.  

Hopefully he gets KK and Rossi signed this summer!

 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

2 hours ago, Patrick said:

Maybe(hopefully) BG's obsession with size is a bit overblown.  

Yeah, the other issue with this article is it's entirely about what was expected based upon stat projections and doesn't bother to share what actually happened in the games. Expected goals aren't real.

The Wild outscored Vegas 6-3 even strength when Middleton was on the ice. That's real. He was on the ice for 3 power play goals against, but I'm not sure if he was at fault on those. Middleton also led all Wild defensemen in +/- this regular season at +11. Spurgeon, who was excellent, is the only Wild defenseman to have a better playoff +/-, leading the team at +5.

Since they were also mentioned above, Brazeau was +1 in the playoffs and Trenin was at +0. Nyquist was listed too, and he had only 1 goal scored against while he was on the ice for 60 minutes this playoffs.

[Will D. Ness]

Middleton did struggle in the playoffs.  I think he got hurt late in the season and maybe wasn't 100%.  Hand injury?  I can't remember.

I thought he was really bad in 23-24 but had a nice bounce back this year overall. 

On the GM side, I still don't like his contract though... 1M too much 1Y too long.

[raithis]

14 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

Middleton did struggle in the playoffs.  I think he got hurt late in the season and maybe wasn't 100%.  Hand injury?  I can't remember.

I thought he was really bad in 23-24 but had a nice bounce back this year overall. 

On the GM side, I still don't like his contract though... 1M too much 1Y too long.

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing.  He only missed a couple games and then came back to help us clinch a spot.  It would not shock me at all if he was still affected by the injury, but was playing anyway despite it.

I think he's less of a liability than this article tries to portray him as.

[ArizonaWildFan]

On 5/7/2025 at 12:08 PM, raithis said:

I think he's less of a liability than this article tries to portray him as.

Agreed. One thing that doesn't really get talked about but is the reality of the impact of professional athletes personal lives on their game performance. Guys get married and have kids and their lives change. I think Middleton had his first child sometime in 2024.

I think the same thing happened with Gustavsson the year before and maybe Hartman, too. I also think that's part of the reason the Wild were better on the road than at home. You can say that these guys get paid a lot of money and they should be able to figure things out. It can be a difficult transition and it can take time.

Anyone who's had kids know how much they change your life. Hopefully Middleton was going through a baby slump, gets it figured out and has a following season bump.