Article: Matt Boldy Is Already Ahead Of Schedule

[Tony Abbott]

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[Imyourhuckleberry]

Kaprizov moves back in front on official points, but Boldy's shootout goals are bringing extra points in the standings too. The Wild are playing together incredibly well as a team right now. Can they keep it going all season?

[Fortis]

Boldy is an absolute stud and is still underrated. I can’t name anyone in the NHL better than him at protecting the puck and maintaining possession. The Wild really need to pair him with an elite passer/playmaker to get a 50/50 season though. I’d love to see him with Hunter Haight

[Up North Guy]

9 hours ago, Fortis said:

I’d love to see him with Hunter Haight

Eventually, yes. But I doubt Haight is ready for that challenge. (Note: I have not seen how Haight is playing in Iowa)

[Imyourhuckleberry]

11 hours ago, Fortis said:

Wild really need to pair him with an elite passer/playmaker to get a 50/50 season though. I’d love to see him with Hunter Haight

Do you want to see them pair him with an elite passer/playmaker, or with Hunter Haight? I don't see them being on the same line anytime soon, and Haight certainly doesn't fit the role of elite passer/playmaker.

Haight only has 15 assists in 80 AHL games in his career, with just 1 in 13 games so far this season. The 4 goals is decent production. Riley Heidt is more of a playmaker, but he's definitely not NHL ready.

[FredJohnson]

On 11/28/2025 at 11:32 PM, Fortis said:

Boldy is an absolute stud and is still underrated. I can’t name anyone in the NHL better than him at protecting the puck and maintaining possession. The Wild really need to pair him with an elite passer/playmaker to get a 50/50 season though. I’d love to see him with Hunter Haight

He's got HoF NoJo! What more could he want?

(Sarcasm)

[1Brotherbill]

On 11/28/2025 at 11:32 PM, Fortis said:

Boldy is an absolute stud and is still underrated. I can’t name anyone in the NHL better than him at protecting the puck and maintaining possession. The Wild really need to pair him with an elite passer/playmaker to get a 50/50 season though. I’d love to see him with Hunter Haight

Boldy is showing that he can play with just about anyone and produce.  Which is a good thing.  His 200 foot game is what is showing this year.  Years past he was week on the puck now he is a force and is relied on to be used in all phases of the game.  

I to would like to see him with Haight though probably not for what you think.  I think Boldy can ware off on Haight and make him a solid 200 foot guy. 

[mnfaninnc]

Just taking a look through the prospects, Haight is only 4-1-5 in 14 games. That doesn't seem too good to put a guy like that in the top 6. 

Other notables:

Spacek has 10 assists and is only a -3

Lambos has put up some points, 1-3-4 and is also a -3. He was far worse until recently.

Benak hits 40 points, Stramel has 17 pts. in 14 games, Ryder Ritchie seems to have hit some hard times as he's still at 11 pts. in 15 games now. Ditto for Rieger Lorenz, the exception being he's a +11, while Ritchie is -4.

There's not much good news in the goaltending either. 

We have a brand new coaching staff in Iowa putting up similar results. Iowa is dead last in its division and it's not very close right now. This appears to be an achilles heel in the organization. I really don't know what the problem is here, whether the facilities are terrible, the front office is bad, or what?

It would make logical sense to me that if you were going to try and rebuild/retool (whatever they're calling it) on the fly, you would want a fire brewing in the A where guys are knocking the door down to get to the N. This is simply not happening! Should Guerin fail to get the transition he has planned for, I think you look directly here to find the root of the failure. 

I can buy the philosophy that it's not about wins and losses down there, and it's about developing the players to be NHL ready. That's fine. But one would think that when looking at the numbers, that we would see far more offense out of the forwards, and far better defense out of the defenders, and when they get called up they would be physically competitive with anyone in the N. That simply is not the case here, and it has passed the yellow flag of concerning to the red flag of organizational restructuring!

[mnfaninnc]

And then I didn't even talk about Boldy. He has been very good. One of the reasons why Freddy was given his contract was, I believe, being money in the shootouts. While it's not the ideal way of winning a game, having a guy in that 3 slot that's cool as a cucumber is something that needs to be planned for, and Freddy provided that in his contract year. I believe he got an extra $500k just for that skill. 

Boldy has shown that he can fill that slot just fine, and already won a couple of games that way. He has been fun to watch. I feel like his physical presence has been much greater this season. He looks stronger, but, more importantly, he looks like he realizes he is stronger and uses it!  We've got less button hooks and a lot more winning pucks down low. I also believe he works best with Ek as his center. Ek's attitude seems to help him engage physically more.