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Let’s start with the positive. Despite the Iowa Wild’s well-documented struggles in recent years, the Minnesota Wild’s roster features five young players who have spent significant time with their AHL affiliate over the past four seasons: Marco Rossi, Jesper Wallstedt, and Liam Ohgren are all currently playing key roles. Meanwhile, Daemon Hunt and recently-recalled Hunter Haight have also played games for the big club. Additionally, veterans like Tyler Pitlick and Ben Jones have done their jobs when called upon as injury replacements. However, from a team perspective, that’s about where the positives stop. After they appeared to turn a corner in October and won two of three to start November, Iowa has dropped six straight games and plummeted to the bottom of the AHL’s Central Division with a 5-14-0-1 record through 20 games. I watch a lot of Iowa’s games and have been taking notes on my observations as the season has unfolded. As the team passes the quarter mark of its season, it’s a good time to share updates on what’s happening in Des Moines with the team and some of its players. If you have a question about Iowa or any of its players that I don’t address below, feel free to post it in the comment section. No offense The numbers are ugly: out of 32 teams, they are 31st in goals scored (37) and 28th in goals against (68). Their power play sits at a putrid 10.6% (31st) and is in the midst of a 4-for-53 stretch. The penalty kill has been mostly solid lately, but still sits at 21st in the league at 79.3%. Gerry Mayhew leads the team with 7 goals and 3 assists in 16 games, despite not being signed until mid-October. Other than defenseman David Spacek, who also has 10 points (all assists), no other player is in double digits. Haight has produced 5 points in 14 games for Iowa, while Ohgren has had 5 in 9. Every player on the current roster has a minus rating. Goaltending woes and a lack of chemistry Goaltending has been a problem. In the offseason, the team brought in Cal Petersen, a veteran with 106 NHL games, to provide stability and serve as a reliable third-stringer. Still, he ranks 36th among 47 qualified AHL goaltenders with an .891 SV% over his 10 starts. Meanwhile, Samuel Hlavaj, who came off a stellar campaign last season in which he emerged as a legitimate prospect, is dead last in the league with an .871 SV%. The situation was so dire that the team decided to send a message and brought up William Rousseau from the Iowa Heartlanders in the ECHL to start the first game of the Grand Rapids series, a 3-2 loss in which he stopped 26 of 29 shots and played well. However, he probably wanted one of the goals back. Iowa put Petersen back in net for the second game, and he responded to the message with a solid start, stopping 28 of 29 shots in a 1-0 loss. Interestingly, Iowa has played Grand Rapids, who is dominating the league with a 16-1 record, closer than anyone, with three one-goal losses, one of which was in a shootout. Otherwise, it’s been a real struggle. The team recently hit what it hopes was rock bottom with two 7-2 losses in a three-game stretch: one to the Toronto Marlies and the other to the Milwaukee Admirals. The team’s struggle to find consistent lines that can develop chemistry has become apparent. Mayhew has been a fixture on the top line for a while, but the team has tried all sorts of combinations to little avail. Haight, Ohgren, Pitlick, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and Caedan Bankier are among those who have recently played alongside Mayhew as Greg Cronin, and his coaching staff desperately try to find combinations that can fill the net. Where is Riley Heidt? One name that fans might notice is not among those playing top-line minutes: Riley Heidt, a much-hyped prospect in his first professional season. The 20-year-old rookie from Saskatoon has had a slow start, with 2 goals and 4 assists in 19 games. He’s mostly spent time in the middle six playing both wing and center. Most recently, he has centered a new-look third line with Ryan Sandelin and Jean-Luc Foudy during Sunday’s game against Grand Rapids. Heidt has the look of a player who lacks confidence and consistency as he learns to adapt his game to professional hockey. That’s very common among young players in the AHL, a tough, physical league with many veterans who know their roles and make life difficult for their opponents. Fans shouldn’t be concerned, but how Heidt handles adversity this year will be interesting to watch. One of the hallmarks of Heidt’s game during his time in junior hockey and at prospect events is tenacity without the puck. When he’s at his best, he’s hounding pucks in all zones and aggressively engaging in board battles, using leverage and positioning to win pucks. That has been notably missing for much of the season. Heidt is often hesitant to engage physically and guilty of reaching with his stick instead of fighting to get body position when contesting pucks on the wall. It’s night and day from the player that had fans and media raving about his bona fides as a prospect. With the puck, he’s lacking the aggression and straight-line drives that he has so often used to put pressure on opposing defensemen. It’s definitely worth noting that some of his offensive struggles are probably a product of his environment. When I wrote about Heidt after this fall’s Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase, I noted how Heidt is “at his best when working in tandem with linemates who can read off his puck touches [and his] ability to make quick, efficient plays with the puck in all zones,” and how it would be important to find complimentary players that maximize his strengths. So far, there hasn’t been anyone in Iowa who can fill that role, and it’s probably contributing to Heidt’s lack of confidence with the puck. For a brief time, he was on a dynamic-looking line with Rasmus Kumpulainen and Oskar Olausson. Still, as injuries and call-ups shook up the roster, that line was broken up. Kumpulainen has struggled with consistency, as has Olausson occasionally. If I were Cronin, I might try Heidt with Mayhew, because Mayhew is an intelligent player with a track record of offensive success in the AHL. That might help jumpstart him. Bankier is a bright spot I’ve been back and forth with where to rate Bankier as a prospect. Last season, I wrote that he had the potential to be a valuable third-line center down the road, and earlier this season, I noted his continued improvement while also questioning whether he had the foot speed necessary to stick in the NHL. Since then, Bankier has been one of the bright spots in Iowa, and it recently rewarded him with the opportunity to center the top line and the power-play unit in the Grand Rapids series. Bankier is noticeable most nights because he's usually in the right spot and gets a lot of puck touches as a result. He’s got a really good release on his shot, which he can let go with power from multiple angles. It’s something he’s definitely improved at over the past year, and he’s tied with Mayhew for the team lead with 40 shots on goal. He doesn’t have scoring touch, and he’s not quick, but he is pretty efficient with his feet and has decent straight-line speed. He makes a lot of slick area passes and works well in motion on the power play. One of the hallmarks of his game is his stick placement when defending. He disrupts many plays and is an effective penalty killer. Another strength of his is that his game doesn’t change, no matter where he is in the lineup. He brings the same steady, two-way presence, which makes him a valuable piece. I’ll be watching Bankier closely as the season progresses to see if he can continue to elevate his game. He’s a restricted free agent after this season, and it will be interesting to see if he gets another contract with the organization and what that might look like. Czech mates on D Since being sent down by Minnesota a couple of weeks back, Jiricek has been playing big minutes on the top pair and top power play unit, while also getting a lot of run on the penalty kill. That’s probably what’s needed, and while Jiricek’s stats have been underwhelming (1 goal, 1 assist, and -5 in 10 AHL games), he’s not to blame for the team’s struggles. That said, he hasn’t been great, either. Defensively, he’s been mostly fine, but that’s never really been an issue for him. At this level, you’d like to see him making plays with the puck and using his size and length to create space. Instead, he’s been mostly vanilla when I’ve seen him, making safe plays and not really pushing the pace. Then again, maybe that’s the mandate he received from the NHL club after he displayed a propensity for bad turnovers during his time in Minnesota. David Spacek has been impressive this season, putting up 10 assists in 19 games and taking a spot on the top power play unit. He makes good puck plays in all zones, and his efficiency with zone exits and as a distributor on offense has continued to improve. He defends well with his skating and positioning, though he can struggle on the rush at times because he doesn’t have a powerful push when accelerating backwards. He’s much improved in board battles and is clearly stronger physically this season. There were reports last summer that Spacek might be unhappy with the opportunities he’s received in the Wild organization. While Minnesota briefly recalled him last month to serve as a seventh defenseman as the Wild dealt with injuries and illness, there doesn’t appear to be a path for him to stick in Minnesota anytime soon. He’s not a better option than anyone above him in the organization. That said, he’s more consistent than Jiricek and is light-years ahead of Carson Lambos and Jack Peart on the organization’s depth chart. It’s starting to look like Spacek has developed towards being nearly NHL-ready. It will be interesting to see what the Wild decides to do with him. Haight and Aube-Kubel are standouts Haight and Aube-Kubel have been the best forwards in Iowa. They play with a pace and straight-line decisiveness that sticks out relative to their teammates. With Haight, it’s just a matter of consistency and becoming more impactful with playmaking. His two-way game and physical play are NHL-caliber. While Haight is never going to be a goal scorer in the NHL, he can turn into a solid third-line player if he can become more of a difference maker with the puck on his stick. Aube-Kubel is a veteran who brings consistency, effort, and two-way play every night. He’s not flashy, but he’s got game and has proved to be a nice depth addition by the organization.

The State of Hockey wakes up on Saturday to the rumbling aftershocks of the Quinn Hughes trade. And in taking the temperature based on comments on Hockey Wilderness, elsewhere on the internet, and personal text messages, it seems one of those shocks is of the sticker variety. One can definitely argue that the Vancouver Canucks maximized their return for Hughes. The jewel of the trade for them is Zeev Buium, who came into this season as a consensus top-10 prospect in the NHL. They got a legitimate top-six center in Marco Rossi, who is 24 and coming off a 60-point season and a good start before injuries struck. They got a solid NHL-ready(ish) prospect in Liam Öhgren, and a first-round pick in 2026. It's a really good haul for a rebuilding team forced to sell off a franchise player. The largest point of contention seems to stem from surrendering Buium in the deal. NHL teams are usually loath to give up prospects of Buium's caliber -- they're young, cost-controlled, and full of potential. Putting on the Sigmund Freud glasses to psychoanalyze the fanbase, perhaps they have lingering memories of the Wild giving up Alex Tuch as a top prospect before he was able to establish himself in Minnesota. Or it might not be that deep. Buium's the rare prospect where you can throw around comparisons like Hughes or Cale Makar and not sound like someone who breathlessly compares J.J. McCarthy to Tom Brady. It makes sense that fans would be attached to the idea that he, too, could grow into being a player like Hughes. Why surrender Buium plus two roster players and a first-rounder if Buium might grow into the role in the near future? The reason why is simple: Hughes is the Hughes-like player that we think Buium can become. There's uncertainty with Buium, and no, it's not because he didn't immediately take the NHL by storm. It's unlikely that he will be Hughes, mostly because most prospects -- hell, most S-Tier prospects -- don't turn into Hughes. Hell, Luke Hughes has the same parents as Quinn, and he hasn't even turned into Quinn yet. The Athletic's Corey Pronman may have illuminated that point when he spoke at length about Buium ahead of this season. "[Buium] brings you out of the seat with his talent. He's so skilled, so smart, so dynamic. A great skater," the normally reserved prospect evaluator gushed. "When I see him. "Honestly, when I watched him, I see (Zach) Werenski. I see that guy at the same age." Look, Zach Werenski rocks. He contended for the Calder Trophy in his rookie year with a 47-point season. He's scored 20 goals from the blueline twice. Last season, he finished runner-up for the Norris Trophy and seventh for MVP, and he's producing at a point-per-game pace this season. And yet, as great as he is, he's not transcendent in the way Hughes is. Werenski has averaged 57 points per 82 games throughout his career, while Hughes is averaging 77. Werenski's play has been worth a cumulative 23.7 Standings Points Above Replacement throughout his career, while Hughes is at 27.3 SPAR... and that's with 134 fewer games. Hughes has also been a Norris Trophy finalist twice before his 26th birthday, while Werenski didn't accomplish that until his age-27 season. Buium has the talent to beat the odds, sure, but it's much more likely that he's "just" a No. 1 defenseman than an All-World defenseman like Hughes. It's just simple probability. The Vancouver Canucks know this, too. They didn't make this trade because they were excited about cashing in a 26-year-old Hughes for a younger version. As Vancouver beat writer Harman Dayal wrote for The Athletic, "With the writing on the wall that Hughes wasn’t going to re-sign in Vancouver long-term, the Canucks had to do their best to minimize the pain." The Canucks almost certainly would have preferred to keep Hughes. That fact alone should dispel the reservations about the price involved. Trading for Hughes also means giving up Marco Rossi, who has looked like a low-end No. 1 center over the past two seasons. Rossi's a strong player with a nose for the net, a responsible two-way game, and sneaky grit. Is he ever going to be considered an MVP candidate? Probably not. Meanwhile, Hughes is at that level. As for Öhgren and the first-round pick? The former might be a solid middle-six winger, while the latter is a lottery ticket. So if we're scoring at home, there are just two risks for this trade: That Buium hits his 99th-percentile outcome and becomes a Hughes-type player, and that Minnesota can't convince Hughes to stay in the State of Hockey. Are the risks noteworthy? Sure, but they're also acceptable. And even if one of those outcomes happen, that might not mean Minnesota automatically loses the trade. Buium might be everything the Wild think he'll be, but the fact of the matter is that Minnesota needed him to be a superstar this season to maximize their Stanley Cup window. That's not a fair expectation, maybe, but that's how the Wild are built. Kaprizov is healthy, on pace for 47 goals, and most crucially, making $9 million against the cap before his cap hit nearly doubles. Important players like Mats Zuccarello, Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Johansson, and Marcus Foligno are well into their 30s. Their cornerstone players: Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Brock Faber are in the age-23-to-29 sweet spot. The Wild still have about $6.3 million of deadline cap space to make another move. For those reasons, this may be the year Minnesota is best-suited to make a run. So if it costs Rossi, Öhgren, and a first-round pick for Bill Guerin to, effectively, hit fast-forward for six years of Buium's development, that's worth it. Wild fans should already know how challenging it can be waiting for prospects when the contention window says it's go-time. That's what happened with the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter Wild core. They waited for top prospects like Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba, Jason Zucker, and Nino Niederreiter to grow up fast and boost an aging core. Those players reached a high level in the 2016-17 season, but by then? Parise and Suter were 32, and their best years were behind them. Mikko Koivu was 33, and about to go into decline. They had the one great season that year, got goalie'd in the first round, and that was that. Acquiring Hughes is about avoiding that mistake. Having Hughes and Kaprizov in the fold and in their primes over the next two seasons gives Minnesota two playoff runs that look more promising than any in franchise history. They don't have to wait for someone to hit their stride, hoping they'll fall in the middle of the Venn diagram between prospects developing and aging veterans holding on. The pieces are largely in place, go win some games. That probably makes the deal worth it even in the worst-case scenario: that this ends with Hughes walking in the summer of 2027. Again, Kaprizov's at the absolute height of his powers, at age 28. The Wild hope he'll age well, and his all-around skill set suggests he should still play at a high level into his 30s, but his ability to bring a Cup to Minnesota is probably at its apex this year and next. Hughes and Kaprizov for two years might represent a greater chance at the Cup than Buium and Kaprizov for the next nine. Besides, seeing as the Wild are the only team to have written a $17 million check to a superstar, it's going to be tough to call it a slam-dunk that Hughes will be gone in two years. Much like it was with Kaprizov this summer, the price for Hughes was substantial, but also, it's a price any team should be willing to pay. Players as good as Hughes don't hit the trade market often, and certainly not when they're in the middle of their prime. You pay whatever price to get those players when they become available, because regardless of what's getting sent back, the team landing an All-World player is going to walk away the better deal.