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Rookie defenseman Zeev Buium has hit the ground running in his first NHL season, displaying the skating, creativity, and playmaking skills that make him one of the best prospects in hockey. The 19-year-old phenom has nine points in his first 16 games, which is tied for third in rookie scoring and 20th among NHL defensemen. Still, there have been some expected growing pains, exacerbated by the fact that the Minnesota Wild coaching staff has had trouble finding a defensive partner who can complement the dynamic, free-wheeling Buium, who occasionally is as much a rover as he is a defenseman. Entering this past week, Buium had played at least 20 five-on-five minutes with Brock Faber (20:30), Zach Bogosian (28:13), David Jiricek (53:19), and Jared Spurgeon (89:57). Buium has experienced mixed results, partly because he must play in tandem with someone who can read off his aggressive, rover-like mentality, something that is easier said than done. However, the search may be over. Over the Wild’s past two games against the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Islanders, the Wild activated Daemon Hunt. They’ve slotted him next to Buium on the third pair, with the left-handed Hunt playing on his offside, allowing Buium to continue to play on his natural left side. The early returns have been fantastic. Through 22:42 of five-on-five ice time, the two have produced an expected goals percentage of 54.47%, including a dominating 70.77% in just over 15 minutes of ice time against an uninspired Islanders team on Friday. Hunt and Buium appear to have found instant chemistry, and after some early struggles against Carolina that reflected the team’s performance for much of that game, the duo has really begun to pop. Hunt is a talented, intelligent player who makes good reads, decisive puck plays, is sound positionally, and doesn’t hesitate to join the rush when he sees an opportunity. He has good feet and a solid center of gravity, and almost always positions himself so he’s facing the play. While Hunt is not an overly powerful or dynamic skater, he has excellent footwork. He makes efficient turns, weight shifts, and pivots, and because he’s always facing the play, his movements are usually in the right direction for a given situation. That makes Hunt an ideal partner for Buium, because when Buium is at his best, he’s wheeling around all three zones, slicing through lanes and breaking down defenders with deceptive fakes and excellent lateral movement. Basically, he’s all over the place. Hunt seems to understand how Buium wants to play and, more importantly, reacts quickly and gets to the right places. Since Hunt is always facing the play, he reads Buium’s movements and works in tandem with him in all three zones. It’s not uncommon to see them switch back and forth between the right and left sides three or four times in a shift, and the duo has a knack for understanding when to do so. Here's an example of the type of shift these two regularly turned in on Friday. Watch how Buium (No. 8 ) and Hunt (No. 48) work in tandem to cover ice and move creatively in all three zones, and how they create and fill space. Notice also how both of them defend with footwork and positioning: That was basically a perfect shift and exemplifies what makes Buium and Hunt a compatible defensive pair. Hunt is the first to take the initiative offensively, working a give-and-go with Zuccarello and slicing down low, with Buium reading that play and filling in on the right side. Their pass doesn’t connect, but it was a perfect read by each of them. After they retrieve the puck, they interchange in their own zone, and Buium transports the puck into the offensive zone. When it was time to defend, Buium used his skating to stick with his man and keep the puck to the outside, while Hunt used his 6-foot-1, 201-pound frame and strong footwork to out-leverage his man in front. He then beats his man to the puck down low and creates a turnover. This pairing works because Hunt doesn’t just defer to Buium positionally. That’s the key to taking what Buium can do and elevating it to the next level. A defense partner that’s able to read off of him and work in tandem to create a five-man unit moving up ice and pressuring in the zone unlocks Buium’s ability to break down defenses by giving him the options that he needs to be able to attack with the puck freely. Sometimes, he allows himself to get caught on an island with the puck, and that’s when bad turnovers happen. Hunt’s play reading and movement might be able to give Buium another option and ensure he has that safe outlet, and Hunt’s ability to jump into open ice helps create the space that Buium uses to deadly effect. Here are a couple of examples of Buium and Hunt working in tandem to interchange up high, creating space and pressure in the offensive zone: Notice how Hunt reads Buium’s intentions when he decides to walk the blue line, often recognizing immediately that Buium is going to slice across laterally, and skating hard to fill in his place on the left side. That’s an example of the quick chemistry that the two have developed. Hunt also has a strong offensive-zone presence, using his play-reading and understanding of time and space to jump up in the play at opportune times. Here are a couple of examples of him taking the initiative offensively: When Buium played with other defense partners, particularly Spurgeon, it seemed there was a tendency to sit back and watch what Buium was doing, ready to cover for his mistakes. While that is occasionally understandable, it also limits his effectiveness. Hunt’s willingness to play a free-flowing game is exactly what is needed beside Buium. It also works on the defensive end: The first clip above is an example of how Hunt playing on his offside can be an advantage. Buium roams to the right, and Hunt feels natural when shifting to the left; when the Islanders come in on the attack, they’re still on the opposite sides, which allows them to rotate naturally throughout the D-zone. Hunt can use his skating to recover and kill a play. In the second clip, Hunt and Buium switch sides for the O-zone faceoff, which is common practice for defensemen with righty-lefty pairs, so that each is in a good stick position to handle a won faceoff. However, with both being left-handed, this switch was clearly to allow Buium to make a play if the Wild win the faceoff. Instead, they lose it, and the Islanders come down the ice and establish possession. As the Islanders begin their cycle, Hunt and Buium switch coverage to get back to their right and left sides, and both make positive plays with positioning and footwork to help get a zone clear. The fact that Hunt and Buium press the advantage every chance they get makes a pair that can help put the hammer down and give the Wild the upper hand in possession. The thing that separates high-level teams from the pack is their ability to hound opponents relentlessly and ensure there are no easy shifts. Suppose Hunt and Buium can consistently play at a tempo that forces opponents to match it, one that seeks the initiative at every opportunity. In that case, it will make the Wild a much tougher matchup for up-tempo opponents like the Colorado Avalanche, who won’t be able to count on having a dozen shifts against a slow, overmatched third pair, as has sometimes been the case in past iterations of Wild D-pairings. It's early, and David Jiricek and Zach Bogosian are also looking for chances to get playing time. Buium and Hunt are young players who will have some tough nights from time to time. Still, Hunt has brought a dynamic to the Wild’s back end that they didn’t have. If he and Buium can continue to display chemistry and cohesion, the Wild will become a much more well-rounded, dangerous team.

Marco Rossi has been sidelined by a lower-body injury, according to a report from The Athletic’s Michael Russo. As a result, Russo and I must (separately) write about David Kampf. It would be one thing to write about Kampf joining a team other than the Minnesota Wild. Kampf is a solid role player who delivers middle-six quality forward play from the center position. His defensive impacts are effective, and he can chip in on the penalty kill when needed. His skill in the faceoff dot is also solid. He’s won between 51% and 53% of his faceoffs in each of the past six seasons, something that any beat writer (or me) will have to take a sentence or two to tell you about. I almost wasted another 15 minutes in Excel providing more context on just how many extra possessions this comes out to, until I remembered: I don’t care, and you shouldn’t either. Here is a list of things that David Kampf simply does not do: Drive offense Score goals Assist on goals Skate on the ice at the same time as his teammates have scoring chances Sure, it happens occasionally. But Kampf does none of these things above a fourth-line level. That is to say, below the 25th percentile. That has been true each of the past two years, as confirmed by Dom Luszczyszyn’s analytical model. There are many incorrect responses you could make to these numbers. Analytics are unfair to role players. They don’t know he’s shutting down the top line every night! Luszczyszyn’s model specifically quantifies the offensive and defensive impacts of opponents and teammates for the 2024-25 season. Kampf actually gets deployed against his opponent’s best defenders and worst offensive threats. The net effect was about two goals for and two goals against. I don’t believe in those made-up stats. Kampf’s faceoff percentage is something you can take to the bank. Made-up, like “goals” and “assists?” I’ll concede that “offensive impacts” are more of a black box. However, if you want to get real, offensive impact is mainly made up by shot attempts, the King of Hockey, with context given to the location of those shots. Compare that to faceoffs. While they are always credited to one team or the other as the winner, there’s no context for the quality of a faceoff win. The team that wins the faceoff can turn it over on the next puck touch. It also lacks context for where a faceoff occurs. Most teams give their most valuable faceoffs to their best centers, meaning the quality of competition has a massive impact on faceoff percentage, which raw faceoff win rate doesn't capture. Do you know who this looks like? Do you know which player on the 2024-25 Minnesota Wild looked just like David Kampf, but a little bit better? Freddy Gaudreau. We did it. We recreated Freddy Gaudreau in the aggregate. Let me be clear: I think Gaudreau is a serious NHL player. He could fit on many NHL rosters. But didn’t Minnesota seek a fourth-line center in free agency? If Nico Sturm weren’t a serious upgrade, why else send out Gaudreau? If the Wild wanted both players, they could have kept both! They traded Gaudreau for a reason, and it isn’t that the 2025 fourth-round pick they acquired for him is going to help them win a Stanley Cup. It’s that another role-playing bottom-six forward does not fit on this roster! And, Freddy Gaudreau is better than David Kampf! The only area Kampf has Gaudreau beat is that he will win between three and five more faceoffs out of every 100 faceoffs they see. None of this even begins to drive at the heart of the issue. It’s not that David Kampf should never take an NHL ice sheet again. He just brings nothing to the Wild that they don’t already have, while addressing none of the issues that have Minnesotans questioning this team’s playoff hopes. Examine this Wild lineup without Rossi: Kampf would slot in at 3C. Perhaps Yurov gets to stay on the third line, but it doesn’t really matter when you look at the wingers in that bottom-six. What if, instead, the Wild addressed that problem? Imagine if this team played with the above lineup, waited to accrue cap space, and put it into a second-line winger. Does it really look that different from blowing a quarter of their current cap space on Kampf and handcuffing their options at the trade deadline? (By the way -- when was the last time the Wild acquired a second-line winger? Drafting Matt Boldy in 2019? Trading for Kevin Fiala in 2019? Signing Ryan Hartman in 2021? Don’t you dare count trading for Marcus Johansson at the 2023 trade deadline.) Johansson slides into a third-line role next to Tarasenko and Yurov, replaced by Hartman when Rossi returns. Both versions of that line fit the mold of the line on which Tarasenko excelled in Florida. Some rotation of Foligno, Trenin, and Hinistroza keeps all three fresh and provides flexibility on the fourth line. Most importantly, though, this would address the two glaring weaknesses of the 2025-26 Wild: They don’t have a real second line, so they can’t out-score mistakes from their rookie defensemen. David Kampf could be Mikko Koivu 2.0, and it wouldn’t address that second weakness. No matter how good the other four players defend, there will be open space to the outside of Zach Bogosian. When Zeev Buium or David Jiricek’s brain falls out and he turns the puck over on the breakout, David Kampf’s faceoff win is not coming to the rescue. These things will happen many times over the next five months. It’s what happens when teams develop new defensemen. Without a serious secondary scoring threat, Minnesota will continue to give up leads and be unable to retake them. It’s time for the Wild to address the problem that has plagued this club since Kevin Fiala departed. The problem isn’t the depth forwards, and the solution isn’t another role player. David Kampf isn’t the answer for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.

Outlets ranging from ESPN to the Star Tribune reported the Minnesota Wild’s decision to trade Calen Addison and acquire Zach Bogosian as a tandem deal in 2023. “It’s not a knock on Calen,” Bill Guerin explained. “It’s just a change in direction.” Addison had played 100 games for the Wild, and Guerin had seen enough. He was shifting gears. The former Wild defenseman had scored 18 of his 29 points on the power play the year before. His 26 assists were a franchise record for rookie defensemen. However, Addison’s lousy defense made him a liability, and Guerin was ultimately right to move on from him. Addison was a minus-35 in 60 games for the San Jose Sharks the rest of that season, and the 25-year-old defenseman has spent the rest of his career in the AHL. Still, the change in direction is significant for the Wild. They made it clear they were prioritizing experience and size over talent and upside. Bogosian, 35, has remained in Minnesota, even as the stakes have changed now that the team no longer has severe cap penalties. Bogosian is hardly the player who scored ten goals for the Atlanta Thrashers during the 2009-10 season. However, the Wild feel he’s a reliable defensive player who coaches can depend on to eat minutes. They’ve continued to value veterans like Bogosian, Marcus Johansson, and Gustav Nyquist last year, creating a high-floor, low-ceiling team. A team that constantly makes the playoffs and loses immediately once they’re there. The Wild have been an F-150 trying to win a race against the league’s Ferraris under Guerin. They’re large and built Ford tough, but they’re also slow-moving and cumbersome. Ferraris win playoff games; F-150s don’t. If Addison represents the gas pedal, a player who’s all go and no brakes, then Bogosian is the clutch. They turn to him when they want to slow things down and control the game. However, a team that continues to rely on past-their-prime players in crucial roles will never contend. Unfortunately, the Wild developed a bad habit of riding the clutch under Guerin. In a car with manual transmission, the driver must step on the clutch pedal to change gears. They must also engage the clutch when the vehicle is stopped or slowing down to avoid stalling. In that instance, think of it as the equivalent of placing your foot on the ground when your bike stops. “Riding the clutch,” or pressing down on that pedal too long while moving, will wear it out. The car will also never shift into high gear because the driver must release the clutch to change gears. The Wild have been stuck in low gear because they continue to ride aging, declining players instead of prioritizing youth and upside. Guerin’s approach hasn’t yielded results. Minnesota has yet to win a playoff series since he took over in 2019. He created cap hell since buying out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in 2021, but they have access to most of their cap space this season. Still, the Wild continue to play 30-something veterans in crucial roles in place of their young stars. They’ve escaped cap hell this year. It’s time for them to prioritize upside over experience. It’s time for them to hit the gas. Bogosian is comfort food for John Hynes and Dean Evason before him. He’s in his mid-30s and offers little upside. Still, Hynes can deploy him as an experienced player, and he fits the mold of what Guerin cherishes. “He’s a big guy. He still skates well. He brings heaviness,” said Guerin. “[Bogosian] brings some grit, and we need that. I think the experience that he brings, with all the other intangibles, he's a great teammate.” As a large player who was more productive in his 30s than in his 20s, Guerin has always valued large veteran players. He’s built the Wild in his image. Large, heavy, gritty. However, they’ve lacked a vital trait he had as a player – enough skill to compete with the league’s best teams. Guerin has typically valued experience over upside. Matt Boldy had 18 points in 14 AHL games after the Wild signed him out of Boston College in 2021. Still, Minnesota didn’t call him up for the playoffs that year, and he may have been the difference in a seven-game series against the Vegas Golden Knights. A year later, Marco Rossi made Minnesota’s roster out of camp. However, he only had one point in 19 games, and the Wild sent him to Iowa. Still, they never recalled him, even though he had 51 points in 53 games and 53 points in 63 the year before. Last year, they tried to roll with three goalies, only to send Jesper Wallstedt back to Iowa after telling him to get a place in St. Paul. Everyone understands Marc-Andre Fleury’s value to the Wild. Still, trying and failing to roster three goalies with minimal cap space and poorly communicating expectations with Wallstedt set his development back. Ultimately, the Wild prioritized winning with a shorthanded roster over player development, a common theme throughout the buyout penalties. It’s continued with higher stakes now. They were never going to win in the playoffs with Suter and Parise’s dead cap on the books. However, they should be able to with access to more cap space. Unfortunately, we’ve learned that the higher stakes have made it harder for the Wild to release the clutch. It never made sense that they were straining to make the playoffs in recent years, only to exit in the first round. They could have been playing young players to prepare them for this season, when the cap penalties are in effect, and ownership wants them to advance past the first round. Hopefully, they have accumulated enough young talent that they can trust, because it’s time to look to the future. Eventually, they’ll have to prioritize young players like David Jiricek over Bogosian; Danila Yurov and Liam Ohgren over Johansson. To truly contend, they have to stop riding the clutch and step on the gas. They’ve got to transform from an F-150 to a Ferrari.