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If you read centuries-old stories, you'll know the worst thing for anyone is to know their fate. In Macbeth, the title character, Corey Macbeth, is told he'll be King of Scotland, and uses that insight as permission to do terrible things. Oedipus Rex learns his future, and his attempt to avoid it only drives him into the arms of his mother. Sisyphus is doomed to roll a boulder up a hill, knowing he will never complete his task. The Minnesota Wild and their fans knew their fate for the past four seasons. Bill Guerin acknowledged this after the 2022-23 season, pointing out his team was "fighting with one hand tied behind their back with these cap constraints." As much as the Wild tried to swim against the tide of a combined $47 million of dead cap space spread out among four years, they couldn't break their usual ceiling: A first-round exit. At first glance, it looks like the Wild might know their fate again. 13 of the 20 players who dressed for Opening Night last season will (likely) dress for tonight. It might have been 15, had it not been for injuries to longtime Wild players Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello. Their biggest offseason addition was Vladimir Tarasenko, who is 33 and a half decade removed from his prime. A trio of analysts at The Athletic have, like Macbeth's witches nearly a thousand years before now, proclaimed the team's fate: "Welcome, as usual to Mid-esota." And yet, despite the continuity, I can honestly say that I have no idea what to expect coming into the 2025-26 Minnesota Wild's season. After years of financially forced stagnation, the ceiling on this team has finally been removed. This season has possibilities that have been absent for much of the decade. While many fans hoped that Minnesota's outlook would change significantly due to a major free agent or trade addition, the reason for optimism comes from The Future finally being here. The Wild's Opening Night lineup is poised to ice first-round rookies in Zeev Buium and Liam Öhgren. And that's just the beginning. Jesper Wallstedt, the team's first-round pick in 2021, will be starting his rookie season as the Wild's backup goalie. 2022 second-rounder Hunter Haight will make his NHL debut. 2022 first-rounder Danila Yurov will be in the press box on Opening Night, but is still on the roster. And despite expending his rookie status with the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2022 first-rounder David Jiříček is just 21 and making his full-time debut with Minnesota after a six-game stint last year. The anticipation for these youngsters -- particularly Buium, Yurov, and Buium -- is high. Elite Prospects ranked these players seventh, 59th, and 66th, respectively, on their preseason Top 100 Prospects list. It's not outlandish to predict that each of these three will score 25 points this year, and we have to take a moment to appreciate how rare that would be. Teams usually don't just let their entire prospect pipeline blast into their roster like a fire hose. Since the 2006-07 season, we've seen just 11 teams have three or more rookies come in and post 25 points. Here's that list: 2016-17 Toronto Maple Leafs (six): Auston Matthews (69), Mitch Marner (61), William Nylander (61), Nikita Zaitsev (36), Connor Brown (36), Zach Hyman (28) 2006-07 San Jose Sharks (four): Matt Carle (42), Ryane Clowe (34), Joe Pavelski (28), Marc-Édouard Vlasic (26) 2010-11 Edmonton Oilers (four): Jordan Eberle (43), Taylor Hall (42), Magnus Pääjärvi (34), Linus Omark (27) 2017-18 New Jersey Devils (four): Nico Hischier (52), Will Butcher (44), Jesper Bratt (35), Blake Coleman (25) 2007-08 Edmonton Oilers (three): Sam Gagner (49), Andrew Cogliano (45), Wild Legend Tom Gilbert (33) 2007-08 Phoenix Coyotes (three): Peter Mueller (54), Wild Legend Martin Hanzal (35), Wild Legend Daniel Winnik (26) 2008-09 Toronto Maple Leafs (three): Mikhail Grabovski (48), Nikolai Kuleman (31), John Mitchell (29) 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche (three): Matt Duchene (55), T.J. Galiardi (39), Ryan O'Reilly (26) 2017-18 Boston Bruins (three): Danton Heinen (47), Jake DeBrusk (43), Charlie McAvoy (32) 2021-22 Nashville Predators (three): Tanner Jeannot (41), Philip Tomasino (32), Alexandre Carrier (30) 2022-23 Buffalo Sabres (three): Jack Quinn (37), Owen Power (35), JJ Peterka (32) There's a common thread that runs through most of these teams: They sucked the year before. To get such an influx of rookies at the same time, a team either has to 1) Draft high-end talent in short bursts, and 2) Have multiple open significant roles with which to insert rookies. Good teams don't tend to have both of those elements. Just three of these 11 teams made the playoffs the previous year: the 2006-07 Sharks, the 2017-18 Bruins, and the 2021-22 Predators. Interestingly, two of those teams advanced past the first round with the injection of young talent. The Sharks powered past the first round for the second season in a row before running into a Detroit Red Wings team loaded with four Hall of Famers, including a red-hot Dominik Hasek. The Bruins went from a first-round exit to pushing through the second round, thanks in part to a two-goal Game 7 effort from DeBrusk. Nashville suffered its second-straight first-round exit, and with a sweep, no less. Still, that was against the Colorado Avalanche on their march to Nathan MacKinnon's Stanley Cup. What are ya gonna do? Two out of these three teams overcoming a hurdle that has vexed the Wild for a decade is an eyebrow-raising trend. It's also worth noting that the bench boss for two of those 11 rookie-heavy teams is currently leading the Wild. That's kinda funny, because Hynes' reputation in New Jersey and Nashville suggests that he may not be overly skilled at developing young players. That could be up for debate -- after all, you can argue both Brock Faber and Marco Rossi came into their own under Hynes -- but what isn't debatable is that Hynes has had success at integrating a lot of rookies onto a team. That's not easy to do, but both times Hynes has had this challenge, he's gotten his teams to the playoffs. In New Jersey, that effort was led by the superhuman performance of an MVP-winning winger in Taylor Hall. In Nashville, the rookie-heavy team helped support a team powered by a dominant power play. Hmmmm... But that's just one piece of the unknown for the Wild. The other part of the equation involves their salary cap situation. Minnesota struck out with free agency this summer, but is slated to have over $16 million of cap space at the deadline. That's more than any playoff team last season, save for the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens. A big move was more or less an impossibility over the past four seasons. Now? It's wide open, and there's no telling who might get moved around by the deadline. Who thought lifelong Boston Bruin Brad Marchand would get traded before last season? Or that the Buffalo Sabres would offload a big, 24-year-old, former 30-goal-scoring center in Dylan Cozens? Or that Mikko Rantanen would get moved not once, but twice? On this, the day of the Wild's season opener, the fans finally have uncertainty. Will Buium, Öhgren, Yurov, Wallstedt, Jiříček, or Haight take flight or flop? No idea. How will their paths affect the trajectory of this team? We'll have to find out. What surprises might be in store? Hard to say! Maybe all of this adds up to Minnesota finishing in the same range as they have in the previous seasons. That could easily happen. However, the scope of possibilities is much, much wider than it has been in recent years. They're not funneled towards a first-round exit. The franchise has the tools to make its own fate, and that alone should be reason enough for Wild fans to get excited.

After taking care of Kirill Kaprizov to the tune of eight years and $136 million, the Minnesota Wild decided they weren't quite done with their offseason checklist. Instead of resting on their laurels, they worked quickly to lock down their starting goalie, Filip Gustavsson, with a five-year, $34 million deal. It's perhaps an acknowledgement that if their superstar scores 50 or even 60 goals, it just takes a little instability in net to thwart a team. Look at the 2023-34 New Jersey Devils. They had 112 points the previous season, but their revolving door of Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws, Akira Schmid, Jake Allen, and Kaapo Kähkönen kept them in seventh place in their division. It didn't matter that they had Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt as part of a loaded roster. Looking at the Wild's steadfast defense, it's fair to say that Gustavsson's .914 save percentage -- sixth in the NHL last year -- isn't entirely reflective of his talent level. Still, he proved last year that he's capable of being a workhorse, starting-caliber goalie. Gustavsson started 58 games, turning in 40 "Quality Starts," which turned out to be the fifth-highest percentage in the league. That's a level of reliability the Wild simply couldn't walk from. Especially when you look at the alternatives. Minnesota drafted Jesper Wallstedt in 2021 to be the team's "Goalie of the Future." Turns out, the future isn't ready yet. The Wild were hoping to get Wallstedt games last season, but a combination of salary cap issues and his AHL struggles meant he only drew in for two starts. With Gustavsson set to become a free agent next summer, the Wild didn't have time to properly evaluate Wallstedt's readiness to take over starting next year. Normally, Wallstedt would be out of time. We've seen two of his highly-touted goalie prospect contemporaries -- Spencer Knight (2020 Draft) and Yaroslav Askarov (2021) -- get squeezed out of their team's future after their teams committed long-term to another goalie. Three days after the Florida Panthers drafted Knight, they signed Sergei Bobrovsky to eight years and $80 million. Askarov asked for a trade from the Nashville Predators after they locked in Juuse Saros to an eight-year extension. That may still be Wallstedt's fate. After all, the Panthers weren't forced to move on from Knight; they traded him as a major piece of the Seth Jones trade, helping them win a Stanley Cup last year. The Wild could choose to leverage Wallstedt in a similar fashion. However, the beauty of Gustavsson's extension is that Minnesota secured long-term stability in net while retaining options. Minnesota can simply have Gustavsson take the reins as the starting goaltender for the foreseeable future, and that's not a bad spot to be in. His career save percentage is .913, putting him even with former Wild players Marc-Andre Fleury and Devan Dubnyk through age 26. Once you adjust to the league average save percentage, as Stathead does with their Goals Allowed Percentage- which sets 100 as league average, Gustavsson fares very well. GA%- through Age-26, Since 2007-08, minimum 90 starts: Igor Shesterkin, 78 Tuukka Rask, 82 Juuse Saros, 90 Jaroslav Halák, 91 Andrei Vasilevskiy, 91 FILIP GUSTAVSSON, 91 Braden Holtby, 92 Jake Oettinger, 92 Logan Thompson, 93 Josh Gibson, 94 Even if you suspect his numbers make him look better than he is, he still is an above-average workhorse. The hockey equivalent of an innings-eating pitcher, if you will. Again, looking at the Devils, this time in 2024-25, that type of "innings-eater" was all they needed to get back into the playoff picture. The five-year term also comes in handy here. Gustavsson's extension will only take him through his age-32 season. Wild fans saw Devan Dubnyk start to fall off a cliff in his age-33 year, and Niklas Bäckström become unusable at age-34. If Gustavsson winds up taking a similar path on the aging curve, Minnesota should be getting out of this deal just in time. The term also means they don't have to hard-commit to Gustavsson at the expense of Wallstedt. Wallstedt's contract takes him through the summer of 2027, at which point he'll become a Restricted Free Agent. However, once that ends, the Wild still have him under team control through 2030, another three years after that. By comparison, that's only one year of team control less than they have with Gustavsson. When Wallstedt's contract is up, he'll most likely be in position to get a bridge deal. Barring injury, Gustavsson is a safe bet to take the majority of starts this season, and unless Wallstedt is markedly better, it's hard to see him forcing anything more than a 50/50 split in 2026-27. If the Wild can lock Wallstedt into an affordable rate through 2029, they're in a great spot beyond that. By 2029, Minnesota should have more than enough information on whether they want to have Wallstedt be The Guy going forward. If they do, they have two big advantages to avoid having Gustavsson squeeze Wallstedt out prematurely. The first is Gustavsson's trade clauses. He'll have a No-Move Clause through the summer of 2028, which turns into a 15-team no-trade clause afterward. That's a fair bit of flexibility to move on if the Wild feel the need to. The other advantage is the sheer affordability of Gustavsson's deal. That doesn't appear to be the case right away, but with the cap rising, we have to recalibrate what "$6.8 million" means. Gustavsson is set to be the 10th-highest-paid goalie next season, and his contract will only represent 6.5% of the salary cap -- roughly the equivalent of $5.8 million last year. If there's a time when Minnesota has to pay Wallstedt like a 1B goalie, they can do that without spending too much of their resources on the goalie position. The most important thing that the Wild could do was guarantee themselves a decent floor in net for the long term, and Gustavsson's contract does exactly that. That makes the extension worth it by itself. But the real value add for Minnesota was that they were able to do that without sacrificing their flexibility at the goalie position. They can either commit to Gustavsson long-term or establish a succession plan for Wallstedt, and they should be able to make that decision on their own terms. As important as the AAV and term are to evaluating contracts, it's hidden benefits like this that can turn a deal into a home run.

The Minnesota Wild were always going to be walking on a high wire this season. They're a playoff-caliber team laden with veterans who've been in the fold for a half-decade or more. It's also the case that they're working on bringing along four rookies into the NHL (as well as not-a-rookie-but-21-year-old David Jiříček) into that playoff lineup. Those two things are rarely true at the same time for a team. Coach John Hynes has been candid about this challenge early on this season. "If they're ready to play, they'll play," he told The Athletic on Monday. "But we also can’t just put nine kids in the lineup and think that all of a sudden, they’re going to be ready to go. We’re not in a rebuilding situation. We’re in a situation where we want to be a competitive hockey team." Hynes is in a position where his job depends on wins and losses, and it's important to be sensitive to that. The Wild's first four games included three playoff teams from last season, and the Columbus Blue Jackets are no pushover with Dean Evason coaching. They'll have another date with a Division winner on Friday, on the road against the Washington Capitals. It's not a soft schedule where rookies can slip in easily. That's why we've seen the Wild lean on players like Vladimir Tarasenko (averaging 16:21 minutes per night) and Marcus Johansson (14:03) over Liam Öhgren (9:12) and Danila Yurov (9:05). You're stacking up 1,822 combined NHL games against 34. There's stability in that, and it's clear that Hynes puts value on that experience. "Veteran players, they’ve been around, they know how to play, they know what the game is about," explained Hynes. "The NHL is a different beast. It’s not college. It’s not junior. No matter how good you were at other levels, you’re playing against the best guys in the world." It's the age-old NHL coaching conundrum: Ceiling vs. Floor. Maybe you're not impressed with Tarasenko's start, or think that Johansson's contributions don't live up to his role. But they provide a floor. Coaches want to know what they're getting, even if there is theoretically a 22-year-old who could give them more. Say what you want about someone like Nate Prosser, but there's a reason why he played 360 NHL games, and why would-be upstarts like Jonathon Blum, Ryan Murphy, Gustav Olofsson, and Louie Belpedio combined for just 364. Still, while the Wild aren't rebuilding, they are definitely building. Or at least, they should be. Minnesota has been the ultimate Floor Team for its entire existence, and recent years have been no exception. Even in a relatively disastrous 2023-24 season, the Wild finished with a 39-34-9 record. Despite crushing cap penalties, they rarely have serious issues making the playoffs, and the core of the team has been remarkably intact over the past half-decade. However, they haven't had a ceiling. Or, rather, that ceiling was built between the first and second rounds of the playoffs. That's what needs to change, and that's why building is required. It's only been four games, but we've already seen the limitations of Minnesota being a Floor Team. A Floor Team can hold onto a 3-0 lead against the Los Angeles Kings. But when it comes to overcoming their starting goalie giving up six goals? Or knocking off a loaded Dallas Stars team on the road on the second of a back-to-back? Those are jobs for a Ceiling Team, and the Wild aren't putting themselves in much of a position to be that. Not yet. Again, Öhgren and Yurov are averaging just nine minutes a night, firmly behind Johansson and Tarasenko on the depth chart, even as Hynes blew up his lines on Tuesday night in Dallas. Buium has averaged 20 minutes a night, thanks to the power play. However, Jiříček has sat in the press box for three straight games since Opening Night. You can put some blame on those players, and it'd be warranted. Hynes spent training camp and preseason putting Öhgren and Yurov in prime lineup spots, and neither was particularly impressive. It's also true that they aren't demanding more playing time in limited minutes during the regular season. They healthy-scratched Jiříček due to mistakes he made against the St. Louis Blues, and he's spent the past few games receiving instruction from player development coach Alex Goligoski, who played 1,078 NHL games. As a rule, unimpressive veterans will get the benefit of the doubt over unimpressive rookies. But, as Anton Chigurh posed in No Country For Old Men, if the rule leads you to this, of what use was the rule? It's now been 192 minutes -- or 1.57 viewings of No Country For Old Men -- of game time since the Wild have scored a 5-on-5 goal. That's over three games, during which Öhgren and Yurov's roles have been minimal, and Jiříček's has been nonexistent. Perhaps this will feel a bit like singling out Johansson and Tarasenko, but it's essential to note that their veteran presence hasn't made them blameless participants in this ineptitude. Johansson had an opportunity to score a go-ahead goal at 5-on-5 against Columbus, but whiffed on a shot in the slot, which immediately went the other way to put the Wild down 3-2. It instantly snuffed out a would-be furious comeback, and Minnesota never recovered. On Monday, Johansson put the Los Angeles Kings on the power play two minutes after getting on the board to make the game 3-1. The Kings converted on their way to earning a standings point unnecessarily from the Wild. Meanwhile, Tarasenko's four power-play assists are papering over some horrid 5-on-5 play. The former 40-goal winger has spent 85.3% of his 5-on-5 minutes playing with Joel Eriksson Ek, one of the game's elite two-way centers. Despite this, Tarasenko has a paltry 28.1% expected goal share at 5-on-5, which is far from the realm of "good enough." Even in a small sample size. This is all to say: You don't need to be a rookie to lose a team games. Acknowledging that Öhgren and Yurov haven't done much on the fourth line shouldn't preclude wanting to see them get more opportunities. It's difficult to play your way off the fourth line, especially as a rookie. Your shifts are rare, and they're often short. Puck touches don't come as easily; getting into a rhythm is a massive challenge. So when Öhgren showed signs of life against Los Angeles (two shots), why not elevate him to the second power play? Or perhaps give him a test run against Dallas while down 3-0? While Yurov has just two NHL games, he does have 270 games of KHL experience and is responsible in his own end. Why not see what he can do in an offensive role? Remember: Yurov scuffled offensively until getting a regular role for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Why would Minnesota expect him to flourish with limited minutes? With Jiříček, it's trickier because Zach Bogosian has had a solid start to his season, and the Wild's blueline is healthy. Still, when benching a rookie for making mistakes, it's important to let them respond. It probably was a good thing to let Jiříček take a breather for a game, maybe even two. But last night, when the Wild were on the road and short on fresh legs, why couldn't they find a spot for Jiříček to apply the lessons he's learning? Even if he goes down to the AHL to get big minutes, does Minnesota want to give him the impression that he's Iowa-bound every time he makes a mistake? It's understandable to want to slow-play these youngsters, but they will need to ramp things up for them and get them ready for the playoffs. Without some of these players in decent roles, the Wild really are just last year's model, plus Buium. They need to be more than that, and if this 5-on-5 offense keeps up, they might need to make that jump sooner than they'd thought.

If you've ever exclaimed, "Pay that man his money!" after watching Kirill Kaprizov score a brilliant goal, then good news: You got your wish. After turning down a would-be record-breaking contract of eight years and $128 million earlier this month, Kaprizov finally signed his extension with the Minnesota Wild. His deal goes from record-breaking to record-shattering, an eight-year, $136 million pact that will carry a $17 million AAV. No one can blame you for calling that insane. The Wild are paying him $3 million more than Leon Draisaitl, the current highest-paid player in the NHL, is making. It will probably be even more than Connor McDavid will make whenever he signs his next deal. There are several compelling reasons why Minnesota shouldn't have offered that contract to Kaprizov. $17 million is a ton of money, and it's going to be a lot even as the salary cap continues to rise. Kaprizov's extension kicks in at age 29, which means that it will take him through his age-36 season. There's also the fact that Kaprizov has missed 63 games in the last three years, including 41 last season. It's a significant risk. However, none of those reasons stack up compared to the best reason to keep him: The Wild aren't anything without Kaprizov. It's not to say that the Wild don't have good, compelling players: Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Marco Rossi, and Joel Eriksson Ek are a few. But Kaprizov affects the fortunes of a franchise in ways that very good, and even great players can't. We saw it when he arrived. The Wild made the playoffs in four of five seasons with Kaprizov in the fold, and that's a big deal. But overnight, Minnesota went from an also-ran team to one that demands attention. Hockey fans who would never give the Wild a second glance otherwise tune in to watch Kaprizov play. Locally, Kaprizov gives the Wild star power to compete with the Vikings and Justin Jefferson, as well as the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards. That might not be on-the-ice value, but it matters. Where is fan morale at if Kaprizov spends the season as a Lame Duck Superstar, with one foot out the door? Even if Minnesota made the playoffs afterward, how could fans buy into a product that couldn't hold onto their franchise player? But then, of course, there's the on-ice value, and that is also astronomical. Is Kaprizov the best player in the NHL? No. He might not even be Top-5. But he's damn close. Since entering the league, Kaprizov ranks 13th among skaters with 25.9 Standings Points Above Replacement, per Evolving-Hockey. That puts him in a tier with the likes of Matthew Tkachuk (28.1), Elias Pettersson (27.4), and Aleksander Barkov (27.0) in terms of impact. His reputation is even better than that. The Athletic's Player Tiers ranked Kaprizov as the 10th-best player in the NHL, one of 11 dubbed MVP-level. And in terms of Wild history? Forget it. Five years of Kaprizov is almost lapping the field with everyone else. For context, here are the Wild's top-10 in SPAR. (NOTE: This data only dates back to the 2007-08 season.) Minnesota Wild Franchise Leaders, SPAR, since 2007-08: Jared Spurgeon, 53.9 Mikko Koivu, 35.4 Jonas Brodin, 32.9 Ryan Suter, 30.3 Joel Eriksson Ek, 26.4 KIRILL KAPRIZOV, 25.9 Jason Zucker, 25.8 Nino Niederreiter, 25.6 Zach Parise, 22.7 Mikael Granlund, 22.0 That's just nutty. At that pace, even a 60-game season from Kaprizov should move him up to fourth place on the list. Over nine years of Ryan Suter!!! And if goals rule everything -- as they should, they're the NHL's most valuable currency -- then Kaprizov is deserving of one of the top contracts in the league. Since his debut, Kaprizov is tied with Sam Reinhart for eighth in goals, behind only Auston Matthews, Draisaitl, David Pastrnak, McDavid, Mikko Rantanen, Alex Ovechkin, and Brayden Point. The next-best Wild player on that list? It's Eriksson Ek, at 112. If you want to expand it to anyone who wore a Minnesota sweater during that time, it's Kevin Fiala (140), and Kaprizov still has him beat by 45. Wild owner Craig Leipold understood the assignment: You keep that player, no matter what it takes. Is it a lot of money? Absolutely. Is it a lot of years? Sure is. Can you replace a player like Kaprizov for that money? No way. Not in Minnesota. That last part bears emphasizing: Minnesota has spent a quarter of a decade being decidedly not a destination for players. There's no doubt that some of those $136 million functions as a tax for Kaprizov to stay in St. Paul rather than bolt to a more traditionally attractive market like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and others. The hope isn't just that Kaprizov continues to play like an MVP for the foreseeable future -- though that is a big part of it. It's that Kaprizov's presence keeps changing the Wild's fortunes, turning a place that was formerly a no-go zone for the NHL's elite into an attractive destination. We'll see what happens from here. But don't kid yourself, whether you're reading this immediately after the fact, or in 2034: The Wild had no choice but to do exactly the thing they did on September 30, 2025. Minnesota may move forward or backward from here, but without Kaprizov, there was just one direction to go: Back to square one to repeat their quarter-decade of irrelevance.

For the third season in a row, Marco Rossi enters training camp with something to prove. Two seasons ago, it was that he could hang in the NHL after a disappointing 19-game stutter-step. He did, posting 21 goals and 40 points in Take 2 of his rookie year. Last year, had to prove that he could be a legitimate top-six center. He did again, with a 24-goal, 60-point campaign. When he went to cash in coming off his entry-level contract, the Minnesota Wild didn't treat him like Matt Boldy or Brock Faber, franchise pillars worthy of a long-term deal. Instead, he got a "prove-it" deal: three years and $15 million. Rossi's commitment to improving hasn't been questioned, but if there was ever a reason to have extra motivation after a breakout campaign, this is it. Rossi spent his summer training, working on faceoffs with Coolest Player of All Time Joe Thornton and generally working on getting stronger and faster. John Hynes reportedly called his center "thicker," and Rossi claims to weigh in at 196 pounds -- up from his official listing of 182. "I feel much better now and much faster," he told the media last week. It's one preseason game, but we saw that work pay off on Thursday night. Rossi logged 21 minutes, 14 seconds, the most of any forward on the ice that night, but it took just 12 seconds to do the bulk of his damage. The first goal is nothing that we haven't seen from Rossi over these last two years. He sneaks his 5-foot-9 frame into a soft spot of space around the net, collects a nice feed from Matt Boldy, and cashes in. That net-front game has been his bread-and-butter, and getting stronger and faster certainly didn't hurt his ability to score from that area. It's the second goal that Wild fans might want to take more notice of. When you watch Rossi's goals from last season, you'll find that only seven can be categorized as scoring on the rush. But on his second goal of the night, he follows Boldy on the breakout and deposits a Royal Road pass into the net. The best players continually add to their toolbox, and if Rossi is incorporating a rush game into his, that's a significant step forward for the center. He'll have the opportunities, at least the way things are currently set up. Rossi centering a dynamic player like Boldy would be reason enough to take notice, but he's also stapled to Kirill Kaprizov, one of the most electric puck-carriers in the game. Boldy's a solid puck-carrier in his own right, and an elite forechecker. There are going to be a lot of offensive chances coming in a variety of ways. Rossi needs to be prepared for all of them. Again, he has little issue generating offense on the forecheck, where his hockey sense can take over and find those pockets of open space in the defense. However, the rush is largely about speed. While Rossi improved his skating last offseason -- he went from the 50th percentile in top speed in 2023-24 to the 75th percentile in 2024-25, per NHL EDGE -- he clearly felt there was another level to get to. Looking at the numbers, he was right. Rossi got a lot of shot quality last season, but his shot quantity has been lacking early in his career. He averaged just 4.42 shots on net last season, which is mind-bogglingly low. We're talking fewer than Marcus Johansson (5.76), Yakov Trenin (5.46), Freddy Gaudreau (5.12), and even a defenseman like Jared Spurgeon (4.70). Playing with volume shooters like Kaprizov and Boldy is a factor, but there is room for him to carve out a greater share of the offensive load. Being able to threaten offense in more ways than cleaning up the trash around the net will only help with that. Last night was an example. Rossi had four shots on goal, a mark that he only got to in 10 games in 2024-25. Not surprisingly, he was over a point per game (six goals, 12 points) in games he had four or more shots. Rossi needs to do more than prove himself for his next contract in three years. He might be starting his year between the Wild's two best wingers, but he's not guaranteed to stick there. Joel Eriksson Ek has always worked well with both Kaprizov and Boldy, and the Wild sees Danila Yurov as a top-six center eventually. Rossi will have to justify his spot and hold it amid intense competition. It's hard to draw a ton of conclusions from one preseason game. However, given our experience with Rossi's year-to-year improvement, his strong performance suggests that he has taken his offseason seriously and is well-prepared for the task ahead.