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It’s no secret that the Minnesota Wild have struggled to find depth scoring this season, particularly from the fourth line. A quick glance at the organizational depth chart suggests that might not change anytime soon. Minnesota’s fourth line this season has primarily featured: Jakub Lauko (8 career goals in 121 NHL games played) Devin Shore (2 goals in his last 97 NHL games) Marat Khusnutdinov (2 career goals in 63 NHL games played) And Ben Jones (no goals in 26 NHL games played this season) While no team expects their fourth line to fill the back on the net regularly, they hope it can at least control possession so that the top lines can hop on the ice with the puck in the offensive zone as often as possible. However, that’s where the Wild’s fourth-line players have fallen short this season. Take a look at these possession metrics from MoneyPuck: While fourth-line players typically perform below the NHL average, the numbers above demonstrate less-than-ideal output. For context, all Winnipeg Jets forwards who have played significant minutes are above 48% in Corsi and expected goals percentage. In an ideal world, the Wild’s fourth line could produce somewhere in the same vicinity and give the top lines more opportunities to start shifts in the offensive zone each night. On Tuesday, The Athletic reported that Kirill Kaprizov will be out for at least four weeks to undergo surgery for his nagging lower-body injury. Therefore, the Wild’s depth will be tested once again, and it might be time for the Wild to provide other players with opportunities to make positive contributions to the fourth line. They should start with Caedan Bankier. I’ve watched Bankier closely since the Wild took him 86th in the 2021 draft. Most recently, I saw him when I attended the Iowa Wild’s home series against the Rockford Ice Hogs on January 17 and 18. The more I’ve watched Bankier play, the more I’ve become convinced that he’s the Wild’s future third-line center and that he has promise. He’s not ready to fill that role now, but the 6-foot-2, 192-pound center is trending in the right direction. Bankier has earned an opportunity to get a few games with the big squad. It’s been a tough season in Des Moines, where the team has suffered from the fifth-worst save percentage in the AHL. Iowa’s struggles are reflected in the skaters’ counting stats, and Bankier is no exception. He’s posted eight goals and nine assists in 40 games. While that’s unimpressive at first glance, it only tells part of the tale. As he’s developed over the past season and a half in Iowa, Bankier has slowly learned to use his size to influence possession. He has soft hands and makes crisp, accurate passes. These attributes, along with his superior hockey sense and responsible, two-way tendencies, have helped him grow into a player with a mature game that knows how to compete against professional players. He also can win faceoffs from the right side (you’ll have to take my word for it, as the AHL does not publish individual faceoff statistics). Considering that Khusnutdinov has only won 46.1% of draws thus far and has been unable to drive possession, Bankier could represent a clear upgrade, even if only for a few games. At the very least, he looks like a viable call-up option who can provide a different look. Bankier’s pro-level details and quality decision-making make him a reliable player. Consider the below clip from Iowa’s game against Rockford on January 18. None of that stuff is flashy. However, when players do it consistently, it drives winning. When Bankier came off the ice, the Iowa Wild had possession in the offensive zone, and Rockford hadn’t even come close to sniffing an offensive chance. It wasn’t a one-off, either. Bankier has moments like these regularly. Below is an example of him using his size and awareness to maintain possession in the offensive zone from a preseason game against Winnipeg: And lastly, watch him shrug off an attacker as he carries the puck up the wall in the neutral zone: None of this is to say that Bankier is close to a finished product, and there are warts to his game he must correct. He must learn to dictate moments and control pace with the puck on his stick, and he might benefit from a summer training with Andy Ness to add a bit of quickness to his lateral movements. Still, his game is coming along, and Wild fans should be excited. Caedan Bankier has earned the opportunity to play some NHL games, if only so he can be better prepared for when his time arrives. Undoubtedly, he can eventually become a quality third-line center in the NHL. When Wild fans get their first glimpse of him with the big squad, they’ll be able to see why.

What do newly-signed Yakov Trenin and newly extended Jake Middleton have in common with Marcus Foligno, Freddy Gaudreau, and Ryan Hartman? They're all perfectly fine NHL players who are perfectly able to succeed when in the correct role. What else do they have in common? The correct role for each of them (at least, on an elite team) is either in the bottom-six forwards or on the third defensive pair. The Minnesota Wild have also signed them through the 2026-27 season. All but Hartman are now under contract through the summer of 2028. These five role players are on the books for $16.05 million this upcoming season, a rate that rises to $17.95 million in the two following years. The $16.05 million represents about 18.2% of the current $88 million salary cap, and the $17.95 million comes out to be about 19.5% of the projected $92 million cap for 2025-26. When you allocate 18-19% of the salary cap to 21.7% of the roster, that doesn't sound too bad! Collectively, these players make less than their fair share of the roster. Unfortunately, that's not how NHL economics work. Look at the NHL's most successful teams and what they allocate for their depth players. It quickly becomes clear that the Wild are zagging while the smartest teams zig. The top teams set out to min-max their rosters, prioritizing star power, even at the expense of squeezing out the league's middle class. I'm not writing this out of disdain for role players. Instead, the fact that these "middle-class" players are easier to replace with cheaper, younger depth. If you aren't a top-six forward or a top-four defenseman, it's difficult to justify paying you $4 million when a kid on an ELC can do your job 80-90% as effectively. A world where a loyal member of an organization is unceremoniously phased out for cost-cutting is not a nice world! It's not the world that this hockey blogger would choose! However, it is the reality that the Players Association and league have negotiated. And in it, we have to look at these salaries in terms of how efficiently they utilize the team's resources. Use the Cup Champion Florida Panthers as a model, for example. They poured almost every dollar not nailed down into the top of the roster. Sergei Bobrovsky, Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Aaron Ekblad, and Sam Reinhart combined to make 52.1% of their salary cap. Doing that forced them to get incredible bargains or fill their roster with cost-effective players. They knocked it out of the park on the bargain front. Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour, Evan Rodrigues, and Gustav Forsling added up to $17.76 million, less than the Wild will pay their "Five Guys" next year. Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($2.25M) and Niko Mikkola ($2.5M) were the only other players making between $2 and $5 million. Florida's fivesome added up to 16.9 Standings Points Above Replacement last season. Compare that to 2.5 from Minnesota's "Five Guys" last year. As much as the Wild talk about down seasons from the likes of Hartman, Gaudreau, and Foligno, this fivesome was only worth 4.1 SPAR in 2022-23. The Edmonton Oilers also min/maxed their roster, with their top seven players soaking up 56.5% of the cap. They didn't get the amount of home runs that Florida got from their middle-class players, aside from Evan Bouchard ($3.9M). Still, their middle-class bloat was minimal. Their middle class includes Bouchard and starting goalie Stuart Skinner ($2.6M), then Cody Ceci ($3.25M), Warren Foegele ($2.75), and Brett Kulak ($2.75). Not great, but at least they're few and cheap. Go down the line. The Dallas Stars had seven players in their middle-class bracket (adding up to $20.5 million). However, those players included Jake Oettinger, Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, and Mason Marchment. You'll take a starting goalie and 74 goals for that price any day, thank you very much. The New York Rangers round out the Conference Finalists. Who was in their middle class? Five players. Top-pairing defenseman K'Andre Miller ($3.872M), 28-goal, 57-point Alexis Lafrenière ($2.235M), Barclay Goodrow ($3.642M), Ryan Lindgren ($3M), and Kaapo Kakko ($2.1M). That's just under $15 million for their middle class, with two impact players in there, and even that was too expensive for New York. The Rangers dumped Goodrow to waivers to clear precious cap room. Sorry to the role players. While the "Five Guys" are the most egregious examples of middle-class bloat, they're far from the limit of its scope. Mats Zuccarello put up 63 points last season, granted, but is turning 37 before the season starts and will make $4.125 in two years. Minnesota didn't (couldn't?) trade Filip Gustavsson, who was a sub-.900 goalie last year and is making $3.75 million next season. Marc-Andre Fleury turns 40 in November and makes $2.5 million against the cap. Marcus Johansson scored just 11 goals and 30 points last year and comes at a $2 million cap hit next season. Add all that up, and that's nine middle-class guys coming in at $28.245 million. Fleury and Johansson come off the books after next season. Still, that's about 26% of the cap devoted to seven players who generally aren't moving the needle. That's not how the top teams do things. They pay the players they can't replace and replace the ones they can when they get too expensive. Minnesota did this once upon a time, developing the likes of Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar while bringing in cheaper, younger versions of Hartman, Gaudreau, and Middleton. The cap is going up, and the Wild are about to get nearly $15 million of dead cap coming off the books. They also have talented prospects on ELCs. Therefore, they can afford luxuries; that's indisputable. But if you gave Florida or New York that flexibility to get luxuries they would (and did) spend it on bringing in stars like Tkachuk long-term. If you gave Dallas the ability to afford luxuries, they would (and did) spend it to bring in high-upside plays like Duchene and Marchment on the cheap. What did the Wild splurge on with their future windfall? A handful of role players who will spend most of their deals playing on the third-and-fourth lines and pairings. Guerin must believe that these players, with their grit, jam, etc., are the key to bringing Minnesota where they want to go. He has to be right, or the Wild will find themselves with expensive anchors while the smart teams keep sailing past them.

Somehow, the biggest lightning rod in the Minnesota Wild's abbreviated playoff run was the player with the team's third-fewest minutes. But that's what fans will focus on when a team takes Marco Rossi, their second-leading scorer in the regular season, and plays him for 11 minutes and 8 seconds per night. For context, that's less than Marat Khusnutdinov, a fourth-line center with seven points in 57 games, got during the regular season. Having seen the Wild's postseason play out, it's clear what happened. John Hynes (and possibly Bill Guerin, judging from some of his radio comments) decided that Rossi couldn't make an impact in a series against the Vegas Golden Knights. He started on the third line with Marcus Foligno and a clearly washed Gustav Nyquist, a role Rossi hadn't been in all season. After struggling in his playoff debut, the Wild demoted him to the fourth line with Yakov Trenin and Justin Brazeau. And that's where he stayed. Scoring goals in back-to-back games didn't get him out of the doghouse. Engaging physically in Game 5, where he registered three hits and three blocked shots, didn't do the trick, either. No style of play, no level of success was getting him off the fourth line. There was nothing he could do. In doing so, the Wild doomed Rossi to their self-fulfilling prophecy. By treating him as if he couldn't make an impact, they put him in a position where he was least capable of making one. Despite the three points in six games -- a 0.50 PPG average that is, mind you, tied for 19th in franchise history, between Kevin Fiala (0.53 PPG) and Mikko Koivu (0.47) -- Minnesota got a result they can point to and back up their suspicions. His detractors (including those in the Wild organization) can point to three flashpoints: Rossi being on the ice for the Game 5 overtime goal. His double minor in Game 6. And his having the worst expected goals percentage at 5-on-5 this series, as noted by The Athletic. Make of the errors what you'd like, I guess. Rossi was part of that Game 5 breakdown -- although there's a pretty good case that Zach Bogosian was more responsible. Even though Brayden McNabb lifted Rossi's stick into his own face in Game 6, Rossi still has to control his stick. But as for his expected goals percentage... what did the Wild expect? Out of 18 forwards with 150-plus minutes at 5-on-5 for the Wild during the regular season, Trenin was 10th in goals for percentage (44.4) and 11th in expected goals for percentage (47.5). Brazeau ranked dead last in both categories. Both players were in the bottom half of generating actual and expected goals per hour. That trio didn't generate offense outside of two nice passes off a Trenin forecheck. The Rossi-Trenin duo combined to get just a 28.5% share of the expected goals in their limited time on the ice. Minnesota generated expected goals at a rate of 0.99 per hour with that tandem, which is abysmal. When apart from Trenin, his expected goals share boosted up to 49.3%, and the Wild generated 2.44 expected goals per hour. If you're looking for a reason why Rossi would have disappointing numbers with Trenin and Brazeau, it's not hard to figure out. There's a reason Hynes doesn't consider playing Matt Boldy or Kirill Kaprizov on the fourth line for an entire playoff series. Maybe you're thinking something like, Look, a player isn't entitled to a spot in the lineup because they scored 60 points in the regular season. This is professional sports. It's not about fairness or being a hard-working kid with a good attitude who does everything the team asks of him. It's about results. And, hey, maybe that's right. So let's take a look at Rossi's results. In 66:47 of all-situations time, Rossi scored three points. Mind you, only 3:30 of that was on the power play, less time than the likes of Nyquist and Marcus Johansson. Despite being a power play afterthought, he put up 2.70 points per hour during his ice time. For fun, here's a list of Wild players who Rossi's career points per hour rate beats out: Zach Parise, 2.66 points per hour Kirill Kaprizov, 2.40 points per hour Marian Gaborik, 2.36 points per hour Ryan Hartman, 2.30 points per hour Jason Pominville, 2.28 points per hour Wes Walz, 2.26 points per hour Brian Rolston, 2.03 points per hour Kevin Fiala, 1.89 points per hour Pavol Demitra, 1.86 points per hour Matt Boldy, 1.86 points per hour Eric Staal, 1.86 points per hour Nino Niederreiter, 1.82 points per hour Small sample size, but damn, that sounds like someone Minnesota should've put on the ice if they wanted not to lose three games by a goal each. Only Hynes didn't do that. It's one thing for a coach to bury his team's second-leading scorer on the fourth line and win the series. They can claim they pushed the right buttons, and scoreboard. Who's gonna argue? But when they lose a series of one-goal games? There are gonna be questions to answer, especially for a coach whose playoff results aren't exactly above reproach. It was a predictable outcome for the Wild, partly because they ensured it, both for Rossi and the series as a whole. Minnesota played Rossi on the fourth line, and now they can claim he played like a fourth liner. That makes sense. The logical conclusion for Hynes turning his third-most-potent scoring threat into a fourth-liner was the one we saw. The Wild offense drying up the second Kaprizov and Boldy started running out of gas. Don't worry -- with the increasingly inevitable Rossi trade coming up, it appears that no lessons will be learned from any of this.

The Minnesota Wild are building the foundations of a solid future. Experts believe Minnesota’s front office drafts well, and several prospects appear ready to make an impact in the NHL. Marat Khusnutdinov, Liam Ohgren, and Jesper Wallstedt have all played games for the Wild this year. Meanwhile, Danila Yurov seems to be on the way soon. The team's farm system is so good that Scott Wheeler recently ranked them second in the NHL in his yearly prospect rankings. Wheeler had them at 11th in the same rankings last year. The heavy lifting of the improved ranking is the new crown jewel of the Wild's prospect pool. Zeev Buium. When the Wild drafted Buium 12th overall in last year's draft, people immediately considered him a steal. We ranked Buium as the Wild's third-best prospect entering the season behind Yurov and Wallstedt, and the pick has only aged better since. Buium is a great defender with a winning pedigree. He had just finished a historic season at Denver University, becoming the first teenager to score 50 points in a season in over 20 years. Buium has built on his breakout year. In his second year at Denver, he turned himself into more than just a good prospect that the Wild got as a draft steal. Instead, the Californian is now a genuine top-defensive prospect in the league. After a draft year as productive as Buium's, imagining how he could improve was difficult. How do you improve historic scoring totals capped off by a national championship and World Juniors Gold Medal? Buium has answered by refining his impressive arsenal of skills. Last year, Buium showed the ability to be a positive player in every phase of the game. He wasn't bad defensively, but his offensive prowess stood out. Buium has been more committed to improving his defensive play and dominating possessions this season. "The harder I play in my own end and take pride in it," Buium told the Star Tribune, "the more likely I'm not going to be playing defense as much." It's an approach that has already resulted in better all-around play and even improved his offense. Buium isn't letting the game come to him. Instead, he's involving himself in every level of play. A player who can make a strong defensive play in his own end, execute a breakout pass, join the rush, and set up in the offensive zone all at the same time? That's a dangerous skill. Denver and Team USA coach David Carle also spoke about this ability. "He knows he needs to crank it up a little bit," Carle said. "So, that's what I think is really impressive about him is he has an ability to interpret what the game needs from him, and he can adapt and give it what it needs." His hockey IQ and high-end skills make him an elite offensive organizer. When Buium is on the ice, Denver's play on both ends flows through him. He's a smooth-skating puck-mover and a breakout quarterback. His mix of instincts, speed, and commitment to defense allow him to overcome his average stature in making plays in his end. When you compare Buium to some of the league's top defenders, he fits the mold of a modern elite NHL defender. He plays college hockey and doesn't have elite size, but he isn't small, either. He can play an extremely well-rounded game, even if explosive offense is his primary weapon. Players like Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, and Charlie McAvoy are similar and among the league's most elite blueliners. While Buium's play has been encouraging, it is impossible to look past the eye-popping stat sheet. Early in the season, Buium was producing but not quite at the level he had in his previous year. With no goals and 10 points in his first 10 games, the blueliner had impressive production but not the elite scoring we saw in his 50-point freshman campaign. Part of that decreased production was due to Buium's evolving role at Denver, which includes more responsibility. The team relies on him more defensively and as a play-driver than last season. Buium focused more on the process than the results. His stats indicate that his investment in improving his overall game is paying meaningful dividends. Buium's stat sheet production is catching up with his play. Now, he's scoring at a similar pace to last season while still playing a more well-rounded game. He has 32 points in 26 games, including 13 in his previous 10. That's a rate of 1.23 points per game, better than the 1.19 points he registered as a freshman. His 32 points are the most among college defenders. If Denver makes a deep run, he could have another 50-point season. Since 2009-10, only two defenders, Buium and Brendan Smith, have reached that 50-point mark in college hockey. Now, Buium has an opportunity to do it twice. Buium has myriad elite skills he’s constantly improving. He is also a historic producer. Those two attributes would already be enough to make him a top prospect. However, he also has a track record of being a consummate winner. Even at 19, Buium has already experienced more winning than many great hockey players do in their careers. In his freshman season, he won the national championship with Denver and played a key role in winning a gold medal for the USA at the 2024 World Juniors. He followed up that gold medal this year with another in the 2025 World Juniors, the first time the USA won back-to-back golds at the premiere event for junior-aged players. Buium again played a vital role, providing a beautiful assist on the overtime game-winning goal. The entire team wanted that game badly, but Buium had a burning desire to win hockey games. After the assist, the defender hesitated to join the celebratory scrum, focusing more on winning the game than celebrating. "I just wanted to win that game so bad," Buium recalled. "I wasn't even thinking about a celebration. I just didn't want to lose." Buium's ultra-competitive spirit has been evident at every level of hockey. That intangible quality completes his profile as one of the top prospects in the NHL. The Minnesota Wild are getting an elite talent. Buium affects the game just as much off the scoresheet as he does off it. He’s a defender who profiles as a top-pairing, play-driving defender. Most of all, Minnesota will be welcoming a winner. Time will tell if Buium can carry all of that to the NHL. For now, he's one of the best prospects in the league and is only improving.

By now, all Minnesota Wild fans are aware of the shiny new toy in the State of Hockey: defenseman David Jiricek. The Wild paid a hefty price to acquire the No. 6 overall pick from 2022 (and a fifth-round pick), sending Daemon Hunt and a first, second, third, and fourth-rounder to the Columbus Blue Jackets. For that kind of price, it makes sense that fans would expect something special from Jiricek. Will Minnesota get that kind of player? We could discuss his limited NHL track record, his shining performance in the 2023 World Junior Championships, or his extensive pro experience in Czechia and the AHL. But that does not quite convey the experience of watching him play regularly. Fortunately, Jiricek has been on the radar long before 2022. He debuted in the Czechia Extraliga -- the country's highest pro level -- on January 26, 2020, barely two months after turning 16. Jiricek has had scouts' attention for a while, but how have their opinions developed alongside Jiricek through the years? Let's track it in four phases, starting with... 2021: On the Rise We first see Jiricek's name cropping up, at least on public scouting reports, in the back half of 2021. Early prognosticators of the 2022 Draft seemed to have Jircek as a consensus top-15 pick. NHLEntryDraft.com even had him going to the Columbus Blue Jackets in their early mock draft. Great job! Their report? The Czech rearguard is a two-way presence that skates very well for his size, showing a promising ability to break up plays, control the rush, or turn the puck up the other way. At the end of September 2021, Bob McKenzie of TSN released his 2022 draft list, and Jiricek debuted at No. 10. Jiricek is viewed as a throwback, hard-rock shutdown defensive defenceman, an ultra-aggressive big hitter with a mean streak who is a strong skater. Scouts love all that bite but are still debating his offensive ceiling/limitations. Though released much later to the public, Elite Prospects had been monitoring him in April 2021. David St-Louis wrote of him during the Under-18 Worlds: He kills rushes with backward skating and has some lateral mobility. He is physical. Very. Finishes every check.... He's an interesting player for sure. Just six months later, Jiricek made a much bigger impression on St-Louis. From October 2021 in Extraliga: Jiříček is going high in the draft. His tools clearly project as above-average (he’s a 6-foot-3, mobile, righty), and he cares about the defensive game... he can match shifty attackers with his four-way mobility. He is also physical, able to pin even pro attackers already. Impressive. So, at this time, Jiricek is seen as a big, mobile defender with upside as a shutdown defender. Then the offense starts coming. He scored five goals and 11 points in 29 games at Extraliga. Those don't sound like huge numbers. Still, no one has ever come close, before or since, to that kind of production for a draft-eligible defenseman in the Czech league. A big part of that came from him pushing the tempo as often as humanly possible. Wrote Elite Prospects' Mitchell Brown in an October 2021 scouting report: "I like how he doesn’t just make the simple play once he gets the puck. He beats defenders, looks for teammates cross-ice, and uses space before shooting." EP colleague J.D. Burke agreed at the time, saying, "[He] doesn’t connect on a lot of his plays -- the stretch passes, the activations off of the blue line and the deceptive feeds into the slot, and the pacey efforts to move the puck – but he’s trying them, and that counts for a lot." While noting that Jiricek "could be a pain in the ass on NHL ice" someday, Josh Tessler of SmahtScouting gave a lot of love to the rugged defenseman's surprisingly crafty hands. "Jiříček has excellent timing at cradling the puck and uses his elusive stick-handling ability to maintain possession of the puck for his team to keep the offensive momentum alive." Jiricek's star would only rise from there. 2022: Draft Day For almost every NHL player, draft day is the high-water mark of your potential. No one's seen you play North American pro hockey. You can be anything -- an All-Star or a Hall of Famer. Heck, you can even be an all-time great soccer player. The hype train runs wild, the superlatives fly, and we all lose our minds a bit. And at this point, Jiricek's potential is through the roof. After the Blue Jackets drafted him, his agent pegged him as Shea Weber, and his Czech teammate, former NHL defenseman Jakub Kindl, compared him to Aaron Ekblad, the former No. 1 overall pick and Calder Trophy winner. Scouts weren't rushing to disagree, either. Even the normally conservative Corey Pronman believed he was most similar to three-time All-Star Alex Pietrangelo (No. 4 overall in 2008) as a prospect. There were only two opinions about Jiricek leading up to the draft: You loved him, or you looooooved him. No major outlets had him outside the top-10 of his class, and few had him out of the top-five. Here's the accompanying scouting report from Scott Wheeler, who merely loved Jiricek, ranking him sixth in his final 2022 Draft ranking: [He has] one of — if not the — hardest point shots in the draft. It’s a bomb, and he does a really good job keeping it on target and a few feet off the ice... he’s a confident, active, engaged three-zone player who has all of the tools you look for in a top defender. As he continues to smooth out and polish his game, it’s hard to imagine he doesn’t become, at the very least, a top-four guy. And that's from a comparatively tepid perspective. Sam McGilligan (from scouting publication McKeen's Hockey, whom a young Judd Brackett wrote for) was over the moon for him. For me, Jiricek stands out as such a unique player that you can't find anywhere in the draft. If I go back another year, I still can't find someone like him. He's a bit of a unicorn. The obvious draw to Jiricek's game becomes crystal clear after just a few minutes of watching him -- his unprecedented aggression.... Calculated aggression means constantly applying pressure to the opponent, forcing fast decisions to avoid being smashed by the Czech freight train. And if that seems like a lot, Elite Prospects might have been even higher. The outlet ranked him second overall in his draft class and in the top five of several skills, including: Best Defensive Defenseman (first) Best Neutral Zone Defender (first) Highest Floor (second) Best Offensive Defenseman (third) Hardest Hitter (third) Best Transition Defenseman (fourth) Highest Ceiling (fifth) EP's player comparable was Moritz Seider, who also won the Calder Trophy. Their ultimate conclusion? There’s a durable defensive foundation in place that will carry him to a top-four role at a bare minimum, even if his play with the puck doesn’t come along for the ride... You’re looking at a 6-foot-3, right-shot defenceman who can do just about everything at a low-end top-pairing level through the height of his career. But unlike most players, Jiricek's high-water mark as a prospect wasn't the draft. 2023: Top Of the Worlds Jiricek could go directly to the AHL for his first season after being drafted, a luxury not afforded to many players in the first year after their draft. But already a seasoned pro at age-18, Jiricek could seamlessly handle the transition to North American hockey. He set the record for most AHL points for a defenseman in their Draft+1 season, piling up 38 in 55 games. It was an impressive campaign, topped off by a dominant Under-20 World Junior tournament. The goal above helped Team Czechia to the Gold Medal Game against Canada (where they lost in OT), earning their first medal at the U-20 tournament since 2005. Jiricek was especially dominant, scoring three goals (on 30 shots, ranking sixth-most among all players) and seven points in his seven games. Jiricek had a plus/minus of +10, getting tagged with just one minus on the tournament. He was the obvious pick for Best Defenseman of the 2023 World Juniors. Jiricek faced players already having massive success in the NHL: Connor Bedard, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Logan Stankoven, Luke Hughes, and more. He not only acquitted himself, but the data shows that Jiricek was an absolute beast in all three zones. Wrote EP's Lassi Alanen after the tournament: He was a commanding factor both offensively and defensively. He had the highest shot volume in the entire tournament, forwards included, and also set up scoring chances at an above-average rate. Defensively, he killed plays both in in-zone setting and while defending against the rush. At The Athletic, Wheeler ranked him as the ninth-best prospect that summer, with Pronman tagging him as the 20th-best Under-23 player/prospect in the NHL. Pronman had him eighth among defensemen behind Rasmus Dahlin, Seider, Owen Power, Noah Dobson, Jake Sanderson, Hughes, and Bowen Byram. "Jiricek has been one of the most impactful teenage defensemen I’ve seen in the AHL in recent years," declared Pronman. "He’s showing a whole other level of offense this season.... Everything, except for his footspeed, points to a big minutes NHL defenseman. EP was still massively high on him, ranking him as their seventh-best NHL prospect, and top defenseman. "When he steps on the ice, the game belongs to him," their profile read. Hard to beat that. There was just one group that wasn't so all-in on Jiricek... 2024: The Struggle (Colum)Bus Jiricek's path to Minnesota started in 2024, though no one knew it then. The top young defenseman made his displeasure known after Columbus sent him down to the AHL in January. “I played good hockey in the NHL," he said. "I’m an NHL player right now. That’s my opinion, that I should be in the NHL right now." Jarmo Kekäläinen (who Jiricek outlasted in Columbus, for what it's worth) might have seen it differently, but plenty of scouts took the player's side. Sportsnet's Jason Bukala went scorched-earth on Columbus' management: The Blue Jackets seem to forget what they have in this prospect. Jiricek can beat goalies at any level with a clapper or snap shot from range. He’s a power play threat waiting to happen. He has always produced offence along every stop in his development. St-Louis re-entered the picture to lend his support: "At the very least, Jiříček looks like an NHL player," he wrote. "His confidence knows no bounds. He plays the same creative and hyper-aggressive game in the NHL as he did in the AHL last season, in the Czech league before that, and in his junior days. That’s a massive positive for his development, as he’s constantly testing his limits and pushing them, becoming more and more skilled as he advances in levels." And that's perhaps where the core of the conflict lay between Jiricek and the Blue Jackets. Maximizing Jiricek means allowing him to play a high-risk style. But when he messes up, it's more dangerous than it might be for other players. St.-Louis explains why: Most daring defencemen usually have the skating ability to repair their mistakes.... Jiříček doesn’t have that kind of safety net, that recovery ability. Either [his daring plays] work spectacularly or they fail in the same fashion. And it’s the same defensively. The failure to launch, it turns out, brutally affected his stock with the Columbus organization. However, it didn't fully take the bloom off the rose outside of it. Pronman downgraded Jiricek on his U-23 rankings before the season from 20th to a still-strong 47th: The long-term projection on Jiricek remains promising given his toolkit. I like his defensive edge and thought he showed he could be a great two-way player at other levels. His feet aren't the best and he struggled adapting to the NHL pace.... With time I think he'll be an all-situations top-four defenseman. But, like with many players, the hype dies down eventually, and the NHL starts to reveal warts in one's game. After a vigorous defense of Jiricek in January, Bukala was a bit more muted in his assessment on November 18: As much as I appreciate what Jiricek can produce offensively he also needs to provide better-than-average defensive detail to find a regular role at the NHL level. St-Louis' scouting report from November 29 also puts his weaknesses into greater focus: A weakness even in his draft year, Jiříček’s skating hasn’t improved over the past few seasons. While he can speed up the ice to catch up to the play... his pivots lack fluidity. His decision-making with the puck and defensive awareness have been equally problematic. Of course, St-Louis points out that there's still a ton to like: Despite his ever-present weaknesses, Jiříček remains one of those rare right-shot defencemen capable of tilting the ice for his team. And, of course, in Minnesota, there's really one scout whose opinion matters most: Brackett. And the Wild's head scout is sold on him. "David Jiricek still has some things to work on, obviously," e told The Athletic's Michael Russo. "[But] he wants the puck.... He has an ability to get into spots where he can utilize it and support the rush. He plays definitive in his D zone." Brackett also provided immediate optimism by going on the record with his belief that his skating won't be the limiting factor as Columbus thought. "He is an average skater, but it’s good enough," he assured Russo. "You’re not going to look at him and go, ‘Oh, jeez!’ It’s good enough." Now that everyone has weighed in, and the Wild put their money where their mouths were, it's time to start seeing if Jiricek can live up to the faith so many have had in him throughout the years.

Danila Yurov typically overshadows Liam Öhgren in the Minnesota Wild prospect pecking order. It's been like that from the start, even though the Wild drafted Öhgren No. 19 overall at the 2022 Draft, and they didn't take Yurov off the board until the 24th pick. Even the Wild had Yurov ahead of Öhgren on their draft list, but they took Öhgren first as a gambit to land both prospects. Since then, we've been living in Yurov's world. The hype forming around him is well-deserved, of course. He finished the KHL season with 21 goals and 49 points, ranking in the league's top 20 in both categories. Yurov set the record for most points in a season for a KHL player in his Draft+2 season and has the most points per game of any 20-year-old KHLer since Kirill Kaprizov. Öhgren just doesn't have those raw numbers. While he put up one of the best seasons in Swedish Junior history in the year leading up to the 2022 Draft, those eye-popping numbers haven't translated to his country's highest levels of competition. Injuries limited him to 11 goals and 20 points in 36 games last season in Allsvenskan (the second-highest level in Sweden). However, he had a breakout playoff with eight goals and 13 points in 17 games. As for his first true season in the SHL, whose regular season ended on Tuesday, Öhgren looked solid but not great. Playing for the ever-solid Färjestad BK -- whose success stories include the Wild's own Jonas Brodin and Joel Eriksson Ek) -- Öhgren finished the season with 12 goals and 19 points in 26 games (the injury bug hit again). Strong, but not the record-setting performance Yurov just had in his country's top league. That's reflected in Hockey Prospecting's Player Comparison Tool, which gives Yurov a 45% chance of becoming a star at the NHL level and Öhgren's stardom odds at just 13%. That's not bad for Öhgren's part. But if you're into the whole Buyer's Remorse kind of thing, maybe you catch Jimmy Snuggerud (No. 23 overall; 21% Star Likelihood) playing for the Minnesota Gophers and wonder why the Wild would pass on a Chaska native for a guy whose point totals aren't as stellar. Letting him go to the St. Louis Blues, no less! Models like Hockey Prospecting, which uses NHL Equivalency (NHLe) to translate points from other leagues into an 82-game NHL total, come under fire for a few reasons. For one, points aren't everything -- just ask Brock Faber, who never scored anywhere... until he started putting up numbers in the NHL. It's also an inexact science to translate even AHL points to an NHL equivalent, much less a junior or European league. Still, these get used because points are the best, most available, and most strongly correlated to the NHL success metric we have publicly available. You can't find advanced stats for the AHL, KHL, Junior leagues, or pretty much anything that's not the NHL. They're tracked by companies that keep it on lockdown as proprietary data or dedicated independent analysts. Except, luckily enough for us, the Swedish Hockey League. The SHL has Corsi and Fenwick data dating back to the 2015-16 season. While we can't find out how Yurov drives play for Metallurg Magnitogorsk, for example, we can figure out the impact that Öhgren makes for Färjestad. It's a good thing we can do this, too. When we look deeper into Öhgren, we can see that he's a difference-maker in the SHL, and he might be more NHL-ready than we'd have thought otherwise. Öhgren is simply a possession monster and is so against men in Sweden. Of all the SHL players with 20 or more games, Öhgren's Fenwick For% (the percentage of unblocked shot attempts his team gets) is 60%, tied for fifth in the SHL. Whenever Öhgren's on the ice, his team gets three clean looks at the net for every two his opponents get. Connor McDavid and Brent Burns are examples of NHL players who are dictating play to that extent this year. Of course, there's a difference between the competition that Öhgren faces and that of McDavid and Burse, but we rarely see that kind of dominance from a junior-aged (under-20) player in the SHL. Using that 20-game cutoff, let's look at some of the top Fenwick For% seasons from the most notable forwards to come through Sweden since 2015-16. Carl Grundström (2016-17), now with the Los Angeles Kings, is the only junior-aged player in SHL history to control play more than Öhgren. Even so, Öhgren combines his possession dominance by nearly matching Grundström's stat line: 12 goals and 19 points for Öhgren and 14 goals and 20 points for Grundström. Oh, and Öhgren compiled these numbers in 19 fewer games. That brings us to another important point: Öhgren's scoring is pretty impressive, and not just in the context of him being a young player. Today, there aren't nearly the number of point-per-game players in the SHL as you'll find in other leagues, including the NHL. Sweden had just two players finish with over a point per game this year. So, scoring 0.73 points per game, as Öhgren did, makes him one of the league's top scorers. His scoring rate puts him at 21st in the SHL, which is about where Yurov ranks among KHL players. Notching 12 goals in 26 games gives him a goals-per-game rate of 0.46, which is good for second in the league, behind only 27-year-old David Tomasek. Those 0.46 goals per game not only are tops among junior-aged players this season, but it's one of the best goal-scoring seasons from a young prospect we've seen in the SHL this century. Elias Pettersson, Emil Bemström, and Patric Hörnqvist are the only Under-20 players who've scored as frequently in a season, per Quant Hockey. Öhgren's even-strength dominance doesn't just translate to gaudy but goalless possession numbers. It might be surprising that he ranked just 11th on Färjestad in power play time, with 1 minute and 23 seconds of ice time per game. He made hay while the sun shone, racking up two goals and two assists in his 36 minutes on the man advantage. Still, the bulk of his damage -- 10 goals and 15 points -- happened at even strength. So we know how many minutes he played at even-strength and how much he scored. That means we can calculate his goals, points, and shots per hour and compare them to other SHLers. Since even-strength scoring data exists in the SHL back to the 2010-11 season, we can expand our look at top drafted SHL prospects (minimum 20 games) back a few more years to see where Öhgren's even-strength individual numbers rank. Looking at this list, all you can say is Wöw. Sure, there's a sizable gap between the top two names (Elias Pettersson and William Nylander) and Öhgren, but placing third on this list in even-strength points per hour is still mighty impressive. Remember, Mika Zibanejad and William Karlsson are former 40-goal scorers, Kevin Fiala is a former 30-goal guy, and Eriksson Ek needs only one more goal to join the 30-goal club himself. Not to mention, his goal-scoring is No. 1 on this list, nudging past Petterson (who has three straight 30-goal seasons) and decidedly above Nylander (who scored 40 last year and is six goals from repeating the feat). The State of Hockey is on full Yurov Watch, and they should be. Yurov is an exciting, dynamic player. But while Öhgren's greatness as a prospect requires a bit more digging to become apparent, Minnesota shouldn't be sleeping on Öhgren, either. Being able to score at a high rate while also ranking as a top player in puck possession metrics is a special combination, and Öhgren's done both in one of the toughest leagues in the world. He should be every bit as much on the radar of players who could make the team out of camp as Yurov this fall. It could make for a legendary training camp competition.

The Marco Rossi Discourse has officially detached itself from reality. We just saw the Florida Panthers build a dynasty on a foundation rehabilitating former top-10 picks that were unhappy, coming off a down year, or both. Sam Reinhart (No. 2 overall in 2014), Seth Jones (No. 4 in 2013), Sam Bennett (No. 4 in 2014), and Matthew Tkachuk (No. 6 in 2016). They made bets -- sometimes massive bets -- on top talent and hoped their organization would figure it out. This is a copycat league, as they say. Yet, as the Minnesota Wild's top-six center is coming off a career-high 60-point season at the age of 23, no one seems to want him particularly badly. Least of all, as much as GM Bill Guerin has tried to downplay it, the historically center-starved Wild, who've been rumored to be looking at trading him for the last two summers. Or three, since he might be on the move this week. Whether trying to low-ball Guerin on a player he doesn't seem particularly committed to, similarly worried about his size, or scared off by the fact that the Wild demoted and kept him on the fourth line in the playoffs, teams aren't biting. The Vancouver Canucks are believed to have only offered the 15th overall pick in tonight's draft for him. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres apparently turned down an offer of Marco Rossi and "another roster player and/or prospects and picks" for JJ Peterka, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo. Instead, Buffalo flipped Peterka for 25-year-old Michael Kesselring and 23-year-old Josh Doan. Combined, the two players have a career 4.9 Standings Points Above Replacement in 218 games, per Evolving-Hockey. That's just barely more than Rossi had over 82 games last season (4.4 SPAR). We don't specifically know what was offered alongside Rossi, of course, and Kesselring being a right-shot defenseman does fill a need. Still... what are we doing here? We're living in Bizarro World when it comes to Rossi. The Athletic's Shayna Goldman, one of the brightest minds in hockey analysis, wrote about the apprehensions teams may have for Rossi: Issue number two revolves around whether Rossi can drive his own line or is just a passenger to Kirill Kaprizov. ... These two do mesh well together. In 407 five-on-five minutes together this year, the Wild earned a 57 percent expected goal rate and outscored opponents 24-16. Rossi was still above break-even in expected and actual goals without Kaprizov, but wasn’t as in control. No one on earth is going to suggest that Kaprizov isn't the primary driving force on any line he's on. Kaprizov carries the puck and can do dynamic things with it as a playmaker or shooter. We've seen Kaprizov elevate Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy. It's ludicrous to say that Rossi isn't benefiting from Kaprizov when the two are on the ice together. Still, that doesn't mean that Rossi can't drive play in his own right. We have a growing amount of evidence that he does drive play. 407 minutes with Kaprizov at 5-on-5 means that Rossi played 815 minutes without Kaprizov. During that time, Rossi still managed to out-score opponents 32-27 (54% goal share) with a 52.8% expected goal share. That includes a long stretch of the season when Kaprizov was injured -- and remember, this was not a good team without Kaprizov. From Christmas until Kaprizov's permanent return on April 9, the Wild were 29th in goal share (43.5%) and 25th in expected goal share (47.5%). During that time, Rossi was above-water in goal share (54.6%) and expected goal share (51.2%). Among Wild forwards, only Ryan Hartman and the heavily sheltered Vinnie Hinostroza could claim to be above water in both categories. Rossi's season wasn't a product of playing with a superstar. He consistently made other players better, almost to a person. When you examine what players did with and without Rossi, it's impossible not to notice a pattern. Minnesota Wild Forwards, 2024-25 With and Without Rossi at 5-on-5 Mats Zuccarello Time On Ice With vs WO: 651 / 407 GF% With vs WO: 56.2 / 41.0 xGF% With vs WO: 52.7 / 44.1 Matt Boldy TOI With vs WO: 559 / 695 GF% With vs WO: 57.2 / 48.4 xGF% With vs WO: 52.0 / 53.7 Kirill Kaprizov TOI With vs WO: 408 / 317 GF% With vs WO: 60.4 / 57.6 xGF% With vs WO: 57.4 / 52.7 Marcus Johansson TOI With vs WO: 191 / 831 GF% With vs WO: 62.4 / 42.6 xGF% With vs WO: 57.5 / 46.6 Marcus Foligno TOI With vs WO: 185 / 755 GF% With vs WO: 57.5 / 53.1 xGF% With vs WO: 63.7 / 54.6 Ryan Hartman TOI With vs WO: 159 / 745 GF% With vs WO: 60.1 / 47.6 xGF% With vs WO: 55.4 / 50.8 That's everyone who played 100-plus 5-on-5 minutes with Rossi last year. The only player who didn't see a bump in both their actual and expected goal share was Boldy, who finished only slightly higher in xGF% without Rossi at center. It's a difficult pattern to deny. It makes sense, then, that Goldman's article included this graphic, which shows just how strong Rossi's game is at both ends of the ice: And again, it feels like we're in Bizarro World. How can the Wild doubt his play and the results to this degree? Why are they stubbornly refusing to pay more than $5 million AAV for a player who's asking for $7 million and whose market value is over $8 million? There's a bargain to be had for seven or eight years! Take it! How is this hard?! Now it seems like Guerin has not only Galaxy Brained himself on this, but the NHL might be, too. Teams may be waiting for July 1 to snipe Rossi with an offer sheet that Minnesota would be unwilling to match. Still, if a team like Buffalo is passing on Rossi and more in a trade, then maybe the lack of trade interest is real. We'll find out in the coming days. Whatever the resolution, though, this has been an incredibly bizarre series of events for Rossi. Any other center at his age -- with his production, work ethic, and character -- would never hit the market. And if they did, teams would be lining up to improve their center depth with a talented, goal-scoring, point-producing center. Here we are, though, with Rossi on the market and teams saying "Pass." It'd be one thing if Rossi hadn't proven he could hang at the position. But he has! Yet, from what we know today, it's done almost nothing for his stock, inside and outside the organization. We're going past this situation being an irrational farce and heading to the point where we completely break with reality. Whoever is first to come to their senses is going to get a hell of a player on a great deal, and the State of Hockey should be hoping it's Guerin.

The NHL's salary cap is on the rise, but the league's economy might be about to grind to a halt. There's a flow to player movement. There are usually a group of teams looking to reset their competitive window, and a team of buyers looking to fuel them with futures for the price of taking the sellers' good players off their hands. But unless a team is interested in the Pittsburgh Penguins and their slightly used Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust, that might not happen this offseason. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic recently quoted a GM as saying, "Almost everyone is looking to add or get better." That's bad news for the Minnesota Wild, for whom the buyout shackles are finally off their wrist and are ready to make a splash. In a world where the Buffalo Sabres were looking to trade Tage Thompson, the Detroit Red Wings were shopping Dylan Larkin, or Brady Tkachuk was trying to find a way to leave the Ottawa Senators, the Wild might have been able to do that. But in a world where even last-place teams like the Chicago Blackhawks or San Jose Sharks are done trying to bottom out? The road for the Wild to improve gets a lot rockier. Or does it? "I don't want to sit on my hands at all, and I'm kind of tired of doing that," Bill Guerin said in May, In March, he said, "[July is] going to be a time where organizationally, we make a step." However, Minnesota might be in as good a position as anyone to improve without a huge shake-up. The Wild only punched their ticket to the playoffs in the last 20 seconds of the season, when Joel Eriksson Ek scored a game-tying goal against a dreadful Anaheim Ducks team to clinch their spot. While that suggests the Wild are a bubble playoff team, the truth is that with a reasonably healthy year from Kirill Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek, Minnesota would have been an easy playoff team. Yes, even with "one hand tied behind their back," as Guerin occasionally says of their cap situation. The Wild are (currently) set to return most of that team from last season, and are already making three major additions, without spending a dime in free agency. Top prospects Zeev Buium, Danila Yurov, and David Jiříček are all expected to be on the roster next year. You can probably add in a fourth by penciling in Liam Öhgren in the lineup. That's the 12th overall pick from last year's draft, plus three top-25 picks from the 2022 Draft. Playoff teams usually aren't in a position to add four highly-touted first-rounders in a single offseason. That's reserved for young, up-and-coming teams after years of painful rebuilding. However, the Wild are in exactly that spot. Of course, it's important to temper expectations a bit. We don't know which players are ready to step into huge roles and which require more time. But even two of those four being ready for prime time next season would make a significant impact. Even beyond the injuries and the prospects, the Wild still have room to improve next year. Their young core currently includes Matt Boldy (24), Marco Rossi (23), and Brock Faber (22). All three players have room to improve next season. The State of Hockey is still waiting for that elusive Boldy breakout season, even though he is coming off a career-high 73-point campaign. Still, the organization and its fans believe there's more meat on that bone. His final 20 games (including playoffs) suggest that, as he scored 11 goals and 24 points over that time. If his 2025-26 season can resemble the first and last 20 games of last year, and not the middle 48, we could see something truly special. Rossi put together a second-straight 20-goal season while managing to take his playmaking up a notch as the Wild's top-line center. The trade rumors surrounding him have been on full blast this offseason, but a combination of a thin center market and Minnesota's not-so-stellar job of selling him could keep him in Minnesota. If Rossi is back in St. Paul, he'll be motivated to either prove to the Wild he's part of their future or put on a show to audition for another spot. His work ethic to get better next season can't be questioned. Then there's Faber, whose disastrous second half plummeted him to the fourth-worst season in the NHL, per Evolving-Hockey's Standings Points Above Replacement. Faber cost the Wild 3.3 points in the standings last season. Still, no one believes that it represents his true talent level. With a smarter plan to keep his workload in check, Faber should look much better as a top-pairing defenseman. Sure, it might be preferable to see the Wild add a bona-fide No. 1 center, if you're not sold on Rossi. But with reasonable health, a wave of prospects arriving, and their young stars continuing their upward trajectory, they might not need a huge shake-up. Suppose Minnesota can limit itself to adding a top-six winger around the edges. Then, it would complement a promising core without ripping out any of the foundation of what the organization is building. As loath as Guerin is to sit on his hands, it might be the best way to set up the Wild to win in the near term.

One goal short. That's all the Minnesota Wild needed to get this series on lockdown. Finding one more goal -- anywhere -- was the difference between going back to Vegas with the Golden Knights demoralized or with home ice advantage in a de facto best-of-three. You can't get picky about where the goals come from in the playoffs. Or at least, that's got to be the lesson John Hynes learned in Game 4. Because when his team needed a goal the most, he spent all but 7 minutes and 17 seconds with 24 goals sitting on the bench. It's no secret that the Wild have long doubted Marco Rossi's ability to contribute to a playoff effort. At the end of the 2022-23 season, Minnesota refused to play their top center prospect, who had a strong season in the AHL, in a series against the Dallas Stars. This despite losing Joel Eriksson Ek to a broken leg. Those reservations have persisted into this year. Hynes has shown no faith in his 60-point center's season carrying over to the first round. After an admittedly poor showing on the third line during his 12-minute playoff debut, Hynes dropped Rossi to the fourth line and has given him strictly fourth-line minutes. Unlike Ryan Hartman, who was able to play his way off the fourth line in Game 1, that path doesn't seem available to Rossi. He scored on his third shift in Game 3, and Rossi finished with 10:52 of time on ice. Game 4 was even worse. Once again, he scored on his third shift of the game, and his line with Yakov Trenin and Justin Brazeau was easily Minnesota's best forward group. Still, Rossi had 7:17 through regulation, including 1:19 in the second period and 2:37 in the third. How many guys score a goal in back-to-back games while remaining effectively benched? We know how many other 60-point forwards are getting used as little as Rossi is this postseason: zero. Among the other 42 forwards who scored 60 points this season, only 39-year-old Alex Ovechkin (15:28 per night) is averaging under 16 minutes. Lower the bar to 50-point forwards, and no one comes close to Rossi's microscopic ice time. It's clear that Game 1 fed into Hynes' doubts that Rossi could provide an impact in the series, one where the 5-foot-9 center was going against the fifth-heaviest team in the NHL. But now? He's proven that he can hang, and he doesn't even need top-tier linemates or a lot of minutes to do it. His first goal came with bruising, 6-foot-4 Brayden McNabb on the ice, with 6-foot-2, 216-pound Keegan Kolesar closing in on him. In Game 4, 6-foot-6 Nicolas Hague, 6-foot-2 Zach Whitecloud, 6-foot-4 Nicolas Roy, 6-foot-1 Tanner Pearson, and Kolesar couldn't stop Rossi from parking 14 feet from the net, untouched. Not only is Rossi finding space against a much bigger team (only Joel Eriksson Ek has more shots on goal per hour this series), but he's doing something no other Wild draftee has done since Marian Gaborik. Produce in his first playoff series. Rossi has two goals and an assist through his first four career postseason games. No other Wild-drafted player has scored three points in their first four playoff games in Minnesota. He's already matched what Kirill Kaprizov did in his first playoff series against the Golden Knights. Rossi surpassed Boldy's output in his first series by Game 3. Even Gaborik, who ended his first series with four goals and six points, didn't take off until Game 6. Here's where Rossi ranked coming into Sunday's action among 176 forwards with 30-plus all-situations playoff minutes. And remember, this is all with a fourth-line assignment and while being relegated to the second power play: 7th in Goals Per Hour (2.76) 20th in Points Per Hour (4.14) 16th in Shots Per Hour (11.3) Of course, we're talking about a small sample size, but still... there's so much more to indicate that Rossi's a player who can step up in the playoffs, rather than shrink from the moment. But as the Wild grew desperate for an insurance goal, then later a go-ahead goal, Hynes made little effort to find ways to get his second-leading goal-scorer on the ice. Hynes made no commitment after Game 4 to increase Rossi's role, either. "We'll take it game by game," he said when pressed about Rossi's ice time. It's one thing (but still ill-advised, arguably) to be unwilling to commit to Rossi long-term. The Athletic's Michael Russo has reported that the team has only offered Rossi five years and $25 million -- a below-market deal, even when we don't account for the salary cap's pending exponential rise. Oddly, Minnesota is seemingly preparing to move on from a center with a 60-point season before hitting his 24th birthday, but hey, maybe the Wild have a vision for the future. It's much more bizarre to be unwilling to commit to Rossi now. This is the playoffs, and the Wild aren't going to trade for the center of their dreams before their playoff run ends. They don't have top center prospect Danila Yurov ready to step in for Rossi until next year. Minnesota's not nearly so deep that they can afford to play their 24-goal center for just seven minutes in regulation in a must-win game. Hynes has two options: He can maximize the playing time of his best players or continue to let perfection be the enemy of good with one of his two best centers. The coach chose the latter, which may have already bitten him, putting Minnesota's chances of winning their first playoff series in a decade in peril.

The Minnesota Wild can't pretend that they have secondary scoring anymore. They might have been able to claim that when Joel Eriksson Ek was healthy. But over the 1-5-0 streak in their past six games, the evidence is in: They've scored nine goals in that stretch. Seven of them were either scored by Kirill Kaprizov, someone on Kaprizov's line, or the power play, which primarily features... you guessed it, Kaprizov. It's not particularly surprising. The Wild had secondary scoring issues last season, and they still have $15 million nuked off their salary cap from the final year of the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter buyouts. There weren't many scenarios in which Minnesota wouldn't be a team that lives and dies with its top line, power play, and superstar. Even so, this is pretty extreme. Here are the Wild's expected goals totals from the last three games when Kaprizov has been off the ice: December 12 vs Edmonton: 1.45 December 14 vs Philadelphia: 0.77 December 15 vs Vegas: 0.89 December 18 vs Florida: 0.49 December 20 vs Utah: 1.12 December 21 @ Winnipeg: 0.70 Sure, Kaprizov gets the bulk of the power play time, which gives him more offensive opportunities... but the rest of the team should be able to chip in more than 0.90 expected goals per game. It doesn't take a lot to figure out why, either. Without Eriksson Ek in the lineup, the second line is currently Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson (whose play, generously, can be described as "volatile") and Freddy Gaudreau, who is having a nice bounce-back year but isn't a second-line forward. Now that Mats Zuccarello is back in the lineup, Boldy has had to carry the second line, and he hasn't responded to the role like you'd hope. Instead of elevating his teammates, he has one goal and an assist in his past five games. And folks... that's your second line. Ryan Hartman is your best third-liner, and he's nowhere near 100% healthy. It's hard to blame him for playing through what's ailing him, either, because the Wild are already icing an entire fourth line of AHL call-ups. Enough is enough. This isn't working, and the Wild have a potential solution in Des Moines in Liam Öhgren. The Wild thought enough of Öhgren to put him on the team out of camp. However, after eight games of playing fewer than 10 minutes per night, he got sent to the AHL. The reason why they sent him down is simple: He wasn't making an impact in a fourth-line role, and John Hynes couldn't find room for him in an elevated role. That's not the case anymore. According to Evolving-Hockey's Goals Above Replacement metric, Minnesota has only eight forwards (seven healthy) with a positive offensive impact this season. Hartman's been too hurt to be on the positive side of the ledger, and Johansson's offensive impact is worse than everyone but Marat Khusnutdinov. With all due respect to call-ups Devin Shore and Ben Jones, they're not quite cutting it, either. The Wild have a need for an influx of offense, and that's what Öhgren was supposed to be for them. Why wait? Especially given that Öhgren has responded to his demotion exactly the way teams want their prospects to do. His 10 goals in 16 games lead the team, and his 15 points are second. He's riding a high shooting percentage (22.2%) but also shooting nearly 3.0 times per game, showing he can create his own shot. At this point, how can anyone on the second line or below march into Hynes' office and feel aggrieved at Öhgren taking their spot? Kaprizov (7), Marco Rossi (5), Gaudreau, Boldy, and Yakov Trenin (2 each) are the only forwards with multiple goals in December. If any player is upset at losing playing time, the obvious solution would be to score. That sounds harsh, but the secondary scoring has been absent to the point where it demands a shake-up. There are no veterans walking in through that door. The Wild had zero cap space to begin with, and they're now into LTIR money, which makes them unable to accrue cap space. There is only one card for Guerin to play, and that's to bring in Öhgren to handle second-line and second power play duty. Even considering his slow start in the NHL, there are fewer excuses to pump the brakes with their prospect with every loss.

Unless you're a huge Yakov Trenin fan, the Minnesota Wild haven't made many headlines during this NHL offseason. Without making a hyped trade for someone like Patrik Laine or even Rutger McGroarty, the Wild had to settle with using their limited cap space to address issues at the margins. While the team added Trenin, Jakub Lauko, and an array of two-way options, including Devin Shore and Travis Boyd, they haven't had that many departures. The most expensive player to go out the door was Alex Goligoski, with a salary of just $2 million. It feels like there are only very minor departures, and in some ways, that's true. However, Mason Shaw's departure will leave one big hole in the locker room. The fourth-line winger hopped over the US-Canada border to sign with the Winnipeg Jets last week, giving their rivals to the North one hell of a spark plug. There's just no other way to say it: Mason Shaw kicked ass, and following the Wild is going to be a little less fun without him. That's maybe a weird thing to say about a player who played just 82 games in a Wild sweater, but Shaw poured as much of himself into the organization as players who were able to stick in St. Paul for years. Shaw's odds were always longer than everyone else's to make the NHL. As a five-foot-nine fourth-round pick in 2017, it's hard to be on anyone's radar, especially after having recovered from a torn ACL in junior. But Shaw did what he's always done: work hard. It didn't matter that he tore another ACL at a prospect tournament months after the Wild drafted him. He rehabbed, he returned, and the Iowa Wild signed him to an Amateur Tryout, where he impressed the staff in Des Moines. Shaw had one more torn knee before he could take his final form in Iowa, but once he grabbed a foothold, he refused to let go. During the 2020-21 season, coach Tim Army named him an alternate captain, and he scored eight goals and 22 points in 30 games. In 2021-22, he scored 19 goals and 52 points for Iowa, both ranking third on the team. The following year, he was named the Iowa Wild's captain. As a 23-year-old. That's nearly unheard of in the AHL, but Army said it wasn't even a question. "Mason was the right guy for it," he recalled in 2023. Or, he would have been had the Wild not decided he was the right guy for their fourth line. Shaw played just two games in Iowa before graduating to the Wild, where he didn't look back. In 59 games, Shaw scored seven goals and 17 points, playing on the penalty kill, engaging physically, and playing a max-effort game every night. Then came the heartbreaker of heartbreakers, his fourth ACL tear in March of 2023. Some players would've quit the game two ACLs ago, but did it stop Shaw? Hell no, it didn't. Maybe it's a Been There, Done That mentality. Still, you're never going to see a player on crutches giving his team the energy and spark Shaw did doing a Let's Play Hockey chant before Game 3 of Minnesota's playoff series against Dallas. You know this guy wants to play hockey with every fiber of his being because he's put himself through four grueling rehabs and could easily fall back on a career as a ring announcer. This moment sends chills up your spine. And yeah, you know how this story ends by now. After nine games with the Iowa Wild, Shaw returned and proved he was ready to rejoin Minnesota for their playoff push. The Wild fell short and largely appeared demoralized, but you could always count on No. 15 not to take anything for granted. He scored just one goal and two assists in 20 games, but Shaw delivered in a season where fans needed some feel-good moments. It'd be a marvel to see Shaw playing as well and as hard as he did on one knee. After four surgeries, that count is closer to negative two knees. It doesn't matter, though, as he's a high-end defensive fourth-liner, has flashed some penalty kill brilliance, and brings so much energy and grit to a lineup despite his small frame. It's also fair to think he has more offense to give than we've seen so far, given how rarely he's played at 100%. The Wild might have moved on from Shaw, and the Jets may only have offered him a two-way deal, meaning he hasn't guaranteed a spot in Winnipeg. But don't expect Shaw to stick with the Manitoba Moose. If his defensive acumen and hustle aren't going to get him to stick with Winnipeg, it'll be how great of a teammate he is. "He's in the middle of everything," Army said in 2023. "He's an infectious personality, and he's highly engaging... He looks out for guys... [and] guys want to follow him." There's not a locker room in the league that shouldn't want someone like Shaw in there. It's hard to say anything else except: It kicked ass to watch Shaw pour his heart and soul into this organization. Here's hoping he gets another decade in the league.

There's a familiar axiom that goes something like, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good." Most people can relate to it. You can spend days, weeks, months, and even years endlessly tinkering with something that's good, all in the name of getting it perfect. Maybe getting something perfect is necessary. But more often than not, the time spent attaining perfection offers diminishing returns, and that's if perfection is possible to begin with. Most of the time, good works really well and saves you unnecessary time, energy, and stress. We're seeing credible reports that the Wild may trade 20-goal-scoring rookie Marco Rossi this summer. Perhaps very soon, with Michael Russo mentioning on May 28's "Worst Seats in the House" Podcast, "that [this] month, at a minimum, Marco Rossi is being dangled out there" in trade talks. The biggest reason for this is that, it appears, perfect is the enemy of good. They could have Rossi at center, but what if they had a bigger, stronger player there instead? The Wild might be able to get the kind of player they're looking for, but that's a risky proposition when the team has a dependable, 20-goal, 40-point, 22-year-old center in Rossi. That's not just "good," It's one of the only times the Wild have had that situation at center in franchise history. Look at the centers the team has developed in their 20-plus-year history, and the list is two: Mikko Koivu and Joel Eriksson Ek. Minnesota doesn't even get to settle for "good," but they're apparently willing to jettison that to chase "perfect." It's a frustrating proposition in itself, but it's compounded whenever those close to the team explain what, exactly, Minnesota isn't getting in Rossi. The answers are easily disproven, contradictory, or bizarre, and the discussion on that episode of "Worst Seats in the House" highlights each flaw to the criticisms. (Editor's Note: Before continuing -- it's worth acknowledging that the following commentary from, specifically, Russo and Ryan Carter, are attempting to offer insight into the front office's thinking and not necessarily their own opinions. The following will be approaching these as the Wild's brass' likely views and not trying to pin these as the personal opinions of any media personality.) The driving critique might be whether or not he's a top-six center or not, in their eyes. "Is he a future No. 1 or No. 2 line center, or is he a third-line center on a good team?" Russo asked. "I'll bet you that is what's going through the mind of the Wild organization. Maybe they're just not trusting... that he has a spot in that top-six." Minnesota's answer to this conundrum will perhaps be trading Rossi. Wrong answer. The correct response is: Who cares? If Rossi's upside is that of a third-line center on a good team, congrats: They've found their third-line center! If the club believes Rossi is a third-line center on a "good team" and foresees Danila Yurov or Riley Heidt leap-frogging Rossi on the depth chart, then what's the problem here? The Wild would see Rossi as a third-line center on a good, contending team, and they'd have the depth to put him in that ideal position. That would be great news for Minnesota, whose goal, presumably, is to be... a good team! The stereotype of a Third-Line Center is unglamorous and undervalued. People hear that term and think of a low-scoring forward banging against the other team's more physical players. It's much more crucial than that, at least, for the good teams with depth at center. All you have to do is look at the good teams that made the Stanley Cup Final. Who is the Edmonton Oilers third-line center? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the former No. 1 overall pick. Nugent-Hopkins isn't a typical "bottom-six" type of player, and calling him a "third-line center" underscores how much Edmonton uses him. At 5-on-5 play (removing special teams from the equation), "RNH" is fifth among Oilers forwards in time on ice per game. He's a "bottom-six" forward on paper, but in reality, he's eating "top-six" amounts of minutes. Look across to the Florida Panthers, who represent the Eastern Conference in the Cup Final, and there's Anton Lundell. You'll find Lundell as the third-line center on anyone's line charts, but is he a "bottom-six" forward in practice? Nope. Lundell is fifth in even-strength time on ice for the Panthers. We're not in the days of a third-line center being a one-way, Kyle Brodziak-type player anymore. That's to say, if the Wild see Rossi as a third-line center on a good team, that is a spot that is probably the fifth-most valuable forward role on the team. Why give that up to try finding greener pastures? If you have a 22-year-old who can hold that position, keep them and build around that. Looking to trade a valuable player because he "only" fills their fifth-most important need is baffling enough, but Carter's assessment of the situation is even more confounding. Carter is a former Wild player who broadcasts with Bally Sports North and hosts the team-affiliated "Wild on 7th" Podcast. While not part of the decision-making group, one can assume some familiarity with the team's thinking, being close to the team. Attempting to explain what shortcomings Rossi might have that would make him expendable, Carter explains, "Coming out of the draft, I think the Wild felt they were getting a real puck-mover, distributor-type player, where he's going to play up the middle and give the puck to the scorers on the flank. And I don't think Rossi has turned out to be that. We're talking about him being a 20-goal scorer. "And give him credit, he put weight on in the summer, and he's able to produce goals," Carter continued. "To me, it looks like he watched game tape of Eriksson Ek, and he's turning into a smaller version of Eriksson Ek, where he scores his goals in the paint. But you don't see a lot of distributors of the puck scoring in the paint. They play on the perimeter, they find space, they know passing lines. Rossi might have that skill, but that's not what they're getting at the moment." Carter concludes that the issue is a matter of fit rather than necessarily skill. "He's not their 15-to-20-goal-scorer, 60-assist type of guy. I think that was maybe the upside for Rossi on draft day. And what does Matt Boldy need on the second line? A true puck-mover, someone who can make plays and find him to score the goals. Is Rossi that?... He's different from what they thought they were getting." If those thoughts reflect the Wild's approach to Rossi, that should raise alarm bells for Wild fans. It's letting perfect be the enemy of good. Despite all of the Wild's apparent hand-wringing over Rossi's size, they have a player who gets to the net regularly (and without missing a game in 2023-24) and plays similarly to Eriksson Ek, their No. 1 center. He takes matters into his own hands by going to the greasy areas to score goals and doesn't stay out of the fray on the perimeter. And this is all... a bad fit? How? Look through as many scouting reports as you'd like, for as long as you'd like. You won't find one that criticizes a smaller player for not being on the perimeter enough. Or even a larger player -- look at how long the team has begged Boldy to play the way Rossi does! In the hockey world, it's almost universally a criticism -- or at least a limitation -- to note that someone is a "perimeter player." Except, maybe, when the Wild are looking at Rossi and considering his future with the team. If the Wild are disappointed that Rossi has fashioned himself into an Eriksson Ek clone or that he doesn't play, say, Marcus Johansson's perimeter game, it's patently absurd. A GM should be willing to trade members of their immediate families to land a 22-year-old Eriksson Ek-caliber center. Behind any forward who racks up 60 assists on less than 20 goals is a coach that'd reach into their pocket to pay the player twice their salary if they got to the net occasionally. If any of this reflects why Minnesota would dangle Rossi on the trade market, it reads as "It's not you, it's me" levels of break-up excuse-making. The Wild are still in a decades-long center drought. But they finally have a young, productive center and are apparently disappointed with having one that didn't quite match the center of their dreams. They have a good thing in Rossi and still have time to ensure they have that good thing into the future. All they have to do is not make perfect the enemy of good.

On some blessed day, we'll have zero Marco Rossi trade whispers to discuss. Unfortunately, today is not that day. With the end of the Minnesota Wild season behind us, we're getting some idea of how the Wild, with limited options to improve their team, intend to shake things up before the start of next year. Unless the Wild want to make a major, risky move involving Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, or Matt Boldy, Rossi is the most established NHLer who could move the needle. Trading Rossi appears to be something Minnesota is very open to doing, if The Athletic's Joe Smith and Michael Russo have the correct read on Bill Guerin's thinking. In a Wednesday mailbag, they wrote the chances of such a deal happening were "higher than you'd think." Why move a 20-goal scorer at center before he turns 23? "If the Wild could trade Rossi for the same level of high-end prospect, but one who's bigger and faster, there's a real chance they'd pull the trigger," Smith and Russo outlined. This naturally leads to the follow-up question. How do you do that without losing depth at center? "It doesn't have to be a center," the beat writers wrote, addressing that concern. "They envision Danila Yurov playing center once he makes it to the NHL.... Also, the Wild plan to give Riley Heidt every chance to make the team in the fall." Lest we think this is simply the pet theory of The Athletic's brain trust, Guerin didn't leave room for much else when detailing his vision on the radio. "I think our [defense] is pretty set if we're healthy," Guerin said on Judd Zulgad's "Judd's Hockey Show" podcast. "[At] forward, we can stand to get a little bigger." Taking a quick look at forwards under 6-foot-0 and without trade protection on the Wild, the list is Kaprizov, Rossi, Marat Khusnutdinov, and AHL call-up Vinni Lettieri. Uh-oh. It's difficult to grasp why a front office that watches Rossi nightly would seek to trade him, particularly for being too small. Yes, Rossi is 5-foot-9; the height chart doesn't lie. But there's a difference between being short and being small, and much like the 5-foot-10 Kaprizov, Rossi doesn't play small. In January, EP Rinkside's Mitch Brown offered a detailed breakdown of Rossi's game. It's easy to look at "20 goals," but Brown was blown away elsewhere. "The key to Rossi's early success hasn't been his skill level but his nuanced checking game," he declared. What makes up that checking game? Look at the following highlight reel of Brown's praise for Rossi: Rossi is steadily becoming a master of winning body positioning... Evasive and deceptive with a defender on his back... Often initiates contact and wins inside positioning four or five times [in a shift]... Leverages his physical skills to impact the game without touching the puck... He lifts sticks and rushes the net... He pins opponents, trapping their feet with his own... Rossi punishes players who venture too close with reverse hits." (Emphasis mine.) Take out "5-foot-9" from the equation just for a moment: Does any of that read like a small player? Or even a player that's too small to handle the rigors of the center position? No, and if a scout can see all of these ways Rossi maximizes his frame and imposes his will against bigger opponents, why can't Guerin, a veteran of 1263 NHL games? Now let's talk about those goals. For one, there were 21 of them! There aren't many things in Wild history rarer than a 20-goal center. Since the NHL started tracking faceoffs in 2007-08, there are only six Wild centers who've registered more than 300 faceoff wins and scored 20-plus goals. Here they are: Joel Eriksson Ek (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24) Eric Staal (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19) Ryan Hartman (2021-22, 2023-24) Mikko Koivu (2008-09, 2009-10) Marco Rossi (2023-24) Kyle Brodziak (2011-12) Rossi is the youngest center on that list to hit the 20-goal mark. The only center who comes close is Koivu, who scored 20 goals in his age-23 season. Everyone else was 25 or older. Rossi being this good offensively and this fast while handling his business defensively is such a rare thing in Minnesota's history. Again, we need to look at being short versus playing small. The goals Rossi scores aren't on the perimeter, and he doesn't shy away from the hardest areas of the ice. Like Eriksson Ek, who has six inches and 25 lbs. on his Austrian counterpart, Rossi thrives at the front of the net. The average distance on Rossi's 5-on-5 goals was 14.76 feet, nearly three feet closer to the net than Eriksson Ek (17.52 feet). Then it must be mentioned how 18 of Rossi's 21 goals were at 5-on-5 play. That matches Boldy and is tied for second (behind Kaprizov) on the Wild. But it's even better than that. Rossi finished the year tied for 39th in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals alongside much more traditional power forwards like Boldy (6-foot-2), Alex Tuch (6-foot-4), Brandon Saad (6-foot-1), Brock Boeser (6-foot-1), and Owen Tippett (6-foot-1). Among centers, Rossi's looking even better, as you can see from the 5-on-5 goal totals from players with 400-plus faceoffs: 1) Auston Matthews: 38 2) Nathan MacKinnon: 36 3) Brayden Point: 28 4) Sidney Crosby: 23 T-5) Brock Nelson: 22 T-5) Wyatt Johnston: 22 T-7) J.T. Miller: 20 T-7) Tyler Seguin: 20 T-9) Connor McDavid: 19 T-9) Evgeni Malkin: 19 T-9) Jason Dickinson: 19 T-12) Marco Rossi: 18 T-12) Nico Hischier: 18 T-15) Bo Horvat: 17 T-15) Nick Bjugstad: 17 T-15) Nick Suzuki: 17 Despite most seeing him as a playmaker as a prospect, Rossi's scoring isn't a fluke. He ranked 70th in the NHL with 15.1 expected goals, out-generating players like Tim Stützle, Kevin Fiala, Ryan O'Reilly, Suzuki, and more. It's not only sustainable success but something he can use as a stepping stone for a true breakout year. Guerin and the Wild front office got to watch Rossi through all 82 games. They should know all the subtleties that make up his game and have him playing much bigger than the height and weight chart lists him as. If Minnesota is somehow unable to look past his being 5-foot-9 and trades him because of that, it could be not only a short-sighted move but a critical failure of talent evaluation.

If you're looking for the word that will define the Minnesota Wild's offseason, you might want to place your bets on "expendable." Minnesota will be facing the second consecutive season with a salary cap artificially deflated by $14.7 million due to the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter buyouts. Presumably, they'll want to improve this bubble team but will have only around $2 million to fill four or five roster spots. That's going to lead to difficult choices. Fans, the media, and the front office must ask themselves, who's expendable? Who can we most afford to lose? Looking through that framework, it's hard to see a future where this summer isn't focused on a conversation surrounding two Wild players: Captain Jared Spurgeon and potential Calder Trophy finalist Marco Rossi. Why those two names in particular? With Spurgeon, it's a hunch. But aside from Kirill Kaprizov, Spurgeon is the player who would free up the most cap space in a trade. The $7.575 million Minnesota could recoup in cap space would be tempting, especially as Spurgeon is coming off a season-ending injury and will turn 35 next November. For the first time in years, moving Spurgeon would be theoretically possible because his full No-Movement Clause will shrink to a 10-team no-trade list. The pieces are there, even if we're not hearing any rumors about it (yet). With Rossi, there's actual smoke surrounding his trade speculation. On February 28, leading up to the trade deadline, The Athletic's Michael Russo and Joe Smith heavily hinted that a Rossi move could be on the table, even after a rookie season where he's put up 18 goals and 17 assists in 69 games. "We're still not convinced the Wild are ready to commit to him long-term," the insiders wrote of the 22-year-old, who is tied for fourth on the team in goals. "[But] the trade deadline is typically not the time to trade a young asset like this. That's a summer move." Smith elaborated on the point in a March 4 mailbag when a reader asked if incoming Marat Khusnutdinov could be behind the speculation around Rossi. "The skilled Russian isn't the reason Minnesota might listen on Rossi this summer," he explained. "To me, the Wild said everything about their belief in Rossi last spring when they signed Freddy Gaudreau, then Ryan Hartman in September [to extensions]." While he doesn't outright say the word, "expendable" was the dominant flavor in outlining Bill Guerin's possible logic. "A franchise often short on centers has Joel Eriksson Ek, Khusnutdinov, Rossi, Gaudreau, and Hartman up the middle, plus Riley Heidt expected to make his case [in training] camp," wrote Smith. "Rossi could be a player the Wild move this offseason if the right deal comes up." You'll hear similar logic if and when Spurgeon's trade speculation arises. Brock Faber plays the right side of the defense, Spurgeon's position, and looks like a No. 1 option. Zach Bogosian had a strong year filling in the second pair with Spurgeon out. Can the Wild backfill that third-pairing role and move on? Is Spurgeon expendable? Is Rossi? The Wild will be better off if their answer is a resounding No in both cases. We can start with Spurgeon, with whom we have a very compelling reason to believe he is not expendable: He wasn't expendable this season. The Wild are three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights in the playoffs. In theory, they aren't four back because Spurgeon gave them 1.0 Standings Points Above Replacement (SPAR) in just 16 games for Minnesota this season. If the Wild squeak into the playoffs, a small amount of playing time from a clearly hurt Spurgeon might end up being the difference. And a healthy-ish Spurgeon would make a difference if he were in the lineup. Since turning 30, Spurgeon averages 5.46 SPAR per 82 games. Concerns about Spurgeon's durability tend to be overblown (until this year), as from ages 29 to 33, he played in 342 of a possible 371 games or 92.2%. But let's be on the pessimistic side and even limit him to 50 more games this season (66 total). That would add, on average... 3.32 points. Even rounded down, Spurgeon would be the difference between Minnesota being tied for a playoff spot and the 23.5% odds they have today. By definition, that isn't expendable. Expending Spurgeon (involuntarily) might well cost them a playoff spot. While injuries will undoubtedly be a question, Spurgeon's age is less of one than you might think. No player is guaranteed to age gracefully, of course. However, players who compare to Spurgeon tend to do better than average. Evolving-Hockey lists Francois Beauchemin, Brian Campbell, Mark Giordano, Niklas Kronwall, Paul Martin, Anton Stralman, Ryan Suter, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Shea Weber as his most similar skaters. How did those players fare in their age-35 year and beyond? Kronwall and Martin went sour immediately, with Stralman and Vlasic turning in below-replacement SPAR seasons within a year. Injuries forced Weber into LTIRetirement, wiping off the Montreal Canadiens' cap obligations from the books, which is probably a wash. But Beauchemin and Robidas squeezed out positive-value years at ages 35 and 36. Campbell played through age-37, finishing with 10.4 in three seasons -- all above replacement level. Giordano (age-39, 13.1 SPAR since age-35) and Suter (age-38, 5.8 SPAR since age-35) have yet to post below-replacement level seasons. As for Rossi, it's a bit mind-boggling that Minnesota could somehow not be sold on their best rookie center ever. Even after a recent 10-game pointless streak, Rossi still rates as one of Minnesota's best players at 5-on-5. Here's how he ranks in some crucial categories: Goals per hour: Third (behind Matt Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov) Points per hour: Fifth (behind Boldy, Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman) Individual Expected Goals per hour: Third (behind Eriksson Ek, Kaprizov) Penalties Drawn: First Goals For%: Fifth (behind Spurgeon, Marcus Foligno, Jonas Brodin, Eriksson Ek) Expected Goals For%: Fifth (behind Spurgeon, Boldy, Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek) On-Ice Expected Goals per hour: Fourth (behind Kaprizov, Boldy, Eriksson Ek) The caveat is that it'd have to be "the right deal," but what's "the right deal" for your fourth-best forward and second-best center? No one is untouchable, theoretically. But there's also a reason we're not hearing fellow Wild rookie Brock Faber's name as being available in "the right deal." It's a ludicrous notion to trade him and unrealistic to think a team would offer enough to tempt Minnesota. So why is Rossi, apparently, obtainable? It has to be said: The Wild don't have too many centers. That isn't possible. And if the Wild are arrogant enough to believe they have enough to make Rossi expendable, they're headed for a massive fall. Having players like Gaudreau (age-30, -1.6 SPAR this season, career 1.0 SPAR with Minnesota) and even a very good but soon-to-be-30 Hartman factor into how a team handles their young assets is ludicrous. Sure, there are upcoming prospects like Khusnutdinov, Heidt, and Danila Yurov, who the team believes can play center. All three are very good, interesting prospects. They also have a combined 18 fewer goals and 34 fewer points than Rossi has in his career. Rossi has proved that he can play a top-six center role. Khusnutdinov has played three NHL games. As spectacular as Yurov has been in the KHL, they drafted him as a winger. Heidt's breakout season in the WHL is impressive, but he won't turn 19 until Monday. As fun as it is to dream on these guys, any one of them could be just okay. Or have to move to the wing to be successful. Or fail to grab an NHL roster spot altogether. Trading Rossi -- a 22-year-old top-six center -- means counting on these players to deliver. If that's the case, they must be right in their evaluations. But even if Khusnutdinov, Heidt, and Yurov all hit and become NHL-caliber centers, shouldn't that be exactly what Minnesota wants? Why trade Rossi and blow a hole in that coveted depth chart of pivots? The Dallas Stars demolished the Wild in the playoffs last year and did so on the backs of their incredible center depth. Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski, Roope Hintz, and Wyatt Johnston were all top-six caliber centermen. Once Pavelski went down, Seguin stepped right in and terrorized Minnesota. Meanwhile, Joel Eriksson Ek got hurt, and the Wild's top-six centers suddenly became Hartman and Sam Steel. What did Dallas do to that surplus this offseason? They beefed it up, signing Matt Duchene while hoarding their precious pile of center depth. Having two full lines worth of top-six centers explains why they're neck-and-neck with the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche in the race to first place in the Central Division. Now look at Minnesota, whose playoff push might be stalled after injuries to Eriksson Ek and Brodin. Suddenly, Rossi is probably the only impact center on the roster, depending on how you feel about Hartman, and Faber is the only impact defenseman on the blueline. We know how dire this looks with Spurgeon out of the mix. What happens if Rossi goes, too? It's very simple: No team can have enough blue-chip players, impact defensemen, or good, young centers. Elite teams don't give those guys away; they load up. Suppose the Wild feel they have a surplus at these crucial positions and decide to trade from these strengths. Then it will be very difficult to make it to the other side of such a deal closer to, and not further away from, Stanley Cup contention.

It’s a great time of year for hockey fans to look ahead. The Minnesota Wild selected five players in this year’s draft, offering an opportunity to learn more about the newest additions to the organization. The team selected two defensemen and three forwards, and I’ll spend some time examining each one in detail in the coming weeks. Previously, I detailed what Wild fans might expect from Theodor Hallquisth and Justin Kipkie, the two defensemen. Now, it’s on to the forwards, starting with Lirim Amidovski, whom the Wild picked with the second of their three fourth-round selections. Amidovski is a hard-working winger who director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett has described as a “heat-seeking missile.” I spent some time watching film on Amidovski, and here’s what I learned about him as a player. Lirim Amidovski 4th round, pick No. 121 (W) Hometown: Alliston, Ontario 6-foot-1, 181 pounds Shoots: Right 2024-25 statistics: 19 goals, 13 assists in 67 games played for North Bay Battalion (OHL) I had a blast watching Amidovski’s play. He has an extremely high work rate and plays with a dogged determination, never taking a shift off. As a skater, Amidovski possesses a strong stride and the ability to accelerate quickly. When he gets his large frame moving, he can surprise opponents with his speed. Amidovski has a solid center of gravity and doesn’t get clunky with direction changes, unlike many younger players of his size who tend to do so as they build strength. One of the first things I noticed about Amidovski is that he is always ready on faceoffs and at the start of shifts. When the puck is dropped, he erupts, winning seemingly every battle or race to a spot. If he doesn't get there first, he fights like hell to establish space or win the next battle. When Amidovski has the puck, he charges straight ahead and puts defenders on their heels. If a teammate has the puck, Amidovski will go straight to the net more often than not. When the other team has the puck, he backchecks furiously. He pressures the puck with direct attacks whenever he gets the chance, maintaining responsible off-puck positioning. North Bay was not a great team this past season, finishing 15th in a 20-team league while averaging only 2.85 goals per game, the second-lowest mark in the league. Needless to say, the team was short on playmakers. Amidovski isn’t a playmaker either, which is reflected in his lower offensive output. However, as the season went on, he had clearly earned the coaching staff’s trust and found himself playing on a dangerous third line that gave opponents fits on the forecheck and in transition. He also started getting significant power-play time towards the end and was called upon in late-game situations, whether his team was ahead or behind by a goal. In North Bay’s playoff series against a much stronger Brantford team, Amidovski was one of the most noticeable players on the ice for either team. He finished the season third on the team in shots on goal. Amidovski doesn’t possess dynamic puck skills and sometimes struggles with his first touch when receiving passes that are on his backhand or aren’t delivered tape-to-tape. Still, he has decent hands and maneuverability in tight spaces. North Bay players had a lot of freedom on the rush offensively, and Amidovski was not afraid to try to break down defenders with penetration and stickhandling. He was often successful at recognizing opportunities to put defenders on their heels and exploit bad gaps. When Amidovski can get in on their hands, he can maneuver through or around them to get into space and put a shot on. While his shot isn’t overly dangerous, it’s heavy. Amidovski possesses a quick release that allows him to let go from multiple angles, which surprises goaltenders and often leads to rebounds, or occasionally beats them clean. In the offensive zone, Amidovski’s instincts are to go hard to the front of the net when his teammates have the puck. When he is the second or third forward in, he watches the play like a hawk, ready to swoop in at the opportune moment. Amidovski constantly works to establish position for tips or rebounds, and remains at the ready to chase pucks down or hound defenders in the corners. Note the last clip below, where he pounces on a loose puck in the slot and turns to bury a quick shot. Defensively, Amidovski is responsible and doesn't cheat for offense. When he has to collapse down low for coverage, he remains there until he has support before moving back to higher coverage. When the puck is sent to the point or contested on the wall, he pounces to apply pressure and forces opposing players to make quick decisions, often leading to loose pucks or turnovers. He’s also a solid penalty killer who can pressure opponents with his tenacity, and hounds loose pucks with an eye toward counter-attacking. He tallied two short-handed goals and was one of the reasons that North Bay’s penalty kill was sixth best in the OHL. Outlook As a right-handed wing that is comfortable playing on either side, Amidovski’s ceiling is that of an effective bottom-six forward who can be a versatile depth piece on an NHL roster. To get there, he’ll have to play the same hard-working, fast-charging style that he has so far in major junior. His high motor and strong compete level, combined with his speed and ability to pressure opposing players in all three zones, is similar to what Wild fans were used to seeing from Brandon Duhaime. The more I watched Amidovski, the more I was reminded of how Duhaime looked during his time playing college hockey at Providence. He’ll also need to work on his puck skills and puck movement and become more precise with passes and first touches. Since North Bay was lacking in offensive talent, there weren’t many opportunities for Amidovski to engage in playmaking and creativity. The AHL will be a good place for him to work on that as he moves into professional hockey. It will be interesting to see how he meshes with better teammates at higher levels. I also think there’s room for growth in his stride that can help him become a faster skater, even as he adds muscle to his frame. Amidovski’s strong center of gravity will allow him to withstand physical play and push through contact as he advances to higher levels. Amidovski is not a dangerous goal-scoring threat, and it’s unlikely he will become one in professional hockey. However, his style of play is conducive to strong possession numbers and tiring out the opposition with determined shifts, which enables offensive zone starts and advantageous matchups for his top lines. It would not surprise me if coaches try putting him at center at some point. His responsible two-way game and ability to cover a lot of ice may make him a good fit for that position. However, he also possesses a significant amount of utility as a hard-skating winger. Amidovski’s defensively responsible tendencies might be partly due to adhering to a structured system. Still, an 18-year-old forward who rarely deviates from expected positioning is indicative of a mature player who won't need extensive coaching in terms of understanding and sticking to roles and responsibilities. That leads me to believe that he will be an effective penalty killer at the professional level. I would not be surprised if Amidovski joins the wave of Canadian junior players that are moving on to the NCAA after the recent rule changes regarding eligibility for such players. If he doesn’t do so before next season, I could see the Wild signing him after next season and starting him off in Iowa for the 2026-27 season.

In the endless, three-year-long debate about Marco Rossi's value, the biggest argument of his critics is simple: He's another Mikael Granlund. It's not a particularly fair critique for either player. Rossi has been more productive than Granlund at a similar age while sticking at center. Meanwhile, Granlund has played 902 NHL games and has five 60-point seasons under his belt. That's a hell of a player. Still, the parallels between the two players make it easy for Wild fans to put them in the same box. Granlund and Rossi were drafted in the exact same spot (ninth overall), ten years apart. Minnesota drafted both of them as undersized centers with a lot of hype. They each had false starts in the NHL before adjusting and coming into their own with the Wild. Granlund played 461 games with the Wild, racking up 317 points, which still puts him in the top-10 in franchise history. Since leaving Minnesota in the Kevin Fiala trade, Granlund has pivoted back to center, spending stints with the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks before catching on with the Dallas Stars for their playoff run. Once in Dallas, he apparently impressed the organization enough that the Stars wanted to keep him around, even though he ultimately signed with the Anaheim Ducks. Granlund signed a three-year, $21 million deal with Anaheim. The $7 million AAV is a match to what Rossi is believed to be asking for in his RFA negotiations with the Wild. So while it's easy to argue otherwise, let's accept the premise: Rossi is the next Mikael Granlund. OK, then. The debate's over. We know how much that's worth, and the price tag is $7 million AAV. A seven-year deal would take Rossi through his age 24 to 30 seasons, using Hockey-Reference's cutoffs. During that same age range, Granlund averaged 18 goals and 57 points per 82 games. If that's Rossi's exact career trajectory, then we should be able to expect him to be around a 60-point center over that time. That was the case for Granlund over his last contract (four years, $5M AAV); he averaged 61 points per 82 games during that time. He got $7 million. The market spoke! Sure, they're different circumstances. Granlund was a UFA, while Rossi's rights are restricted. He can sign with another team, but the Wild have the right of first refusal for the contract and have vowed to match any offer sheet. Teams could get into a bidding war for Granlund's services, while they have to be much more strategic if they wish to pursue Rossi. Still, even so, we have another Granlund contract that helps us spitball his value -- his three-year RFA deal signed in 2017. At age 24, Granlund broke out after a shift from center to wing. He blew past his career highs of 13 goals and 44 points en route to a 26-goal, 69-point season. Again, you can draw the parallels between the two players if you like. Granlund increased his career-high by 25 points in a contract year, while Rossi moved his up by 20 last season. Like Guerin has with Rossi today, Chuck Fletcher seemed to have his doubts about going long-term with Granlund after his breakout season. While Fletcher handed out five- and six-year deals for Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, and Jonas Brodin, he opted for a shorter-term contract with Granlund, signing a three-year, $5.85 million AAV deal. It was a "prove-it" deal of sorts, giving Granlund the ability to show he could play at a high level before hitting UFA status. It also came in at a hefty rate, accounting for 7.67% of the salary cap when it took effect. A 60-point season from a young player was highly valued then, and it remains highly valued now, even if the player doesn't have a long history of achieving that mark. Applying that same percentage to Rossi's cap hit for the upcoming season gives us something in the $7.3 million range. Again, if Rossi is simply the next Granlund... that's what Granlund was worth at a similar stage in their career and trajectory. The Wild have their line with Rossi, but it doesn't appear to be one that's aligned with the market or reality. The highest reported AAV from Minnesota in a contract offer is $5 million, which matches what Ryan McLeod signed as an RFA this offseason, who put up fewer goals and points than Rossi despite being two years older. Come on. It's obvious where this writer stands RE: Rossi's value. A full-time center with strong two-way numbers and 60 points at 23 is a much better asset than Granlund was at any stage of his career. But fine, if you want to insist that they're the same player -- skilled, undersized forwards whose slighter frame puts a ceiling on them -- then, once again, we know what that's worth today. If Rossi is indeed the next Mikael Granlund, then pay him Granlund money. This shouldn't be that difficult!

Before diving into Vladimir Tarasenko's game, it must be said up top: There's no such thing as a bad one-year deal. The Minnesota Wild acquired Tarasenko from the Detroit Red Wings on Monday in a cap dump trade where they gave up nothing. In a league where few teams are actually against the salary cap, the "Get a player for nothing" market is rapidly dying. Still, Minnesota managed to do just that for a team that had $15 million of wiggle room heading into free agency. For this, they'll get a former six-time 30-goal scorer for one year, $4.75 million. Granted, the days of Tarasenko being one of the most feared scorers in the NHL are behind him. Still, we're gonna see way dumber contracts dished out once free agency opens tomorrow. It's a nifty bit of work by Bill Guerin and his front office. But making a good-looking move in the summer is one thing. Now Tarasenko has to actually play, and his presence puts Minnesota in a spot where they don't have to make a move to acquire a scoring winger tomorrow... at least on paper. Long term, this is good news for Minnesota. Brock Boeser would be intriguing on a three- or four-year deal. Six or seven years would probably be asking for trouble. The Wild are in a position where they can either let a Boeser deal come to them or turn down an unfavorable deal, knowing Tarasenko sets a certain floor. But, where is that floor? Last year, Tarasenko scored just 11 goals and 33 points for the Red Wings. His skating took a dive last year, and he's always relied on his shot. That's usually not a recipe for aging super well, and given that Tarasenko is 33, that's kind of a red flag. Still, Tarasenko is just one year removed from scoring 23 goals and 55 points for the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers. The run in Florida is especially encouraging. He played 43 games (regular season and playoffs), scoring 11 goals and 23 points with bottom-six minutes. That's not bad. Neither is winning a Stanley Cup. The Wild aren't the Panthers, though, and Tarasenko isn't starting the season in the bottom-six. Minnesota seems to have him penciled into the second line, and that's likely going to come with about 16 to 17 minutes per night. The last two teams that had him in that role had an 81-point season (2022-23 St. Louis Blues) and a 78-point season (2023-24 Ottawa). That's got to be a concern. Not that playing Tarasenko under 15 minutes a night helped the 86-point Red Wings too much last season. So, let's look into why Tarasenko flopped in Detroit and how the Wild might be able to avoid a similar fate. At first blush, it seems like Tarasenko had an awkward fit with his linemates, playing about half the season with J.T. Compher and Jonatan Berggren. Both players have some skill, but they didn't complement Tarasenko's abilities at this stage of his career. Neither Compher nor Berggren is a terrific puck-carriers, per Corey Sznajder's All Three Zones tracking project. While Tarasenko used to be strong in the role in his St. Louis days, he's no longer able to be that go-to zone entry guy. No clean zone entries means few attempts on the rush, which has generally been where Tarasenko has been productive throughout the years. When he put up 52 points two seasons ago, he had entry wizard Tim Stützle riding shotgun with him in Ottawa, and Sasha Barkov carrying in pucks in Florida. The bad news is, the only elite puck-carriers the Wild have are Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Johansson. There's only one Kaprizov, and a big reason the Wild are trading for Tarasenko in the first place is to keep Johansson firmly in the bottom-six. If Tarasenko is on the second line, either Marco Rossi is going to have to embrace a puck-carrying role that he deferred to Kaprizov last season, or Matt Boldy is going to have to get a touch better at entering the zone cleanly. If the Wild can find someone to serve as Tarasenko's caddy and set-up man, he can still do some damage in the offensive zone. Even with the Red Wings last year, All Three Zones had him as above-average in both generating and facilitating scoring chances. That's something the Wild badly need, because they had few dual-threat players last season. The card for Tarasenko partially obscures Ryan Hartman (who was above-average at both, but skewed towards Scoring Chance Assists) and Kaprizov (average at Scoring Chances, elite at Scoring Chance Assists). Besides those two, only Boldy, Rossi, and Vinnie Hinostroza were average or better at both aspects of offense for Minnesota last season. That hints at Tarasenko having use on the second line, but that won't be the ideal outcome for Minnesota. At least, not by the end of the year. Tarasenko hasn't been a stout defender for about a decade, and his defensive game has cratered over the past four years. He might still have some offense left in him, but he'll give some on the back end, particularly if he's out and ready to be exploited for 16 minutes a night. The ideal situation is that Tarasenko eventually settles into the lineup on a scoring third line. Perhaps even a fourth-line that gets sheltered minutes in the offensive zone to maximize opportunities at 5-on-5. So Tarasenko might not be a great addition as a second-line solution, but that's not his value to the Wild. What Tarasenko does is buy Minnesota time. If Öhgren and Yurov aren't ready for a second-line role to begin the season, the Wild don't have to force it. They can get their feet wet on the third line, and hopefully be ready to swap places with Tarasenko by January or so. And if their prospects aren't ready to make that jump, Minnesota can turn to the trade market at the deadline. Unlike now, there will be teams who are resigned to finishing in the basement around March. Even if top-tier players aren't available, the Wild can be in on some pending UFA forward to give them a boost heading into the playoffs. That's a lot better than backing up a Brinks truck for Boeser and hoping he can be their big fish solution for the next seven seasons. Tarasenko might not give the Wild a long-term solution, but he represents a floor that the Wild's second line isn't going beneath, no matter what. Even if he can only thrive in a depth role at his age, Tarasenko is more than worth having around at his price, for his term, and for the low, low cost of nothing via trade.

"Best Available Player" is a phrase that gets thrown around a ton at draft time. There's a beautiful simplicity to the philosophy. Just add talent, and get the best players you can. It's so obvious! Fans thinking, If I were the GM, I'd simply go BPA, is the basis of why, for example, the Minnesota Wild drafting Charlie Stramel in 2023 inspired backlash. It's why fans in 2024 laughed as the Philadelphia Flyers traded down one spot to not draft Zeev Buium, allowing Minnesota to pick up a talented defenseman for a third-round pick and the right to draft lower-ranked center Jett Luchanko. As for me? I'm more inclined to lean towards a "BPA" approach. It's not always that simple, of course. For example, there is rarely a clear-cut "Best Player Available." A team's scouts also might genuinely judge a prospect to have more or less talent than the consensus, muddying those waters further. However, I generally believe the purpose of the draft is to accumulate as much talent as possible, then patching up any organizational holes later. It also appears to be a philosophy that Wild director of scouting Judd Brackett buys into. He's a scout who tends to take fallers -- players with significant talent who slip through the cracks, for one reason or another. By contrast, Chuck Fletcher's regime, led by head scout Brent Flahr, loved late risers: players who were generally off the radar as first-rounders, but made massive strides in the months leading up to the draft. You can see the "fallers" throughout the Wild's recent draft history. Buium partly fell due to a loaded defensive class at the top of the draft. In 2022, Danila Yurov fell because of "The Russia Factor." In 2021, Jesper Wallstedt tumbled down the draft board, despite being widely considered the top goalie of his class. And, of course, in 2020, Marco Rossi fell to No. 9 overall. Statistically, there was an argument to make that Rossi was the best prospect in his class. Hockey Prospecting's model had him as the likeliest player to turn into a star, and the third-likeliest to play 200 NHL games. NHL scouts weren't quite as sold, but among that group, he still had a consensus ranking of seventh in his class. Faced with choosing between Rossi, a skilled winger (Cole Perfetti, who went 10th), a top goalie prospect (Yaroslav Askarov, 11th), and a bigger, lower-upside center (Anton Lundell, 12th), the Wild did what any BPA team would do: Grab the most talent at the most premium position. On paper, it worked brilliantly. This season, Rossi scored the sixth-most goals (24, tied with Tim Stützle) and points (60) of anyone in the 2020 Draft Class. He was sixth among his class in Standings Points Above Replacement (4.4, behind Stützle, Dylan Holloway, Lucas Raymond, Quinton Byfield, and JJ Peterka). He scored massive, clutch goals for a Wild team that made the playoffs by one point. Except, it seems, if you're the Wild's front office. Here, we see the potential pitfalls of Best Player Available. At the moment, Rossi was the best player Minnesota could have drafted. He's arguably still better than anyone chosen after him. But talent isn't everything. Even production isn't everything. The upcoming split between the Wild and Rossi is about more than that. On his "Fellowship of the Rink" podcast, The Athletic's Joe Smith asked his colleague, Michael Russo, where things went wrong in the relationship between team and player. Russo's response was illuminating: "I get the sense, talking to people within the organization, they just always want him to be something that he's incapable of being, because he can't just add a bunch of weight and size to him.... I think that [Bill Guerin] just doesn't feel that, if you add him to this team, that he's somebody that you can win with in the playoffs." You may be familiar with the dissenting argument, but let's take it at face value: What if Rossi isn't, and never was, a good fit for the organization? If they think that, then this is an issue they should have seen coming. Rossi was listed at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds at the 2020 Draft, and he's listed at 5-foot-9, 182 pounds today. It's not like that was a surprise. The Wild were also among the smallest teams in the NHL heading into 2020-21, and that's something that hasn't changed over time, either. How wasn't this a problem in 2020, but is a problem now? Even more frustrating is that the thing Rossi is supposedly incapable of being -- A Mikko Koivu/Joel Eriksson Ek-style power center -- was available to them at that spot! Lundell is 6-foot-1, 196 pounds, and has been a center exactly in that Koivu/JEEK mold: A touch limited offensively, but dominant in his own zone. They could have just done that! Maybe Minnesota wouldn't have made the playoffs with Lundell being thrust into a No. 1 center role instead of Rossi. But they'd at least have the fit they wanted, avoiding this awful situation they're hurtling toward. The Wild have shown their hand on Rossi. Everyone saw his coach bury him on the fourth line during the playoffs. Everyone's heard his name in trade rumors for years. We also know that the Wild don't seem prepared to pay him more than $5 million per season. That last part is perhaps most significant because teams know that if they sign Rossi to an offer sheet in the $6 to $6.8 million range, the Wild will likely take the compensation, which will be first- and third-round picks in 2026. If that route is in their back pocket, and teams know the Wild don't like him, what's the incentive to give up a top center prospect? Or a young player with upside? Or take him as the centerpiece to a blockbuster deal? Why not just get him for two picks they probably won't care much about? I suppose you can give the Wild a bit of credit for fixing this disconnect between organizational and drafting philosophy in 2023 with Stramel. Fans may still be miffed that they didn't get super-skilled winger Gabriel Perreault. However, if Rossi and his 60 points are apparently not good enough for St. Paul's brain trust, it's not likely they'd be high on a small winger with below-average speed. Still, that correction can't make up for the original sin of taking a player the front office never seemed enamored of in the first place. It's been five years since that draft. Five years of development for Rossi, and five years of the organization pouring resources into him, only to be on the verge of selling him at a discount. If that happens, it's hard to conclude anything other than the team wasted the time of everyone involved, including themselves, and the fallout of going BPA might end up setting back their Stanley Cup aspirations.

Marcus Foligno has been in a Minnesota Wild sweater for almost eight years and over 500 games. How many of those have been on the top line? Without an exact count, a rough estimate would be "not many." Foligno has long been the Wild's "identity" player, the example which GM Bill Guerin wants his team to follow. He can chip in a goal occasionally, but he frontloads his game with a tough forechecking style and can get into scraps when needed. But -- surprise! -- Foligno is on the top line for the injured Wild, skating alongside star forwards Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi. That duo hit a skid with Mats Zuccarello during their latest slump, and Gustav Nyquist and Vinnie Hinostroza didn't stop the bleeding. With few other options, John Hynes turned to the guy who, if there's gonna be bleeding, usually is the one who starts it. And it's worked out beautifully. This trio's only spent 57 minutes together at 5-on-5, but holy Moose, what an incredible almost-hour of hockey it's been. They've out-scored opponents 5-3 while probably getting a bit unlucky. Their expected goals against during that time are under 1.00, which speaks to a level of defensive excellence that's typical of Foligno's lines. Ultimately, they're controlling a staggering 81.8% of the expected goal share. That will likely fall as the sample size gets bigger, but even so, these early returns show there's something there. And as surprising as it is to see Foligno pulling top-line duty... maybe we shouldn't be shocked. Foligno has a reputation for being a throwback to an era of NHL tough guys (though opposing fans might use different words), but that never fully gave him credit for what he brings. He lays the body, but it's always in service of lockdown defense. His hands must feel like rocks to the faces they make contact with, but he's averaged 17 goals per 82 games during the 2020s, so it's not like they're made of stone. While his famous line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway weren't anyone's platonic ideal of a top line, they got results that rivaled the best lines in the league. Foligno's scoring touch hasn't fully rebounded since the Wild broke up that line two years ago. Still, there's nothing that boosts scoring like having linemates that can score. Even with a recent hot streak, Foligno's point totals aren't going to scream "impact player." His 13 goals and 26 points are sixth and tied for eighth, respectively, on a team that can't score. Expand that lens to the rest of the NHL, Foligno isn't in the top 200 of either stat. Still, Foligno isn't just having a career year by some measures. He's been a top-50 player in the NHL and is even making a run for team MVP. Believe it. Foligno has always been a favorite in Evolving-Hockey's Standings Points Above Replacement metric. His combination of elite defense and the ability to drive offense plays very well. But this year, he's taken his defense up a notch from "elite" to "best of the best," and that jump has Foligno sitting with incredible company. Foligno entered Tuesday as being worth 4.3 points in the standings. Only Marco Rossi (4.5 SPAR) is ahead of him on the Wild, and Foligno himself is tied for 39th in SPAR, alongside Jesper Bratt and Sidney Crosby. However, Bratt and Crosby have triple the points Foligno has, and they each have hundreds more minutes of ice time to generate value. That's gonna raise eyebrows. How good can defense be?, you may be asking. Pretty damn good. Foligno allows 1.79 expected goals against per hour at 5-on-5, the third-best rate in hockey among 366 forwards with 500-plus minutes. He's also one of 76 forwards to allow fewer than two actual goals per hour. And on the penalty kill, he's been the Wild's only rock. His 8.94 goals against per hour doesn't look good, but look at the context, and it's a minor miracle. The rest of the team gives up 10.62 goals per hour while shorthanded, which would be the second-worst rate in the NHL. Foligno's even-strength defense is tied with Sam Reinhart for No. 1 in the NHL, and his shorthanded defense is in the top 10. In terms of overall defensive value, Foligno is tops in the NHL with 9.7 Goals Above Replacement (translating to about 3.0 points in the standings). It's not just the best defensive performance this year but one of the best in the Analytics Era. Most Defensive GAR in a season, Forwards, 2007-08 to Present: 1. Pavel Datsyuk, 2009-10: 9.9 2. Marcus Foligno, 2018-19: 9.8 3. MARCUS FOLIGNO, 2024-25: 9.7 4. Logan O'Connor, 2024-25: 9.6 T-5. Pavel Datsyuk, 2007-08: 9.2 T-5. Patrice Bergeron, 2021-22: 9.2 7. Ilya Mikheyev, 2024-25: 9.1 8. Mikko Koivu, 2017-18: 8.7 T-9. Daymond Langkow, 2009-10: 8.1 T-9. Patrice Bergeron, 2016-17: 8.1 That's a crazy list, with Foligno's season only being bested by a three-time Selke Trophy winner and Hall of Famer... and himself. It's also interesting that Foligno now has two better defensive seasons than a six-time Selke winner in Bergeron. Who knows how long the Foligno Top Line Experiment will last? Whenever Kaprizov returns, his line will be the top line, and Zuccarello will almost certainly be his other winger. But the Wild could keep their experiment going by having another center (Eriksson Ek upon return?) play with Kaprizov and keep Foligno with Boldy and Rossi. It'd be worthwhile to try heading into the playoffs. Coaches love not to mess up the things that work, and that line is working right now. Meanwhile, Boldy's looking for his first postseason breakout, and perhaps Foligno's forechecking can create space for the skilled winger to operate. But the biggest reason to have Foligno in a top-six role is simple: If he's one of Minnesota's best players, it makes sense to get him on the ice as often as possible. And this season, Foligno fits that bill.

Let the Danila Yurov era begin. Yurov will officially join the Minnesota Wild this season. While the KHL season extends until the end of May, according to his agent and KHL reporter Daria Tuboltseva, Yurov plans to travel to North America after his season ends in Russia. Reporter Marco D’Amico informed Hockey Wilderness, “We spoke with Danila Yurov's agent, and they confirmed having refused Metallurg's latest contract extension attempts and have informed them that Yurov will seek to sign his ELC at season's end.” That’s wonderful news for Minnesota because Yurov could be a future franchise cornerstone at either center or wing. The Wild took him 22nd overall in the 2022 draft, and while he’s been less productive this year than last, he’s displayed game-changing skills in the KHL. He’s only recorded 20 points in 37 games with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. However, he suffered an injury early in the year that may have slowed him down. However, he looked special last season, recording 49 points in 62 games while leading the team in scoring as a 20-year-old. In his first and second seasons after the Wild drafted him, Yurov scored 27 goals and 58 points in 84 games. That’s the most for a player his age in KHL history, even more than Kirill Kaprizov. Yurov broke Vladamir Taresenko’s KHL record for most points in a season by a 20-year-old player. Yurov could have made his way over to Minnesota after the conclusion of last season but chose to sign a one-year deal to play another season in the KHL. The Wild were comfortable with him staying and developing one more season in Russia. At the 2022 draft, Yurov said his goal was to play in the NHL one day and that he wanted to come to Minnesota. It had taken the Wild five years after drafting Kaprizov in the fifth round of the 2015 draft to get him to America. They wanted Yurov to arrive earlier. However, the Wild may not have the roster slots or cap space to bring Yurov over and have him play NHL games this season. Mettalurg is currently third in their division, putting them in the playoff hunt. Bringing Yurov over will not be like the Marat Khusnutdinov situation because of Yurov’s importance to the team's success and desire to contend in the playoffs. Khusnutdinov previously played for Sochi, who missed the playoffs. Magnitogorsk would have to terminate Yurov’s contract, and it most likely won’t do that with one of their star players. It appears that Yurov will be a full-time member of the Wild in 2025-26, joining fellow Russians Kaprizov and Khusnutdinov. Yurov could take a spot on the wing or play a role up the middle. The Wild believe he has the potential to fill either role. By declining his KHL offer, Yurov is creating genuine hope for Wild fans and the organization, given his unique abilities. Yurov has the tools to be a star in the league, and now it’s time to wait with anticipation, not trepidation, for his arrival. All stats and data via Elite Prospect and Hockey Prospecting unless otherwise noted.

When we wrote about Marco Rossi's game evolving during the season on Friday, we weren't expecting him to add a new wrinkle one day later. But that's the kind of thing that happens when you watch a player take "The Leap," so we've got to write more about it. On Saturday morning, Mats Zuccarello instructed the 23-year-old center in practice: Pass more. With Kirill Kaprizov's 23 goals out of the lineup, it's hard to fathom why you'd tell someone to score fewer goals. However, Rossi took the advice, and it worked like a dream. Rossi was dominant offensively despite having zero shots on goal, getting assists on all four goals in a 4-0 blanking of a 23-14-2 Carolina Hurricanes team. His passes were so smooth and on-point that you'd never know this was only Rossi's fourth multi-assist game in 143 career games. And, like most dominant outings, he had multiple passes that easily could have resulted in more goals. No one's about to turn up their nose at a young center on pace for 30 goals, but this was a coming-out party for the version of Rossi that led the OHL in assists during his draft year. Our Kaprizov-less Rossi point count is up to 11 in six games (these past five, plus November 23). His Kaprizov-like run as the team's offensive catalyst is vaulting him into the conversation of being among the best players in the NHL. Evolving-Hockey has two stats to measure a player's performance: Goals Above Replacement and xGoals Above Replacement. By both models, Rossi is a top-20 player in the league this year, worth 3.4 points in each metric. The only other NHLers in the top 20 in both metrics are Leon Draisaitl, Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Tom Wilson, Lucas Raymond, and Brandon Hagel. That's elite company, and it gets better when we look at it through a historical lens. The low-hanging fruit is how good Rossi has been compared to young players throughout Minnesota Wild history. We get it, it's a low bar to clear. Still, Rossi finds himself in elite company when you stack up his first 40 games against every Under-24 player in franchise history. When you're out-pacing Rookie Kaprizov and Matt Boldy on a list... that's nice. That's real nice. Then you look at the all-around value Rossi's provided to the team, and he's got numbers that look an awful lot like the top centers of the last decade and a half. Let's look at the top seasons from an age-22 center since the 2007-08 season (Evolving-Hockey's age cut-off is by draft year, hence why he's 22 here) and see where Rossi stacks up. GAR/60 By An Age-22 Center: Alex Wennberg, 2017-18: 0.964 Jonathan Toews, 2011-12: 0.962 Brayden Point, 2018-19: 0.941 Matt Duchene, 2013-14: 0.916 MARCO ROSSI, 2024-25: 0.901 Auston Matthews, 2020-21: 0.859 Sidney Crosby, 2009-10: 0.848 David Krejčí, 2008-09: 0.842 Nathan MacKinnon, 2017-18: 0.806 Ryan Getzlaf, 2007-08: 0.804 Obviously, Wennberg is the big outlier here (and his drop-off can be explained by a history of concussions), but it's more enlightening to look at the rest of the list. Crosby and Toews are slam-dunk Hall of Famers. Matthews and MacKinnon are Hart Trophy winners. Ryan Getzlaf had over 1,000 points in his career, and Duchene (846 points at age 34) might join him in that group. Brayden Point has almost 600 points before turning 29. Outside of Wennberg, the "worst case" in the top 10 is Krejčí, the No. 2 center behind Patrice Bergeron on a perennially contending Boston Bruins team that won a Stanley Cup. Still, 786 points in 1,032 games is nothing to sneeze at from an offensive standpoint. Rossi is the best asset any team could have right now: A young, productive No. 1 center. He's played every game since last season. He's produced without power play time, he's produced with power play minutes, he's produced with Kaprizov, he's produced more without Kaprizov. Dating back to last season, Rossi and Brock Faber are the only Wild players not to miss a game. There's nothing left to prove, and it's time to pay up. Our last update on Rossi's future with Minnesota came from Michael Russo on December 26's "Worst Seats In the House" podcast -- five games and nine points ago. While Rossi doesn't appear to be on the trade block, the Wild are still in wait-and-see mode on a contract extension, with Kaprizov's final number on his mega-extension being the reason to wait. The Wild's priority No. 1 is undoubtedly ensuring Kaprizov stays in the State of Hockey for years to come. But Rossi is quickly becoming 1A. Assuming we're seeing the Real Rossi -- which feels fairly safe, given his draft pedigree -- it's almost impossible to overpay for what he brings to the table. He's a dynamic, two-way center on pace to score 31 goals and 76 points. The track record of centers who've produced to that degree at such a young age is very, very good. Then add in the defensive excellence he's showing, and we're talking about a player who can help Joel Eriksson Ek tilt the ice in the Wild's favor for years to come. NHL front offices must build around their stars, and they need to build down the middle. Rossi fits both criteria. Heading into the season, Evolving-Hockey projected the AAV of a long-term (seven-year) Rossi extension to be $5.7 million. That's not a realistic price anymore. Looking at his peers from the 2020 Draft, Tim Stützle (40 points in 38 games this year) has an AAV of $8.35, Lucas Raymond (41 points in 39 games) just signed for $8.08 million per year, and Alexis Lafrenière (21 points in 38 games) is making $7.45 million. Rossi's number has to start with an "8." And if you're the Wild, you have to do it while laughing about getting another young star through their prime for a bargain. Minnesota can figure out the rest later. By the time Kaprizov's extension kicks in, the NHL will (presumably) have raised the cap twice, and Mats Zuccarello's money will be off the books. If Minnesota has to trade a lesser player to make the overall picture work, that's the price you have to pay. Remember -- the goal is to keep Kaprizov long-term and to set themselves up to build a Cup winner around him. Kaprizov might score 100 points this season, even with 70 games. Locking down Kaprizov's center from his best-ever season has to sweeten the pot, no? The Wild can go to him and say, We're not just dumping money on you, but we're setting you up with the Nicklas Bäckström to your Alex Ovechkin for the next eight years. Minnesota presumably had a chance to get in on the ground floor and didn't. That was a mistake. They don't have to make it again. The Wild can lock up their No. 1 center through his '20s and ensure that Rossi's rapidly-growing game doesn't lead to a rapidly-growing price tag.

By the time Saturday's Minnesota Wild game starts, the team will have heisted No. 6 overall pick David Jiricek from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Daemon Hunt, the Wild's most NHL-ready defense prospect, will be sent the other way along with a first-round pick in 2025, a third in 2026, a second in 2027, and a pick swap, per Michael Russo. The move doesn't come as a surprise, it's been in the ether for the last week. But now we know it's happening, we know the Wild beat out the other offers, and we know the hit to Minnesota's prospect capital. Having seen it all laid out, this is a decisive win for Bill Guerin and his front office. Should the Wild unlock his potential, they have the final missing piece to their youth movement. The Wild's under-25 movement was strong as hell earlier this week, having nearly everything a good, growing team needs. A star winger? Check, there's Matt Boldy. A potential (current?) No. 1 center? Hello, Marco Rossi. A guaranteed, bedrock top-pair defenseman? There's Brock Faber, right there. High-upside forward prospects? Danila Yurov and Riley Heidt have entered the chat. A bonafide power play quarterback that's nearly NHL-ready? That's what drafting Zeev Buium was for. A goalie of the future? We all know about Jesper Wallstedt The only question -- other than whether the Yurovs, Heidts, and Buiums would pan out -- was their defensive depth beyond Faber and Buium. The Wild had invested heavily in defense prospects at the 2020 and 2022 Drafts, spending top-70 picks on Ryan O'Rourke, Hunt, Carson Lambos, and Jack Peart. Despite the investment, only Hunt trended as NHL-ready in the near future. Beyond that, Minnesota wasn't able to land their Owen Power, Jake Sanderson, or Moritz Seider-type defenseman -- a defenseman with premium size and a top-four-caliber skill set. They'd also struggled to backfill the right side of the defense past Faber, with David Spacek being their only top right-shot defenseman. That's why Minnesota gave up three assets to get Jiricek. At 6-foot-3, 204 pounds, he brings beef, skill, and a right-shot to the next generation of Wild players. As soon as the end of the season, the Wild could theoretically ice a starting lineup that includes: Yurov - Rossi - Boldy Buium - Jiricek Wallstedt That's a tantalizing collection of young talent, even before realizing that the Wild would have Faber in the back. And Faber with those two makes Minnesota a potential defensive powerhouse for years to come. The collection of pure, raw talent on the Wild blueline is now at incredible levels. Before the season, Corey Pronman released his rankings of Under-23 players and prospects. Buium slotted in at No. 16 (sixth among defensemen), Faber at No. 35 (11th among d-men), and Jiricek 47th (17th among d-men). Only the New Jersey Devils -- with Luke Hughes, Anton Silayev, and Simon Nemec -- rival that quantity of high-upside defense talent. But it's even better. Again, Jiricek gives Minnesota more talent and a diversity of skills. Here's the elevator pitch on all three of those top names, per Pronman: Buium: He is an extremely intelligent puck-mover who can run a power play like a top NHL player. He makes high-end plays routinely and can break shifts open with his puckhandling and passes. Faber: His excellent skating, gap work and compete have helped him become a great defender who kills a lot of plays, but the offense he showed this season was a pleasant surprise. Jiricek: He's very skilled, especially for a big man, and combined with a strong point shot, he should provide offense in the NHL. I like his defensive edge and thought he showed he could be a great two-way player at other levels. There's some overlap, but Minnesota now has three defensemen who fill three vital roles. The bloom has fallen ever-so-slightly off the rose with Jiricek, but Pronman's player comparable for him in 2022 was Alex Pietrangelo -- massive praise from the usually conservative draft analyst. Leading up to the 2024 Draft, Pronman tabbed Buium as a young Morgan Rielly. Faber has been a right-shot Jonas Brodin with surprising offensive chops. That sort of well-rounded blueline is hard to find, even among elite NHL clubs. As for the price, it's a big "Who cares?" from Minnesota's perspective. Hunt's future was likely as a third-pairing defenseman who could crack the top-4 in a pinch. The Wild's 2025 first-round pick is trending to be in the 20s, and perhaps the late-20s. Even if Minnesota would hit on that pick, it likely wouldn't have the upside of Jiricek and a much longer timetable to get a return on investment. A third-rounder in 2026 or second in 2027 is downright negligible. More importantly: the Wild got this deal done without sacrificing their forward depth, particularly NHL-ready, middle-six winger Liam Öhgren, who brings skill and physicality to the pool that would be hard for Minnesota to replace. They get a huge boost in near-term upside without sacrificing anything for the 2025 season when the Wild's Cup ambitions truly begin. Minnesota will need to unlock Jiricek's potential in a way that Columbus couldn't do, but the reward in acquiring Jiricek vastly outweighs the risk.

All the talk about the Minnesota Wild’s 2024 draft focused on Zeeb Buium (12th overall) and Aron Kiviharju. Both players are smooth-skating defensemen and draft steals for the Wild. However, the Wild also got another steal when they took Prince Albert’s Ryder Ritchie in the second round. Ritchie is the only forward Minnesota took in this draft class, but it got a stud with the 45th pick who has all the tools to be a modern-day NHL star. He’ll need to add a little strength and weight to his 6’0” frame. However, he’s skilled with the puck and has a lethal shot. The Western Hockey League (WHL) named Ritchie was named the Rookie of the Year in 2022-23 after he recorded 20 goals and 35 assists in 61 games. The Calgary native then put the league on notice at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup with nine points in five games. However, Ritchie had a disappointing sophomore season in the WHL because he missed 14 games due to injury, and it took him a bit to get back up to speed. With just 44 points in 47 games, Ritchie was just under a point per game. Still, he almost matched his goal total in 14 fewer games. Prince Albert was not one of the top teams in the WHL, but they added a ton of talent through the WHL Draft. Therefore, it’s not unreasonable to hope Ritchie hits triple digits next season. Ritchie has all the tools to be an effective top-six winger in the NHL. His puckhandling and quick feet complement his shot, and he’s a strong skater. He also has the attitude and tenacity to excel at the next level. The Wild should be excited about his offensive future. “Ritchie can take over shifts with his high energy and workhorse attitude,” Steven Ellis wrote at the Daily Faceoff. “And his shot – good luck blocking that.” “I think I’m an offensive forward,” Ritchie said at the draft. “I think I can create a lot of offense for myself and my teammates. I think I have a lot of skill, a good hockey IQ, and I have a high competitor. I’m a competitor, and I love to win, so can’t wait to bring that.” “Ritchie’s both a scoring and playmaking threat,” his Elite Prospects profile reads. “He combines give-and-goes with crossovers and east-west movement, constantly shifting the defense and creating gaps. Just when opponents think they’ve figured him out, he cuts back and finds the trailer. “His shot, in particular, is a constant threat. There are zero tells inside his release, transferring his weight suddenly and hiding his blade the whole time. He adapts to tricky passes and instantly fires them, even under pressure.” Like many young players, Ritchie is plagued by a lack of consistency. While his high-end skill is enticing, he must show it more consistently during his third year in the WHL. “As an offensive winger who didn’t score a ton in junior this year, Ritchie isn’t likely to be a super early draft pick,” Logan Horn wrote at The Hockey Writers. “When the WHL season began, it looked like Ritchie would have a real chance to go in the top-16, but that won’t happen. I do think his offensive game, and growth spurt, will make him a first-rounder, though I think he’s most likely going to be a late first type of guy, probably in the 24-32 range.” Below is a collection of all the draft rankings for Ritchie: TSN/Bob McKenzie: 21st Smaht Scouting: 26th NHL CS (NA Skaters): 16th THW/Baracchini: 27th THW/Forbes: 18th THW/Horn: 23rd 2024 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #22 by Elite Prospects 2024 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #37 by ISS Hockey 2024 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #31 by FCHockey 2024 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #32 by TSN/Craig Button 2024 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #26 by McKeen's Hockey 2024 NHL Entry Draft: Ranked #19 by NHL Central Scouting The Wild got him with the 45th overall pick. The Ritchie pick reminded me a lot of the Hunter Haight pick in 2022. A second-round forward who has all the skill and offensive potential in the world but needs to work on the defensive side of the game to be a complete player. While Ritchie is the only forward in this class and is not getting all the headlines, he’s not a prospect you should overlook. All stats and data via Elite Prospects and HockeyDB unless otherwise noted.

Charlie Stramel was supposed to hit the reset button this season. Coach Tony Granato coached the Wisconsin Badgers to one of their worst seasons in recent memory and put pressure on 18-year-old Stramel immediately as a top-line center. Stramel only mustered five goals and 12 points in 33 games in his freshman season. Everything about the following summer screamed fresh start. The Minnesota Wild still liked his physical toolkit -- namely, his 6-foot-3, 223 lbs. frame and his skating -- enough to take him with the 21st pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Out went Granato, and in came Minnesota State Mankato coach Mike Hastings, with some of his old players following. The change should have allowed Stramel to put his freshman season behind him and spend his sophomore year on a more talented, structured team. Wisconsin got more talented and structured, finishing second in the Big Ten standings and making the NCAA tournament. But that came at a price, at least for Stramel. Hastings imported three of Wisconsin's top five forwards in scoring -- David Silye (age 25), Simon Tassy (23), and Christian Fitzgerald (21) -- from Mankato. Hockey fans know that NHL coaches like to play their guys, players they know, like, and are familiar with. Hastings was no exception, and in all fairness to him, look at the results. It didn't go well for Stramel, though. He suffered an early injury, which seemed to put him behind the 8-ball, and he never truly caught up. All of that conspired to keep him in fourth-line minutes all season, and he scored only three goals and eight points in 34 games. Nobody can spin having two straight lost seasons into being a good thing. It's also true that Stramel was perceived as a lower-ceiling player, at least compared to an immensely skilled Gabriel Perreault, who went off the board two picks later and has 18 goals and 57 points for the Frozen Four-bound Boston College Eagles. If anyone says that the New York Rangers look better for picking Perreault than the Wild for picking Stramel, that's pretty indisputable right now. All that can be true. Even so, the vitriol toward the pick on draft day was too far, and it's only ratcheted up in intensity as Stramel muddled through a season of fourth-line duty. From the jump, it's been a race to be the first (and loudest) to call Stramel a bust. There is no word yet on what the prize the NHL is offering for the winner will be. If we want to compare hit rates, though, the Minnesota Wild's scouting staff has a much stronger track record than the Fans Who Cried "Bust!" You only need to look to last year to find a high-profile miss, when people practically left Marco Rossi for dead after he scored one point in 19 games. Now, he's in the running to finish as a Calder Trophy finalist after a 20-goal season. We can do more. The same doubts were cast over Matt Boldy after he struggled through a disaster in the first half of his Draft+1 year at Boston College. Boldy scored one goal and three points in his first 15 games after the Wild made him the No. 12 overall pick in the 2019 Draft. Like Stramel, Boldy even got snubbed from Team USA's World Junior camp. Once Boldy found a role that suited him, the rest was history. And, of course, there's the Ur example of the Wild taking Joel Eriksson Ek over Burnsville native Brock Boeser in 2015. Boeser is a great player, cracking the 30-goal mark for the first time this season, with a good shot at putting up 40 goals for the Vancouver Canucks this year. You'll probably die wandering the wilderness before you find a Wild fan who would go back in time and reverse that decision. Giving the Wild fan base some credit, let's look at Danila Yurov, the guy Minnesota didn't declare a bust despite having a fairly similar journey to Stramel. When the Wild drafted Yurov at 24th overall in 2022, he was coming off a season in which he scored zero points in 40 KHL games (regular season and playoffs). The following year, he only scored 12 in 70 KHL contests. It wouldn't have been difficult to write him off, but Minnesota prospect watchers intuitively understood that Yurov's role in the KHL was not suited to what he did best. He neither got the ice time nor on-ice opportunities a prospect needs to flourish in any league. Once he did, he went out and bested the KHL points record for a 20-year-old player. If Wild fans can extend that kind of grace to a dude from Chelyabinsk, why can't they do the same for a player who grew up in Rosemount? The last time he played for a program that wasn't completely terrible and gave him more than fourth-line minutes was two years ago with the US Development Program. He scored 15 points (7 goals) in 16 USHL games and 22 points (10 goals) in 26 games with the Under-18 USA team, then 2 goals and 5 points in 6 games at the Under-18 World Juniors. Pretty good! Fans should remember that whether they liked the pick or not, there were good reasons for the Wild to take Stramel in the first round. He has a rare combination of size and skating ability, which is valuable for a team short on size for quite some time. Targeting size in the draft is probably a better way to get bigger than overpaying for free agents or trading Calder-contending rookies because they're 5'9". They should also remember that a 19-year-old kid has almost no say in any of this. A player can control what they do on the ice but can't pick where they get drafted. They can't stop their teams from changing coaches and bringing an influx of older, more experienced top-six players. They can't call their own number to boost their ice time. None of this is to say that Stramel will be a star, go down as Minnesota's best possible use of that No. 21 pick, or even have a half-decent NHL career. That's uncertain, as it is with most hockey players drafted in their 20s. Sometimes, teams get "A GUY" in Eriksson Ek. But sometimes they get "a guy" like Jack Roslovic, and sometimes you get a guy who bounces around and never quite sticks like Colin White. Anyone who can identify exactly who will become what on Draft Day, or even one or two years past it, is probably lying to you. We don't know where Stramel will end up next year, but the Wild would be doing a disservice to their top pick by not encouraging him to find some kind of fresh start. Whether that's getting on the same page as Hastings in Wisconsin, hitting the transfer portal to change schools, or switching to Major Junior, something's gotta happen because the status quo isn't working. At some point, if things do not work out for Stramel, he will be the common denominator in a string of lost seasons. But at the very least, he deserves to get a shot in a situation that isn't actively undermining him before we make that decision. If he doesn't work out in five years, there will be plenty of time to re-litigate the 2023 draft. In the meantime, it just feels like a less soul-crushing path to hope he finds a place where he can click rather than pronounce within nine months of draft day.

Marat Khusnutdinov has officially arrived, and everyone can’t help but be excited, especially Kirill Kaprizov. Minnesota Wild fans need to realize the impact Khusnutdinov will make in the locker room and on the ice. Much like how Brock Faber has shown the willingness and determination to be a star-studded player, now we get to witness Khusnutdinov showing that impact to improve the Wild’s consistency. Khusnutdinov will become the player no one can live without. Before Khusnutdinov's arrival, he called head coach John Hynes to request tapes to learn the Wild’s system. Khusnutdinov has the determination to be an impact player as a Selke-level center and the leadership to be a future captain. Khusnutdinov shows great dedication to the game due to his sacrifice, much like Joel Eriksson Ek has shown Wild fans. Khusnutdinov will create a spark once he's on the ice. Expect the rest of his linemates to also play with a jump due to his infectious energy. His mature style of game will only grow. He’s the definition of Captain Serious. But let’s not get carried away with thinking Khusnutdinov’s going to be a juggernaut. Kaprizov is still Minnesota’s star player. However, it’s not unreasonable to believe Kaprizov and Khusnutdinov can become the Wild’s version of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Kane was Batman for the Chicago Blackhawks when it came to production, and Toews was Robin in terms of production but was the team’s leader on their three Stanley Cup runs (2009-10, 2012-13, and 2014-15). Khusnutdinov should be Robin to Kaprizov’s Batman. Why am I mentioning Toews? Toews averaged 68 points in his career during the regular season and scored 0.87 points in his playoff career. On the other hand, Khusnutdinov is sitting at 0.48 points in 45 career playoff games. Don't let Khusnutdinov’s playoff stats scare you off. His defense rises above the occasion when needed the most. Khusnutdinov will show us heart like never before. Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning does a spectacular defensive job while complimenting high-end players with his speed and has two Stanley Cups. During the 2022-23 season, Khusnutdinov showed top-line potential when he scored 41 points (11 goals and 30 assists) in 63 games for SKA St.Petersburg (KHL). Good enough for a 65-point NHL rating. It sounded like Khusnutdinov was on his way to breaking more records like Danila Yurov, who had a similar KHL experience but hardly played in 2023-24 due to SKA disrupting his development. Once SKA traded him to HK Sochi (KHL), he wasn't able to produce as much as he wanted, scoring 20 points (0 points in 6 games for SKA) in 55 games. His production decreased by 29% from 2022-23 to 2023-24. That has him sitting at a hair below top-six potential. His decline didn’t meaningfully impact his production, though. Don't let the stats fool you. Khusnutdinov brings high-end creativity to a high-energy and responsible game. Doesn't matter if he won't become a great scorer. Toews showed his value as someone who didn’t back down from challenges, which led to three Stanley Cups. Sure, Kane was the flashier player who was a unique talent. But Toews showed unparalleled dedication with a creative skillset and excellent skating ability. While Toews had more size, Khusnutdinov doesn’t let his size control how he plays. Toews averaged 68 points, which is top-line value. That would be the high-end of what Khusnudinov could become in Minnesota, but he offers enough effort to maximize his skill set. Boone Jenner is another comparison. The Columbus Blue Jackets drafted him 37th overall in 2011, and he became their top shutdown center. Can Khusnutdinov be a high-end version of Jenner? Khusnutdinov won't be as physically dominant, but he won't shy away from helping his team win games in every way. His defensive game is so strong that you can expect his offensive game to shine. He's intelligent, and he skates like he belongs. He's the kind of center Kaprizov needs down the middle. The Wild currently are rolling with Matt Boldy, Eriksson Ek, and Kaprizov as the top line, but Khusnutdinov has game-breaking speed that Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi don’t have. Nothing against what they bring offensively, but the team’s best offensive players need a center who can create similar skating chaos like Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. Not only shut down lines but also produced offensively as the third string of offense with Kaprizov and Boldy. Top line made. However, that doesn’t mean that Eriksson Ek and Rossi can’t play in the top-six. You can convince Danila Yurov and Vladislav Firstov to come over, but they won’t impact the Wild this year. Khusnutdinov needs to play in all situations to improve the Wild’s consistency. This will also help bring out the best in him. Khusnutdinov and Eriksson Ek can become one of the best penalty-killing duos in the NHL or have their separate unit. Aggressive forechecking to cause turnovers and capitalize on scoring chances by crashing the net. Khusnutdinov can bring life to the Wild’s powerplay by causing more pressure. The Wild will allow Khusnutdinov to transition into the league slowly, but he’s built to be a successful leader.

Alright, I admit it, I can be a bandwagon fan for the Wild. However, in my defense, you need to protect yourself from letdowns when you’ve been a Minnesota hockey market fan for as long as I’ve been. I remember watching North Star games with my dad in our musty basement. Having him time me with how fast I could run upstairs and get him another Grain Belt and bring it back down to him. I believe 4 seconds is my record. When Casio digital watches were the thing, my record creeped up to 4.3 seconds. Damn you, technology. I saw Bobby Smith’s ridiculous goal against the Calgary Flames where he took an offensive zone draw, won it to himself, and deked through the bewildered Flames defense to score the goal. I watched every single televised Team USA game in 1980 and was excited to see who would join the Stars the following year. I watched every game of the 1981 playoff season, only to be disappointed with the 5-game series loss against the New York Islanders. I listened in horror in 1992 to KQ when it was announced that they were moving to…Dallas?? Where am I going with all of this? As I watch this season, I can only come to one conclusion: just tank, baby. We all know that this team will not, I repeat, will not win the Cup this year. With the cap hit against us for next year, in 2024-25, too. I don’t know why ownership and leadership have to sell us this notion of “competitive rebuild” when we can all see that we do not have the pieces to win it all. At least not now. Will we? I believe so. With players like Kirill Kaprizov, Brock Faber, Matt Boldy, Jesper Wallstedt, and Marco Rossi here. And Danila Yurov, Marat Khusnutdinov, Carson Lambos, and Liam Öhgren on the horizon, why not add a couple more top-10 prospects? I believe that GM Bill Guerin knows what it takes to build a team. He’s been in locker rooms to know pretenders from the real thing. All the haters out there are just projecting their frustration with how things have been going since the buyouts. From what I’ve heard, good riddance. I also believe that part of the fanbase’s frustration is because of the history of letdowns this market has had to go through. And also the fact that this fanbase, arguably the most knowledgeable fanbase in the league, is aware of the BS they are trying to tell us. “Competitive rebuild,” come on, Wild. This market attends squirt, mite, high school, and college games just to root for their kids. We play in adult leagues because we love the game. We’ll still come out and watch as you go through the last half of this season and the next just to see the new kids play. We’ll want to show them that we are and always will be, the best hockey market in the league. We enjoy watching our kids get better year after year. The same is true for our newest talent that you draft and develop. That includes talent on other teams. This team has a lot going for it: great venue, great metro area, great fans. Just tank. Be sellers at the trade deadline. Send Marc-Andre Fleury to Pittsburg or New Jersey. Get what you can for him. Frankly, it’s been awesome having him here and getting to No. 2 on the all-time wins list. See what you can get for any of those guys not named Faber, Boldy, Wallstedt, Rossi, and Kaprisov, and bring up the kids to play the rest of the season. Give them the experience they need to play at the NHL level and let’s watch them grow. Having a couple of top 10 talent wouldn’t hurt either, would it? And so, as I sit here watching another Wild game with my granddaughter, a blooming hockey fan, I wonder how much longer I will have to wait to celebrate a Stanley Cup championship. I would certainly like for her to enjoy a franchise that is somewhat consistent every year so that she can become that hardcore fan who can enjoy every high and loathe every low. “Hey, sweetie, can I ask a favor?” I ask. “Sure, Papa!” she replies excitedly. “Would you go get me a bottle of Sprite from the fridge, please?” I inquire. “Will you time me?” she grins wryly. Leaning forward on my chair, I yell, “GO!” while pressing the start button on the stopwatch. Running upstairs with a huge grin, I hear the thumping of feet on the steps, the door of the fridge opening, the noise of what can only be described as an elephant charge across the ceiling, and back down the stairs arrives my granddaughter. A bottle of Sprite in her hand stretched out to me. “Time!?” she shouts. As I press the button on my Dad’s old Casio watch, the screen reads “4.2”. Cheering ensues.

The story goes that when Spanish Conquistador and genocidal maniac Hernan Cortez landed in modern-day Mexico in 1519, he ordered his fleet of ships burned. Was it a practical decision? No. It was about sending a message. His forces would destroy the Aztec Empire or be destroyed in turn. There would be no retreat. That is admittedly kind of a ridiculous anecdote to lead into talking about a general manager trying to keep his hockey team competitive despite a $15 million salary cap disadvantage. For one, if Bill Guerin succeeds in getting the Minnesota Wild to be a playoff team, it won't be a net negative to humanity. But when embarking on this season, Guerin burned his boats to ensure the only way was forward. In September, Guerin signed Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, and Ryan Hartman to extensions. Each player was an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season but expressed their desire to remain with the Wild long-term. Guerin obliged. He kept the trio around for two, four, and three more years, respectively, armed with no-trade and no-move clauses. The upside of these deals was that if the Wild stayed competitive this season, they could maintain the continuity and momentum into the next several seasons. Perhaps not having the looming cloud of uncertainty would enable them to play their best. Of course, the downside is that if things go wrong, then Guerin burned his boats. If the Wild were, say, five points out of a playoff spot on January 11, entering trade deadline season with veterans like Zuccarello, Foligno, and Hartman would be a great way to salvage the season. These players were all on team-friendly deals. In Foligno and Hartman's case, they are arguably way cheaper than the value they provide. Teams want those kinds of players, and Guerin could have gotten a haul for them. But no. There would be no retreating. The Wild limited their options to winning or disaster. It's becoming clear which path the Wild are going down. It is January 11, and the Wild are five points out of a playoff spot. After 40 games, the Wild are tied with the Buffalo Sabres in the standings, jockeying for the sixth-best draft lottery odds in the league. And that's after Guerin played the coaching change card. Sure, injuries ravaged the team in a way that would be hard to predict. Jared Spurgeon has only played in 16 games. Jonas Brodin has been out for 15 games and counting. And now Kirill Kaprizov has missed six games, in which the Wild have only scored 10 goals. Is that bad luck that Guerin couldn't necessarily count on? Yeah, that's safe to say. The problem is that the Wild would always have to operate on thin margins, even at their best. Their salary cap woes have escalated to $15 million in buyout penalties. The strain would always show, even if the Wild overcame it. Minnesota's vaunted depth of the past two years is gone. For one reason or another, important players like Kevin Fiala, Matt Dumba, Jordan Greenway, Nico Sturm, Mason Shaw, Calen Addison, and more are gone. That was always going to be the case entering this year. The Wild were able to sustain key injuries before. Now, one or two sends the whole thing crashing down. Guerin needed to hedge against that possibility, even a little bit, and he did not. And for what? Minnesota didn't want the team to be uncompetitive or unable to ease their players into the NHL. Mission not accomplished. The Wild have lost six of their last seven games, looking uncompetitive in almost all of them. While Marco Rossi and Brock Faber are thriving with responsibility, we're seeing the team have to rush rookies like Daemon Hunt and, most recently, Jesper Wallstedt into NHL action before they are ready. By burning his boats. Guerin threatens to have a compounding cost on the team's future. Not only did he forfeit any assets that could have come back the team's way -- assets they could have used to acquire players when the salary cap hell is over -- he did it to keep depreciating assets around. Zuccarello, Foligno, and Hartman will all be 30 and over next year. In two years, will Guerin wish he had a boatload of assets he could use to acquire the next young star player to hit the trade market or a collection of vets in their mid-to-late 30s? The Wild can still get a bright light at the end of this disaster year's tunnel, of course. If they land a Macklin Celebrini or Cole Eiserman in the draft, will that somewhat offset the opportunity cost those extensions created? Definitely. But they also could have had both, and shipping out those three contracts for assets would also help their chances of celebrating Celebrini in the organization. It's not a failure if the Wild can't drag a $15 million anchor over the finish line and end up in the league's basement. It's a hard task that would be difficult for any GM to overcome. It is a failure not to secure the flexibility to pivot to a Plan B if things go wrong. In that sense, Guerin hasn't just failed. He specifically engineered a situation where he would be guaranteed to do so if things went sideways. If you burn your boats and accomplish your goals, it seems justified in retrospect. But what happens if you don't? We're seeing it now, and in Guerin's case, it's looking more and more like an unforced error that threatens to hamper his team's long-term ambitions to compete for the Stanley Cup.

In 2017, the NHL partnered with the You Can Play Project, a group dedicated to combating homophobia in sports, to create the "Hockey Is For Everyone" campaign. "Our clubs, our players, and our fans are committed to welcoming everyone to hockey," said Gary Bettman, announcing the initiative. The move, though not without its embarrassments, was a small but necessary step to building a more inclusive fanbase. It's a small and easy way to bring in more LGBTQIA+ fans. Certainly, not from the kindness of the NHL's hearts. Pride Nights sell tickets, and Pride merchandise moves units (even if that merch ends up being less progressive than it intends), thereby increasing the bottom line. Unless scooping up those extra dollars generates a public relations nightmare for your league, that is. After seven players publicly went on record as not wishing to wear Pride-themed jerseys in warmups (with several more teams canceling planned Pride displays, presumably to avoid the same) the NHL and NHLPA came together and said: Okay, no more Pride for the players. In addition to removing the recent standard of practice of having players wear Pride-themed jerseys during warm-ups, the NHL is going so far as to ban players from individually supporting the LGBTQIA+ community by wearing Pride tape on their sticks. In warm-ups. On Pride Nights. Asked by Daily Faceoff's Matt Larkin why there was such a wide-spanning ban on players showing support, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly explained, "We just don't want to put other players in a tough spot simply because they don't choose to join." There are, of course, many inherent contradictions and hypocrisies that are embedded in this controversy. One would be citing Christian beliefs as a reason to not participate in an innocuous acknowledgment of the humanity of the LGBTQIA+ community, despite one of its two main tenents calls for people to "love thy neighbor as thyself." So is the NHL's unwillingness to have players feel compelled to make a "political" statement in supporting LGBTQIA+ fans, yet have them participate in the inherently political national anthem ceremonies pre-game. But one of the biggest contradictions is the league promoting the idea that Hockey Is For Everyone, then backtracking in a way that says "Hockey Isn't For Everyone," as Outsports' Cyd Ziegler detailed this week, and Akim Aliu wrote in 2020. These are valid and good hypocrisies to point out, but there's a bigger contradiction at the heart of "Hockey Is For Everyone." Namely, the fact that it can't be for everyone. It's understandable why the league would use "Everyone" in their diversity campaign. It's as inclusive as possible, and that might be the best way to communicate that. Others can debate or decide that. But taken literally, it implies that hockey is a big tent where every fan can co-exist in harmony. It's a nice thought, and it'd be great if it were true. As it stands, though, it isn't. This is all happening with the dropback of decreased tolerance for LGBTQIA+, and specifically transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer people, in the United States. Florida's state government is one of the more infamous drivers of this, having passed a sweeping "Don't Say Gay" bill earlier this year, but they're hardly alone. In 2023, 23 states have passed legislation targeting transgender people, making existing in public life difficult. Those are just the ones that passed. This legislation coincides with an increase in violence against the LGBTQIA+ community, leading the Human Rights Campaign to declare a National State of Emergency. Famously, the threat of violence against employees led Target to pull their Pride merchandise from stores this summer. Again, all this serves to eliminate LGBTQIA+ people from public spaces. That's why hockey can not be for Everyone. The tent can not contain the LGBTQIA+ community and the fans who would rather that community not exist. Perhaps the NHL and its lawyers believe they've found a neutral way to sidestep a culture war issue that proved to be a PR thorn in their side last year. The alienation its Queer fanbase and their allies are feeling and the online celebration of bigots within the fanbase betray the fact that they can't. It's impossible. Whether they want to admit it or not, the NHL decided Hockey can not be for Everyone. More pointedly, they implicitly decided who, exactly, it was for and who, exactly, they would protect: the bigots on their benches, in their stands, and watching their game on TV from a moment of discomfort.

Hockey Wilderness is counting down the Minnesota Wild's Top-10 Prospects, as voted by our staff. Today, we give you everything you need to know about our No. 6 prospect, Liam Öhgren. In a league gravitating increasingly more towards speed and skill, the Minnesota Wild are a bit of a throwback. They're built in the image of their general manager Bill Guerin and head coach Dean Evason. Both were hard-nosed, physical players, which is an element they've embraced for their current squad. "We're just not a pretty team," Guerin told The Athletic at the start of last season. "We have some skill -- maybe not as much as some other teams -- so when we don't play hard, heavy, physical... we struggle." It's hard to imagine the 2025-26 version of the Wild sharing that same identity. Minnesota's prospect pool is appearing to catch up with the rest of the league in terms of skill. Sure, Matt Boldy, Riley Heidt, Marat Khusnutdinov, Marco Rossi, and Danila Yurov might have some jam and two-way ability between them. That's not the point of any of their games, though. They create scoring chances through their various strengths, with all of them sharing an ability to handle the puck in electric ways. Of these top prospects and youngsters, Hockey Wilderness isn't looking for many of them to become a Marcus Foligno-type of player. Even Boldy, who you could call a power forward, is more Mark Stone than he is Foligno. Boldy uses his size to seize puck possession and get to dirty areas of the ice, and less to be physical. If anyone in this top group of forwards can take up the mantle of the Guerin Wild Identity, it might be Sweden's Liam Öhgren. Even so, we figure to see an evolution in what the future of Minnesota's power forwards look like. Foligno is a bowling ball, able to blow up players with abandon and throw fists with the league's heavyweights. In that way, he plays more like Evason, who could score a bit in his day but whose role was a physical presence. Öhgren's upside feels more similar to Guerin: a player who will be active in the forecheck, but is going to be more known for his offensive contributions. Or, according to The Athletic's Joe Smith, the player Öhgren models his game after: Gabriel Landeskog. Before suffering a career-threatening injury that held him out of last season and will take him out of next, Landeskog was a premier offensive player in the NHL. The rugged Swede scored 34 goals and 77 points per 82 games in the five years before his injury. But Wild fans don't see him as that lethal offensive threat. To the State of Hockey, Landeskog is the Colorado Avalanche's sunovabitch. Unlike a Foligno-type, Landeskog being a sunovabitch isn't about hitting. At least, not since the earliest years of his career. Colorado's captain is always in the mix, strong enough to go to the net with Zach Parise-like regularity, and fast enough to hustle for turnovers and send them the other way for scoring chances. Simply put, Landeskog is easy to hate. That's not an insult; it's a compliment the same way it is to say that Joel Eriksson Ek pisses off opponents. Of all the Wild's prospects, Öhgren may have the best potential for being the next sunovabitch in St. Paul. Judd Brackett loves his pair of 2022 first-rounders, which include Öhgren (19th overall) and Yurov (24th), and not just for their skill. "You see [them] against men, [they] physically engage and play in the dirty areas," he told Smith. "[They're] hard to play against." Speaking of Öhgren specifically, he marvels, "On the forecheck, he's so tenacious." Injuries took away from some of his numbers last year in Allsvenskan, but he turned it back on with a fantastic playoff run. Öhgren scored eight goals and added another five assists in 17 games as he dragged Djurgärdens back to the Swedish Hockey League. They didn't make it, but Öhgren will get a chance to prove his mettle there next year with Färjestad, the club that developed Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin. That dip in numbers, the power forward element to his game, and the wealth of offensive talent Minnesota's system probably lead to the fanbase underrating his raw skills. Öhgren has got a shot at proving that he belongs in the same conversation as the rest of the Wild's top forward prospects next year. Öhgren might only have above-average speed, but there's a difference between being fast and playing fast. "Everything happens in motions for Öhgren," Elite Prospects said of him in their 2022 Draft Guide. "He plays at such a heightened pace that the puck often flies from his stick no sooner than you realize he's even secured possession in the first place." Not only can he play fast, but he also knows when to slow things down to create opportunities. Per McKeen's Hockey's draft profile on him: "His skating is very nifty in its entirety... gaining a new gear quickly while winning races to pucks and moving around defenders. [It often buys] him the often critical second or two he needs to be successful in his shot attempts." The feet are great to begin with, but that weapon becomes so much more potent when it's combined with what he can do with his hands. NHL Central Scouting compares his playstyle to Auston Matthews, which is such a lofty comp that it feels borderline irresponsible. Why throw that name out there? Most likely, it's because Öhgren's shot has some of the same combination of power and craftiness that Matthews employs to score 40 goals in his sleep. "Öhgren can quickly change angles and manipulate his shot angle in order to release quick pucks," wrote FC Hockey in their 2022 Draft Guide. That's an important quality to have, as goalies are too good to get beat straight-up very often. Shooters who can hide their intentions are going to have the most success. The lead-up to the draft is when these prospects are hyped up the most. But a year later, even after a tougher season for Öhgren, that assessment of his shot still holds up. Scott Wheeler ranked Öhgren the NHL's 40th-best prospect (and the Wild's second-best skater) in July. Wheeler says of Öhgren's shot, "it really rattles off of his stick." He's not just a one-trick pony, either. Wheeler compliments his complete package on offense, specifically calling out his "really sneaky craftiness and evasiveness" and "his combination [of] shot-and-pass, power-and-finesse." Power forwards whose skills can match most any 5-foot-10 player in a team's top-six are absolute unicorns. That's when you start talking about the Stones, the Boldys, and Matthew Tkachuk-type players in the league. And if Öhgren joins Boldy in those ranks at the NHL-level, the Wild's future and evolution of their power identity will indeed be fun to watch.

The offseason is a strange time for a hockey blog. In less than one week, the draft and free agency created enough news to fill an encyclopedia. Days later, the news cycle dries up and leaves us hyper-focused on Day 2 draft selections and obscure language in the CBA. Most well-adjusted hockey fans (not you, dear reader) can usually unplug from the NHL until at least September. That leaves a unique audience for writers to delve into any topic they choose. To that end, I’ll be going deep on the Marco Rossi contract negotiation. What is an RFA? What is an offer sheet, and why would Rossi’s agent shop for one? Most importantly, which side has the leverage, and how does that affect the Wild’s salary cap? First, let’s look at Rossi’s options. As a Restricted Free Agent (RFA), he can technically sign with any team in the NHL; however, if another team signs Rossi, they must send draft picks to the Minnesota Wild based on amounts outlined in the NHL rules. Rossi’s AAV will likely come in around $7 million, so the only teams eligible to sign him are pictured in the bottom right. That depresses Rossi’s value for two reasons. First, supply and demand. Instead of 32 eligible teams, only 19 teams are eligible to sign Rossi at an AAV between $5 million and $7 million. Second, and more importantly, the draft pick compensation depresses Rossi’s market value. For all other teams, Rossi’s contract value is a basic math problem: the value of his on-ice production, minus the value of those draft picks. NHL teams have two currencies for acquiring players: draft picks and salary cap dollars. If Rossi costs a 1st- and 3rd-round pick, his value for all other teams is reduced. Hence, the lower cap-dollar cost for RFA contracts. According to NHL rules, if Rossi decided to sign with another team at that depressed value, the Wild would only need to match that salary number. Therefore, his total market value for any team is reduced. According to my estimates, league rules will reduce his contract value by about $11 million, about $2.5 million per year on a four-year deal. That $11 million number is fluid because different teams may value draft picks differently. For example, the Los Angeles Kings may consider themselves contenders, which would mean they would likely select later in the draft. Furthermore, the players they take may not reach the NHL by the time LA wants to compete. Still, that $2 million figure is sufficient for an estimate. In most RFA negotiations, that makes it easy for the team with that player’s rights (in this case, the Wild) to re-sign that player at a cheap AAV. In many cases, the player’s agent won’t even seek a competing offer. Instead, they’ll create an estimate of the player’s RFA value, meet with the player’s home club, and get something done. However, Rossi’s deal is different. Several factors are at play here that aren’t directly related to the negotiation. One is Rossi’s size and play style, and another is his demotion to the fourth line during the playoffs. The Athletic’s Michael Russo has reported that Rossi was unhappy with his playoff usage. Russo has also highlighted on his podcast that it created a lack of trust, which may make Rossi wary of a long-term deal in Minnesota. Unrelated to that dynamic, however, is the amount of pressure on Bill Guerin to ice a winner in October. The team has publicly acknowledged that they want to win a championship -- now. While Bill Guerin may debate how much of a role Rossi could play in that goal, everyone knows that a 1st- and 3rd-round pick would do nothing to contribute to that goal. All other options to replace Rossi have been exhausted. Minnesota examined the trade market for Rossi’s rights, striking out on JJ Peterka and any other options. They were unable to sign a top-six center in free agency. Marco Rossi is all that’s left. While league rules may have depressed Rossi’s RFA value, he has some leverage over the Wild. On the other hand, Rossi only has leverage over one team. He can’t use that to leverage a better deal, because that team happens to control his signing rights. That’s likely led to this game of chicken. So far, nobody is diving off the tractor. And why should they? Guerin needs to preserve as much cap space as possible for injury emergencies and future player acquisitions. After heart-related COVID complications, Rossi knows better than most 23-year-olds. That’s why Rossi’s agent is shopping for an offer sheet. Essentially, that offer sheet is the best deal Rossi can find with another team. Guerin will have a week to match that contract, or allow him to sign with that team in exchange for the draft picks attached to whatever AAV Rossi’s agent can bid up. Whether or not Rossi wants to play for the Wild next year has nothing to do with it. It’s the only mechanic left that can force the two sides to come together on a contract. So why all this back and forth? Why don’t RFA agents do this immediately every July 1? There are several reasons that would make home clubs their own RFAs, rather than match an offer sheet, which would theoretically inflate his value to the Wild. For example, if Rossi signs an offer sheet, Minnesota can only match the contract as it is signed with another team; they won’t be able to adjust the contract structure or term to meet their own preferences. Another reason Minnesota should prefer to sign Rossi on their own is that league rules prohibit teams from trading a player on a matched offer sheet until a calendar year after their home club matches the contract. In other words, if the Wild match a Rossi offer sheet on August 1, they can’t trade him until August 1, 2026. Both the contract term and Rossi’s trade eligibility are crucial points in Minnesota’s roster flexibility at the 2025-26 trade deadline and next offseason. Matching an offer sheet takes away that flexibility. That all means that Rossi and Guerin are likely to end up on the same side by the end of this. The only way Rossi could become expendable is if the Wild replace him with Danila Yurov or via trade. That trade can’t happen unless they find a contract together, and Yurov hasn’t played a game on an NHL ice sheet yet. In other words, Guerin needs Rossi on this Wild team. Maybe Guerin hates the idea of Rossi as a top-six center. If he does, it doesn’t matter. There’s no other option on the market. Maybe Rossi’s feelings are irreparably damaged by his demotion to the fourth line. Even if that’s the case, there is one final failsafe: A few million dollars can smooth over a lot of hurt feelings.

For the second time in five years, the Minnesota Wild are importing a highly-touted prospect from the KHL to the State of Hockey. The first one, of course, worked out pretty good. Now, they've finally signed forward Danila Yurov to a three-year, entry-level contract starting with the 2025-26 season. You don't have to take our word for it, either: Yurov is the Wild's second first-rounder (after Liam Öhgren) of the 2022 Draft and seemed poised to make the jump to North America last summer. He'd followed in Kirill Kaprizov's footsteps, winning the Gagarin Cup as a KHL Champion. In 2023-24, he notched 21 goals and 49 points in 62 games, surpassing Vladimir Tarasenko as the highest-scoring U-21 forward in KHL history (since tied by Ivan "Dimmadome" Demidov last year). Instead, he re-signed with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL, telling The Athletic, "I want more consistency from myself and to gain physical strength." It was a bit of a wait, though not nearly as long as the five-year odyssey with Kaprizov, but the moment is here. Now the question goes from, When does he get here? to What's next? The truth is, we don't know. Following his KHL breakout, a lower-body injury slowed Yurov's production, and he only scored 13 goals and 25 points in 46 games last season. You'd probably feel better about his prospects for next year had he stacked back-to-back stellar seasons, but injuries happen. Regardless, this probably isn't going to be a Kaprizov-type situation, where the 2020-21 Calder Trophy winner arrived fully formed. Remember, Kaprizov was 23 years old (and 263 days) when he debuted with the Wild. He came to Minnesota with 293 games of KHL experience -- 340 if you count the playoffs -- a Gagarin Cup, two goal-scoring titles in the KHL, and an Olympic Gold Medal. Alex Ovechkin and Georgy Zhukov are he only more decorated people in Russian history. Yurov has the Cup, but his resume can't touch Kaprizov's, which is understandable. He's two years younger than Kaprizov when he signed with the NHL. Yurov's 209 games played (270 counting the playoffs) in the KHL don't tell the whole story. His 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons saw him log 42 combined games, but at under five minutes a night. The following year saw him play 59 games, but at an average of just barely over eight minutes per game. So really, Yurov has two years of experience as a true regular in the KHL, as opposed to Kaprizov's five or six. There's still some development left for him, where there simply wasn't for Dolla Bill Kirill. Forget the 40-goal, 76-point 82-game pace Kaprizov was on for his rookie season -- Yurov reaching the 27 goals and 51 points Kaprizov actually scored (in the COVID-shortened season) is probably better than the best-case scenario. Looking at first-round rookies from Russia since 2010, their track record isn't fantastic. Let's look at the top 10 in terms of points per game: 1. Matvei Michkov, 2024-25 (age 20): 0.79 2. Nail Yakupov, 2012-13 (age 19): 0.65 3. Vladimir Tarasenko, 2012-13 (age 21): 0.50 4. Evgeny Kuznetsov, 2013-14 (age 22): 0.46 T-5. Andrei Svechnikov, 2018-19 (age 18): 0.45 T-5. Denis Gurianov, 2019-20 (age 22): 0.45 7. Valeri Nichushkin, 2014-15 (age 18): 0.43 8. Vladislav Namestnikov, 2014-15 (age 22): 0.37 T-9: Vasily Podkolzin, 2021-22 (age 20): 0.33 T-9: Fedor Svechkov, 2024-25 (age 21): 0.33 That's three guys out of the 15 who qualified who got a half-point or more per game. And we're talking about some fantastic KHLers who took time to get up to speed. Tarasenko was literally the best Under-21 player in league history, but it took him until his third NHL season to score 30 goals. Kuznetsov had multiple 40-point seasons in the KHL, but it also took him time to ramp up. It's an adjustment that includes, but goes beyond the jump in talent and the speed of the game. Yurov is moving halfway around the world and has to adapt to a different culture. Oh, and he has to keep learning to play the most difficult position on the ice, which he only started playing regularly two years ago. The Wild front office seems confident in his ability to adapt to the center position, intending to start him at the pivot to begin the season. Is he going to be ready for that role immediately? That's an open question, and it's possible he might never be a better fit at center than at wing. That's not to say Wild fans shouldn't be excited for Yurov next year. This is an exciting day, and Yurov is a player who could be electric in Minnesota. But is patience going to be required? Absolutely. Next year may be go-time for the Wild as an organization, but it's going to be Yurov's first step toward a long and productive career. Fans (and the front office) must keep that in mind.

In a game like hockey, where momentum, pressure, and emotions dictate the outcomes of games, a team's captain can often be the spark that pushes the team to new heights. Some teams have captains like Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby, whose offense can carry a team. However, the players you hear about the least often make the most impact. That’s the case for Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon. Spurgeon’s teammates give him accolades, but people outside the organization often overlook his impact. Spurgeon’s consistent defense and flashes of playmaking have never been more critical than now. I don’t need to reiterate that the Wild have struggled to score. So, with the postseason right around the corner, it is refreshing to see that the Wild’s 35-year-old captain has been scoring at an elevated rate. Spurgeon has mostly stayed healthy this season, scoring seven goals and 32 points in 65 games. It’s encouraging to see the captain return to form this year after playing only 16 games in the 2023-24 season before undergoing season-ending back and hip surgery. It also became clear what the Wild look like without Spurgeon. He’s always been crucial to the Wild’s backchecking. Stable defense Since the beginning of 2023, Spurgeon has missed 82 games. In that time, the Wild have allowed 262 goals. However, in the last 82 games with Spurgeon, Minnesota has allowed 236 goals. Because the Wild have lost 380 of their 493 one-goal games since their founding, the 26-goal difference with Spurgeon on the ice could be the difference between making the playoffs or not. The puck goes in the net less with him around. While Spurgeon may only be +7 this season, he has a respectable career plus/minus. He has been +30 three times and +124 three times. That ties Spurgeon for the 196th-best career plus/minus of all time, tied with 35-year-old defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. Experts argue over whether plus/minus is a reliable stat, with the consensus being that the quality of one's team heavily affects the player’s number. However, in Spurgeon’s case this year, he played most of the season without Kirill Kaprizov to pad his stats. Spurgeon did this on a team with a -12 goal differential, the seventh-worst goal differential in franchise history. His blocked shots also highlight his defensive prowess. Spurgeon’s 115 blocked shots are the second-most on the Wild. I’d say his willingness to put his body on the line after undergoing major surgeries might be what the rest of the team sees in him. Late in the season, he injured his throat by blocking a shot. Consistent offense Spurgeon's defensive capabilities have been the foundation of his success, but he’s consistently produced offense from the blue line. Spurgeon may not be Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar, but he’s tied for the sixth-most points on the Wild this season. That might not have been the case if Minnesota’s offensive core had stayed healthy this season. Still, Spurgeon stepped up when the Wild needed him most, the trait of a team captain. Even though Wild fans see Spurgeon as a superstar, you likely won't hear about Spurgeon’s game on ESPN or the NHL Network. Still, the Wild aren’t the Wild without him. His consistency offensively and defensively stabilizes them on both sides of the ice. Though Spurgeon has had every excuse for his offensive production to slip, he didn’t take that as an option. Since 2015, Spurgeon has achieved two 40-point seasons and has only failed to score fewer than 29 points twice: once in 2020 due to a shortened season and once in 2023 because of his surgeries. During the COVID-shortened season, Spurgeon played 54 games and scored 25 points, maintaining his usual production of roughly half a point per game. In terms of points per 60 minutes this season, Spurgeon has maintained an average of 1.45, the third-best of his career. The last time he scored at a better rate was in the 2021-22 and 2017-18 seasons, when he scored 1.75 and 1.48, respectively. Throughout these three seasons, one constant has remained: Spurgeon stayed above 1.0 assists per 60 minutes, proving he is still a fantastic playmaker today. Staying consistent offensively is difficult enough in the NHL. Still, for obvious reasons, it is even more difficult for a defenseman to make a difference on both ends of the ice. Add aging into the mix, and you start to realize why you see players retire in their mid-30s. While I hope not to see Spurgeon retire anytime soon, the good thing is that he still has a lot left in his game. He may not spend his entire career in Minnesota because the Wild have more reasons to let him go than to stay. But in a season of ups and downs, Spurgeon has been a constant for the Wild, who still gives us glimpses of the player he was in his prime.

“It is going to be alright. It’s all good!” “This team is so awful. I’m angry!” “Listen, this is exactly what you’d expect to happen, so really, it is what it is. Just go with the flow, bro.” Odds are that when you think of the Minnesota Wild right now, a phrase that sounds like one of the three above starts running through your head. Whichever one it is, it’s also likely the same phrase that runs through your head most of the time. Sports fans tend to fall into one of three categories. Scroll through the comment section on any sports website. You’re likely to see each one of them battling for the souls of the other two in an increasingly escalating debate that eventually dissolves into a bunch of fiery declarations about who lives in their parents’ basement and who just needs to open their eyes and “actually watch the games.” And let’s be honest, we’re lucky if it stops there. But we here at Hockey Wilderness are a civilized bunch intent on delivering wholesome content to our loyal and knowledgeable readers. So, instead of rehashing the same conversations you’re likely to find in the comment sections on lesser sites, what you’ll see here today is what happens when three highly rational, completely objective hockey fans engage in a spirited discussion about how the Wild will fare in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. In one corner, you have Optimist Brian. In the other, Peter the Pessimist. And up there, perched from the rafters and taking in the big picture, is Rational Randy. ---------------------------------------- The prompt: The Minnesota Wild will find playoff success this postseason and win at least one round. Optimist Brian: They can definitely do it! If you don’t count the past two months, the Wild are basically one of the best teams in the league. No reason they can’t ramp it back up in April with all their big guns. Peter the Pessimist: Listen, good hockey is like jazz music – I know it when I see it, and with this bunch, I haven’t seen it in a while. Plus, I mean, if we’re not counting the past two months, I’ve only gained four pounds since Christmas. So why don’t my pants fit then? Rational Randy: The way I see it, you can’t win or move comfortably in your pants if you’re not healthy, so of course, the Wild have been struggling lately. I believe that answers Peter’s question as well. Let’s see what happens if everyone gets healthy and the Wild can give opponents a healthy diet of Kirill and Co. every night. Time will tell, fellas. Optimist Brian: That’s exactly what I’m saying! We all know that when the Wild put the pedal to the medal and play their game, they get rewarded for their efforts. In general manager Bill Guerin, we trust! This is the guy who finally got Kaprizov to come over and who led the team to the best regular season in franchise history. Peter the Pessimist: Listen Brian, would I trust Bill Guerin to spin a good yarn and pick up the tab at the bar? Absolutely. Do I trust him with my hockey team? Sorry, but that ship flew the coop when he handled the team like he has this year. And really, even before that, things started getting weird. Rational Randy: Well, the way I see it, going into the season, the Wild weren’t expected to be as good as they have been so far, so we have to keep that in mind. Have they been as good as we would have hoped? No. But they haven’t been awful either. Time will tell what happens. We just gotta let the universe unfold as it will, bros. Optimist Brian: Well, listen, the universe unfolds according to the will of the hockey gods, and this year, they have to be on our side! I mean, the Wild put on their hard hats every game and go to work, and they’re bound to get rewarded with some puck luck at some point. Why wouldn’t this be the year they finally do? It’s the final year of Flower Power, after all. The gods be with us, I say. Peter the Pessimist: What in the name of Manny Fernandez are you two blabbering on about? The universe and hockey gods don’t win you hockey games! It’s Xs and Os, execution, being a well-oiled machine, and star power. And right now, the Wild are headed down the home stretch looking like the rickety sled in Cool Runnings, and the team’s stars are being held together with duct tape. Rational Randy: You know, Peter, some people have used duct tape to do some really great things. I had a wallet made out of it for all of middle school. The Wild’s chances have definitely gotten worse with all the injuries they’ve had, but all you really need is a chip and a chair, and then once the cards are dealt, it’s all up to fate. Time will tell. Let’s just sit back and enjoy the ride, dudes. Optimist Brian: You’re damn right I’m gonna enjoy the ride! How many teams do you know that could survive this many injuries to key players and still be pretty much a lock to make the playoffs? You know why? It’s because they have the intangibles and put the pieces in place to succeed. Their goalie tandem features an emerging star and a sure-fire hall of famer. They have a great mix of young talent and steady vets who all know their roles. Look at Marcus Johansson. He’s practically the Greek god of off-puck neutral zone positioning. That’s the stuff you need to win! Peter the Pessimist: Oookay. Let’s unpack this for a second, Brian. Your rationale for the team making a playoff run is that the Wild played well to start the season, they have a backup goaltender who they’ve barely played in the last month, and because they have Marcus freaking Johansson? What in the name of Justin Fontaine are you smoking? Randy, come on, this guy’s nuts, right? Rational Randy: Well, I can see both of your points, really. There’s a lot to be said for having a veteran presence in the room, and Fleury is known to have been a valuable mentor to young goalies in the playoffs. And Johansson does bring some defensive value, but Greek god is a little over the top. So yeah Peter, Brian’s probably smoking something. But that’s just his journey, man, just like the Wild are on theirs. Time will tell what happens, compadres. Optimist Brian: The Wild won this week! They are the best! Peter the Pessimist: The Wild lost this week. They suck. Rational Randy: You win some, you lose some, bros. Optimist Brian: Let’s go Wild! Let’s go WILD! Peter the Pessimist: Uhh yeah…I’m gonna go. Randy, can we be done here? Rational Randy: Sure thing, fellas. Rational Randy abides.

Special teams are incredibly important in crunch-time games, and the Minnesota Wild's power play had been struggling to cash in on their few chances in the last week or so. In their last four games, Minnesota went 0-for-9 with the man advantage, including two losses to big-time teams. Normally, a team like the Wild can ride out a four-game slump. However, needing to get a win against a top Washington Capitals team, John Hynes needed to do something drastic to shake things up. On Wednesday, the usually-conservative Hynes went bold, icing a five-forward power play unit. Some of the best, most talented teams have tried this tactic -- the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers come to mind as the pioneers -- but the Wild have been slow to the party. Under Bruce Boudreau, they were among the last teams to fully embrace having four forwards on the power play. Dean Evason always felt confident enough in Jared Spurgeon to have him as a defensive safety blanket. As for Hynes, Spurgeon, Brock Faber, and Declan Chisholm have all had 50-plus power play minutes. You can understand a fully-healthy Wild getting tempted into a five-forward unit. Having Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy, and Marco Rossi all on the ice? No one would bat an eye at that. But Hynes pulled that lever with Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek on the shelf, putting in Freddy Gaudreau and Marcus Johansson on the top unit. That raised eyebrows, or it would have, if it hadn't worked. 23 seconds into Minnesota's second (and final) power play chance, Gaudreau tipped Boldy's point shot to send the puck past Charlie Lindgren to tie the game. It was a necessary step to secure a crucial two points by knocking off the President's Trophy-leading Capitals. Gaudreau even iced the game by notching an empty-net goal. When Gaudreau first got to the Wild, he was plucked out of obscurity by Evason, whose long relationship with the player came from their days with the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals. Evason staked some of his reputation on Gaudreau, telling Michael Russo in August 2021, "I can attest to him... being a real, real good player, but a real good teammate as well." After a 44-point season, Evason got to take a victory lap. "I think my feelings personally on Freddy are well-known by now and I think it's an organizational feeling as well," the coach declared the following September. "You could play Freddy anywhere." But when Evason got fired amidst a slow start from many Wild players -- including Gaudreau -- it put Gaudreau into somewhat uncharted territory. Gaudreau was a late-bloomer, making the NHL full-time at 28, under a coach who had a unique relationship with him. How would it work under Hynes, who had no connection to Gaudreau at all? As Gaudreau's struggles compounded, it didn't work. During the 2022-23 season under Evason, Gaudreau averaged 16 minutes and three seconds per night for Minnesota. During Gaudreau's final 37 games in his first season under Hynes, that average time on ice fell to 13:24. Early this season, Hynes put Gaudreau on fourth-line duty, with him averaging just under 14 minutes a night in October, a month in which he went scoreless until the final game. His struggles under Hynes led to widespread speculation that the Wild might seek to give him a fresh start under the coach who had 1000% faith in him. However, no such move materialized, and Hynes, Minnesota's front office, and the fans all should be happy about that right now. It’s the State of Freddy Hockey now. Goals have been tough to come by in St. Paul this March, and Gaudreau's been one of the only reliable sources of them. His six scores in March leads the team, and his eight points are behind only Matt Boldy, tying him for second on the Wild. On a squad that's struggling to keep up trying to elevate the team in the wake of an absurd string of injuries, Gaudreau is one of the few players seeming to gain strength as the season wears on. And whether Gaudreau sees it this way, he's proving that he's no one-coach wonder. Hynes is leaning on Gaudreau like he never has before and is finding why Evason had such trust in the player. Since the start of February, Gaudreau is averaging 17:16 per night -- more ice time than Gaudreau's peak season (16:16) under Evason. During that span, Gaudreau is fifth among Wild forwards in 5-on-5 time, fifth in power play time, and by far their top penalty-killing forward. When defending a one-score lead with a 5-on-6 against the best goal-scorer of all time, Hynes had Freddy Hockey out there to stop Alex Ovechkin from tying the game. As Evason said, Hynes is finding he can play Gaudreau anywhere. Of course, some of this increase in playing time is out of necessity. During February and March, Ryan Hartman missed time due to suspension and Eriksson Ek has been out for over a month. If Gaudreau was simply eating minutes, maybe that's not a perfect indication of trust. But Gaudreau is stepping up, and as the five-forward power play showed, Hynes is looking for ways to get him into the game. It's working, and Gaudreau is suddenly in sight of setting a career-high in goals. He scored 19 two seasons ago, which means he needs just two in his final nine games to not just hit a career-best, but crack the 20-goal mark for the first time. More importantly, the perpetual underdog is helping an underdog Wild team claw out points as they grow closer to clinching a playoff spot. Last night saw him help Minnesota pick up a huge regulation win against Washington. Earlier this month, he notched two points in a 4-3 win against the Seattle Kraken. He scored the only tally in a 1-0 shutout of the Boston Bruins. Combine those big-moment scores with his always-solid two-way game, and Gaudreau is showing he's a player capable of earning the trust of any coach.

Based on what we've seen so far, there's only one way that Liam Öhgren is helping the Minnesota Wild get to the playoffs this year. As trade bait. I don't say that disrespectfully or because there's any shame in not being ready for an NHL playoff run as a 21-year-old rookie. Öhgren can create his own shot at the AHL level but can't quite do it against bigger, stronger NHLers. That's not good or bad. It just is. Unless you're trying to get the Wild to the playoffs without Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek. Once Eriksson Ek went on the IR, Minnesota had gone 0-3-0 before being forced to make a move, trading for Gustav Nyquist. It wasn't inspiring, perhaps, but when your team scores two or fewer goals in seven of their past nine games... you gotta do something. To make the Nyquist trade, they had to send Öhgren and fellow rookie forward Marat Khusnutdinov to the Iowa Wild for salary cap reasons. Those ripples showcase Minnesota's issues as a potential buyer: They have little flexibility, few moveable pieces, and almost no draft capital. The Wild will enter the 2025 Draft with only their second and sixth-round picks and a fourth-rounder they picked up from the Toronto Maple Leafs for facilitating a Ryan O'Reilly trade two deadlines ago. They've already moved their 2026 second-rounder to acquire Nyquist. So, what's left? A lot, actually. Minnesota has the second-best prospect pool in the NHL, according to The Athletic's Scott Wheeler. They have cornerstone pieces in Zeev Buium, (and, they hope) David Jiricek, Danila Yurov, and Jesper Wallstedt. Beyond those headliners, the Wild also have intriguing forward depth in Riley Heidt, Hunter Haight, and Charlie Stramel. Öhgren is sort of stuck in between those tiers. Few consider him a potential impact player, but he's close to NHL-ready and a cut above the Heidt/Haight/Stramel crowd. So it makes sense that, when asking Who's expendable?, Öhgren's name would come up. In fact, it did in The Athletic's round-up of players most likely to get dealt. Now, you've gotta give to get. Still, the Wild should go out of their way to keep Öhgren at the deadline, even if it means risking falling out of the playoffs. Why keep him over someone like Heidt, Haight, or even their 2026 first-rounder? It's a long-term fit issue. Many of Minnesota's forwards fit a similar prototype: Smart players who must rely on their offensive skill to make an impact in the NHL. Heidt, Haight, and Ryder Ritchie may play hard, but they don't have the potential to be, say, an elite forechecker like Eriksson Ek. Someone like Stramel might, but despite his strides at Michigan State, whether he makes it to the NHL is still an open question. As I said earlier, that's not good or bad. It just is. Öhgren is simply different from the pack. His 6-foot-0, 187-pound frame isn't imposing, but his playstyle should be once he settles into the NHL. Öhgren's game profiles similar to Eriksson Ek's. He has the skill to be on the power play but is effective on the forecheck. If the Wild want the kind of third-line scoring threat they had a few years ago with Eriksson Ek, Marcus Foligno, and Jordan Greenway, Öhgren is their most likely prospect to fill that role. That's probably not going to be the case with the smaller Heidt or Haight. Ritchie is 6-foot-1, so maybe he will become that player. Still, at least at the draft, he looks like someone whose ID you'd check before selling him lemonade. Obsessing over height and weight charts is a good way to make mistakes in player evaluation, but here's the thing: Someone has to fill the physical role on a team. It's not about fighting or blasting guys with hard hits. Instead, it's about having players who can forecheck and withstand physical pressure, which is essential. Öhgren is their top prospect who cleanly fits that bill. And if they don't develop someone like Öhgren, they'll try to find that player elsewhere. All you have to do is look at the last two summers to see that. Marcus Foligno got a four-year deal that's working out great now but carries the potential to fall off hard toward the end. Ryan Hartman signed a three-year extension and his value has plummeted to the point where he's getting called "just a knucklehead" by NHL executives. Yakov Trenin came in as a free agent and is on pace for eight goals in the first year of a four-year pact that pays him $3.5 million annually. It's hard to say that Öhgren is more important than the Big 4 of Buium, Jiricek, Wallstedt, and Yurov, but arguably, he's just as important, even if Öhgren doesn't quite stack up to them talent-wise. Great teams have great players at the top, of course, but teams also need strong role players to make a deep run. There's a place in Minnesota for someone with, say, Nino Niederreiter-type potential, which is something Öhgren can provide that few others in the system offer. You can't say, The fifth-best prospect in our system is completely untouchable, but the Wild would be wise to find any way they can to keep Öhgren in-house.

Playing hockey was all in the family. It’s a tale not uncommon in athletic circles. Claire Thompson grew up lacing up skates and picking up a hockey stick in Toronto. She followed the lead of her dad, Ian, and older sister, Jennifer, who each played hockey growing up. The girls started skating at a young age. It was just the thing to do, Claire said. “Just go out to the outdoor rinks and learn to skate as a family,” Thompson said. “And then my older sister started playing organized hockey, and I wanted to do everything just like she did. That’s how I kind of got started playing hockey.” That start blossomed into a successful hockey career. Thompson, 27, is flourishing in her rookie season as a Minnesota Frost defenseman. The third overall pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft has 14 points in 16 games and is one of the top scorers in the league. She played high school hockey for Martingrove Collegiate Institute and two seasons for the Toronto Junior Aeros, which won the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (also PWHL) and Provincial Championship in 2015-16. Looking at Thompson’s production from the blue line, it’s easy to refer to her as an offensive defenseman. She leads the Frost with 11 assists and is tied with forward Taylor Heise for second in points with 14. There’s a good reason for that: She started as a center and didn’t switch to defense until later in high school. She was a defensive, play-making center, and her dad wanted to see if she could switch to playing on the blue line. “My dad just thought that my skillset would translate into being a skilled, efficient defenseman,” Thompson said. “He brought it up to me to see if it was something that I was interested in considering, and I said that I was.” They talked to her coach, and by the next season, she fully switched over to defense. She said they didn’t know exactly how it would turn out or if it would be a good decision. “It’s obviously panned out pretty well,” said Thompson, adding that she has no regrets about the position swap. But hockey isn’t Thompson’s only passion. She wanted to become a doctor ever since she could remember. Thompson always liked math and science. She also had another family tie; her grandfather was a doctor. He died when she was young, and “I think that was always kind of in the back of my mind.” That career aspiration – of becoming a doctor – was realistic and attainable while Thompson was growing up. Playing professional hockey was not. She always saw hockey as a way to help her get admitted into the best university she could “because, unfortunately, at that time there wasn’t a big pro women’s league to aspire to be a part of, despite there being the Olympics and that always being a dream.” Hockey on the collegiate, international stage Thompson played hockey at Princeton from 2016 to 2020 and was a captain her senior season. She scored 31 goals and 87 points in 128 career games while being named a four-time ECAC All-Academic selection, three-time AHCA All-American Scholar, and two-time Academic All-Ivy honoree. As a junior, she finished third on her team in scoring and led defensemen with nine goals and 28 points. While the Olympics was ultimately her dream, Thompson didn’t make the Canadian national team until her senior year. So, from her high years and most of college, she didn’t think professional ice hockey was a viable career option. She hadn’t made the national team until then, and there wasn’t another hockey league worth putting her medical school dreams on hold. She graduated from college with her undergraduate degree in 2020. After making the national team, she took two years off of academics to chase her Olympic dream for the 2022 Games, where she won a gold medal with Canada in Beijing. In the process, she broke the Olympic record for the most points scored by a defenseman in a single tournament with 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in seven games. Thompson also won International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship gold in 2021 and silver in 2023 with Team Canada. Following the 2022 Olympic cycle, Thompson started her medical school journey in August 2022 for the fall semester at NYU. She wants to pursue orthopedic surgery. The summer following her first year of med school, the PWHL presented an opportunity. However, Thompson was already committed to another year of school. When the puck dropped on the PWHL inaugural season in January 2024, Thompson took a year off from competitive hockey and was busy studying and working toward her medical degree. “I had never really planned to take a whole year off hockey,” Thompson said. “The year prior to that, I had played in the PWHPA and with the national team and was able to do both with school. And then the league (PWHL) kind of came together late last summer, early in the fall.” With everything so new, it wasn’t clear how she could pursue hockey and education simultaneously as she’d done previously. But once she found out the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, weighing the hockey requirements versus her med school requirements, she focused on school but also how she could continue to play hockey. Drafted by the champs When Minnesota celebrated its Walter Cup Championship, Thompson had completed two years of school and entered the 2024 PWHL Draft. Thompson, like other players, was not at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, attending the PWHL Draft on June 10, 2024. Instead, she watched the proceedings from her med school apartment. She and her roommates and friends had a draft party. There were a few Minnesotans in the room who were excited when Thompson’s name was called in the first round by the defending PWHL champion. That night, she told the media via virtual video press conference that entering the draft was a “really difficult decision” because she loves med school. Still, her “sights have been set on continuing to play professional hockey during this period of my life.” Thompson expressed her excitement at being drafted to Minnesota that night. “I’m just so excited to be a part of such a successful team coming off the most recent championship,” she said on draft night. “I couldn’t think of a better place to start my professional ice hockey career. “They always say ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder.’ So not being able to play this year has really reinvigorated my love for hockey.”

The Minnesota Wild have employed more than their fair share of players from Finland, the European hockey hotbed. Some are among the most impactful players in the organization’s history. The club’s affinity for Finns eventually earned it a new nickname. The Finnesota Wild. Heck, there even used to be a Finnish hockey podcast with the same name. While the team hasn’t had a Finn suit-up since Kaapo Kahkonen played 25 games in the 2021-22 season, that has a chance to change in the coming years. Over the past two drafts, the Wild have selected three Finnish players, all of whom the organization hopes to develop into NHL players. In 2023, they selected Rasmus Kumpulainen; in 2024, they selected Aron Kiviharju and Sebastian Soini. All three prospects participated for Team Finland in the 2025 World Junior Championship in December and January. The Finns showed well in the tournament, making it to overtime of the gold medal game, where they eventually fell to Team USA. For Kumpalainen, it was his second time playing for Finland in the World Juniors, while Kiviharju and Soini participated for the first time. I watched all seven of Finland’s games in the tournament and paid particular attention to the trio of Wild prospects to get a sense of who they are as players and, more importantly, what they might become. My biggest takeaway was that of the three, Aron Kiviharju has the best chance to become an impact player. Aron Kiviharju - Defense Shoots: Left - 5-foot-10, 181 lbs. Current Team: HIFK (Liiga) Acquired: 2024 NHL Draft, 4th round (No. 122 overall) Kiviharju endeared himself to Wild fans on draft day last summer when he told Bill Guerin that he had just made the steal of the draft when the Wild selected him in the fourth round. After missing most of his draft season due to a dislocated kneecap, the once highly-touted Finn had slipped down draft lists and was none too pleased. He’s rebounded nicely with a solid post-draft year thus far, playing in Finland’s top professional league and earning a spot on the Finnish World Junior squad. At that tournament, Kivharju was named captain of a team full of older NHL prospects, which speaks volumes of his character and demeanor on and off the ice. The confidence that led Kiviharju to declare to Guerin is also visible in how he plays the game. While he may not project as a high-end prospect, there’s reason to believe he has enough tools to make an impact in the NHL. However, there is some uncertainty about how his game might translate as he moves up levels. Let’s dig into his game a bit. Strengths The game calms down when Kiviharju has the puck on his stick. He handles it with poise, and it’s extremely rare to see him make a bad decision. He has a knack for understanding the game’s trajectory and adjusting in real-time. When things break down, and players around him start to scramble, Kiviharju makes calm plays to get the puck out of the zone by skating it out of trouble or relieving pressure with short passes against the grain to evade forechecks. When his team struggles to generate offense, he’ll activate in the offensive zone to try and create a spark. Kiviharju’s poise with the puck allows him to be effective offensively when walking the blue line to create passing or shooting lanes. He doesn’t have a hard shot and prefers to make a play. Still, he uses his teammates well and can break down defenses by interchanging with forwards and attacking soft spots to create space. Kiviharju uses strong footwork to move laterally while walking the line but keeps his torso towards the play. That allows him to see the ice and keep options open. All of this is on display in the clip below. Kiviharju recognized an opportunity to attack a collapsed defense and created a goal: Kiviharju uses situational awareness to disrupt plays and deny options with his stick and body positioning in his own zone. As a smaller defenseman, he holds his own in board battles. He uses solid footwork and positioning to gain leverage, spin out of contact with possession, or poke a puck to a teammate, similar to Jared Spurgeon. Kiviharju’s footwork and sturdy frame mean he rarely takes big hits. His breakout passes are a joy to watch. He consistently throws passes to the tape at the right pace for the situation and can wire or finesse them. He isn’t a dynamic skater, but Kiviharju is efficient in that he stays balanced. He doesn’t lose his form, which usually allows him to get from point A to B at the right time. When defending rushes in the neutral zone, Kiviharju handles himself well when forced to back up against a quick transition and can read attacks to string plays out and get into passing lanes. Question marks My biggest question regarding Kiviharju’s ability to be a reliable NHL defenseman is whether he has the pace necessary to defend against players who attack him wide with speed. He’s not the swiftest backward skater. Kiviharju usually adjusts for that with positioning and awareness, but he can have trouble recovering if he gets caught flat-footed or there’s a quick counter off a turnover. That isn’t an issue too often for him now, but I could see it being something that NHL teams might exploit if he isn’t able to add some explosiveness to his backward stride or improve the power he gets when turning from backward to forwards so he can beat guys to the near side post. Kiviharju also tends to be overconfident when defending one-on-one and goes for a poke check in situations where he shouldn’t. As he moves up levels, players will also be able to exploit this. Kiviharju will have to learn to adapt his game to leagues where he’s no longer a top player who can get away with unnecessary risks simply because he’s better than everyone. I am confident he can, but it might require time and growing pains. The play below is a perfect example of something he does well and also where he has room for growth. Note how Kiviharju uses his strong lateral push to recover and get into position quickly. (He was only out of position because he got crossed up with a forward covering the point). Once he gets there, instead of relying on that positioning to deny or deflect a shot, he goes for a poke check and misses. The result is a goal against. Finally, it’s fair to wonder about Kiviharju’s NHL role. He’s an effective offensive player but not a dynamic one. He can quarterback a power play unit, but he is probably more of a distributor than someone who can be a scoring threat and would probably not be a top-two option for that role on good teams. Kiviharju isn’t a physical presence. While he doesn’t get pushed around often, he might struggle against heavy opponents. He moves well enough to defend in all situations, but Kiviharju is probably not a dynamic enough skater to be a shutdown defender against top players. Where exactly he’d fit in a lineup will have to be clarified with time. Projection When I watch Kiviharju play, I see a future NHL defenseman. He can probably be a No. 4 to 6 defenseman with time, but it might take 4 to 5 years to get there. Kiviharju’s intelligence and poise will separate him from other players with similar toolkits. If he can adapt his game to the AHL and then the NHL, he can become the type of player that coaches love because he’s well-rounded, won’t make bad decisions with the puck, and is an efficient distributor up the ice. It remains to be seen if Kiviharju is the steal of the 2024 draft. Still, if he can go from being a fourth-round pick to becoming an NHL mainstay, that would be an exceptional outcome for Judd Brackett and the rest of the Wild’s scouting staff.

We wrote about Kirill Kaprizov's incredible start on Thursday. Still, when a player goes out and drops a three-point night to extend their multi-point game streak to seven... what else can you do but marvel about him all over again? Kaprizov is refusing to slow down, adding two goals and an assist in the Minnesota Wild's 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The effort bumped Kaprizov back into the NHL lead in points (21), extended his multi-point game streak to seven, and gave Minnesota their sixth win in the past seven games. We have to add an addendum to Thursday's piece concerning Kaprizov's start: "Dolla Bill Kirill" is tied with Leon Draisaitl (2021-22) and Thomas Vanek (2013-14) for the fourth-most points through 10 games in the Salary Cap Era. Only Draisaitl and Connor McDavid have had more. Look further down the list, and you'll see titans of the game like Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby looking up at Kaprizov. That boggles the mind, and Kaprizov's hot start registers as incredible, even for someone who has spent years watching Malkin and Crosby night in and night out. "I think it just proves how good he is, how special he is," Bill Guerin marveled to Hockey Wilderness following Kaprizov's three-point outing. "You don't just do that by accident, either. You see good players get off to strong starts and things like that, but... 10 games, that's a good-sized segment. So have that, not just consistency, but high-level and produce like that is amazing." No one could ever accuse Kaprizov of flying under the radar. People have considered him among the NHL's most dynamic wingers since entering the league. Still, he seems to be garnering a new level of attention league-wide this season. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman pinpointed him as a Hart Trophy contender two weeks ago. The Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn and Sean Gentille recently floated a trial balloon take that Kaprizov may have surpassed last season's Hart runner-up Nikita Kucherov as the league's best winger. And why not? It shouldn't be lost on anyone that Kaprizov's two-goal, one-assist game on Friday is an identical stat line to his October 24 showing at Tampa Bay. In head-to-heads, Kaprizov has a 6-2 point advantage over his countryman Kucherov. If we want to keep comparing the two superstar Russians, we can point out that Kaprizov's seventh-straight multi-point game matches Kucherov's career-high streak. The two are tied for the fourth-longest such streak of the Salary Cap Era. Stamkos, McDavid, and Vincent Lecavalier are the only players who can claim a longer one... and if Kaprizov extends his to eight games on Sunday night, that list of players goes down to one. Kaprizov's six power-play points tied him for seventh in the NHL, and he's been even better at 5-on-5 play. His 12 points at 5-on-5 sit on top of the NHL (along with Sam Reinhart), and it's gone a long way to his 14-4 scoring advantage over his opponents when he's on the ice. Only Reinhart is enjoying a higher 5-on-5 goal differential than Kaprizov's plus-10. At this point, what else can you say? Wild fans are watching the best player in franchise history at the height of his powers, and he's putting the rest of the hockey world on notice. It's been a treat to watch, and while 10 games is a good chunk of the season, we've got a lot of time left for Kaprizov to amaze us even more.

The Minnesota Wild's most controversial offseason move wasn't a free agent signing, a trade, or a draft pick. Even if the Wild had the resources to make such a splash, a move like the rumored Patrik Laine trade may still have taken a backseat to a simple lineup card change. John Hynes almost rode his top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy to the playoffs. Playing 375 minutes -- almost all down the stretch -- these three out-scored opponents by a 30 to 18 margin. That plus-12 goal differential was tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner - Matthew Knies line and the Vancouver Canucks' Brock Boeser - J.T. Miller - Pius Suter line for the ninth-best mark in the NHL. That line was such a cheat code that it seemed unthinkable to break it up, even for lineup balance. But Hynes did, moving Eriksson Ek and Boldy to their own line, then ultimately placing 2020 first-rounder Marco Rossi in the top spot between Kaprizov and winger Mats Zuccarello. On one hand, Rossi was a highly-touted prospect the Wild likely drafted to handle this exact role. On the other hand, the Wild never seemed to warm up to him fully. Even though he scored 21 goals as a rookie, they didn't seem to see Rossi's ceiling as a top-line center. He had a big opportunity to keep proving his worth. Rossi might be soft-spoken, but his first five games have made a huge statement. His five points have him tied with Zuccarello for third on the team, behind only Kaprizov (eight) and Boldy (six). All five of his points have come at 5-on-5, where he sits in sole possession of the team lead. Rossi entered Sunday tied for the eighth-most 5-on-5 points in the NHL. There are only two other centers ahead of him: the Vegas Golden Knights' Jack Eichel and the Florida Panthers' Sam Reinhart -- and Reinhart only plays the pivot part-time. The secret to Rossi's success? It's more of the same stuff that led to his breakout last year -- and mirrors what led to Eriksson Ek's rise as a goal-scoring presence in the NHL. He can go to the net, find the soft spots in the defense, and good things happen. Look at his shot map (courtesy of Evolving-Hockey), and you'll find that nine of his 12 shot attempts at 5-on-5 have come within 20 feet of the net. Six of them have come within 11 feet or fewer. However you want to measure it, Rossi is getting high-quality chances at 5-on-5 unlike anyone else on the team and few in the NHL. Natural Stat Trick has him tied for tenth in the NHL with nine high-danger shot attempts at 5-on-5, which matches totals from Eichel, Nikita Kucherov, and Mikko Rantanen. Evolving-Hockey has him in the team lead with 1.90 expected goals in all situations, not just 5-on-5. That's more than Kaprizov and Boldy, despite getting fewer minutes and half the power play time. That's impressive, but so is Rossi's performance as a cohesive member of the top line. So far, the trio has out-scored opponents by a 5-to-1 margin at 5-on-5, and while scoring 83% of the goals or so won't continue, their controlling 58.6% of the expected goals share should keep them firmly in the positive. They're also carrying over their success from last season when they out-scored opponents 19 to 13 at 5-on-5. Add that all up, and this top line is up 24 to 14 -- a 63.2% of the goal share that actually (and slightly) bests the Kaprizov - Eriksson Ek - Boldy line from last season (62.5%). You aren't likely to see Rossi do the Holy Nordy, did you see that?! kind of plays that Kaprizov and Boldy make, at least not yet. But he's so good at doing small things to keep plays alive, whether it's his positioning, winning board battles, or making a heads-up play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Watch Rossi's goal against St. Louis, only don't pay attention to the end of the play. Look at everything he does before Kaprizov puts the puck on his stick. He pressures Colton Parayko and forces him to dump the puck along the boards to Nick Leddy, who promptly turns it over to Kaprizov. It takes Rossi no time to change directions and get into a shooting position, which he stays in. He hangs in a soft spot nine feet from the net, where he's untouched. Elite hockey sense is going to get you a lot of goals that look almost effortless. In some senses, this is five games, a small sample size. At the same time, the Wild drafted Rossi to be a scoring center, and he had that pedigree at juniors and the AHL. He had success with this line last season, and it's unsurprising if he made a major leap in the offseason, considering the tremendous growth he showed after the summer of 2023. We may be watching a legit Top-Line Center taking his final form right before our eyes.

Brock Faber’s contract extension this summer was not only important in locking up the Minnesota Wild’s bona fide No. 1 defenseman of the future. It was also perhaps the final step in setting the stage for next summer’s much-anticipated cap relief coming the Wild’s way. Since that fateful day in July during the summer of 2021, when Minnesota bought out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, Wild fans have keyed in on the 2025 off-season as their light at the end of the tunnel. Next July, Minnesota will finally be (mostly) out from under the massive dead cap hits the league has burdened them with. Most of us figured 2025 would be a spending spree for Minnesota. Many of their highly-touted prospects will begin making an impact, coupled with having money to spend on important vets to help surround their superstar in Kirill Kaprizov to compete for the Stanley Cup. Some of that excitement has been dampened over the past calendar year, as GM Bill Guerin has extended a handful of current veterans to modest extensions over the next three to four years. With Faber’s unexpected breakout season landing his second contract among the elite defensemen in the league, you have to wonder just how many fireworks will be set off when free agency opens next July. Now’s as good a time as ever to look ahead to what the summer of 2025 could look like for the State of Hockey. It’s time to review each position group and check in on how much cap space is locked into each unit and what impact that may have on how much flexibility the Wild have going into their contention window. Forwards As it stands, the Guerin has locked in eight forwards to contracts going into next season. Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman, Yakov Trenin, and Frederick Gaudreau’s contracts total $38,975,000 in allotted cap space. But Guerin hasn’t locked every player up yet. Those eight contracts mean there are likely four roster spots up for grabs. Among the expiring contracts, Marat Khusnutdinov and Marco Rossi are prime candidates for extensions (sorry, Marcus Johansson) if the Wild don't trade them before then. One can assume Liam Ohgren and a prospect such as Riley Heidt will likely make the roster next year, if not as early as this season. Since all we can do is speculate about what could happen 11 months from now, let’s just assume Khusnutdinov and Rossi earn their way to extensions. At this point in their development, they would likely sign bridge deals. When looking at recent bridge deals for young forwards, two examples come to mind that are favorable comps to both Wild forwards. The Philadelphia Flyers extended Bobby Brink for two years this summer at a $1.5 million average annual value (AAV). His production isn’t far from what Khusnutdinov would likely produce this season (11 goals and 12 assists). It’s hard to imagine the Russian speedster outproducing Brink’s production due to a bottom-six role in Minnesota this year. As for Rossi, Wild management seems a little bullish on the small center. If his point total matches or exceeds what he provided in a top-six role last year, his bridge deal should come in higher than Khusnutdinov's. For Rossi, there’s a fairly close comparison to a recent bridge deal signed north of the border. In July, the Ottawa Senators inked their young center, Shane Pinto, to a 2-year, $3.75M AAV bridge deal. Last year, Pinto scored at a .66 points/game pace, slightly ahead of Rossi’s .57 points/game. Admittedly, the comparisons are slightly more difficult due to Pinto’s off-ice issues. Still, his on-ice production and positional value are similar to Rossi’s. And it’s not as though NHL teams are known for considering red flags when signing contracts, so the contract comparison is a good start. That leaves two roster spots amongst the forwards, likely taken up by Ohgren, another prospect, or perhaps a free agent signing. But more on that later. Defense The blue line is much less murky, thanks to five defensemen already locked up for next season and a very low chance any of them aren’t on the roster. Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Jake Middleton, Zach Bogosian, and Faber are all locked in for the 2025-26 campaign. Outside Bogosian, they either have trade protection or are so valuable that a trade is out of the question. Those five account for $27.675 million in cap space, leaving just two more roster spots to fill. The most likely outcome is that Zeev Buium will leave college either next spring or summer and assumes the final spot in the starting lineup. In that case, he brings his cheap entry-level contract with him. Unless one of their defensemen in Iowa proves themselves worthy of a promotion, the final spot would likely be filled by a free-agent defenseman who can handle the duties of being a seventh defenseman. Or perhaps Declan Chisholm proves himself worthy of a low-cost extension this summer. Either way, Minnesota's blue line is fairly easy to predict for next season. Goaltending Again, this is fairly simple, barring a Filip Gustavsson trade in the next calendar year. With Marc-Andre Fleury likely playing his last season in Minnesota, and perhaps even the NHL, one can assume next year’s tandem will consist of Gustavsson alongside highly-touted prospect Jesper Wallstedt. The “Gus Bus” would account for $3.75M of cap space, while Wallstedt would require an extension given his entry-level deal expires. Projecting Wallstedt’s extension is a little trickier, given how little he has played at the NHL level so far and that he figures to be part of a rotating trio this season. However, there is a good comparison for him in South Beach. Florida extended their former first-round draft pick in 2022 after he only played in 36 games over two seasons. Like Wallstedt, Spencer Knight had not shown much but was a highly touted draft pick. He was awarded a three-year, $4.5M AAV. Unless injuries or poor play devastates the Wild’s net this upcoming season, Wallstedt’s games played total should come in slightly under or right at Knight’s level. Given that, it’s safe to assume the Swedish netminder comes in at a number similar to Knight's, likely between $3.5 and $4.5 million. So where does all that leave us? Assuming the above is mostly correct (and we are projecting here, so give us some slack), the Wild will have $83,611,667 allocated to 13 forwards, six defensemen, and two goaltenders. Given that the NHL’s salary cap is expected to rise roughly $92 to $94M, the Wild should have between $8 and $10M in cap space for the 2025-26 season and only need one single forward or defenseman. Even with all the distress over recent extensions, that’s a fair amount of cap space to sign or trade for an impactful player or two during free agency. While the Wild may not be nearly as aggressive in reshaping their roster next summer as most had hoped following the Parise and Suter buyouts, there is plenty of space to make impactful additions to an already solid roster. A lot can change between now and then, but at this moment, the Wild are still poised to make a splash or two next summer.

The Minnesota Wild made no secret of wanting to get bigger, faster, and stronger this offseason. Did that happen? Depends on whether 6-foot-2 Yakov Trenin or 6-foot-0 Jakub Lauko being in the bottom-six moves the needle for you. That wasn't the plan for Minnesota to add size, though. As reported repeatedly by Michael Russo and Joe Schmidt of The Athletic, the Wild had their feelers up to move out 5-foot-9 Marco Rossi. As Russo pegged on June 25, the Columbus Blue Jackets were one destination that made sense. The Jackets had a collection of young, once highly-touted prospects who may have fallen out of favor. David Jiricek (sixth overall, 2022) and Kent Johnson (fifth overall, 2021) had high-profile demotions that put their futures in Columbus into question. Meanwhile, Cole Sillinger (12th overall, 2021) has seen his development plateau since his 18-year-old rookie season. Of those three, Johnson was the most intriguing option in a potential Rossi trade because he was the closest to a one-to-one comparable with the young Wild center. While Johnson has mostly played the wing in the NHL and took a total of 23 faceoffs in his two years at Michigan, Columbus drafted him as a center. Would the Wild have tried moving Johnson back to the pivot? In a world where Ryan Hartman is a center, anything is possible. If so, Johnson could have been an ideal return for Bill Guerin in a Rossi trade. While Rossi is more filled-out at this stage of his career, Johnson has a 6-foot-0 frame that offers him more height. Maybe Johnson's skating isn't better, but one out of three ain't bad? However, the draft and free agency have come and gone. If you were dreaming about Johnson in a Wild uniform, that dream was already dwindling. Rossi appears to be locked into a roster spot on the Wild, and Minnesota's $1.5 million in cap room dictates that they keep Rossi's Entry Level Contract in-house. Last week, the door slammed shut on Johnson completely. The Blue Jackets signed Johnson to a bridge deal, locking the restricted free agent into a two-year contract for $1.8 million per season. That's more than a movable contract, but that's also a big reason Columbus wouldn't move him. Say what you want about how much he struggled last year, but Johnson had a 16-goal, 40-point rookie season in 2022-23. There's plenty of room to grow there. Plus, the Jackets have an opportunity to put any unpleasantness from last season behind them. They fired general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen and kicked interim GM John Davidson upstairs. They also cycled through coaches Mike Babcock and Pascal Vincent. In comes GM Don Waddell and head coach Dean Evason, and thus, an opportunity for a fresh start. For that trade framework to be possible going forward, Rossi and Johnson would likely have to be distressed assets. The Wild would still have to send out signals that they want to offload Rossi, and Johnson would have to burn through his goodwill with a new coach/GM regime. At that point, it wouldn't be a particularly attractive trade. The good news is that Minnesota's inability to move Rossi has a great shot to be a blessing in disguise from Guerin's perspective. It's still confusing that the Wild, with their lack of centers throughout their history, would look to trade (arguably) the first true center in their history to score 40 points before turning 23. The Wild have hesitated to commit to Rossi in the same way they've done with Matt Boldy and, most recently, Brock Faber. But their young center has shown a fanatical commitment to improving in the offseason, and he has every bit as much room to grow as Johnson. The Johnson Dream may be over, but realizing the Rossi Dream may be an even better outcome for the Wild.

It's incredibly difficult to anticipate an NHL team's needs years into the future. For example, last season, most fans believed the Minnesota Wild's defensive prospect pool was stacked. With Carson Lambos, Daemon Hunt, David Spacek, Ryan O'Rourke, and Kyle Masters in the AHL or turning pro, it looked like the Wild had a future logjam on their hands. After those five defensemen struggled to gain traction with the Iowa Wild this year, Minnesota suddenly didn't have enough defensemen, to the point where the Wild are reportedly set to ink a four-year, $4 million-plus AAV contract extension for Jake Middleton on Monday. The deal would cement Jonas Brodin and Middleton on the left side of Minnesota's defense through the 2027-28 season. If the Wild kept Middleton under contract for five more years (including the last season of his current deal), it would signal a lack of faith in their prospect pool. Brodin and Middleton would ensure that only one of Lambos, Hunt, O'Rourke, or Jack Peart could assume top-six NHL minutes. Suppose Minnesota believes just one (or zero) will pan out, then it might make sense for Middleton to hold that spot down for a half-decade. But again, it's tough to anticipate the needs of an NHL team, as they could change in a weekend. Days before free agency, Minnesota added two major left-shot defensemen to their organization in first-round pick Zeev Buium and fourth-rounder Aron Kiviharju. These signings change the long-term outlook for Minnesota at the position, and they should change their plans with Middleton. The Wild have a potential No. 1 defenseman on the left side of the blueline in Buium, and he should be NHL-ready extremely soon. He already led the NCAA in time on ice and points from a defenseman and won a National Championship. The Wild are having him play his sophomore year at Denver University, but how much more will he be able to accomplish after that? Buium may be in the NHL at the end of this upcoming season before Middleton's current contract expires. With Buium's big-play ability, solid defense, and minute-munching, he could supplant Middleton on the depth chart for a playoff run. If not next year, then soon afterward, which would give Minnesota a third-pairing defenseman making $4 million or more. It might not even be long until Kiviharju can play in the NHL. He's been in and out of Finnish Liiga since September 2022, when he was 16. If he gets back to his pre-draft year trajectory, he could easily be ready for NHL action by the start of the 2026-27 season. And who knows, with a dominant season in Liiga, perhaps he could even push for a spot in 2025-26 as Buium breaks into the NHL. Then there's the possibility that one of Lambos, Peart, Hunt, or O'Rourke put it together and become NHL-caliber. After adding Kiviharju to the mix, odds are one of them will be worthy of displacing Middleton long before his reported four-year deal expires. The Wild will certainly cite "cost certainty" if and when they ink Middleton to an extension. But what makes Minnesota certain they'll want to pay Middleton $4 million in four years? Or three? Or two? Middleton succeeded in his time in Minnesota as a defensive specialist alongside Jared Spurgeon. Last year, we discovered what happens when you take Spurgeon away from Middleton, and it wasn't pretty. Suddenly, his calling card defense looked a lot less effective. He went from controlling 61.9% of the expected goals share in 155 minutes with Spurgeon to 47.8% in 802 minutes with Brock Faber. The idea of blocking off a roster spot for four years with an expensive, third-pairing defenseman is already a sketchy proposition. Doing it for one whose success seems to rely on another player (Spurgeon, whose contract will expire halfway through Middleton's likely extension) simply seems like bad roster management. Signing Middleton this week would echo many of the problems from the extensions the Wild handed out last offseason. Namely: Why sign it now, a year before Minnesota has to make a decision? Why tie up that flexibility in a role player before getting any of the information they'll learn about their prospects next year? By next May, Minnesota will have a great handle on Buium's NHL timetable, and that's if they don't already have him on the roster. They'll get to see how well Kiviharju bounces back from his injury and handles a full-time role in Liiga. Their AHL defensemen (who are all 23 and under) will have another season of development and the possibility of taking major strides. Middleton isn't going anywhere and isn't getting any more expensive next season. They can wait to see what they have in their prospect pool, then make a more informed decision with a term tailored to their needs. It's hard to see Bill Guerin deviating from his plan, particularly for one of his beloved veterans, but plans can and should change with new information. The Wild planned on signing Middleton before getting two stud left defensemen in Buium and Kiviharju. Now that they have those in-house, they must adopt a wait-and-see posture.

The Minnesota Wild are in a spot where they could really use Danila Yurov next season. Their secondary scoring over this past season was all but non-existent, and their skill and depth at forward suffered from a steady stream of cap casualties over the past three years. Yurov could have theoretically solved those problems next season. His ability to play any forward position would give Minnesota much-needed flexibility and ensure he could fill any hole the Wild have in their top-nine. His stellar season in the KHL (21 goals, 49 points in 62 games) shows that he has skill to spare. His 6-foot-1 frame would offer the size upgrade in the lineup that the front office is apparently desperate for. He even has a winning pedigree at the age of 20. His Metallurg Magnitogorsk team just won the KHL championship in a sweep after a regular season in which he was his team's leading scorer. He'd be the total package. Unfortunately, the Wild are waiting another year for Yurov's arrival. Just after he lifted the Gagarin Cup, he re-upped his contract with his hometown Magnitogorsk, making a solid sum of $400K-plus. It might discourage Wild fans, who remember the long wait and lost seasons when they could have seen Kirill Kaprizov in Minnesota's lineup. But while watching a year of Yurov from afar will be a bummer, it's important to realize how good of a spot the Wild are in with the 2021 first-round pick. Yurov should never have fallen to the No. 24 overall pick. He was considered a top-10 prospect heading into the draft, and the "Russian Factor" was becoming less and less of a factor. While perceived uncertainty with Russian prospects will always be there, thanks to the KHL's competitive nature with the NHL, players like Andrei Svechnikov, Vitali Kravtsov, and Vasili Podkolzin had recently gone in their draft's top-10 picks. Things were trending in a direction where Minnesota wouldn't have had a sniff at someone like Yurov, but then Russia's invasion of Ukraine threw more uncertainty than ever in Russian prospects' timelines. After the war started, their projected arrivals to the U.S. may not even have been legal, let alone timely. Since then, these questions benefitted teams like the Wild who rolled the dice on players like Yurov. While the IIHF has banned Russia (and Belarus) from international competition, there have been no restrictions on Russian players going to play in North America. Yurov isn't staying in the KHL due to geopolitical reasons. He told The Athletic's Michael Russo over an online exchange that his decision to stay came from wanting "more consistency from myself and to gain physical strength." Yurov reiterated that his goal is to play in the NHL and that he hopes to feel ready to make the jump after next season. If that happens, Yurov should make his Wild debut in October 2025, just two months before his 22nd birthday. You can contrast that with Kaprizov, who made his NHL debut in January 2021 at 23 years old, about four months before turning 24. Or, hey, don't even compare that to Kaprizov. Making the NHL full-time at 21 is a fairly normal timetable for all but the most NHL-ready prospects. The Calgary Flames' Connor Zary was the No. 24 pick in 2020, the draft class before Yurov's. He made his NHL debut on November 1 this season, after his 22nd birthday. No one in Calgary seems to mind, as Zary made an impact this year. For a Wild-specific example, look to Marco Rossi, who made his full-time NHL debut early this year, just after his 22nd birthday. Sure, the Wild had him play 21 games prior, but what good did that do the team? It probably hurt his stock more than it helped to tread water without scoring points for 21 games at ages 20 and 21. Yurov holds the record for most points in the KHL by a 20-year-old, and it's worth noting that most of the players Yurov passed didn't step into the NHL at age-21 and didn't always make an immediate impact. Vladimir Tarasenko made that jump in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. Even with the benefit of 31 KHL games to warm up, Tarasenko scored a fine-but-not-great eight goals and 19 points in 38 games for the St. Louis Blues. The following season, he posted a much more Tarasenko-like 21 goals and 43 points in 64 games. Evgeny Kuznetsov is another superstar Russian prospect who jumped to the NHL at age-21. Like Tarasenko, Kuznetsov played 31 KHL games before going to the Washington Capitals during the 2013-14 season, and like Tarasenko, he was... fine. He scored three goals and nine points in 17 games as a 21-year-old, jumping to 11 goals and 37 points at age 22. Yurov also doesn't quite have the experience players like Tarasenko, Kuznetsov, and Kaprizov had at this stage in their development. Those players got top ice time at ages 18, 19, and 20. Yurov got minimal ice time with Magnitogorsk until this season. Even including playoffs, Yurov only has 85 games as a top-line player in a top league like the KHL. Compare that to the 200-plus games of regular-season KHL action with which Tarasenko and Kuznetsov arrived. Choosing to stay in Russia for another year to gain physical strength and experience might even be a sign of maturity for Yurov. The Wild wants to have him, but what if their timetable is too aggressive? What if Yurov came over this fall and struggled? Would doubts creep into his head (as well as the heads of the fan base and front office) that he was a one-year wonder? Maybe, and maybe not, but there's that risk. Instead, Yurov builds his confidence as The Guy on Magnitogorsk again. He'll be mastering the level that he's at rather than rushing himself to the NHL. Playing top minutes of meaningful hockey while trying to repeat a championship season can't be bad for his development. So, is it a bummer that we won't get to see Yurov in a Wild sweater this year? Sure. Once again, Minnesota could use him. But they'll be able to use him just as much next year, and he'll be in a position to make an immediate impact. Imagine you could go back to that 2021 draft and ask Judd Brackett and Bill Guerin if they would lock in an ETA of the start of the 2025-26 season or gamble that they could get him earlier, with the risk that the process could drag out for years. With all the questions surrounding the situation, Brackett and Guerin likely would have taken that guaranteed arrival time. They might have even done backflips on the way to file that hypothetical paperwork. Waiting sucks, but it's important to remember that the Wild are way ahead of the game when it comes to Yurov.

The lineup that the Minnesota Wild iced versus the Chicago Blackhawks late last night left much to be desired. For the umpteenth time, we saw head coach John Hynes opt for veteran experience over the promising potential of the youth. Hynes had Marco Rossi skating on the third line again with *checks notes* Marcus Foligno and Freddy Gaudreau. While Foligno has had a relatively good season, his value comes from his defensive impact, not his offensive touch. Gaudreau has been dreadful all around this season (enjoy four more years of it) and will do Rossi no favors. It’s also baffling that the Wild continue to ice Jon Merrill and Alex Goligoski. Merrill and Goligoski are not going to magically become better players. The duo has produced the lowest expected goals for percentages (xGF%), two of the three highest goals against average per 60 minutes (GA/60), and the two highest shots against per 60 minutes (SA/60) on the team. The chances of Goligoski and Merrill somehow improving are slim to none. Merrill is 32, and Goligoski is 38. Ryan Hartman returned to his role as the center between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, which is defensible but also makes you wonder why. While Hartman can play that role, why aren’t they putting Rossi there? Hartman has proven that he can be good and sometimes even great in that role. At this point, though, is that what the Wild needs? I understand that the owner, general manager, coach, and players are all trying to make a playoff push. Guerin said he’s "not waiving the white flag" on January 15. It’s natural to want to make the postseason. While a playoff spot is still in reach, the odds are stacked against this team. MoneyPuck.com gives the Wild a 2.2% chance of making the postseason. The Wild currently are tied for 26th in the league with 49 points. Upon returning from the All-Star Break, the Wild struggled to get a 2-1 win over the 2023-24 Chicago Blackhawks. Let me repeat, the 2023-24 Chicago Blackhawks… Two depth players, Vinni Lettieiri and Foligno, carried the Wild. The top of the lineup failed to contribute. Gaudreau and Marcus Johansson got some cardio in but not much else. Nothing personal against those two, but if they continue to play like that, why not shift them down the lineup? Gaudreau is perfectly capable of playing in a fourth-line role. Johansson can slot in as a third-line winger and give someone else a top-6 opportunity. The Wild called up Adam Beckman because of his energy and willingness to shoot the puck. Then they sat him down and told him he’d be a healthy scratch. Why not give him an opportunity next to Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek on the second line? Guerin sent a public message to Beckman, spelling out how this was “his chance” to succeed. How is Beckman supposed to succeed sitting in the press box or playing eight minutes a night on the fourth line? The Chicago game was a perfect opportunity for Beckman to prove he belongs. It doesn’t make sense to have him watching from the rafters. No offense to Jake Lucchini, but Beckman still has a chance to prove he can be a capable scoring winger in the NHL. Why not give Beckman the minutes that go to Johansson or Gaudreau and have Lucchini sit in the press box as Johansson or Gaudreau slide down the lineup? It also makes little sense for newly-acquired defenseman Declan Chisholm to sit out. Why not let the new guy play over Merrill or Goligoski? What do you have to lose against the Blackhawks? Injuries play a large role in this situation. Jonas Brodin was out last game, and captain Jared Spurgeon won’t play the rest of the season. That’s two marquee defensemen gone. Pat Maroon and Connor Dewar are also on IR and were meaningful contributors to the bottom six. Still, open spots should be opportunities for the young players to step up, not a chance to ice the status quo. If Beckman can’t even get a look in the lineup against the worst team in the NHL, what hope does a player like Marat Khustnutdinov or Danilla Yurov have? They look like essential pieces to the Wild’s future core. While Yurov’s future for this season is still undecided, Khusnutdinov could be stateside by the end of the month. The Wild don’t have a lot left to lose. From injuries to inconsistencies, this team’s immediate future looks bleak. The playoffs are a long shot. Management and coaches know what they will get from their aging veterans. Why not give the younger players a chance to test their mettle? If it goes poorly, at least they learned something about the team’s future In a season that’s slipping away, let the kids play. All stats and data via HockeyDB, Evolving Hockey, CapFriendly, and NHL.com unless otherwise noted.

It's getting impossible to ignore Danila Yurov's dominance in the KHL. Thanks to various factors, they got Yurov, a top-10 talent in his draft class, with the 24th pick of the 2022 Draft. Checking in about 20 months later, Yurov might be a top-5 member of his class at this precise moment. Heck, maybe even better than that. Few members of the 2022 class are making an impact in the NHL this early on. Defenseman Pavel Mintyukov is something of a revelation for the Anaheim Ducks, with 19 points in 40 games. Meanwhile, just a bit east in the desert, Logan Cooley has 25 points in 48 games for the Arizona Coyotes. Everyone else is currently more accomplished in other leagues than in the NHL. As for Yurov, he might be shining the brightest in arguably the second-best league in the world. Yurov entered Tuesday's action sitting in the top 20 in the KHL in goals (21) and points (45). If that kind of production sounds absurd for a 20-year-old, that's because it is. Here's the list of 20-year-old KHL players with as many or more points per game as Yurov has this season: Vladimir Tarasenko, 2011-12: 0.87 PPG Kirill Kaprizov 2017-18: 0.87 PPG Evgeny Kuznetsov, 2012-13: 0.86 PPG Danila Yurov, 2023-24: 0.83 PPG When you're head-and-shoulders above someone like Artemi Panarin at age 20 (0.62 PPG in 2011-12), you're cooking. When you're a more prolific goal-scorer than Kuznetsov and Kaprizov at that age? Let's go. And Yurov might leave Metallurg Magnitogorsk next season. While the Wild are reportedly fine with their star prospect developing another season in the KHL, his Russian squad doesn't seem to want to pay him like a player who's leading his team in goals and points. If Metallurg lowballs Yurov, what would stop him from jumping to North America? The sticking point would likely be their strong preference for starting their top prospects in the AHL, making them work their way up to the big show. The Wild have done this at nearly every turn under Bill Guerin, even when it didn't make sense. When Matt Boldy signed out of Boston College in Spring 2021, burning a year of his Entry-Level Contract no matter what, Guerin refused to give his star prospect a sniff at the lineup. That came even after Boldy torched the AHL for six goals and 18 points in 14 games. Infamously, the same thing happened with Marco Rossi over the past two seasons. Rossi was nearly a point-per-game center for the Iowa Wild, whose parent club desperately needed help at his position. Guerin summed up his philosophy during this ordeal. "He's got to go through the process," Guerin told The Athletic's Michael Russo and Joe Smith in December 2022. "You really have to work for it. It's not just given to you. You really have to earn it." Brock Faber has been the only exception to this rule. In fairness, Boldy was ready for primetime the second he signed out of the University of Minnesota last season. Still, wasn't Boldy also at that point two years before? Perhaps Guerin's philosophy is evolving. But if he remains dogmatic in his "earn it" philosophy, why would that stop Yurov from coming over? If he plays in the NHL, Yurov would make more than double the $330K that is apparently on the table for him to stay in Russia. The catch is that he has to be in the NHL to make that money. If he's "earning it" in Des Moines, one of the "its" he'll be earning is a salary of around $70K, around 20% of what he'd make in the KHL. To make the move to America make sense financially for Yurov, the Wild would have to guarantee him a spot on the NHL roster (or at least have an agreement to get loaned back to Russia rather than waiting in Iowa). As a rule, the Wild don't do this. But this time, they should make an exception. Why? Because Yurov is exceptional. Excelling in the KHL to this degree at such a young age probably has enough proof that Yurov can play in the NHL next year. But we don't have to blindly guess what a 21-year-old Yurov might do with a roster spot. In Tarasenko and Kuznetsov's cases, we know what they did as NHL players at age-21. Tarasenko made his debut in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. The St. Louis Blues eased him into a role, playing him only 13 minutes and 25 seconds a night. He scored nine goals and 19 points in 38 games and was third among regular Blues forwards in points per hour at 5-on-5. Kuznetsov got a shorter stint a year later, playing 17 games. But he also scored about a half-point per game, collecting nine, including three goals. Assuming that's the ballpark Yurov would be in, let's do a quick check of the Wild forwards scoring a half-point per game or more. The list is Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi, and Ryan Hartman. It feels like there's more than enough room to add another high-upside scorer to the mix. Why wouldn't the Wild sign up for that next season? Especially when the most important thing for young Russian players is to get them over. Yurov was available to the Wild in the first place because teams didn't think he'd be able to come to North America faster than other first-round prospects. Not only is this wrong, but Metallurg is practically gift-wrapping the opportunity to get a star-caliber prospect to the Wild at age 21. It looks like all Minnesota has to do to take advantage is to guarantee a roster spot for Yurov. Maybe it's not the forward equivalent of Faber's do-it-all, minute-munching role. Maybe Yurov starts out playing a minimal amount of 5-on-5 time, but being an ace up John Hynes' sleeve on the power play. Isn't that a no-brainer, even if just to make absolutely sure he doesn't delay his arrival past next year? But let's take this a step further. Imagine Chuck Fletcher having an opportunity to import a 21-year-old Kirill Kaprizov onto his roster in 2018-19. Fletcher could have added him to the mix before the old Wild core fell apart. Imagine that all Fletcher has to do is guarantee him a roster spot... but he refuses to. The Wild fired after the 2018-19 season. Suppose this imaginary scenario were true and got out. Forget getting fired; he may never have gotten another GM opportunity. Who cares about dogma? Successfully navigating the NHL requires flexibility. Guerin and the Wild showed that flexibility with Faber, and it's paid off beyond everyone's wildest dreams. With Minnesota in the final year of their $15 million salary cap disadvantage, they need all the help they can get. Yurov represents a potential life preserver they can have when they need it the most. Guarantee him a spot on the boat and go from there.

Even the Minnesota Wild bye weeks are packed with news these days. Most players have taken this time off to likely lounge on warm beaches as the league’s best arrives in Toronto, but the news around the team keeps churning. According to The Athletic's Michael Russo, a few Minnesota prospects are close to making their decision on turning pro in North America sooner than later. Both of their high-profile Russian-born prospects seem to be at a decision point to either return to the KHL next year or cross the pond. 2020 second-round pick Marat Khusnutdinov could be here as soon as his season ends in February, which aligns with the typical arrival date for Russian players. His fellow countryman and former first-round pick in the 2022 draft, Danila Yurov, seems to be on a faster track. In a surprising report, Yurov's KHL club has offered him an extension. But the proposed $330k contract is shockingly low for a KHL superstar. So much so that rumors are circulating that he hasn’t signed the contract because he may be debating coming over to the NHL rather than staying another year in the Russian pro league. For a season that seems destined to end with the Wild missing the playoffs, watching at least one of their Russian prospects play for the NHL club before the season ends is tantalizing. Even if Yurov won’t be here until next year and likely start in the AHL, getting him to the States is just the next step in his development. While most fans will be happy to just get their eyes on a few touted prospects, their early arrival will be extremely important for Minnesota's coaching staff and front office. Why? Because while both players are important cogs in the Wild’s future, Minnesota’s staff needs to determine how they will fit within the roster construction. They drafted Khusnutdinov and Yurov as uber-talented offensive talents. But at the same time, both players have uncertainty about whether they will be a center at the NHL level or if the Wild will kick them out to the wing. The big club needs to get their eyes on both players for an extended period to determine which position they will play because the answer to that question will play a huge factor in how Minnesota will add to its roster in the future. If one or both of Yurov or Khusnutdinov can prove their mettle at center, the Wild can cross off depth down the middle, one of the most important requirements of a contending team. The Wild have been searching for impact centers for almost their entire existence. They never could find the type of playmaking center to pair with Mikko Koivu during his prime, which played a large role in their inability to compete in the playoffs. But now, the Wild’s center depth looks more encouraging than ever. Joel Eriksson Ek has been a known commodity for a handful of years. Marco Rossi's emergence has been a welcome discovery. But beyond those two, the depth starts to drop off a bit. Ryan Hartman is not a traditional center, and some of their other prospects, Riley Heidt and Charlie Stramel, are still pretty far away in their development. Waiting on their arrival still leaves a lot of uncertainty at center for a team looking to compete for a Stanley Cup in a few years when the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyout hits mostly come off the books. That brings us back to Yurov and Khusnutdinov and the importance of getting them to the States sooner than later. Having them in North America would allow the Wild complete control of their deployment in the NHL or AHL. Minnesota's staff can fully understand how their potential at center translates to the NHL. If one or both of them can prove themselves as a true center, you can start to see the makeup of a contender begin to take shape. A forward group with some sort of combination of Rossi, Eriksson Ek, and either Yurov or Khusnutdinov at center has the potential to be the best collection in franchise history. Pairing that center depth with their superstar in Kirill Kaprizov, an elite goaltender in Jesper Wallstedt, plus an extremely deep blue line, and you have the makings of an elite contender. And just in time for when that contention window opens. Even better, being able to place Yurov or Khusnutdinov at center would allow their other center prospects time to develop at their own pace, instead of feeling forced to elevate them into roles they’re not ready for. Finding out if their Russian prospects can play center would be huge for the Minnesota Wild's future roster construction. Let’s just hope they can get here sooner than later so we can all find out.

It's too bad that the only goalies on earth hotter than Jesper Wallstedt since John Hynes took over the Minnesota Wild are Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury. It's not often that a young goalie leads the AHL in save percentage and finds themselves with no room at the inn, but that's where Wallstedt is at right now. Albeit, the Wild (and even the State of Hockey) weren't exactly clamoring for the 21-year-old goalie to get to the NHL, even when both their goaltenders were sinking the season. Everyone seemed to be on the program of letting Wallstedt earn his stripes in the AHL while Gustavsson tried to get his game together, and Fleury continued his pursuit of second-place in all-time goalie wins. On Tuesday night, Wallstedt stopped 30 of 31 shots in a 6-1 Iowa Wild victory over the Rockford Ice Hogs. It was Wallstedt's third straight win, bringing the 2021 first-round pick to 9-4-0 on the season. Wallstedt stymied 113 of 117 shots in those three games, bringing his save percentage up to a league-leading .939. Goalies often go through hot and cold stretches, and Wallstedt was no exception last season. We can see it in his month-by-month splits: October/November: .895 December: .907 January: .958 February: .889 March: .918 April: .888 It all added up to a .908 save percentage, which is respectable for a 20-year-old AHL rookie making his debut on North American ice rinks that are different than the dimensions he's used to in Sweden. But while Wallstedt could get on strong runs, Wild fans didn't see him putting together long stretches of consistency. He trended neither up nor down during the season. This year, the consistency is perhaps even more impressive than the raw save percentage. Over his last nine games, Wallstedt hasn't dipped below a .900 save percentage in even one contest. He's allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of his 13 starts. Not only is the talent on display, but the Iowa Wild know exactly what they'll get out of their goalie on a near-nightly basis. Even better news: When AHL goalies are as good and as young as Wallstedt is, that's as powerful a statement as can be that they will hack it in the NHL. As it stands, Wallstedt is No. 3 all-time in save percentage (minimum 10 games) for a 21-year-old AHL goalie. Just look at who else is on the list he's joining: 1. Jack Campbell: 942 2. Marc-Andre Fleury: .939 3. Jesper Wallstedt: .939 4. Robin Lehner: .938 5. Jonathan Bernier: .936 6. Andrei Vasilevskiy: .935 7. John Gibson: .935 8. Juuse Saros: .934 9. Jaroslav Halak: .932 10. Dustin Wolf: .932 Wolf is the only player for whom we don't more-or-less know how their career played out. Fleury and Vasilevskiy have won Vezina Trophies, with Lehner and Saros finishing as finalists. Halak has two Jennings Trophies (awarded to the team allowing the fewest of goals), including one as the 1A starter in 2011-12. Gibson had a case as the best goalie in the world for about a half-decade. In short, it is a decorated bunch. Only Campbell and Bernier can really be said to have gone on to be relative disappointments, spending most of their careers as 1B or backup-level netminders. But if you're looking at the track record as a whole, 75% of these names having long, productive NHL careers can only be encouraging. This is usually the part where we say, "Oh, but this is a small sample size." That's true, in a sense; 13 games don't make a season. Goalies can get hot for 13 games, no problem. What's weird about this list, though, is that putting up these kinds of numbers in small sample sizes hasn't stopped some of these goalies from becoming the cream of the NHL's crop. Fleury's minor-league performance came in 2005-06, and he played just 12 games for the Wilkes-Scranton Barre Penguins, then played in 50 games with Pittsburgh. Vasilevskiy logged just 12 games for the Syracuse Crunch at age 21, with Gibson getting 11 games for the Norfolk Admirals, and Saros only 15 games with the Milwaukee Admirals at Wallstedt's age. Small sample sizes? Perhaps. Flukes? Definitely not, given how their careers went. Wallstedt is doing this all behind a defense that's also fairly inexperienced. Dakota Mermis and Andy Welinski give Iowa some veteran experience on the blueline, but those are the exceptions, particularly when Mermis is with Minnesota (as he was last night). 24-year-old Simon Johansson is the "old guy" of the group. Daemon Hunt and Ryan O'Rourke are 21. Carson Lambos, Kyle Masters, and David Spacek are all 20. There is talent on that blueline, but they're all first-and-second year AHLers. They're very raw at the pro level and serve as the line of defense in front of Wallstedt. As absurd as it sounds, maybe it makes perfect sense. Wallstedt's youth and relative inexperience aren't stopping him from putting up all-time numbers. So why should the youth and relative inexperience of his teammates stop him? We might still have way to go before we see Wallstedt in St. Paul, but the State of Hockey should still keep an eye on him in Des Moines. The opportunity to witness a 21-year-old dominating the AHL is too rare and special to ignore. All data via Elite Prospects and the AHL official website.

Here we go again. Training camp has begun. It’s that wonderful time of the year when hockey players can walk out of a cold rink and into the final warm days of fall. It’s a time for excitement and the building anticipation of a new season. For the NHL, it’s no different. Most players are back from their summer vacations, and their bodies are healthier than they will be all season. Most players, but apparently not all. On Thursday, we learned that first-line center Ryan Hartman was dealing with a nagging upper-body injury that left him out of all contact drills at practice. Although the ailment is not related to the knee injury he obtained during last year's week-long playoff run (one last dig – I’m moving on now, I promise), having the center typically next to Kirill Kaprizov already limited before the start of a long season is less than ideal. But it seems Hartman will only miss some limited time ahead of the season and be ready to go by opening night. Evason described the Chicago native’s injury as “Nothing serious,” the sort of detail you only receive from NHL coaches. And while it’s good news, Hartman should be back soon, his departure from the top line offers the Wild an opportunity to get a good look at… Frederick Gaudreau as the first-line center. Boring. Nothing against Gaudreau, but the coaching staff’s decision on the first day of camp could be the sign of a troubling trend continuing for the Wild’s roster construction. Instead of seeing the true potential of his team, Evason seems to once again lean on the dependable veteran to keep the team afloat rather than taking the chance to truly see how much his team can grow. Yes, it’s only the first day, but that spot should belong to Marco Rossi. Because if not now, when? The preseason is the perfect time for a coach to tinker with their lines and try things. Evason’s decision to elevate Gaudreau shows he is in peak middle-of-the-season mode. When things are out of order in the regular season, coaches lean on veteran experience to survive until overtime to secure that one point in the standings. But it’s late September. Now is the time to gauge just how high a ceiling your team has. It’s not the time to rip up your carpet to see how nice the flooring is. Even if that floor is a flashy French-Canadien brand of above-average quality hardwood, leave that for the middle of the season. Sure, there will be those who disagree. But giving Rossi the chance to play between Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello should be a no-brainer at this point, given the alternatives. Gaudreau is a capable fill-in for the top line, but we’ve seen this before. The heights in which he can take that line are extremely limited. He’s much better suited as the valuable Swiss Army knife he is: Entrenched on the third line and capable of sliding up in the lineup should a short-term solution be needed. Joel Eriksson Ek is a better option than Gaudreau. Still, he has seemingly found a home on a line between professional-golfer-turned-hockey-player Matt Boldy and fellow Swede Marcus Johansson. From a purely stylistic point, keeping Eriksson Ek there makes sense rather than elevating him. Eriksson Ek and Boldy work best as station-to-station players. They utilize their size and creativity in small spaces to exploit opposing teams in the offensive zone. Kaprizov and Zuccarello thrive on the rush and by pushing play through the neutral zone, which isn’t exactly Eriksson Ek’s calling card. However, the fit for Rossi is so perfect it’s difficult to imagine why Evason and Co. are so bent on the kid sludging along on the third line to start camp. Instead, they should play him with a pair of elite play drivers who would complement his playing style so well. While the young Austrian may not be as well-rounded as Gaudreau, his style undoubtedly would be a better match to Kaprizov and Zuccarello’s. We all know the result if Gaudreau plays well on the top line. He would provide dependable defensive play, but the two wingers would have to drive the offense. However, if this is the year Rossi truly takes the next step in his career and plants his flag as an everyday NHLer, the potential he brings to the team’s best line is unmatched. And that’s how the Wild’s coaching staff should view this preseason. They shouldn’t be testing what they already know about their team. Instead, it’s time we get a good, long look at just how far this team could potentially go.

Standing at only 5'8”, you’d think Adam Benak would be a long shot to play in the NHL. However, that’s not the case for Minnesota Wild’s fourth-round selection out of Czechia. The Wild took Benak with the 102nd pick in last year’s draft. He may only be 5’8”, 163 lbs. Still, when you look at how he puts the puck in the net, his vision on the ice, his 200-foot game, and his motor, you’d never be able to guess that his size was holding him back. Benak played in the USHL with the Youngstown Phantoms last year, where he was the leading scorer with 59 points in 56 games. Benak has dominated wherever he has played, whether it’s internationally or in the Czech leagues. He has been a point-per-game player or better at almost every single level of hockey he’s played. Before dominating the USHL, Benak set the record for most points scored at the Hilinka-Gtetzky international tournament. His 17 points in seven games broke the record of 15 points set years ago. He has 21 points in 10 career games. Although Benak spent last season in the USHL, the Brantford Bulldogs took him second overall in the CHL import draft. Benak hasn’t indicated whether he’ll play in Brantford or continue with the Phantoms. There is something about Benak’s game that scouts in Minnesota love. “Just wait until he hits puberty. He’s still a boy,” Youngstown coach Ryan Ward said about Benák’s size. “People that look at his size should think twice. He’s a special player. Just give him some time,” Ward continued. “He’s an extraordinary hockey player. So competitive, so smart, unbelievable passer.” “He’s the kid that everybody tells me that if he were six-foot, he’d be a first-round pick, even a top-five pick. That’s how good this kid is,” The Athletic beat reporter Michael Russo said on his podcast with Wild play-by-play broadcaster Anthony LaPanta. “Played at Youngstown last year. From Czechia. English is fantastic. Buddies with Spacek. Buddies with both Jiricek brothers. … You look at his YouTube stuff. He is special.” On draft night, David Jiricek found Benak in the stands and gave him a ton of Wild gear. The connections to Minnesota’s current players are already strong. And as a smaller player, Benak can use Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello as examples of two other smaller players who have found success in Minnesota. Benak shares many similar attributes to Rossi. “He gives us speed, he gives us finesse, he sees the game,” said Jaroslav Nedved, Czechia’s assistant coach. “He’s a big part of our group. For us, he’s the biggest impact on our game. With his speed and hockey IQ, he sees the game one step ahead of everybody else. “He can skate one way to bring the defenceman in, and then he can pass it or delay it and put it to the second wave. And he knows what’s going to happen before everybody else knows. If he goes to the right or left side of the rink with the puck, it’s for a reason. “How do you say it in music? He’s the conductor, or the orchestrator. He orchestrates his teammates.” Remind you of anyone? “I think my work ethic is the biggest difference,” said Benak. “I know I’m smaller, but you don’t have to be the biggest guy if you’re the hardest worker. So that’s what I’m trying to do, and show people that size doesn’t matter for me.” Benak sees his size as an advantage and can’t wait to prove the doubters wrong. All stats and data via HockeyDB, Elite Prospects, and CapWages unless otherwise noted.

If you want to, you can compare Brock Faber's new eight-year, $68 million deal to several questionable extensions the Minnesota Wild have handed out in recent years. For one, they paid sticker price, and maybe even a touch more. Evolving-Hockey projected Faber at a $7.74 million cap hit for an eight-year deal, almost a million lower than the $8.5 million Minnesota landed on. We also see some familiar timing traps that Bill Guerin's front office frequently falls into. They signed Faber at potentially the height of his value after finishing as the runner-up for the Calder Trophy, a major award. Minnesota didn't need to do this deal now. They could have waited a year and seen if Faber could repeat his rookie success. Looking that over, the only real reaction I can make here is: Who cares? You don't mess around with a franchise cornerstone, and we have good reason to believe that Faber is just that. Even with an injury that hampered his play-driving ability in the second half of the season, Faber still finished with 3.4 Standings Points Above Replacement, per Evolving-Hockey, which tied for 33rd among NHL defensemen. Look at some of the names surrounding Faber in that category. Hello, Owen Power (3.5 SPAR), who signed a similar extension last season, which carries a $8.35 million cap hit. Hey, there, Filip Hronek (3.5 SPAR), Devon Toews (3.3 SPAR), and Dmitry Orlov (3.3 SPAR), who all make in the range of $7.25 to $7.75 million. It's not difficult to imagine that had he not broken his ribs, he'd have gotten to a level similar to, say, $9.5 million defenseman Charlie McAvoy (4.1 SPAR). Can he do it again? That's a big question because there is some cause for concern with him. The combination of playing injured, and playing with Jake Middleton, who also fought through injury, made Faber's overall numbers look human at season's end. However, the biggest concern is that his offensive play-driving may not be where you'd like it to be for an $8.5 million defenseman. His on-ice shooting percentage made it look like he drove scoring chances to a much greater degree than the data shows, which was true even earlier in the year. There's also the matter of points. They're secondary to a defenseman's overall game, but like it or not, the NHL's economy rewards and judges players based on points. Faber came out of nowhere to score 47 points as a rookie, only six fewer than he had in his three seasons at the University of Minnesota. He'll likely run the power play next season, which should drive another high-scoring year. What happens after that? That's a question Minnesota might have to answer when Zeev Buium arrives. The Wild's top pick in the 2024 Draft is a natural power-play quarterback with exceptional vision and skating. You don't draft someone like Buium without envisioning handing him the reins to the power play. Even with second-unit time, Faber's points could slip without his play dipping. I can note those potential red flags, and I can see that $8.5 million cap hit extending into the first year of the Zendaya Administration. Still, all I can say is: Who cares? Faber's contract (probably) doesn't have the room for outright thievery that Matt Boldy's seven-year, $7 million AAV deal provides. As Buium takes over the prime scoring duties, the point totals might look a bit less like Drew Doughty and a little bit more like Jared Spurgeon. If that is the case, maybe the contract is considered an overpay. But here's the thing: If you're going to overpay someone, don't overpay the Middletons and Freddy Gaudreaus of the world. Break the bank for someone like Faber instead. Regardless of whether Faber winds up being a very good defenseman or a great defenseman, he will be someone who drives winning for the Wild. After seeing his first season plus playoff run, I feel extremely confident in pegging his absolute floor as a Jonas Brodin-level player. The same Brodin that's been a franchise cornerstone for 12 seasons in Minnesota. If that's what Faber ends up as -- a big-minute, defensive defenseman -- we're only talking about a $2.5 million increase on Brodin's contract in a league where the cap is finally going up. And that's a worst-case scenario. To focus on the worst-case scenario is to talk about Faber like he doesn't have upside, which is unfair and untrue. Faber's rookie year carries some extremely encouraging comparables. Since the Analytics Era started in 2007-08, 197 defensemen played 1,000 minutes in a season before turning 22. If we take those seasons and look at their SPAR per hour (to put everyone on an even footing), Faber's rookie year ranks 75th in that sample. What's his upside? Let's look at some players in that neighborhood. Aaron Ekblad, 2015-16 (age 19): 0.104 SPAR/60 Jakob Chychrun, 2017-18 (age 19): 0.104 SPAR/60 Miro Heiskanen, 2018-19 (age 19): 0.104 SPAR/60 Seth Jones, 2015-16 (age 21): 0.104 SPAR/60 Jared Spurgeon, 2011-12 (age 21): 0.102 SPAR/60 Mikhail Sergachev, 2018-19 (age 20): 0.102 SPAR/60 Zach Werenski, 2016-17 (age 19): 0.102 SPAR/60 BROCK FABER, 2023-24 (age 21): 0.100 SPAR/60 Owen Power, 2022-23 (age 20): 0.099 SPAR/60 Oliver Ekman-Larsson, 2012-13 (age 21): 0.096 SPAR/60 We're looking at comparables who were all top-pairing defensemen at some point in their careers. Look at this list and tell me whose career path would be a disappointment for Faber to follow. Maybe Jones? Maybe Ekman-Larsson, since he fell off sooner than anyone would expect? But if he's Heiskanen, Spurgeon, Ekblad, or Power (that is, what we think he can be), this contract is a home run, no? Even that next level down includes Chychrun, Sergachev, and Werenski. You'd have to take that and run with it. While the Wild signed Faber a year before they had to, his leverage probably wasn't going down much, barring a complete collapse. He'll still have that runner-up status for the Calder Trophy in his corner. Besides, who's coming through the door behind him to usurp him as a top-pairing defenseman? You can say Buium, but that's just for the top power play role. They play on different sides of the ice, so neither will take 5-on-5 time away from each other, whether they play on the same pairing or separately. There aren't any top-pairing right-shot defense prospects in the Wild's system. With all due respect to David Spacek and Jack Peart, the best versions of themselves should complement Faber, not displace him. Another Spurgeon isn't walking through that door, at least not in the foreseeable future. Faber will be a top-pairing, two-way defenseman with the upside to be the best defensive defenseman in the NHL. His smart, efficient game will make him a staple in Minnesota, and Buium's impending arrival should save him from the pressure of having to do it all, which Faber had to deal with after Spurgeon's injury. If that's technically worth $7 million, and the Wild are actually paying $8.5 million... again, who cares? It's great to get a steal on deals like Guerin got with Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek. But if that's not in the cards, those are the kinds of players you can live with "overpaying." The best teams in the NHL spring for their cornerstones, even if it's at a premium, and worry about the rest later. Minnesota has had this idea backward at times, but perhaps this will indicate a turnaround of their philosophy going forward.