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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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

Wednesday, April 9, was unexpectedly eventful for the Minnesota Wild. Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek returned. A player scored four goals for only the third time in franchise history, and Marc-Andre Fleury may have made his final home start. An instant classic 8-7 barn-burner had Wild fans’ heads spinning. Minnesota earned two huge points and sits alone in the top wild card spot because they have games in hand and a solid tiebreaker. Still, seven goals from the San Jose Sharks? It brings nagging doubts into fans’ heads. Is Fleury cooked? Why can’t the Wild defend? Does anything really matter? Of course not. Nothing matters, and everything is always the same. Minnesota will likely be bounced in the first round (two-to-one odds by sportsbooks, or about a 33% chance to win a playoff round) within two weeks of this writing. Even so, let’s try to find out just what happened. The data initially points a finger at Fleury. 2.8 expected goals (xG) is a pretty average workload, even for a Wild team averaging 2.88 xG against (xGA) per 60 minutes (11th-best in the NHL). But remember that when data points a finger, four fingers point back at itself. Looking through the tape of all seven goals, MoneyPuck’s xG model underscored many of these chances. The model accounts mainly for the shot type (wrist shot, deflection, backhand, etc.), shot location, and the time and location of the last event (usually a pass or turnover). It doesn’t know if the goaltender was screened or how long the puck carrier held and skated with the puck. The model also ignores who is shooting the puck, so dangerous snipers like Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini can outperform the model over time. On a night like this, it's possible that the xG model undersells the danger of the shots that Fleury faced. Sometimes, a goaltender can perform admirably on this amount of xG, letting in four or even five goals. But seven? That raises my eyebrows. Still, let’s check the tape and do what Minnesota sports fans do best: assign blame. Toffoli’s goal was indicative of San Jose’s offense all night. They had many plays from below the goal line that found half-covered snipers in the slot. At first glance, Rossi appears out of position, but he’s done his job well. He got a stick into the passing lane. However, Rossi’s reaction leaves a bit to be desired. He could have charged Toffoli’s forehand and contested the shot. Rossi is a step slow, which gives Toffoli time to pick his spot. According to Moneypuck’s model, Toffoli only had a 7.6% chance of scoring, which would be around the 30th percentile of shot danger for all shots -- in other words, it qualifies as a “low-danger chance.” Any hockey fan could tell you this is a particularly dangerous shot, so the model probably undersells the shot danger here. Still, Fleury might want this back. He has eyes on the puck, but his initial reaction to Toffoli’s shot is to drop his right pad to cover the five-hole. Toffoli quickly elevates the puck with a heel shot and beats Fleury below the glove. San Jose’s second goal also featured good perimeter puck movement. At first, I thought this was Johansson’s fault for leaving the strong-side point open. However, upon a second watch, he is “on the rail” (an imaginary line between the faceoff dots and hash marks), covering the most dangerous passing lane. In this case, that’s the weak-side defenseman. With so much puck movement, Johansson should prevent a change of side and instead give up the pass to the strong side point. There’s not much Fleury can do on this play. He squares up for a tip from Celebrini, which leaves him out of position when the tip ends up on Celebrini’s forehand instead of on net. Brock Faber is the culprit here. As the Wild broadcast highlighted, he chases Celebrini far from the net just before the shot attempt. It’s a habit of Faber’s that most NHL defensemen can’t get away with, but Faber does this all the time and is often rewarded with turnovers at the boards. This is a “better-be” play, as in you better be right. Celebrini turns back to the net with elite edge work and timing, wide open in the slot. Faber also decides to chase with Brodin at the net front, who could normally help in this situation. However, Nikolai Kovalenko’s smart play pulls Brodin from the slot. Grundstrom’s goal was not quite as pretty. The first issue with this play is Bogosian and Boldy’s rush defense. Defending Grundstrom two-on-one with help from Merrill and Foligno, neither steps up to make a play. On top of that, Bogosian fails to follow Grundstrom to the net. Boxing out Grundstrom to the side could have prevented him from tapping in this leaky puck. I don’t fault Bogosian for failing to clear this puck, as it’s stuck on his backhand; however, that highlights that he should be boxing out Grundstrom instead of standing behind Fleury. Speaking of Fleury, his sins on this goal are worse than Bogosian’s or Boldy’s. Cam Lund’s point shot had a 2.3% xG value. That doesn’t account for the chance of a rebound or tip, increasing the danger of the chance, which Fleury does by failing to catch the puck. It appears that Lund made a small angle change on his way in, which Fleury tracked reasonably well, sliding right to left. Still, Fleury should have frozen this puck. Lund’s hardest shot this season was 83 mph, about league average for a forward but well below the average for a defenseman (about 90 mph). Shots from the point should be frozen when they come that slowly. Enough of the greasy goals. Back to the good stuff. Well, kind of. I give Fleury a pass on this knuckler puck. The xG value of 5.3% implies that Fleury should save shots from this spot about 95% of the time. However, this is an opportunity to consider xG in another light. An average NHL goalie would save about 95% of shots from this area on a pass below the goal line. Still, the strange shot angle makes this one of the 5% goalies should be okay with letting in. Celebrini doesn’t make full contact with the puck, which actually works to his advantage. This one is like a chip shot in soccer. If hockey players could reliably pull this shot off, you could question Fleury’s technique. Since they can’t, Fleury does everything right by squaring up to the shooter and coming out of the net. The defensive breakdown is another example of the Sharks working the puck from the perimeter into the slot. Gaudreau steps up to Celebrini far outside the faceoff circle, and Celebrini works a blazing give-and-go play to beat Gaudreau to the net. Gaudreau may be anticipating help from Brodin, but he’s actually unavailable when the puck is behind Minnesota’s net. As diagrammed in Jack Han's Hockey Tactics 2025, The Wild like to use both defensemen to trap opposing puck carriers in this area of the ice, and Brodin anticipates that Smith will try to carry the puck around the net. Brodin ends up with the net between himself and Celebrini, unable to cover for Gaudreau. The next rep is another Marco Rossi near miss. Like the Toffoli goal, Rossi is the nearest to the goal scorer, so he’ll get all the ugly Twitter screenshots. However, the blame lies with Zuccarello and Kaprizov on this goal. Zuccarello starts this play with a turnover inside San Jose’s blue line. Rather than forcing a pass through two Sharks to a covered Kaprizov, he could have played the puck to Rossi on the half wall or Chisholm at the point. That would have established possession and prevented a counterattack. Rossi is the deepest man in San Jose’s zone, so he has few responsibilities in this situation. Kaprizov and Zuccarello track back appropriately, but Kaprizov makes a mistake in the defensive zone. At this moment, Kaprizov should be covering the passing lane from below the goal line across the net, as Johansson did on San Jose’s second goal. Instead, his focus is on returning to the right wing point. It’s not an unforgivable mistake, but it’s why this passing lane is open. Essentially, Kaprizov hands off that responsibility before Rossi can cover that passing lane. Why is Rossi unable to cover that passing lane? All because of the Zuccarello turnover, in which Rossi was available at the half-wall in San Jose’s zone. Zuccarello and Kaprizov are excellent offensively and reasonably good two-way players but plays like this are the trade-off. Fleury has no fault in this goal. It’s a wide-open chance in the slot changing sides, then skating away from the grain. The xG value of 14.5% undersells the danger because Fleury is screened, and the Wild aren’t pressuring the shooter. On top of that, the quality of the shot (perfectly placed on the far side top corner) makes it far more difficult to save than an average shot from this location. This was when Celebrini and Smith took this game from good to great. Maybe the future really is teal. Maybe this is a hot take, but I can’t find fault with a single player here. The forecheck forces a contested pass to the point, and the tip pass would be icing if not for Smith’s speed. Bogosian contests Smith behind the net with several stick checks, but Smith protects the puck with his body. Eriksson Ek has his man covered off the rush and tries to keep his right skate in the passing lane as he turns from rush defense to in-zone defense. He nearly swats the pass away with his stick. Fleury protects the wraparound but can’t do that, nor can he get across the net fast enough or contest the passing lane with his stick. When another team strings together that many passes under constant pressure, there’s nothing more to be done. If you want to assign blame, it’s just that Bogosian is no longer fast enough to defend in space when elite players get these types of chances. This one was about the Jimmies and Joes, not the X’s and O’s. Tip your cap to San Jose’s young players on this. The same can’t be said of the game-tying six-on-five goal. When Celebrini first receives the puck at the left point, Minnesota’s coverage is correct. Boldy drops from his weak-side responsibilities to cover the slot but remains there too long after Gaudreau has recovered. When the puck moves to Liljegren at the center point, Boldy should respond by stepping to Liljegren and Smith’s double-attack, but he leaves both players essentially uncovered. Because Boldy stays in the high slot for too long, it opens space in the faceoff circle for Smith to take a medium-danger shot. To win in the playoffs, the Wild will need better five-on-six defense from Boldy. Fleury is not blameless on this goal. He reacts to the shot late, and that’s enough on a shot inside the bar. Fleury seems distracted or screened by Eklund tripping in front of him, but there’s not much more Bogosian can do to box out Eklund. He even hooks him to slow his path into Fleury’s eyes. If anything, Bogosian is overzealous. He could have ended up with a tripping penalty if Smith didn’t score immediately after the trip. As good of a shot as Smith takes from a medium-danger area, Fleury could probably be expected to do more on this shot. Still, it’s not the worst goal to give up. So there you have it. Weigh this information however you take it. With seven goals against, there was plenty of blame to go around. From a ten thousand-foot view, the only repeatable aspect of this game seems to be Fleury’s performance. Not every goal was his fault, but this game solidifies him as a clear backup rather than the 1B to Gustavsson’s 1A. The Wild likely won’t put him in net for the playoffs unless a deep run necessitates a game of rest for Fleury’s Swedish colleague. The Sharks also victimized Bogosian’s skating on more than one occasion. But, with his minutes already sheltered, there’s nothing more that Minnesota can do to mitigate that problem. For the rest of the team, this is the bad you take with the good. Rossi had some bad puck luck. Kaprizov and Zuccarello take some calculated risks every game, and San Jose’s top line bit them on those risks last night. Faber’s on-ice results speak for themselves throughout the season. He shouldn’t change his game just because perhaps the best young player in the game victimized his aggressive defense. Ultimately, the Wild seem to have solutions in place for the issues they had against the Sharks. Don’t let this game temper playoff expectations, even if their first-round opponent is a two-to-one favorite.

The Minnesota Wild are getting in on the college free agent game this spring, which is nothing new for the organization. College free agency has been a well from which Wild have drawn useful contributors like Nico Sturm, Nate Prosser, and Justin Fontaine. Not all of these signings work out, of course -- just ask Casey Wellman -- but signing an intriguing player for free is always a decent bet. In the past few days, the Iowa Wild signed a pair of amateur tryout contracts (usually a prelude to an entry-level contract signing). The first was with Ben Meehan, a U-Mass Lowell defenseman. Meehan's numbers don't indicate much NHL offense -- he has scored three goals and 17 points in 36 games this season. But he's been a captain on the team for the last two years, and the Wild have a good track record of acquiring and developing defensemen that the Los Angeles Kings took in the 2020 Draft. Iowa's next ATO signee was Gunnarwolfe Fontaine. Is he good? Will he be a contributor in St. Paul? To answer those questions, I have just two words for you: Gunnarwolfe Fontaine. How can you be destined for anything but greatness when you're named Gunnarwolfe Fontaine? The second he steps onto the ice, he'll immediately catapult Name Hall-of-Famer Nino Niederreiter and become the Coolest Name in franchise history. Seriously, let that sink in: HIS NAME IS GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE! "Cellar Door" was so last millenium. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine should soon replace it as the consensus two most beautiful words in the English language. Folks who say it are treated to an effortless rhythmic flow and pleasant mouth-feel. No nickname could ever be as cool as "Gunnarwolfe Fontaine," but even the hockey world -- which is obsessed with coming up with terrible, bland nicknames -- can't possibly mess this up. Call him "Gunnar" or call him "Wolfe," either is going to be great. The Wild should also petition the league to allow GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE to have his first name on his jersey. "GUNNARWOLFE" would immediately jump into the NHL's best-sellers. My editor insists that I do some real analysis, and, fiiiiiine. What else does GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE offer the Wild? It's fair to call GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE a late bloomer. Born just one day after the NHL Draft cutoff for 2018 eligibility, he was one of the oldest eligible players in the 2019 draft... and he was still passed over. As a 5-foot-8 player (he's now listed at 5-foot-10) without exceptional numbers in the USHL, going undrafted is the sort of thing that'll happen to you. Lesser prospects might have been deterred, but not ones named GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE. He returned to the Chicago Steel and finished fifth in the USHL (though fourth on his team) with 57 points in 45 games. Scouts who arrived to watch 2020 first-round pick Brendan Brisson soon had GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE on their radar. "His path to a successful career is still likely to be trying to mold his game after Brad Marchand (small pest with skill), but this year he showed more and more that the skill was there," wrote McKeen's Hockey, who ranked him as the 102nd-best prospect in their 2020 Draft Guide. "His shot is among the best in the USHL and can still score from anywhere in the offensive zone." Not only was GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE a crafty offensive player, but he also proved hard to play against, a defining characteristic of Bill Guerin's ideal identity for his team. "Defensively, he uses his speed well to backcheck and plays hard in all three zones," detailed FC Hockey in their 2020 Draft Guide. "[He] shows an affinity for getting in the face of the opposition. He blocks shots and uses an active stick. Despite a smaller frame, he usually wins puck battles along the boards, and he’s not afraid to throw his body around, making some good hits." The Nashville Predators were the team to take a flier on GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE, selecting him 202nd overall in 2020. From there, he played five years in the NCAA (he played during the 2020 pandemic, giving him a fifth year of college eligibility). In four years at Northeastern University, he was solid, with 32 goals and 97 points in 131 games, but never finished higher than third on the team in scoring. His true breakout came last year after he transferred to Ohio State. GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE co-led the Buckeyes in goals (17) and points (40) in 40 games, finishing tied for 26th in the nation in scoring. He's also earned a reputation for scoring the biggest goals in the biggest games. During the prestigious Beanpot Tournament, GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE has five goals and eight points in six career games. This includes scoring both of Northeastern's goals -- including one with less than five minutes in regulation to force overtime -- en route to their 2023 shootout win over Harvard. The following year, GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE notched back-to-back overtime winners to claim the Beanpot again in 2024. This trend continued during his time as a Buckeye, especially during the Big 10 Tournament. During the quarterfinal, he saved Ohio State from elimination by forcing overtime with 1:29 remaining. He followed up that performance with two goals in the semifinals against Penn State, where he scored the opening goal and the closing goal... again, in overtime. In the final against Michigan State, GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE was nearly a hero again, scoring the game-tying goal with 2:21 left to take the game to overtime before Isaac Howard won the tournament for the Spartans. To step up in so many big moments regularly, you have to be doing a lot of things right all the time. That appears to be GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE's game, and that game has gotten him to the NHL's doorstep. Will he get there? Small, late-blooming forwards don't have the best track record in making the NHL. The odds that we never hear from GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE in a meaningful way are fairly high, joining the ranks of (Iowa) Wild Legends like Sam Anas or Sammy Walker. Jonathan Marchessault and Yanni Gourde are the 99th-percentile for his mold of player. They were passed over in the draft (and unlike GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE, never drafted) and didn't have a full-time NHL role until they were 25, but those guys are very much the exceptions. Someone like Mason Shaw is the realistic best-case scenario for GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE. Shaw also had a small frame but provided just enough offense to stick in the NHL and provided energy and physicality. If the Wild can get that out of GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE, that will be a home-run signing. But even if he doesn't stick in the NHL regularly, Guerin 1000% needs to call up GUNNARWOLFE FONTAINE any time the Wild travel to TD Garden to play the Boston Bruins. Can't let that Beanpot Magic go to waste.

When the Minnesota Wild traded for David Jiricek on November 30, they did so partly because the price was right. They got a blue-chip defense prospect for Daemon Hunt and four draft picks. You can argue the draft capital (a first, second, third, and fourth-round pick, staggered between 2025 and 2027) is a lot, and maybe it is. But Jiriceks don't come onto the market often, and the Wild believed in him, so it was a no-brainer. Since then, however, the Wild have been hampered not necessarily by the cost of getting Jiricek but arguably by the opportunity cost of making that move. Minnesota was always going to have a tough time at the trade deadline with their salary cap restrictions, but the Jiricek deal cranked up the difficulty. Without their 2025 first-round pick, it was going to be difficult to pry someone like Brock Boeser from the Vancouver Canucks. Instead, the Wild settled for trading their 2026 second-rounder for Gustav Nyquist. It's safe to say the route the front office chose is going bust, at least for the 2024-25 Wild. Nyquist hasn't brought offense to the Wild, scoring just three points (all assists) in 15 games. Meanwhile, Minnesota hasn't seen much use for Jiricek in the NHL, playing just six games in the NHL and zero since January 20. As of Tuesday, there's a 12% chance that the Wild will have been aggressive buyers this season while missing the playoffs. Second-guessing the Wild is easy when they're (at best) backing into the playoffs. But Minnesota's mediocrity lately is why the Jiricek trade was such a brilliant maneuver in the first place. Unlike the Nyquist trade, acquiring Jiricek wasn't a move that would either help Minnesota in 2024-25 or not at all. The use of assets was aggressive, making other moves at the trade deadline difficult. But what kind of deals are we talking about? The opportunity cost for the Wild was almost certainly forgoing short-term player rentals. Instead, the Wild pulled off a forward-thinking swap that should set them up for years. That's not just a defensible trade; it's exactly what fans should have wanted Minnesota to do. Unless you expect to see the Wild advance to the second round (Moneypuck puts their odds at 18.6%) or further, most fans would probably prefer the team to sell at the deadline or at least not buy. Trading a first-round pick is by definition a "buyer" action, but obtaining a top prospect is the desired outcome of a "seller." Looking at it through that lens, suddenly, it doesn't matter whether Jiricek was able to make an impact this season. Especially since the Wild were always upfront about this not being a move for this season. "I think it's gonna take us a little while to get him up to speed here," Guerin said after making the trade. "There's a lot for him to learn." Scouting director Judd Brackett echoed that sentiment, telling The Athletic, "[He] still has some things to work on, obviously, as he transitions to playing pro hockey in North America. "But it's really hard to get these types of players." That last point is especially true with what Minnesota gave up to get Jiricek in the first place. Columbus is slated to take the Wild's pick at 21st overall. A team can get a useful player at that spot, sure -- Columbus did with Yegor Chinakhov in 2020. At the same time, the home run rate isn't great, and this draft is "below average," per Corey Pronman. And the talent thins out fast. Players can always drop, but here are the NHL comparables for numbers 19 to 23 on Pronman's March rankings -- within two spots of 21st overall: Ryan Hartman, J.T. Compher, Ross Colton, Chris Tanev, and Zach Whitecloud. If those prospects hit those projections, Columbus should get a solid player. But that day may be two-to-three years away, and it may also never arrive. And if 21st overall is far from a sure bet, what about those second, third, and fourth-round picks? You can find value in those rounds. They will yield role players more often than they'll produce a Jason Robertson, Brayden Point, or Devon Toews. As for Hunt, he has yet to play in the NHL for the Blue Jackets and has just two goals and 13 points in 44 games for the AHL's Cleveland Monsters. Minnesota may have traded him at the peak of his value. Meanwhile, if Jiricek hits his reasonable upside, the Wild have an impact top-four defenseman on their hands. They may have that as soon as next season. Even with his skating flaws, Jiricek still put up Monstar numbers for the Monsters. Minnesota seems confident working with their skating and strength coaches this summer will unlock the 6-foot-4 blueliner's potential. Will it? That's ultimately what will vindicate or doom the trade. But that's still a solid, smart bet, even if we await the returns. Focusing on the playoff run, it'd have been better for Minnesota to do some LTIR shenanigans and acquire a big name like Boeser for 25 games. However, the far wiser move is to focus on building the Wild for their actual competitive window, and that's why the Jiricek trade is still 100% the right call.

The Minnesota Wild are coming up on another offseason, and you know what that means: It's time for Marco Rossi trade rumor corner. The Wild's young center has been in the rumor mill for each of the past two offseasons, and it appears his 22 goals and 54 points in 70 games (so far) may not save him for a third round of rumors. After a trade deadline reprieve, the speculation machine started firing up again on Thursday's "Worst Seats in the House" Podcast with Michael Russo. Quoting Russo: Somebody asked [The Athletic colleague] Joe Smith on his podcast that he believes it's 70% [likely] that Marco Rossi is traded this summer. A person asked if I agreed with that, and I would actually say it's higher. I genuinely think that, reading the tea leaves, I think that they're gonna move him this summer... They are so far apart on what Rossi's camp his value is versus the Wild, it's not even funny. They're in different universes right now. Here we go again. There's the possibility that Rossi is on the Matt Dumba track, always available for a perfect return that will never arrive, presenting no one reason to worry Rossi could be on the move. However, Rossi is a restricted free agent this offseason, which means he's in line for a big raise that the Wild simply don't want to pay, perhaps even via offer sheet. It's a situation that at least has the potential to force the Wild's hand. Whether any trade is a good idea depends on the return, and we don't know what that might constitute. However, if Minnesota is looking for a center-for-center trade, it will be tough to upgrade from Rossi. As of Sunday, his Standings Points Above Replacement has been 4.1, which leads the Wild and puts him in the top-15 league-wide among regular centers. Let's just say that Jack Eichel, Leon Draisaitl, or Wyatt Johnston ain't walking through that door. That means the Wild can either try buying low on a formerly elite center like Elias Pettersson or make a lateral move, at best, in a center swap. The former may be a long shot, and the latter doesn't make much sense. That's fairly concerning because if a center-for-center swap isn't possible, then trading Rossi will put them, by definition, down a center. If that happens, the Wild will have become alarmingly cavalier about giving away talent down the middle. This happened, to a lesser extent, at the trade deadline when Minnesota shipped out Marat Khusnutdinov in a trade for winger Justin Brazeau. Khusnutdinov had few NHL accomplishments. Still, flipping a 22-year-old, speedy center for a slow, 28-year-old fourth-line winger was an odd choice, to say the least. Especially given how Rossi's recent injury scare showed how close the Wild's center depth is to running on fumes. Maybe Khusnutdinov wouldn't have helped with that, but he at least offers more upside than the Wild's current options. You don't have to look far to see how other teams value -- and honestly, hoard -- centers. The Colorado Avalanche traded premium draft capital to land Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle at the trade deadline. The Dallas Stars go six-deep with Johnston, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz, Jamie Benn, Maverik Bourque, and Sam Steel. Heck, they're throwing Mikael Granlund at the pivot before resorting to a Brendan Gaunce-type. Honestly, even with a healthy Rossi and Eriksson Ek, the Wild's center room will have difficulty keeping up with the sheer depth of the Western Conference's top teams. So what happens if they remove Rossi from the equation? Outside of a center-for-center deal, John Tavares is the only high-end free-agent center. Tavares is having a productive season (29 goals, 60 points in 62 games), but he'll also turn 35 before next season starts. It's also worth wondering whether a player who's played in New York and Toronto will see Minnesota as a desirable landing spot when the franchise has historically struggled to attract free agents without local ties. If the Wild strike out on an established center, then the franchise's eggs all go into the Danila Yurov basket. Yurov is a top prospect, but the Wild just saw a 21-year-old prospect in Khusnutdinov struggle to transition to the NHL after putting up solid numbers in the KHL. Yurov has advantages Khusnutdinov doesn't: he's bigger and has a better shot than Khusnutdinov. Regardless, pinning their hopes on a young player immediately adjusting to a bigger, faster league halfway across the world seems dubious. There's also a difference between shifting from wing to center in the KHL and doing so in the NHL. There's reason to think that Yurov can make the transition -- he has the size, skating, and skill to stick at the position. Still, even lifelong centers are sometimes better suited for the wing. Without Rossi, Minnesota could easily be left without a Plan B if Yurov can't stick down the middle. And even if Yurov is an NHL-caliber center and does make a seamless transition to the position... since when is it bad to go three-deep at center? It's almost becoming a requirement to win now. The Cup Champion Florida Panthers are another team with more centers than spots for centers. The runner-up Edmonton Oilers have two of the best five centers of the league, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is behind them on the depth chart. Dallas made the Conference Finals last season, and we've already talked about their situation. Up to this point, Russo and Smith's belief that the Wild will trade Rossi has come up bust, but it's never wise to dismiss someone as plugged-in as Russo. It feels like there's got to be fire to accompany this much smoke. Still, unless the Wild can pull off something huge, Wild fans should hope this round of Rossi rumors don't pan out. Centers are gold in the NHL, and the Wild have two high-end, Under-30 centers on their roster, with the chance to get a third in Yurov. Trading Rossi (likely) wouldn't just be a misunderstanding of the NHL's economy; it'd be a failure to properly read the Wild's map to a Stanley Cup.

It was always going to be easy to dunk on the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline. Short of putting big-money players like Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek on LTIR, they simply didn't have the flexibility to grab a big fish like Mikko Rantanen or Brock Nelson or Brock Boeser. They couldn't get a medium fish, either. We must consider that difficulty when judging what the Wild did at the trade deadline. Maybe you're not thrilled about the Wild flipping a second-rounder for Gustav Nyquist, but what else could they have done? In a playoff chase, standing pat isn't much of an option, especially with Minnesota's offense sputtering. But the Wild did manage to find a way to make a move, swapping out Jakub Lauko on their active roster for Justin Brazeau of the Boston Bruins. Did they get better for the move? Probably. All due respect, Lauko's a "Nice guy, tries hard, loves the game" kind of guy. He's willing to get physical, has speed, and is a bit of a sparkplug. Still, you've got to have some offensive utility in the NHL, and Lauko didn't show much of that in Minnesota because his hands were a weakness. Meanwhile, Brazeau offers Minnesota three things they need at the moment: His 6-foot-5 frame, right-handed shot, and sneaky-good goal-scoring ability over his short NHL career. Since making the NHL last season, just days after his 26th birthday, Brazeau has potted 15 goals in 76 games. That's not a ton, but considering his ice time, it's fairly efficient. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Brazeau's 0.95 goals per hour (in all situations) tie him for 144th among 411 forwards with 750-plus minutes during that span. That rate puts him right there with Jesper Bratt (0.96 Goals/60), Mark Stone (0.95), and Evgeni Malkin (0.94). Not bad. And, perhaps notably, more than anyone currently on the Wild aside from Kaprizov (1.69), Matt Boldy (1.13), Marco Rossi (1.00), and Eriksson Ek (0.97). Maybe Brazeau doesn't do much else, but scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in the NHL. However, if Brazeau indeed has the touch he showed in Boston, he has a chance to help Minnesota a bit. It's kinda weird that a team fighting for their playoff lives was regularly scratching him, but hey, it's worth a shot. If the move was for Lauko and the sixth-round pick they threw to the Bruins, this is a fine move, even if it doesn't move the needle all that much. But the Wild also threw in Marat Khusnutdinov, a soon-to-be-23-year-old center with upside. Giving up on an interesting young player before he hit 100 games makes the move much harder to swallow. Two things can be true at once: Khusnutdinov hasn't been an NHL-caliber player since making his debut in March of last season, and this was too soon to trade him. It's not just that Khusnutdinov scored just three goals and 11 points in 73 games. It was that he rarely took his tools -- his high-end speed, his ability to be a pest at 5-foot-10, the hands he showed in the KHL -- and put them together. He was merely solid defensively and a black hole on offense. Brazeau is likelier to help the Wild make the playoffs in 2024-25 than Khusnutdinov was, especially with the latter in the AHL because of the salary cap. As a short-term move, that's an upgrade. But why are the Wild playing the short game? No one in Minnesota thinks it's the Wild's year. Ownership acknowledges this is Year 2 of the front office's five-year plan. When Kaprizov came out looking like an MVP, and Minnesota stacked up wins, that was fun, of course. Still, no one at the Xcel Energy Center really thought this team was a Cup contender. Certainly not with $15 million in dead cap space. And, seemingly, that included the front office. A team going for it wouldn't have traded their first-round pick for David Jiricek, whose value was future-focused. They would have kept their powder dry to pursue a Nelson, a Boeser, or someone who could provide immediate help. What made the Jiricek move so great was that it was playing for 2025-26, when the Wild would have some money to throw around and build up some depth. It was a team looking at their window and making moves to take advantage of it while being honest about their chances this season. That was a step in the right direction. Khusnutdinov for Brazeau feels like a step in the wrong direction. Presumably, Minnesota sees their window as Years 3-through-5 of their plan. Who's more likely to make an impact then? A fast 22-year-old center who had a strong career in the KHL before arriving in Minnesota? Or a big 27-year-old winger with a nice shooting percentage in less than 1,000 NHL minutes? There's a decent chance that in three years, Brazeau will be a solid fourth-line NHLer, and Khusnutdinov will be back in the KHL. It's also plausible that neither player will be in the NHL in three seasons. But trading in the NHL is partly based on playing the odds, and the chances that Khusnutdinov will be a solid middle-six NHL forward in three years are much higher than Brazeau. Again, the Wild lacked flexibility in dollars to spend and assets to trade, which must be respected. But to what end did Minnesota part with a fast, young center? To get slightly better, sure. But in a Central Division where the Dallas Stars just got Rantanen and the Colorado Avalanche landed Nelson and Charlie Coyle? It seems like the Wild traded Khusnutdinov for a knife to bring to a howitzer fight, and that simply doesn't feel like enough reason to do that.

Very suddenly, it seems like the Minnesota Wild could have a little bit of wiggle room at the trade deadline. If Joel Eriksson Ek's injury keeps him out until the end of the regular season, the Wild could take advantage of LTIR and free up $5.25 million of cap space. That would change things from the status quo, where Minnesota is virtually unable to make a trade, to a scenario where the Wild could be actual players. As a result, The Athletic is daring to speculate about the Wild landing a center. You already know one of the names: native Minnesotan Brock Nelson. The second name is, at least on paper, much more intriguing. Dylan Cozens of the Buffalo Sabres. It's easy to see why the Wild would be interested in The Workhorse From Whitehorse. He's 24-years-old, and right-shot centermen who've scored 30 goals are in short supply. Since the 2014-15 season, there are only 17 players who've scored 30 goals and won 500 faceoffs in a season. Only 13 of them are active. It also doesn't hurt that Cozens has the kind of frame (6-foot-3, 207 pounds) the Wild seem to covet down the middle. It's easy to see Cozens as a cornerstone for a franchise's future. However, a deeper look reveals that Cozens is a substantial risk for any potential suitor -- and that's being generous. The big thing to consider with any breakout season is whether it's sustainable. Is the new success born from genuine growth from a player, or is there some smoke-and-mirrors happening? At first glance, Cozens' 2022-23 season seems like a breakthrough. He shot 14.7%, which is a touch high. However, he scored 31 goals on nearly 27 expected goals, which doesn't seem outrageous by any means. Worst-case scenario, Cozens seemed ready to settle into the 25- to 30-goal range, which is terrific for a center. Since then, Cozens has just 29 goals in 136 games -- an 18-goal 82-game pace. The thing is, you'd expect to see a significant drop in expected goals, but that's not entirely accurate. Last year's 18 goals came from 23.6 expected goals. This season, he's on pace for 16 goals on 21.9 expected. The chances are down, sure, but not back-to-back-sub-20-goal seasons down. Looking at his young career, it seems like Cozens might not be a particularly talented shooter. That 14.7% from his 31-goal season is a definite outlier. Take out that season, and his career shooting percentage drops from 10.1% -- about league-average -- to 8.4%, which is pretty abysmal. For context, fourth-line grinder Brandon Duhaime has a career 8.2 shooting percentage. It's important to note that talented players sometimes take a while to flip a switch and get higher-percentage shots. In Nathan MacKinnon's first four seasons, he only shot 8.1%, and he's shot 11.1% with one of the highest shot volumes in the NHL ever since. Twenty-four isn't too old for the light to come on, either. Joel Eriksson Ek shot an absurdly low 6.8% through his age-23 season, which is lower than, for example, Jared Spurgeon's career mark. But once he figured to get to the net, his game flourished, and his shooting percentage has been at 10.1 ever since. Maybe Cozens just needs to have something click. But even if that's the case, there are still two major red flags for the young center. The most obvious hole is his defense, which is close to the bottom of the barrel. According to Evolving-Hockey's Goals Above Replacement metric, 432 forwards have played 1000-plus minutes in the past three seasons, and Cozens' defensive impact per minute ranks 402nd. Cozens is a dead-ringer defensively for Cole Caufield, except that Caufield has at least scored 33.7 goals per 82 games over his career. Cozens has scored 19 goals for every 82 games since joining the NHL. And look, you don't have to care about defense 100%. If you're talking about someone like Caufield or Kyle Connor, you'll take the good with the bad. Their offensive prowess -- particularly on the power play -- helps coaches and fans live much happier with any defensive lapses on their own end. If Cozens isn't a stout two-way guy, he can still be a big, right-shot, goal-scoring threat down the middle. Eriksson Ek can handle the defense and let Cozens do his thing. The problem here is that Cozens isn't some major power play threat. In fact, he's one of the least productive forwards in the NHL on the power play. Over Cozens' four full NHL seasons, he's logged 670 minutes on the power play. He's one of 145 forwards who have 500-plus minutes during that time. Cozens ranks 133rd in goals per hour (0.99) and 122nd in points per hour (3.58). That's atrocious. There isn't a meaningful distinction between Cozens' numbers and Marcus Johansson's power play stats over that same time (0.92 G/60; 3.70 P/60). Again, Cozens is young enough that you can guess he'll have some room to grow after a change of scenery -- but how much are we talking about? Cozens is making $7.1 million per season, which will look increasingly better as the cap increases. Still, the player has to perform, especially because taking on someone like Cozens will surely cost a top prospect. I could potentially be the de facto "Christmas Morning" addition, with a trade taking the place of free agency. If the Wild get Cozens, they might not be able to do anything else, at least not without trading a more productive player like Matt Boldy or Marco Rossi. Maybe the Wild would be inclined to roll the dice on Cozens. There are absolutely upsides to such a move. Getting a player at this stage in their career is better than getting an older player with similar defensive warts (looking at Brock Boeser, perhaps). Cozens' ability to play the pivot is attractive, but those red flags are bright. If a change of scenery isn't the missing piece to unlock a new level of skill from Cozens, the Wild might be stuck with another half-decade-long albatross in his contract.

When the season began, the Minnesota Wild dreamt of the situation they’re in right now. Coming off missing the playoffs for the third time in the past 12 seasons, the Wild are eight points ahead of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference and look like a virtual lock to return to the playoffs this spring. A team like this usually catches Bill Guerin's attention, whose history of deadline deals suggests that he will attempt to add to this roster to make a Stanley Cup run. But while the Wild have played well, they are not a team worth investing in at this year’s trade deadline. That may seem preposterous to the Wild's loyal fans. Minnesota has 14 of their final 24 games at home, including a seven-game homestand next month. They’re enjoying breakout seasons from Jake Middleton and Marco Rossi. Matt Boldy and Brock Faber are coming off strong performances at the 4 Nations Tournament, and Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov will eventually return from injury. But a deeper look at the Wild shows this team may have too many flaws to fix with a deadline deal. The most glaring problem is that Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov are injured. Kaprizov was having a Hart Trophy season before he suffered a groin injury after the Christmas break. After recording 50 points in his first 34 games, Kaprizov has played in three games since. Guerin admitted he has no idea when the Russian star will return from this injury. By the time he does, he may not have enough time to get into game shape for a playoff series. Take the 2022-23 season as an example. Kaprizov was injured in a March 6 win over the Winnipeg Jets and missed over a month with a groin injury. He returned for the final two games of the regular season but wasn’t the same explosive player, recording only one goal in Game 1 of a six-game playoff series loss to the Dallas Stars. There's a similar cloud of secrecy surrounding Eriksson Ek’s injury. Few players on this roster have Eriksson Ek’s toughness, but it may have been to his detriment when he went to play for Sweden in the 4 Nations Tournament. You can’t blame him for wanting to play for his country. However, it may have been costly if he initially suffered his lower-body injury during the tournament. The combination of these two injuries has Wild fans firing up the trade machine. But even if the Wild pull off a blockbuster for Brock Nelson, Brock Boeser, or any other Minnesotan available via trade, no one can replace Eriksson Ek or Kaprizov. More realistically, they may not be able to help a flawed team. For starters, the Wild’s penalty kill isn’t just bad. It’s historically bad. The Wild’s 71.4% penalty kill rate this season is the 10th lowest in NHL history since the league started keeping track during the 1977-78 season. The New York Islanders (70.2%) and the Detroit Red Wings (69.6%) have lower percentages this season. However, neither team will likely make the playoffs, making the Wild’s problem more glaring. Elite goaltending is a way to fix that, but the Wild haven’t gotten that either. Filip Gustavsson started the year hot with a 13-4-3 record and a .931 save percentage but is 9-8 with a .895 save percentage over his last 18 starts. The struggles have worsened recently: Gustavsson has a 4-6 record with a .886 save percentage. If the Wild were the offensive team they could be with Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek in the lineup, this wouldn’t be an issue. However, as Tuesday’s loss to the Detroit Red Wings showed, this team has no margin for error. Gustavsson only faced 16 shots but allowed three goals in a 3-2 loss. If Gustavsson can’t find a suitable level of play, it creates another challenge unless they want to try and get one last playoff run out of Marc-Andre Fleury. Even then, there’s still the temptation to go all in blindly. The Wild were legitimate Stanley Cup contenders when Kaprizov went down. If they can get him back, they can make a run. But can Nelson, who is part of another historically bad penalty kill, make a difference until he gets back? And would it be worth acquiring Dylan Cozens from the Buffalo Sabers to replace Eriksson Ek and to hedge against Rossi not re-signing next season? There’s also a history of playoff failures with this core. They blew a 2-1 lead in the 2023 series against the Stars and a 2022 series against the St. Louis Blues. As much as we want Boldy to pop up in a series like this, he hasn’t done it yet, with just four points (1 G, 3 A) in 12 career playoff games. Then there were Marcus Foligno's back-to-back meltdown with a late Game 4 penalty and a Game 5 ejection during the playoff series with the Stars. Then there's the whole playing-at-home thing, where the Wild have mysteriously posted a 13-13-1 record in St. Paul this season. Minnesota will get the chance to turn it around. Still, is it worth making a seismic move, especially when the Wild already traded their first-round pick for David Jiricek? Even then, the first names teams will ask for in a trade are Zeev Buium and Danila Yurov, who the Wild aren’t trading. Still, the chances are high that Guerin will do something to improve this team because they’ve earned that right. But you will be disappointed if you’re hoping for a massive move that magically fixes the Wild.

Every year, Scott Wheeler does tremendous work covering over 500 NHL prospects for The Athletic and ranking the strength of their prospect pool. The Minnesota Wild added emerging top prospect Zeev Buium in last year’s draft and traded for big right-handed defenseman David Jiricek. Therefore, the Wild are a winning team and also have Wheeler’s second-best prospect pool. Wheeler ranks the top 15 prospects and gives an in-depth analysis of each, including projections and possibilities for each player. With the strength of the Wild’s pool, some notable players just missed the cut. Caeden Bankier, C, 22, Iowa Wild Bankier spent the last two years developing in Iowa. He’s a natural center that plays a strong two-way game. Last year, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman had Bankier ranked as his sixth-best player in the Wild’s prospect pool. While I’m not as bullish on Bankier as Wheeler, I feel as though Bankier deserved to be among the top 15 of the Wild’s prospect pool. He has 21 points in 45 games with Iowa, only two fewer points than he had in 51 games last season. I would have liked to see a little more of an offensive improvement in his second year, but he won’t be a star offensive contributor to make Minnesota’s roster. At 6-foot-2, 192 lbs., Bankier has the size to be an NHL player and projects to have a bottom-six role. He doesn’t have the skill to be a top-six player, but he’s responsible and smart on both ends of the ice. While Bankier’s stock has fallen slightly, I’d still expect him to get games in the NHL as early as next season. Rasmus Kumpulainen, C, 19, Lahti Pelicans Kumpulainen is a curious case. He started strongly in his first season of professional hockey in the Liiga, with two goals in his first career game. That’s rare for teenagers in the best Finnish League. He's playing against grown men, but Kumpulainen looked to be building off of the success he had in his one season with Oshawa in the OHL. However, Kumpulainen only has 11 points in 37 Liiga games. That’s understandable, given his age, but not what you’d like to see from a player who started the year so well. Kumpulainen is a skilled 6-foot-2, 200 lbs. player, which is why the Wild took him 53rd overall in 2023. We won’t know what kind of player Kumpulainen will be for a while. He could figure it out, blow up, and be on pace to play NHL games again in the next few years. But at this point, we need to see how he finishes the season. Perhaps the Wild will try to get Kumpulainen in Iowa to get a closer look at him next year. Jimmy Clark, W, 20, University of Minnesota A former seventh-round pick for the Wild, Clark has progressed admirably while playing close to home. Like Kumpulainen, Clark is another prospect who started the season off hot and has cooled off lately. Clark has 14 points in 29 games for the Gophers. That’s three points more than he had last season in 10 fewer games. Clark is creative in the offensive zone and can make things happen for his teammates. At 6-foot-1, 180 lbs., the winger from Edina has decent size and should fill out that frame a little more as he grows in the NCAA. Clark will only get more opportunities to show what he can do as he plays more college puck. He probably will spend all four years in college and transition to Iowa after he's done playing if the Wild retain his rights. Still, the kid’s got some tools that could be a solid addition to the Wild’s third line one day if they develop right. Samuel Hlavaj, G, 23, Iowa Wild Hlavaj’s numbers don’t look great in Iowa, but neither does Jesper Wallstedt’s, and he’s one of Minnesota’s top prospects. Hlavaj only has a .890 SV% and a 3.18 GAA. However’ Iowa’s porous defense makes it hard for any goaltender to succeed. Still, Hlavaj has put together some solid games, including one shutout and 35+ save performances that led to Iowa wins. Hlavaj has been getting a ton of time in Iowa after showing out with Slovakia on the world stage. It was a short stint of games, but he had a 1.67 GAA and a .929 SV%. Hopefully, with more games and a developing Iowa blueline, his numbers can grow with the teams. He might eventually steal some games as a backup NHL goalie. Will any of these guys play prominent roles for the Wild one day? Probably not. Still, with the strength of the Wild’s prospect pool forcing these guys down the rankings, I thought these prospects still had interesting upside and were worth noting. All stats and data via Cap Wages and Elite Prospects unless otherwise noted.

I can clearly remember the last time it felt like Christmas Morning to be a Wild fan. The exact date was July 4, 2012, the date the Minnesota Wild signed the now-onerous and crippling Zach Parise and Ryan Suter contracts. Make no mistake, no one thought those deals would look good in the mid-2020s. But that was a problem for mid-2020s Wild fans. Ha ha. But for the moment, it genuinely felt like Christmas Morning. It had everything -- Wild fans making a wish list for those players, the anticipation, and even a dramatic flourish with owner Craig Leipold bringing them to Minnesota via plane as beat writers hid in the bushes to take a peek. It was undeniably Christmas in July. (And no, I don't want to hear about how Kirill Kaprizov's arrival in Minnesota was like Christmas Morning. The day Kaprizov arrived was like when your deadbeat dad shows up for the first time in four years and gives you a gift that's "for the birthdays he missed," but it's good enough for you to say, "Actually, Ron kinda came through here.") But now that the hangover of Christmas Morning 1.0 will wear off in July 2025, we're being promised Christmas Morning 2.0. No, really. "Next July 1 is going to be like Christmas," declared Mr. Leipold back in October. And I'm afraid of Christmas morning. Don't get me wrong, I'm writing to Santa about a long-term extension for Kirill Kaprizov to arrive on exactly that date. Whether it's for $13, $14, or, heck, $20 million per year, I don't care as long as it's eight years. If that gets done, I'll get something I'm thrilled about under the tree. But after four straight lean years where the Wild have had to do their shopping at Five Below, there's no doubt Minnesota wants to make a big splurge. That's also the fear -- of leaving a Parise/Suter situation and diving right into another one. That's not an indictment on Mr. Leipold's ownership. For one, it's his team and his money, and Wild fans should be happy to have an owner willing to break the bank to try and field a winning product. You can hop the Green Line over to Target Field Station and see what happens when the owner isn't as willing to invest in the team. Nor is it an admonishment of the Parise/Suter contracts. Those two were top-50 players, and the Wild were an afterthought in the NHL before those moves. They became relevant overnight and remained so ever since. The ending would always be bad, but if I had a chance to go back in time and get the Wild's ear before signing those deals... I'd advise them to do it again. But this is a different free agent class, a different Wild team, and a different juncture in franchise history. Let's start with the players available. There are only three players who've been in the NHL's Top-50 in Evolving-Hockey's Standings Points Above Replacement since the start of the 2021-22 season that are hitting free agency: Mitch Marner (seventh), Mikko Rantanen (eighth), and Brad Marchand (28th). If Marner or Rantanen want to sign with your team, you do that in a heartbeat and ask questions later. Marchand would move the needle. Still, at 37, he'd be a short-term, late-career signing. Everyone else is especially subject to The Winner's Curse, where signing them virtually guarantees a bad ending. To get a player in free agency, you're almost always overpaying in both money and term. Look at the Nashville Predators, who had their Christmas morning in July. They threw cash around and inked two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner Steven Stamkos, Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Marchessault, and threw in a top-four defenseman in Brady Skjei for good measure. Look what they got for it: Seventh place in the Central Division, with Stamkos and Marchessault on pace for 22-and-24-goal seasons, respectively. No one is saying the Wild can't use a top-six center in Matt Duchene, Brock Nelson, or John Tavares, even into their mid-to-late 30s. Nor would a right-shot scoring winger like Brock Boeser or a speedster like Nikolaj Ehlers be out of place in Minnesota. But again, this is a different Wild team at a different juncture of their franchise. They have Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, two star players who will keep them relevant. Minnesota also isn't so desperate for centers that it needs to sign a Faustian contract to get one -- while the depth isn't great, Marco Rossi and Joel Eriksson Ek make a good 1-2 punch. They also have a great prospect pool that won't need to carry the team the way Minnesota depended on Mikael Granlund and company to do in 2012. Goalie Jesper Wallstedt and defenseman Zeev Buium probably need to become tentpole pieces. Still, if players like Danila Yurov, Liam Öhgren, David Jiricek, and Riley Heidt become solid players instead of stars, that doesn't throw the whole plan into flux. The Wild did a great job assembling this foundation, and it'd be a shame if an ill-advised free agent signing blew that up. How would it feel if, four years from now, the Wild were forced to choose between keeping Buium and Jiricek, or Rossi and Yurov because they had one or two poorly-aging Stamkos-esque contracts? Now, free agency isn't the only way to bring aboard an impact player. If the Wild target a young player on the outs with their team or one who wants out, that's a different story. The Florida Panthers did that with Matthew Tkachuk, for example. The whispers are out about Elias Pettersson, and buying low on a three-time 30-goal scorer at center before turning 27 would be exactly the kind of Christmas morning move I would welcome. It's hard to imagine that the Wild won't make a big splash this offseason. The front office and ownership are motivated to make a move. Minnesota is in a contention window with Kaprizov, and the fanbase is starved for something good after four years of league-imposed frugality. But Christmas morning needs to come with the right presents, or the memory of Christmas 2.0 will turn into sour egg nog.

In hockey, you often ride the hot hand. Great chemistry between players is rarely the result of struggling and then finding a breakthrough. Usually, you have it or you don't, and once you have it, coaches are loathe to give it up. So it's a bit eyebrow-raising that on Sunday, John Hynes broke up his productive top line for the second consecutive game, swapping center Marco Rossi onto a lower line. In isolation, neither change should have stood out. Hynes flipped Rossi with fourth-line center Marat Khusnutdinov for a few shifts at the tail end of the second period in Friday's game at the Anaheim Ducks. Coaches send players, especially young ones, messages all the time. It happens. Rossi responded with a goal and assist in the third period; the Wild won, and everyone seemed to move on. Even on Sunday, the Wild needed a goal to tie and loaded up their top line with Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, and Joel Eriksson Ek. You can't blame a coach for doing that, especially when it netted them the goal that forced overtime. But after Sunday's game, The Athletic's Michael Russo wrote about Hynes' dissatisfaction with Rossi's consistency. "[Hynes] knows Rossi's getting points but feels like his game's been up and down. For instance, after taking three penalties in a four-game stretch, Hynes thought Rossi was good in San Jose. But in Anaheim, Hynes felt Rossi needed to be harder on plays and manage the puck better." Rossi's 23, and his game is still developing, so learning moments will happen. Ideally, Hynes sends his message, and the extremely driven center works to clean up those mistakes and continues his terrific start to the season. But also... hopefully, Rossi's leash doesn't stay this short because his season has been extremely consistent. The top line of Kaprizov, Rossi, and Mats Zuccarello has outscored opponents by a 12-6 margin at 5-on-5 this season. Looking at Rossi himself, he's only been outscored at 5-on-5 in three of their 15 games and got the better of the expected goals share in 10 of 15 games. Say what you want, but that feels pretty consistent. Then there's the offensive output, arguably more consistent than any other forward on the team not named "Kaprizov." Rossi entered Tuesday with 12 even-strength points (tied for 13th in the NHL) and 4.51 individual expected goals (tied for 11th). Looking at the game logs, we can see how steadily he's generated chances night after night. Here's the number of his individual xG for each game and how they ranked among Wild forwards on that night: Game 1: 0.09 (6th) Game 2: 0.48 (2nd) Game 3: 0.26 (3rd) Game 4: 0.29 (3rd) Game 5: 0.73 (1st) Game 6: 0.08 (6th) Game 7: 0.07 (3rd) Game 8: 0.07 (6th) Game 9: 0.27 (2nd) Game 10: 0.69 (1st) Game 11: 0.18 (5th) Game 12: 0.02 (4th) Game 13: 0.57 (1st) Game 14: 0.50 (1st) Game 15: 0.22 (3rd) In bold is every game where Rossi had at least 0.20 expected goals at even-strength and finished the night in the top three among Wild forwards. That number is nine of 15 games. Compare that to, say, Boldy, who has had just five such games in 15 efforts, and we can get a good sense of how consistent Rossi has been. Now, points aren't everything, and neither are scoring chances. But on a team tied for 27th with 2.25 expected goals per hour at 5-on-5, you've got to take the offense you can get, even if those offensive players are prone to an extra mistake or lapse. Rossi's play should earn him the same benefit of the doubt that gets extended to less impactful players (whom I'm sure you can name in the comments). To be fair, there's a balancing act in this -- how much do you prioritize imparting a lesson during a player's growing pains versus not throwing out prospects with the Zamboni water -- and to his credit, Hynes hasn't made any missteps yet. But it can be tricky, and Hynes needs to navigate these waters carefully to enhance the growth in his budding center's game without derailing his (or the top line's) success.

You can't take October away from the Minnesota Wild. John Hynes emphasized the need for a fast start for his team after coming onto the job mid-season once the Wild stumbled to a 5-10-4 record. As Banner from "Arrested Development" once infamously read... Nine games into the season, the Wild have a 6-1-2 record. They have as many points in the standings (14) as they had through 19 games under Dean Evason last year. Those points are in the bank, and if we're using the playoff cutoff from last year (98), Minnesota is already 14% of the way to the playoffs with about 90% of the season to go. But this is a sports team in Minnesota; it's the land of 10,000 Shoes To Drop. If you're a pessimist, there's no shortage of red flags for this Wild team. It might surprise you that the Wild's opponents are outshooting them at 5-on-5 this season (200 to 201). In terms of overall shot attempts, Minnesota's also well below 50% (392 to 445) and is only barely on top in terms of expected goals (16.0 to 14.5). You can get out-shot, out-attempted, and even out-chanced and still make the playoffs. The Washington Capitals did it last year, and their numbers were worse than Minnesota's. But it's tough. You need killer special teams, some mojo that doesn't run out in the regular season, or, preferably, both. And even then, your luck tends to run out come playoff time. The Wild have both things on their side right now. They've got a top-10 power play, the fifth-highest shooting percentage at 5-on-5 (11.5%), and the fourth-highest save percentage (93.5%). That works out to a PDO (shooting plus save percentages) of 105.0, the third-highest in the NHL. Teams at the extreme ends of the PDO spectrum tend to regress to the league average of 100. So what happens when things start to break the other way? The Wild might have the classic red flags of a team that will regress, but there's reason to think it might not be so bad. As always, we're dealing with some small sample sizes that produce weird results in the early part of the season. In this case, events have conspired to make Minnesota's underlying numbers look worse. Remember, the Wild went their first six games without trailing. They've trailed for only 45 minutes and 50 seconds this season, the lowest amount in the league. Only the Vegas Golden Knights have spent more time in the lead. This is where score effects come in. Teams in the lead tend to hang back and settle for defending, while the trailing team pushes to create more offense. Over a full season, when most teams spend about 1000 minutes or more leading and trailing, these effects tend to make only a minor impact. But when we're talking, say... nine games, for example... these score effects can skew things significantly. We're seeing that with the Wild right now. Let's take a look at what the Wild's 5-on-5 possession numbers are before and after adjusting for score effects, which Evolving-Hockey helpfully does: Corsi For Percentage: Unadjusted: 46.8% (25th in NHL) Adjusted: 50.2% (21st) Shots For Percentage: Unadjusted: 49.9% (18th) Adjusted: 52.6% (9th) Expected Goals Percentage: Unadjusted: 50.8% (13th) Adjusted: 53.1 (9th) Once those score effects are accounted for, Minnesota looks much more solid. The Wild pop over 50.2% at controlling shot attempts. However, they have built a reputation for dominating shot quality for over a decade. Once we account for score effects, they're doing it again, and that's very good news for the State of Hockey. Last season, nine of the top-10 teams in (score-adjusted) Expected Goals Percentage at 5-on-5 made the playoffs. Over the last 10 full 82-game seasons, 85 of the 100 teams in the top-10 of Expected Goals Percentage made the playoffs. Better yet, they've done it while missing six games from Jared Spurgeon, their best 5-on-5 player last year (57.8% xGF%). Having Spurgeon back and healthy raises the ceiling for their season. These reasons and the points the Wild have already banked are why Evolving-Hockey projects them to have a 79.9% chance of making the playoffs. There will be times when the shooting goes cold, the goaltending gets a bit leaky, and the power play slumps. Still, Minnesota (when healthy) has enough going for it to believe that it will make the playoffs.

If you're looking for one piece of 20-year-old pop culture to describe the Minnesota Wild's start to the season, it's easily Michael Scott looking stone serious into the camera and declaring, "No question about it, I am ready to get hurt again." It's October 23, just six games into the season, but you can unironically look at this team and go, The Wild are a wagon. It's not even just you buying in on this. The media is in on them. The players are in on themselves. And, frankly, until they spend a second trailing on the scoreboard, why shouldn't they be? You can point to several reasons for the Wild's strong start. Their top two lines are out-scoring opponents at an 11-to-1 clip at 5-on-5 through six games. Minnesota's power play is just that: powerful, converting at a 33.3% clip that's fourth in the NHL. But the biggest reason is the guy between the pipes: Filip Gustavsson. The "Gus Bus" is traveling at a pace not seen since 1994, and he's not just kept Minnesota in games but has allowed them to win comfortably. Five starts in, and the 26-year-old goaltender still hasn't surrendered three or more goals in a game. His last four starts have seen him hold his opponents to one goal during regulation. We know a small sample size when we see one here at Hockey Wilderness, and yes, of course, these are small sample shenanigans. There are no .950 goalies in the NHL, and definitely not in recent years, where the league save percentage has dropped below .900. Still, it makes you wonder: Is the Gus Bus back? Can the Wild trust him to lead this team back to the postseason after being perhaps the biggest reason they missed last year? Five games isn't enough to determine that, but what about 85? That's the number of starts that Gustavsson has in a Wild uniform, and in those two-plus seasons, the Swedish netminder has put up some of the best numbers in the NHL. Here are the top-10 goalies (minimum 2000 minutes) in save percentage at that time: Linus Ullmark, .927 Connor Hellebuyck, .921 Jeremy Swayman, .917 Ilya Sorokin, .917 FILIP GUSTAVSSON, .917 Igor Shesterkin, .915 Joey Daccord, .914 Jake Oettinger, .914 Semyon Varlamov, .913 Juuse Saros, .912 That's good company. Really good company. The problem is that Gustavsson's numbers have oscillated between extremes. A .931 save percentage in 2022-23 is doing some heavy lifting for him, and his save percentage from last season drags him down. Hockey coaches value consistency, and Gustavsson's season-long slump devalues an otherwise top-10 goalie performance from the past several years. So it's not surprising to see Gustavsson on a heater early in the season. He's done it before, for longer. Until he proves he can be consistent, the question will always be whether he can limit the damage when things start going wrong. That was a huge problem last season. He was prone to bad showings and meltdowns, where Gustavsson lost his composure and control of the game. We can find several examples of this. Against the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 14, he surrendered three goals in 2 minutes, 20 seconds in the third period of a game where Minnesota lost 6-4. The Wild had to overcome a 3-0 first-period deficit on November 4 against the New York Rangers after he allowed three goals in the game's first seven minutes. They dropped two crucial divisional games to the Nashville Predators, with the game turning on a brief but impactful Gustavsson meltdown. On January 25, the Predators erased a 1-0 lead heading into the third period with two goals in 35 seconds. The Wild lost 3-2. How do you top that? By allowing two goals in eight seconds on February 29, which turned a one-goal lead in the first period to the spark for a 6-1 blowout. We're not seeing that this year, even in moments where Wild fans held their breath, waiting for things to unravel. In the St. Louis Blues game, Mathieu Joseph broke the scoring open with under 10 minutes left to make it 3-1. Minnesota turned the puck over a little over a minute later, and St. Louis took a 3-on-2 back Gustavsson's way. Robert Thomas, who had 26 goals and 86 points last season, shot the puck -- but Gustavsson deflected it. Crisis averted. He put out the fire. A similar dynamic happened in his second win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He lost the shutout with 85 seconds left to make the game 3-1, but when Kirill Marchenko took the Jackets' last shot with 36 seconds to go, Gustavsson limited the damage. Last night in Florida, Sam Bennett got on the board in the middle of the second period, but Gustavsson shut the door completely in Minnesota's 5-1 win. As is often the case with the Wild, you have to give credit to their defense. They're allowing 1.8 expected goals per hour at 5-on-5, blocking shots, and making life much easier for Gustavsson. Then again, the Wild were the best team in hockey at suppressing expected goals last season, and look what that did for the Gus Bus, then. We can get caught up in recency bias, and just as easy as it was for the 2023-24 season to sour Wild fans on Gustavsson, this hot start could easily be coloring our feelings about him now. And even if the defense keeps being this stingy, and Gustavsson stays locked in, he won't be close to a .952 goalie at the end of the season. Still, it looks like he's figured out how to stop the bleeding when things go wrong, and his overall career save percentage is far from anything to sneeze at. You (and the Wild) can absolutely get hurt again, but it feels like it's time to go all-in on the Gus Bus.

After spending most of the Bill Guerin Era being cautious with bringing up young players, the Minnesota Wild's roster decisions ahead of Game 1 are a surprising change in direction. The Wild have not one, but two green rookies on the Opening Night roster. Liam Öhgren and Jesper Wallstedt are entering the season with the big club despite having only seven games of NHL experience between them. The Wild are doing this, even without a salary cap incentive to keep them down in the AHL. Ohgren and Wallstedt may not play on Opening Night, meaning they cost Minnesota precious wiggle room against the cap as they wear a suit. The Wild don't care, and that's a refreshing change. "They've earned it," declared coach John Hynes to NHL.com's Jessi Pierce. "They've earned the right to be here. They've challenged for some spots." And that's not all. After opening training camp with veteran Ryan Hartman centering star winger Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, sophomore Marco Rossi is poised to open the season in that top-line center role. While that line spent 315 5-on-5 minutes together last season, it's still surprising that they didn't defer to the veteran Hartman. No one's complaining. But you have to wonder, what's the reason for the change? Part of it might be that John Hynes is more willing to coach younger players than Dean Evason or perhaps more ready to move away from relying on veterans. Michael Russo reported on his "Worst Seats In the House" podcast's October 3 episode that "the [Wild's] staff wants these guys to play this year, and Marcus Johansson is in the spot they'd like to have Öhgren in." That tidbit makes it look like Hynes' desire to get Öhgren in the lineup is part of the equation, but it feels like there's another piece to this puzzle. Here's where it feels like the dots connect. Listening to Elliotte Friedman's "32 Thoughts" podcast from October 7, one of the first stories they addressed was Kirill Kaprizov's situation in Minnesota and Mr. Craig Leipold's declaration that "Nobody will offer more money than us." In particular, Friedman spoke on what should happen for Kaprizov to stay. "Nobody needs to tell [Minnesota] that with Kirill Kaprizov, they're gonna have to show him that they're worth staying with," explained Friedman. "They're on notice by their own words, and everyone else is on notice, too. ... The thing I noticed is, it looks some of their kids like Öhgren and Rossi, they had good camps. It's still early, but... they're gonna need those kids to convince Kaprizov that the Wild is where he wants to stay." (Emphasis mine.) And suddenly, the puzzle falls into place. The timeline lines up almost perfectly. Kaprizov made his preseason debut on September 27 with Hartman centering him, as planned. Just two days prior, an ill-phrased rumor about Kaprizov took the internet by storm. The Wild's superstar next appeared on October 1 -- the same day Mr. Leipold spoke on his future. By the end of that game, Rossi was centering the top line and appears set to keep it for Game 1 of the season. The top line struggled with Hartman in their 4:43 together on October 1. But that's a quick, quick hook to give Hartman after Kaprizov scored two goals in his debut, one of which came off Hartman's assist. It makes a lot more sense if it comes from a long-term lens. Say Hartman centering Kaprizov got the former back to a 25 or even 30-goal form again. Those are solid numbers, but Hartman is a known quantity who will be 30 next season and 31 in the first year of any Kaprizov extension. Zero disrespect to Hartman, but is that an attractive sell when jumping to another team could get him centered by, say, Connor Bedard? Or is it a better sell if Rossi, whom Guerin believes can be a 60-point player, takes that spot for the year and puts up a season in the 25-goal, 60-point neighborhood? If Rossi can show off his two-way game and put up points alongside Kaprizov -- the way Joel Eriksson Ek did last year -- it becomes very easy for Kaprizov to think he'll continue to grow into that role. Having just celebrated his 23rd birthday, Rossi is on the upward part of his career trajectory. He could make it easy for Kaprizov to envision taking passes from him well into an eight-year contract. The same goes for Öhgren and Wallstedt, even if they don't have as direct an impact on Kaprizov as Rossi would as his center. Is it better for Kaprizov's buy-in for the future if Johansson is toiling in a top-six role or if Öhgren is flashing potential and growing his game alongside Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy? Even if Wallstedt gets 15-to-20 starts in the NHL this year, if he shows well, you can sell Kaprizov on having your Goalie of the Future in place for the long haul, and that's a huge part of the winning puzzle. These decisions could just be "hockey decisions," which aren't influenced by the question of Kaprizov's future. If they are simply "hockey decisions," then credit Hynes and the front office for wanting to go with a more youth-oriented, upside-focused approach for the roster. And if these moves are being made with an eye on maximizing Kaprizov's happiness with the future outlook of the team, then again, credit to Hynes and the front office. Nothing is more important than keeping Kaprizov in Minnesota, and emphasizing and showcasing their youth movement is their best shot at doing that.

Have you ever gotten exactly what you wanted? Like, exactly the thing you were wanting. No substitutes, no disappointments, just the exact thing you want. It's not a feeling I'm super familiar with, particularly as a sports fan. Maybe it'd be different if I rooted for the Los Angeles Dodgers or something. But from my standpoint, it feels like being left wanting more is a constant state of fandom. It's not even limited to big things like playoff disappointments. Maybe that feeling comes out when you want a player to be just 5% better or when lamenting what might have been if not for a star's early-career injury. Or, if you're me watching the Minnesota Wild last year, a team not handling a lost situation exactly how you'd want them to. Despite being an obvious non-contender, Minnesota didn't play the bulk of their prospects until Game 79 in the season -- until they were technically eliminated. And even then, that just meant a couple of starts for Jesper Wallstedt and Liam Öhgren. We get it, there wasn't much of a pro prospect pool from which to draw. Other than Wallstedt, what was there? Daemon Hunt didn't blow the doors off in 12 NHL games. 2021 first-rounder Carson Lambos struggled as a rookie in Iowa. Marat Khusnutdinov and Öhgren needed to complete their regular seasons overseas. But this year? We're going to get exactly what we want. The only question is: Do we really want it? Yes, the Wild's initial training camp lines didn't show much room for the youths. Marat Khusnutdinov was the only member of our Top-10 Prospects list on the team's four forward lines... who centered the fourth line. Make no mistake, though, the kids are gonna play. They pretty much have to. Minnesota left themselves little alternative this offseason. The Wild's salary cap outlook dictated that their improvements must be internal. There wasn't the money to bring in a big-money player, so they poured the few resources they had into Yakov Trenin's $3.5 million AAV. That's why Minnesota's top two lines saw some very familiar configurations: Kirill Kaprizov with Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello on the top line and Marcus Johansson reuniting with Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek on the second. But as we've already seen, injuries will take a toll on that. Boldy is now week-to-week with a lower-body injury. While he's expected to be available for Opening Night, it's still instructive. Players get hurt, and as we saw last year, they underperform. Opportunities open up. There aren't a whole lot of NHL veterans waiting to fill top-six shoes in St. Paul. Despite rumors that the Wild were hot on him, Patrik Laine isn't walking through that door. Unless an injury frees up some LTIR cap space, they won't make any big trades to get some offensive juice. That leaves Öhgren, starting his first full season in North America, to be a player competing for that kind of role. Marat Khusnutdinov should get to jump up the lineup should an opportunity open up. Riley Heidt, a 19-year-old 15 months removed from his draft day, even has a realistic shot at making the team out of training camp. It's not just that Minnesota could hypothetically have one of their prospects take a top-six role. They're practically begging someone to do so. A team doesn't pursue a defensive liability like Laine because it thinks its scoring doesn't need an upgrade. The most likely way to get it now is if Öhgren and/or Heidt are ready to step into the NHL like Wyatt Johnston did for the Dallas Stars two years ago. As for options, so many more young kids are available to Minnesota this year than last season. Wallstedt (our No. 1 Prospect), Öhgren (No. 4), Heidt (No. 5), Khusnutdinov (No. 6), Hunt (No. 8), and Lambos (No. 10) put more than half of their top names at their disposal. Beyond that, forwards like Caedan Bankier and defensemen like Jack Peart and David Spacek could play their way into a role. It'll be new, and it'll be novel, but will it be better? That's what we're going to find out. We wanted to see the future for such a long time, and this season will force Minnesota to throw at least a few of these guys in the pool without water wings. If they thrive right away, great, they were ready. Or perhaps they were witches. But more likely, they were ready. If not, though? We should also be prepared for that. There's no safety net when playing the kids is your first (or close to first) option. No veterans will come up from Iowa to stop the bleeding if the prospects flop as the first line of defense. As a fan and prospect nerd, seeing these players will be exciting. However, there's also a chance I'll have to confront the feeling that I should have been careful about what I wished for.

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, Marat Khusnutdinov. There’s an understandable reluctance to draft Russian players into the NHL because of the geopolitics involved, but a few teams have seemingly cracked the code. The Minnesota Wild drafted a handful of Russian players in the franchise's early days. However, starting in 2004, they didn’t draft any Russian players until 2015, when Kirill Kaprizov was the steal of the draft from the fifth round. Since then, the team has been more willing to draft Russian players. Marat Khusnutdinov was one of them, and he finally joined the team last spring. It’s hard for any young player to move continents and adjust to an entirely different league. Khusnutdinov did an admirable job of learning things on the fly, but some fans were still disappointed with his league debut. The 2024-25 season will be Khusnutdinov’s chance to show fans that he’s prepared to be a staple player as the Wild emerge from their salary cap situation. When Khusnutdinov arrived in America, he was slightly more prepared than Kaprizov. First, he spoke decent English and did his first press scrum almost entirely in English. During that scrum, he admitted that the NHL was faster and smarter than the KHL. Khusnutdinov and his camp had also been in constant communication with the Wild, whereas Kaprizov had been completely incommunicado. Because of social media, fans had a good idea of what Khusnutdinov brought with him to the rink. First of all, what impressed fans the most during Khusnutdinov’s first game was that he won nearly all of the faceoffs he took. For a team that has continually struggled up the middle, that was enough to elicit cheers from the fans in attendance every time he won. He made 100% of his 5-on-5 faceoffs in the offensive zone. Of all of the true centers taking faceoffs during that game (so not wingers who stepped up to the dot after the refs kick a center out), Khusnutdinov had the best faceoff percentage that game, with 67%. Fans need to remember that Khusnutdinov plays in a different style than Kaprizov and Yurov. There seems to be an undercurrent of thought that he’s a high-skill, goal-scoring player. And while he obviously has skills, he’s much more of a tough fourth-line grinder. He’s a rare physical type who can make hits and block shots without taking many penalties. Khusnutdinov's work ethic and ability to play bigger than he is one way that he is like Kaprizov. Khusnutdinov and Kaprizov are slightly undersized but solidly built and able to push other players out of their space. While Kaprizov’s ability to put the team on his back in the third period is unique, fans can see some of that same drive in Khusnutdinov. He can push play back into the offensive zone and east to west to make plays happen. Khusnutdinov does have some skills that make him a fun player to watch. He can dance around defenders and is a great playmaker, but he doesn’t have much prowess with goal-scoring. If he can play with a winger who is a quick trigger shot, he could rack up assists this coming season. Next season could be a big one for Khusnutdinov. After staying in Minnesota for a good chunk of the summer, Khusnutdinov is bound to feel even more at home. Off-ice worries about fitting in and succeeding as a stranger to America can fade away, and he can focus solely on the good ole hockey game.

It's not telling tales out of school to say that you'll have to wait a little while to see Danila Yurov's name on Hockey Wilderness' just-launched 2024 Top-10 Minnesota Wild Prospects series. It's also not a surprise that Marco Rossi won't appear on that list -- because he's no longer a prospect. But that doesn't prevent these two youngsters from going head-to-head on someone else's list. Yurov and Rossi squared off on Corey Pronman's NHL Pipeline Rankings. In it, he ranked Minnesota's Under-23 crop as the 10th-best in the NHL, then ranked the organization's players. The great thing about Pronman is that he's a bit of an iconoclast. Prospect rankings can sometimes be subject to groupthink, but Pronman isn't afraid to think for himself. It produces fascinating results. He ranked Caedan Bankier sixth over Liam Öhgren (seventh), while Riley Heidt is outside his top 13 and is mentioned in his "Has a chance to play" tier. You can't say he's not willing to be bold. However, the biggest flashpoint among the Hockey Wilderness brain trust is where Rossi and Yurov land on his list. Rossi is third, and Yurov is fifth. It's not a crazy ranking for Yurov, at least among prospects. He's still in the top-3 behind 2024 first-rounder Zeev Buium and 2021 first-round goalie Jesper Wallstedt. That's more-or-less in line with the consensus. Rossi over Yurov, though? That's out there, at least to some. Rossi did fine as a rookie last year, scoring 21 goals and 40 points in a full season. But haven't you seen what Yurov has done in Russia? He scored 21 goals and 49 points in 62 games, besting Vladimir Tarasenko's KHL record for most points by an under-21 player. The same Vladimir Tarasenko who will score his 300th career goal sometime next season. If you're also finding this ranking absurd, that's reasonable. Remember that the further away a prospect is from the NHL, the easier it is to believe they can be anything. Fans and media don't start toning down the expectations until they arrive, and we start to get checked with reality a bit. That process has arguably already happened with Rossi. In 2020, Pronman stated, "I see a player who will put up a lot of NHL points... I could see him become a first-line center, but maybe toward the lower end of the spectrum in the league in that role." However, those hopes dropped precipitously as Rossi's slow trek to the NHL progressed. The 40-point season rebounded them somewhat, but there are still doubts -- reportedly even within the organization -- of whether the young Austrian is truly a top-six-caliber center. Meanwhile, Yurov's star is still on the rise. He hasn't given us reason to doubt him yet. So, how do you value one versus the other? It's a tricky proposition. As for me? I'm throwing in with Pronman on his rankings. Why? There will be exceptions, such as Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, who instantly prove to be the real deal. But for most prospects? That shoe is going to drop, at least a little. Because of that, I tend to give the edge to a player producing in the NHL. Whatever you want to say about Rossi's flaws, I know the guy can score 20 goals without playing top power play minutes. I've seen it. Maybe Yurov is Tarasenko and provides 30 goals in the bank throughout his prime. Or maybe he's Denis Gurianov. Sure, I think Yurov will be good... but do I know? There are exceptions to every rule, and I have circumstances where I'll break my own guidelines. If you've got a superpower? A tool in your skill set that isn't just going to play in the NHL but stand out? That's when you get to jump the line as a prospect. Yurov's a top prospect. Elite Prospects just ranked him 46th on their Top-100 Affiliated Prospects list. The Athletic's Scott Wheeler is even higher on him, putting him at No. 30, ahead of top prospects like Utah's Dylan Guenther and the recently traded Rutger McGroarty. He's got a high floor and a high ceiling. But what's his superpower? Here's how Wheeler describes Yurov: "If you were to fill up two buckets with his tools -- one for his strengths, and one with his weaknesses -- the bucket with his strengths in it would be overflowing, and the one with his weaknesses would be nearly empty." Hell yeah, we'd love to see that. But again, where's the superpower? Elite Prospects grades tools on a 2-to-9 scale, with 5 being average and a score of 7 or higher being a high-end NHL-caliber skill. Yurov's physicality is a 5, and that's his lowest score. His skating and puckhandling merit a 6.5 grade, which falls just short of that high-end grade. Pronman also agrees with that assessment of Yurov, grading his puck skills and shot as "Above NHL average" and his skating, hockey sense, and compete level as "NHL average." Again, that's awesome. There are no superpowers to be found, though. However, that prompts the question: What is Rossi's superpower? Let's take a look at what prospect heads were saying about Rossi before last season -- when he had zero goals and one point to his name over 19 NHL games. Elite Prospects' grades broke down thusly: Skating: 5 Shooting: 7 Passing: 7.5 Puckhandling: 7 Hockey Sense: 7.5 Physical: 5 That's four high-end tools there, and two that are especially high-end. For comparison, Rossi's passing ability was graded as equivalent to Utah's Logan Cooley and the San Jose Sharks' Will Smith. His hockey sense was graded as being on par with Smith and Leo Carlsson of the Anaheim Ducks. After the 20-goal season, Pronman graded Rossi's hockey sense as "High-end." It's a superpower more subtle than Kaprizov's edge work and shot and Matt Boldy's puckhandling through traffic. But it is a superpower, nonetheless. If you've got 14 minutes, you can see the superpower at work when watching his 21 goals. Rossi shows a lot of traits here. The hand-eye coordination and hard work around the net are consistently great. But watch these goals back-to-back-to-back-to-back, and you'll appreciate how often he's in the right place. How he can sneak into those pockets of space to get a shot off without even being touched. That's a superpower. I'm not saying the scouts can't be wrong about Yurov's lack of a superpower. Maybe his hands are that superpower. Perhaps his skating keeps improving with age and strength. But if he has one, he'll have to prove it in the NHL. Rossi has it, so he gets the edge in this debate for now.

The ink has dried on Brock Faber’s contract, as well as the dozens of articles and blog posts, which all seem to agree. The Minnesota Wild nailed it. Faber’s contract guarantees eight more years of the hometown kid playing in St. Paul, and it’s almost certainly a positive-value contract. It also leaves room for spectacular upside. However, the contract is also fair to Faber because it guarantees him life-changing money. What a happy ending. That’s all first-level analysis, though. To get to the second level, let’s examine how the deal affects the Wild’s team-building strategy. Viewed through that lens, the Faber contract may be the most interesting move of Bill Guerin’s tenure. So, Faber’s market value is his on-ice value minus the value of those picks. Minnesota only needs to pay him his market value since they can match any offer from another team. Faber remains an RFA until he’s 27 on July 1, which won’t happen until July 2030. Minnesota can retain Faber for a price well below his on-ice value for the 2025-26, 2026-27, 2027-28, 2028-29, and 2029-30 seasons. Based on the contract model developed by Dom Luszczyszyn at The Athletic, Faber gave up around $1.7 million per year over eight years for a total projected value of about $13.6 million. Since underpaying Faber is a foregone conclusion, the question becomes: which years does Guerin want to save that $13 million? If the Wild extended Faber for only those five RFA seasons (2025-26 through 2029-2030), they could concentrate that cap savings to an average of about $2.7 million. The total savings in those years would be much more than that. In cases like this, UFA years are more expensive than RFA years because Minnesota has less leverage. For every UFA year that they add to the deal, Faber’s agents will increase the average value of the contract, which drives up the cap hit. If we take Faber’s projected value in those five RFA seasons ($9.5 million per year) and subtract Minnesota's 13.6 million-dollar leverage, the Wild could push the cap hit of this deal below $7 million for those five years. Then Faber would cash in a massive UFA deal starting in his age-28 season. Ultimately, by signing Faber to an eight-year deal that buys some of his UFA years, Minnesota will cost itself about $1.5 to $2 million per year over the first five years of its lifetime. Perhaps that money won’t be enough to bring in a new player, but it would be enough to give a significant raise to a middle-of-the-lineup free agent. In free agency, that $1.5 to $2 million is the difference between a third-line forward and a second-liner or between a third-pair or second-pair defenseman. With Kaprizov up for extension in 2026-27, a worse supporting cast could affect Minnesota’s ability to bring in the necessary support to keep their Russian sniper signed through his prime. Graph Credit: Dom Luszczyszyn at The Athletic That doesn’t mean the Faber extension spells the end of Kaprizov’s time in Minnesota. Instead, it implies that Guerin has a plan to make up that impact through the prospect pool. The Wild roster will churn several players by the 2026 offseason. Mats Zuccarello will enter free agency as he turns 39. Zach Bogosian will be a 36-year-old free agent, and Jon Merrill will be a fond and distant memory. Marcus Johansson likely departs in 2025. If all four players depart, that clears $8.5 million in cap space. Danila Yurov, Riley Heidt, and Liam Ohgren are ready to replace this group. On the back end, one or two defensemen, Jack Peart, Carson Lambos, Daemon Hunt, and David Spacek, can fit into a bottom-four role, and Zeev Buium will likely push for a top-four role. If you’re keeping score, that’s two forwards and two defensemen who cost about $8.5 million replaced by three forwards and two or three defensemen, all at a cost-controlled rate. Jesper Wallsted, Marco Rossi, and Marat Khusnutdinov will be due raises by then, but still cost-effective RFA deals. UFA extensions for Filip Gustavsson and Declan Chisholm will be due a raise in unrestricted free agency. However, they can replace Chisholm with one of Iowa’s defensemen. Then, you must factor in a projected 3% cap inflation over the next two years, creating an extra $5.4 million of space. With the space cleared by the Bogosian, Merrill, Zuccarello, and Johansson departures, that’s $13.9 million to pay four rookies and give raises to Rossi, Khusnutdinov, Gustavsson, Wallstedt and maybe Chisholm. The rest goes towards Kaprizov’s raise. The only logjam here would be if Minnesota has too many prospects ready to join the NHL and too many players on the roster. However, Guerin also has an out for that. Each of the following players has limited no-trade clauses (NTC), which means the Wild can trade them to any team except their 10- or 15-team no-trade list: Marcus Foligno (15-team NTC), Ryan Harman (10 teams), Frederick Gaudreau (15), Jared Spurgeon (10), Jacob Middleton (15), or Jonas Brodin (no-trade protection). Depending on how these players age and the roles the rookies can fill, Guerin can trade these players to between 17 and 22 other NHL teams that are not on that player’s no-trade list. However, those trades may not favor Minnesota in a vacuum. They may need to retain salary or accept less-than-optimal trade compensation. But if it’s all in the name of clearing cap space to sign a premium free agent in 2026 to play alongside Kirill Kaprizov, that roster could be a Stanley Cup favorite. Nobody cares if the Wild have to dump a few Day 2 draft picks to clear cap space in the name of a few deep playoff runs. Or, if the Wild prospects don’t develop into roles in the top half of the lineup, Guerin has the flexibility to retain those players rather than trade them and still ice a roster that can push for the playoffs. If Guerin (or if Minnesota's Cup window evaporates, his replacement) needs to hit the reset button, Faber’s extension will be unbelievably cheap in its final three seasons. If Kaprizov walks in 2026, Faber could be the foundation of a championship roster in 2030-31, ‘31-32, and ‘32-33. That leaves the roster with a reasonable floor and a fairly high ceiling. If the team needs to dump veteran contracts to create space, going all-in will be more expensive if and when the prospects are ready to make a run at the Stanley Cup. The upside is that if the kids fail to live up to high expectations, the team won’t be forced into a hard rebuild around a bottom-five roster. Overall, it seems Guerin has opted for a safer strategy with a strong possibility of ending in a roster that can compete for a Cup. To do so, Guerin has committed early to his best young players and extended key veterans as insurance against a future in which Minnesota’s prospects don’t develop well. That may have pushed the window out one more year to 2026-27, but it leaves room to save the roster even if a whole lot goes wrong. And if everything does go wrong, Brock Faber will be there to hold things together.

The New Car Smell is a real phenomenon. Everything's clean, everything smells like it's right out of the package. You try to keep it going as long as you can. Maybe you try to throw on a New Car Smell air freshener, but it offers diminishing returns. You might not dream of throwing that fast-food wrapper on the ground when the New Car Smell lingers. But once it fades? Anything goes. It's just another car now. Bill Guerin his New Car Smell for a while. We can track the potency of the smell in The Athletic's Front Office Confidence Rankings from year to year. In 2021 and 2022, the first two years of the rankings, we can see that while the NHL world wasn't sold on the Minnesota Wild's vision, the local fanbase was thoroughly Bill-pilled. But suddenly... The New GM Smell can no longer be detected in Minnesota. The Wild fell 15 places in 2024's confidence rankings by the local fanbase. The Buffalo Sabres (from 12th to 27th), Seattle Kraken (from 13th to 28th), and Los Angeles Kings (16th to 32nd) are the only other franchises that saw this steep drop with their local fans. The bottom fell out of the confidence level of the local fanbase. Even with the locals ranking 11th last season, 40% of the fan base were more confident in the direction of the franchise than they were the previous year. That's opposed to 7% of fans seeing a drop in their faith in the organization. This year, it's flipped entirely and then some. Only 6% of the fan base increased their confidence in Guerin, while 65% said confidence waned. That's a minus-59 differential, which is a really big, really fast turnaround for Wild fans. While there might still be some diehards left on Billy Island, to most Wild fans, he's just another GM now. What happened? To answer that, we've got to take a look at the years past. What did Guerin excel at, and what did fans buy into the most? We can find out by stacking up the local fanbase ranking in each category, year by year: It's curious how little of the day-to-day transactions factored into Minnesota fans' confidence in Guerin's front office. They never regarded Guerin as a top-notch trader, a free agent savant, or a crafty salary cap manager. The big things that hit home with the home crowd were the actual rosters, the work of Judd Brackett's scouting department, and the overall vision. We can see that bear out in the comments Wild fans submitted along with their votes. From 2021: "The jury is out on how all of Guerin's moves will work out, but he does not seem shy about making tough decisions and sticking to his guns." From 2022: "The future looks bright... once we get out cap hell." and "It's a completely different franchise [since Guerin took over]." From 2023: "Love to see a front office with a focus on the future.... Excited to see this management start building toward a Cup window in a few years." It was easy to see the bright future last summer when the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts reduced significantly, and Minnesota finally seemed to have free reign in their cap space. However, Guerin's moves in the last 12 months have hampered that future of wide-open possibilities. Long, expensive extensions to Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno, and Jake Middleton tie up $4 million-plus in each player for at least the next three seasons. Yakov Trenin signed a four-year pact with Minnesota, adding another $3.5 million to the Wild's salary cap commitments. Suddenly, the Wild are poised only to have $15.05 million in cap space (more if the salary cap rises from $88 million) in 2025-26. That's not terrible, but it does leave less than $2 million each for the eight roster spots they'll need to fill. And their pending mega-contract for Kirill Kaprizov, which would kick in to start the 2026-27 season, will also eat into their future cap room. That foreclosing of the future is reflected in the biggest drop for any aspect of the Wild's front office: Their Vision. Minnesota's fans were among the 10, and sometimes five, in the NHL in terms of buying into their team's future. Now, they're flirting with the bottom five. Forget the future, too. The Wild's extensions have made them too strapped to even buy low on goal-scorer Patrik Laine, even if the Columbus Blue Jackets eat half of his cap hit. Of course, some of this has to do with the last year of cap hell. Still, spending $4 million on Mats Zuccarello, Hartman, Foligno, $3.5 million on Trenin, and another $2.5 million on a nearly 40-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury feels like an unforced error that will cost them Laine. What's the plan? For a long time, Wild fans thought they knew it: Ride out the storm of cap hell and use their young talent and cap flexibility to be aggressive heading into next summer. That young talent is still there. However, with so little room to add to this core going forward, the team is relying almost entirely on Brackett's prospect pool to get them to a top-level team. It can work, but the margin for error is slim. Once a GM loses the fan base, the clock officially starts ticking. Guerin's grace period lasted a while; fans gave him about five years of rope. Now, we're going to have to see results on the ice before the fans have their confidence restored in the team's front office.

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.

In the last few years, Bill Guerin has signed a core group of players to multi-year contracts (for better or worse). However, it has also been a time when Minnesota Wild fans have lost a few fan favorites since the 2021-22 season. So, let’s review and see where some of them will be for the 2024-25 season. Brandon Duhaime Beloved Dewey1 has been a fan favorite ever since he fell during his rookie lap. He was the loveable butt of the joke, but he was a physical force that could push into the opponent’s zone to prepare for the first line to score. Losing him was devastating. We all saw the writing on the wall. After going to arbitration last year for his salary, combined with the tight salary cap space and other players higher on the re-sign priority list, Duhaime knew it was almost impossible to stay in the Twin Cities. What made it even worse was how often he stated that he loved Minnesota and wanted to stay. He’s been back for bits of the summer to spend time with his former teammates. After being traded to the Colorado Avalanche at the 2024 trade deadline, Duhaime became a free agent this summer. He signed a two-year deal with the Washington Capitals, where he will make $1.85 million per year. Connor Dewar It’s only natural that we follow Dewey1 by talking about Dewey2. Losing Dewey2 was another big blow at the trade deadline, especially because it was so last minute that it wasn’t actually announced until after the trade deadline. Dewar said that he thought he made it without being traded. But the Wild traded the quieter half of the Pinky and the Brain Dewey pairing to his “hometown” team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dewar showed his best side while playing for the Leafs, killing penalties and being a physical presence despite his smaller size. The Leafs extended a qualifying offer to him. While Dewar opted to take contract negotiations to arbitration, it looks like he could get a good pay raise somewhere around $1.4 million. Mason Shaw While trading the Deweys away stung, not extending a qualifying offer to Mason Shaw was a knife to the heart to many fans. There’s no need to rehash his entire story because Wild fans have it memorized. Shaw finally reached the NHL and tore his ACL for the fourth time. That video is hard to watch because everyone just instantly knew what happened. His “Let’s Play Hockey” call for the first game of the 2023 playoffs is legendary and will never be topped. And after staying all summer in Minnesota last year to rehab his knee, he stayed again this summer, seemingly just because he liked it so much (and for a girl, but it still counts as liking Minnesota). I will give Guerin credit for one thing: He promised Shaw that he would re-sign him once he was medically cleared to play, and he did that. Even though he didn’t elect to bring him back for the next season, he allowed Shaw to go out and prove to other NHL clubs that he was still just as good as he ever was. Unfortunately, Shaw signed with the Winnipeg Jets, which means that there is now exactly one Jets player who Minnesotans are required to root for. It is a one-year deal, so Shaw may sign with a more palatable team after this season. Dakota Mermis The curse of the Iowa Wild captain hit again this past season when Mermis was named captain in Iowa before being pulled up to Minnesota in what turned out to be a permanent stay. While Iowa struggled without him, Mermis was finally given his first real shot in the NHL. He made the most of it, impressing everyone while skating on the third pairing. While it was hard to see him leave the Wild franchise, it is exciting for him to get an NHL contract. He signed with Toronto for one year at league minimum. The most exciting part is that this is his first one-way contract, meaning his salary won't change even if they have him play in the AHL. Matt Dumba After signing a one-year deal with the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes (RIP), they traded him to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline. Dumba enters this offseason as a free agent. No matter what your thoughts are on Dumba and some of his on-ice play, no one can deny that he is an amazing person off the ice. He’s made Minnesota his home. Despite playing for another team, he has continued his community work here in the State of Hockey. The bad news is that Dumba has also signed a contract with a close enemy, but the good news is that it really pissed off the team’s fans. Signing a two-year, $3.75 million contract with the Dallas Stars gives Dumba a little bit of security. Hilariously enough, Stars fans absolutely loathe Dumba after his hit on Joe Pavelski during the 2023 playoffs. Having him sign with their team has forced many Stars fans to re-evaluate their life choices when it comes to hockey. Tyson Jost Jost wasn’t actually with the organization for very long, but he was a fun addition to the team while he was here. Brought in at the 2022 trade deadline from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Nico Sturm, Jost was good on the ice and fun off of the ice. He also stayed in Minnesota that summer and played with Da Beauty League. But after an amazing show in the 2022-23 preseason, Jost could not reproduce any success and ended up being traded to the Buffalo Sabres. Jost also struggled with the Sabres, playing part of the season with their AHL affiliate. The Sabres passed on re-signing him, and Jost was picked up during free agency by the Carolina Hurricanes for a one-year league minimum contract. Other Former Players Jake Lucchini signed a two-year league minimum with the Nashville Predators this off-season. Vinni Lettieri was traded to the Boston Bruins in June for Jakub Lauko. He will be playing the second year of his two-year, league-minimum contract. Pat Maroon was traded to the Boston Bruins at the deadline and signed a one-year, $1.3 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks for the 2024-25 season. Nic Petan was traded to the New York Rangers at the deadline, where he finished out his year. He is currently unsigned. Nico Sturm is entering the last year of a three-year contract with the San Jose Sharks, where he's earning $2 million a year. Cam Talbot played last season for the Los Angeles Kings and has now signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings for $2.5 million a year. Adam Beckman was traded to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Graeme Clarke and signed a one-year contract for the league minimum this summer. Jordie Benn played last season in Sweden with the Brynas IF in the Allsvenskan League. He was on a one-year contract and is currently unsigned. Nick Bjugstad is currently in the second year of a two-year contract with what is now the Utah Hockey Club. His cap hit is $2.1 million a year. Nicolas Deslauriers is starting year three of a four-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers. His cap hit is $1.75 million. Kevin Fiala is still with the Los Angeles Kings after the Wild traded him there during the 2022 off-season once it was evident that his next contract would be too large for the Wild’s salary cap situation. He is two years into a seven-year, $7.875 million-a-year contract with the Kings. Alex Goligoski is currently unsigned. While it’s always possible that he could sign a short-term deal somewhere, it’s more likely that he is easing into retirement from hockey. Kaapo Kahkonen signed a one-year, $1 million contract with Winnipeg after a two-year stint with the San Jose Sharks. (Okay, so maybe there are 2 Jets players we need to cheer for.) Jordan Greenway was traded to the Buffalo Sabres at the 2023 trade deadline, permanently putting the infamous GREEF line to bed. He's heading into the last year of a three-year, $3 million contract with the Sabres. Dmitry Kulikov just won a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers, impressing Wild fans with how much better he was on the ice in Sunrise, Fla., after hitting Joel Eriksson Ek in the face with a friendly-fire high-stick during a pivotal playoff game. (No, I’m not bitter. Why do you ask?) He just signed a four-year, $1.15 million contract with the Panthers. Steven Fogarty announced his retirement from hockey just a few weeks ago. He is 29 years old and played between the NHL and the AHL for 8 years. John Klingberg played for the Toronto Maple Leafs last season but had season-ending hip surgery on December 6, 2023, and is currently unsigned. Gustav Nyquist is on the back end of a two-year, $3.185 million contract with the Nashville Predators. Oskar Sundqvist unfortunately also suffered a season-ending injury after tearing his ACL on March 27. Fortunately, he had already signed a two-year, $1.5 million contract extension with the St. Louis Blues shortly before that.

On Tuesday, we got a look inside the Minnesota Wild's mindset post-free agency. The Athletic's Michael Russo sat down with John Hynes to ask, among other things, So what happened to fixing that secondary scoring? The Wild had long been expected to get a short-term winger to complement their top-six forward group. Whether that was via free agency with someone like David Perron or making a trade for someone like Patrik Laine, putting pucks in the net looked like the priority. And it looks like it was -- until it wasn't. Here's what Hynes said on how free agency played out: We needed to get a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, more pushback in our lineup. Maybe some guys that can aid in the penalty-killing element. Those were clearly things that needed to get better. We were able to execute that this summer. Would we like a top-six forward, some more secondary scoring? Sometimes those opportunities present themselves in the offseason, sometimes they don’t. But I think the most encouraging thing is that we were at least able to hit on one of the components that we were really looking to get better at. Reading between the lines a bit: The secondary scoring market didn't work out, so we went after Yakov Trenin to address an area of the team we could upgrade. It appears true that the secondary scoring market was more than the Wild wanted to, or could (perhaps even should), have paid this offseason. Perron signed a two-year $4 million AAV contract with the Ottawa Senators. The Buffalo Sabres signed Wild legend Jason Zucker to a one-year, $5 million deal. The Edmonton Oilers landed Viktor Arvidsson on a two-year, $4 million AAV contract. Vladimir Tarasenko signed for two years at $4.25 million AAV with the Detroit Red Wings. Alex Wennberg went to the San Jose Sharks for two years, $5 million AAV... And the list goes on. Not paying an aging scorer for the 2025-26 season makes sense, but now the Wild will have to rely on their aging scorers having bounce-back years to contend. Hynes conceded as much. "They've got pride. They care. We've addressed it. They've addressed it," said Hynes of underperforming veterans on the team last season. "We're going to continue to work through that and have some conversations with those guys of the importance level of how good their summers are going to be, how we need them." Hynes declined to enthusiastically hurl anyone under the bus, but every Wild fan knows what's up. Several of these veterans, who will be part of the Wild's future, had down seasons from what Minnesota's brass counted on them to be. To recap, there's: Ryan Hartman: From 34 goals in 2021-22 to 21 goals in 2023-24 Marcus Foligno: From 23 goals in 2021-22 to 10 goals in 2023-24 Marcus Johansson: From six goals, 18 points in 20 games in Minnesota in 2022-23 to 11 goals and 30 points in 78 games in 2023-24 Mats Zuccarello: From 16 5-on-5 goals in 2021-22 to six 5-on-5 goals in 2023-24 Freddy Gaudreau: From 19 goals in 2022-23 to five goals in 2023-24 Minnesota has all but Johansson signed for the next two seasons, and all have trade protections that make them unmovable. The Wild are stuck here and need these players to return to their former glory. That's going to be extremely difficult. Not only will all these players be in their 30s by the time the season starts (Happy 30th on September 20 to Hartman, btw), but the seasons the Wild are counting on each to repeat are generally pretty crazy outliers. Forget probable; is it even possible for these players to repeat their peaks? Let's run down the list, starting with Hartman. That 34-goal season was his first 30-goal season. It was also his first 25-goal season. And it was his first 20-goal season. Before the 2021-22 season, his career-high came as a rookie for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2016-17, with 19 goals and 31 points. He didn't break that mark until his career year. We don't want to bury Hartman, by the way. You have to give him a lot of credit. He went out in 2021-22 and scored 34 goals and 65 points. That's a fantastic season! So is transforming himself from a player who averaged 13 goals and 31 points per 82 games before his breakout season to one who averaged 22 goals and 51 points per 82 games over his last two seasons. His "down" years still have him as a 20-to-25 goal-scorer and a 50-point player. What more are you realistically going to get out of him? His 34-goal breakout year took nearly 700 minutes of skating with Kirill Kaprizov and Zuccarello, plus a 14.2 shooting percentage to reach those heights. That's simply the kind of lightning-in-a-bottle that he probably can't reach, even if Hynes force-feeds the Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello connection again. If we're talking about outliers, Foligno has to stand out as this bunch's most unrepeatable peak performance. Foligno feasted as part of a big, beefy identity line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway. His 23 goals came on an insane 23.5 shooting percentage... and that was even down from the 27.5% he shot for in the previous season. Insane! Injuries slowed down Foligno over the last two seasons, and he scored 10 goals and 22 points in 55 games last year. The dirty secret to that is: It was still good production from Foligno. We're talking about a 15-goal, 33-point pace over 82 games, which is identical to his 82-game averages for his first five seasons in a Wild sweater. Foligno even posted a pretty high 17.9 shooting percentage last season, meaning his numbers weren't even the result of a shooting slump. You probably aren't getting more than 15 goals out of him, unless you force-feed him onto a line with Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, or something like that. We can keep going down the line. Johansson's brilliant 20-game post-trade deadline sample came courtesy of Eriksson Ek, Boldy, and an on-ice shooting percentage of 14% at 5-on-5. Five of Gaudreau's career-high 19 goals in 2022-23 were scored on an empty net, and his 44-point 2021-22 came alongside Kevin Fiala and Boldy. Zuccarello's preparing to enter his age-37 season and failed to crack double-digit 5-on-5 goals in each of his past two seasons. What can Minnesota realistically count on from this group? Let's look at each player's 82-game averages in a Wild sweater, assume they'll hit that mark and play all 82 games next season, and then compare these goal totals to what Minnesota got from them last season: Hartman: 21 (+0 from last year) Foligno: 14 goals (+4) Johansson: 14 goals (+3) Gaudreau: 14 goals (+9) Zuccarello: 21 goals (+9) In the aggregate, this is probably as optimistic as it gets. Remember, we're assuming no further decline from their Wild averages and that each will play all 82 games. In a close-to-perfect scenario, it'd put Minnesota up 25 goals, bringing it to the fringe of a top-10 goal-scoring team. Still, that margin for error is pretty tiny. The Wild aren't flipping a coin on whether one player will have a bounce-back. They're flipping five coins. What's the likelihood five 30-plus-year-olds are going to have healthy, productive seasons? Those odds can't be too great, no matter how in shape or cognizant of the expectations they are. That's not the only place internal improvement can come from, of course. Marco Rossi could continue to take the next step in his sophomore season. Liam Öhgren, Riley Heidt, or Marat Khusnutdinov could make impacts as rookies. A Kaprizov-Eriksson Ek-Boldy top line could get even better. But for now, the Wild are pinning their hopes on their high-priced veterans to pick up the slack. Whether they can or not remains to be seen.

As free agency dawned, most people assumed the Minnesota Wild's No. 1 priority would be signing a top-six wing to address their secondary scoring. That scoring winger may still be coming, but it wasn't the first thing Minnesota locked down on July 1. Instead, they signed depth winger Yakov Trenin, whom the Wild signed Monday morning to a four-year deal with a $3.5 million annual average value (AAV). Trenin, 27, has ties to the Wild organization: John Hynes coached him in Nashville. Arguably, his most productive season came under Hynes, when he scored 17 goals and 24 points in 80 games in 2021-22. Make no mistake, though, the dozen or so goals Trenin scores each season are secondary to his game. His true strength is as a penalty killer, an area of his game where he can claim to be one of the NHL's best. Over the past three seasons, Trenin ranks 21st among forwards by providing 3.0 Goals Above Replacement (worth about a point in the standings) with his penalty-killing alone, tied with the likes of the Calgary Flames' Blake Coleman and former Wild center Connor Dewar. As you might recall, Minnesota's penalty kill has been a near-constant thorn in their side for most of the Bill Guerin Era. There have been seasons of competence, but those successes are immediately followed by regression, with last season's being the worst yet. Here are the Wild's league rankings in each year since Guerin took over as general manager: 2019-20: 25th (77.2%) 2020-21: 12th (80.7%) 2021-22: 25th (76.1%) 2022-23: 10th (82.0%) 2023-24: 30th (74.5%) Overall, it's a mediocre showing (23rd in NHL, 77.9%), and opponents have magnified their flaws further in the postseason. Among the 27 teams with postseason games in the past five years, only the Arizona Coyotes (nine games in the 2020 COVID bubble) and Los Angeles Kings (who constantly play the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1) have fared worse than Minnesota. Their 72.6% postseason penalty kill over that span easily cost them winnable series against the St. Louis Blues in 2022 and the Dallas Stars in 2023. The Wild signed Trenin to patch up those flaws. To his credit, he rarely gets scored on while short-handed. Here are the top-10 players in the NHL (among 183 forwards with 250-plus 4-on-5 minutes) in terms of goals surrendered per hour since Trenin entered the NHL: 1. Teuvo Teravainen, 4.25 GA/60 2. Trevor Lewis, 4.42 3. Vincent Trocheck, 4.46 4. Garnet Hathaway, 4.81 5. Jesper Fast, 4.86 6. Sebastian Aho, 4.88 7. Patrice Bergeron, 4.96 8. YAKOV TRENIN, 4.97 9. Josh Bailey, 5.04 10. Brock Nelson, 5.12 That's great company, but it doesn't come without a red flag. Most of those penalty kill minutes were with one of the top goalies in the NHL, Juuse Saros, backstopping him. When you look at expected goals, he surrendered 7.51 of those per hour on the ice, ranking a much more middle-of-the-pack 98th in the NHL. That suggests Saros may have been saving his bacon more than the goal totals suggest. Minnesota will have to hope that Trenin's size (6-foot-2, 201 lbs.) and speed lead to fewer chances than expected goals suggest. They'll also have to rely on him defensively at even strength, and the Wild's system always seems to plug in players like Trenin and lift them to new heights defensively. The Wild are also trying to get back to the identity they want to have: a team that plays hard and pairs skill in the top-six with relentless forechecking in the bottom-six. Marcus Foligno told the media at the end of the season, "It felt like we didn't have that energy. It felt like there was a sag, a little bit of a 'Poor Me'-type vibe when goals would go in. That wasn't usually the case in seasons before." Guerin and hope Hynes that Trenin's size and jam will help Minnesota restore that attitude. The Wild paid a fairly big fee to sign Trenin. At 27, he has age on his side, but his $3.5 million cap hit represents Minnesota's massive, long-term commitment in their bottom-six. They'll pay Trenin, Foligno ($4 million AAV), Ryan Hartman ($4 million), and Freddy Gaudreau ($2.1 million) a combined $13.6 million through 2026-27. In 2027-28, that bottom-six commitment will drop to $9.6 million after Hartman's deal expires. Instead of filling those roles with team-friendly deals, the Wild again splurged on a role player in terms of money and term. Granted, Trenin fits a very important, specific need for Minnesota on the penalty kill, but he'll need to be much more than a specialist to fully justify the expense. Teams can always find penalty-killers at the trade deadline. That's exactly what the Colorado Avalanche did when they acquired Trenin last year. Rounding out the news of the day, for now, the Wild signed Travis Boyd and Devin Shore, both to two-way deals. Boyd, 30, most recently played with the Arizona Coyotes, drawing in for just 16 games last year with two goals and eight points. In his previous two seasons, he scored 15-plus goals and 30-plus points but rated among the worst defensive players in the NHL. Shore, 29, split time between the Seattle Kraken (a goal, four points in 21 games) and their AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley (seven goals, 25 points in 39 games). He spent the past three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers and never drew in for more than 50 games. He figures to be a true 13th forward/minor-league option for a Wild team that lacked depth last year.

Well, it finally happened. The day Minnesota Wild fans knew would come eventually, even if we didn’t want it to. After years of questioning how you managed to evade the ax that seemed to come for everyone else on the coaching staff, it finally came for you. Sort of the hockey version of “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me.” Even though Emily Dickinson died nine years before ice hockey’s first league was formed and could never have imagined someone making a comparison this wacky with her poetry, I’m sure she would appreciate the thought. Darby, you’re so easy to root for. That’s probably the reason that everyone would exhale a sigh of relief when the Wild would announce a coaching change and you were once again spared. Not only are you a born-and-bred Minnesota boy, but you’re also a great guy overall. In a way, you’re a little bit of a precursor to Brock Faber, playing for Minnesota all the way up, even if you also played a few other places. I’ve never met you personally, but from everything I’ve heard, you’re Minnesota nice to a fault. On the other hand, this might be the perfect time for you to switch gears. You’ve got four children, and I know three of them play hockey. I know Beckett is committed to playing for your alma mater, the U of M, next season. Mason has been playing for Gustavus Adolphus College. Without a busy NHL schedule, there is more room to watch college hockey along with any other teams that your other children will be playing with. You’ll still be busy, but now you can pick where you’re going and what team you’re watching. After such a long career both playing and coaching hockey, you deserve some downtime. Besides, after taking so much loving abuse from Dean Evason behind the bench, you might need some extra time to heal. It might also be good for you to settle down and put some thinking into your coaching strategies and general thoughts. After working under and with so many other coaches, I can imagine there might be lots of ideas you’d like time to think about without someone else pushing their agenda. I have no idea how coaches are hired, but after you had such a great run with the Wild, you’d probably have no problem finding another position somewhere. To close this out, you’ve had a great run, Darby. There is always going to be a vocal negative section of fans because this is Minnesota, after all. But I think I speak for a big chunk of fans when I say thank you for being a consistent face behind the bench for so long. We watched you play, and we watched you coach. No matter where you’re headed next, we’re sending you off with only good feelings. Good luck with your next endeavors, Darby, and thank you for everything.