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

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.

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

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.