Are Trenin and Foligno's Slow Starts A Cause For Concern?

It’s been a while since Marcus Foligno had a buddy to play with. The GREEF line is long gone. The Minnesota Wild have moved Joel Eriksson Ek higher up in the lineup and traded Jordan Greenway to the Buffalo Sabres; Foligno was probably feeling lonely. 

To ensure their assistant captain is happy and infuse more grit and toughness into the lineup, the Wild paid for defensive specialist and tough guy Yakov Trenin to play a similar role to Foligno. 

Foligno and Trenin don’t have any zero points through four games and are a -1 plus-minus. Take out Folgino’s outlier season in 2021-22 with the Wild, and you have two players for whom the team paid $7.5 million per season combined and who have never scored more than 26 points in an NHL season. 

Through the first four games of the season, Foligno and Trenin have been in a defensive, checking third-line role. They have been playing wing and have seen time on the penalty kill. While they’ve rotated centers between Ryan Hartman and Marat Khusnutdinov, Foligno and Trenin have not factored in on the scoresheet. 

Foligno and Trenin’s impact goes beyond the scoresheet. While they have yet to factor into goals and points, they have impacted the team's success through their defensive metrics and physicality. 

Foligno leads the team in hits, so he’s doing that aspect of his job. Foligno has 13 hits, and Trenin’s eight hits are tied for second on the team with Jacob Middleton and Jakub Lauko. 

It’s good to see Foligno still playing a physical game. After a tumultuous injury history over the last few seasons and having just turned 33 years old, Foligno may not have been as physically engaging as he was in the past. We know from Minnesota’s first few games that he’s unafraid to throw his body around.

Trenin has been a big hitter. He split last season between the Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche and recorded 200+ hits. The two years before that, he had at least 167 and 191, respectively. Trenin is on pace for 164 this season, which would have finished third on the Wild last season. 

Physically, Trenin and Foligno are doing what the Wild expect of them. However, the pair are also known for their defensive prowess on the penalty kill and at even strength. Trenin’s biggest impact will be fixing the Wild’s poor penalty kill. 

However, the Wild have not used Foligno and Trenin on the penalty kill. They have the 29th penalty kill in the league, killing off opposing power plays at a frustratingly low 66.7%. Foligno and Trenin have only been out there for a combined 5.05 minutes of ice time. 

Among Minnesota’s forwards, Khusnutdinov and Lauko have taken most of the penalty kill time. Even Freddy Gaudreau has been on the ice more than Foligno and Trenin, and Eriksson Ek is on pace for more ice time but only played in two games. 

For two guys whose hallmark is their ability to kill penalties and play a strong defensive game, they are not seeing much action in those spots. Why? I’m not sure. 

At even strength, Foligno and Trenin have been good at limiting goals and shots. They are in the top ten in shots against per 60 minutes and have been solid, with 1.18 and 1.21 goals against per 60 minutes for Trenin and Foligno, respectively.

Trenin’s career high in goals was back in 2021-22 under Hynes, where he scored 17 goals. Foligno’s career-high in points was also back in that 2021-22 season when he scored 42 points. For Foligno, that was a major injury. For Trenin, that was two teams ago. 

Fans and Guerin may hope for some offensive output from these two. Still, that’s not really what they are about. They are defensively responsible assets and make the Wild tougher to play against. However, they won’t do much on the scoresheet, and that’s okay. 

Is that worth $7.5 million on a cap-strapped team? That’s up to you to decide.

All stats and data via HockeyDB, Evolving Hockey, SportsNet, CapWages, and Natural Stat Trick unless otherwise noted.