By Tony Abbott -
In some respects, it's hard to complain about Matt Boldy, even for a little bit. Look at the big picture, and you'll see a player averaging 30 goals and 69 points per 82 games. He's an absurdly talented young winger whose shot and playmaking skills are equally terrifying.
At the same time, even a Matt Boldy Believer can understand why he drives some Wild fans crazy. Just when it looked like Boldy might be making the jump to an elite player and breakthrough for a 50/50 season, he went on a nearly-month-long hibernation. Between three-point efforts on December 6 and January 4 are 13 games where Boldy scored only one goal and four points.
Extended slumps have been Boldy's Achilles' Heel throughout his four-year career. In his first full season, he had a scoring drought that resulted in only six goals (19 points) in 33 games. Last season, he immediately slumped, with one goal (eight points) in 12 games, only taking off again when John Hynes replaced Dean Evason as coach. This year, another early-season cold stretch has bitten him.
Slumps happen, of course. It's also fair to highlight that when Joel Eriksson Ek is hurt, it drastically affects the talent Boldy gets to play with on the second line. Still, we're seeing a pretty clear trend. Boldy will likely give the Wild his usual 30 goals and 70-ish points. However, with 14 goals and 34 points in 40 games, the dream of a 50/50 season is dead, at least for this year.
But what happens if Boldy just never gets to that level? What if what we've seen is basically all we'll get: A talented winger who can score in bunches, disappear for stretches, and perhaps never rise to the level of a true superstar?
In other words, what if Boldy is Kevin Fiala 2.0?
Fiala's stature in Wild Lore is a bit tricky because it's colored by the fact that the Wild are undoubtedly better off having traded him to the Los Angeles Kings for Brock Faber and the 19th overall pick in 2022 that they used on Liam Öhgren. Even in his heyday with Minnesota, Fiala's defensive lapses and slow start issues led many (including his coach) to see him as a necessary evil.
Still, no one in Wild history, save Kaprizov, could get on a heater like Fiala. He closed out the 2019-20 season with 14 goals and 26 points in 18 games. In the COVID-shortened year, he banked 11 goals and 26 points in his last 21 games. Most memorable, perhaps, was his four-month hot streak in his career-best 85-point season, where he scored 29 goals and 66 points in a 50-game stretch... most of which came alongside a rookie Boldy.
Since moving to LA, Fiala's settled into being a scorer who produces very Boldy-like numbers. His per-82-game averages put him at 29-ish goals and 73-ish points. Aside from giving up Faber, the Kings must be reasonably happy with their investment.
If Boldy never ascends past that type of player, the Wild should also be reasonably happy. Boldy's on a cheaper contract than Fiala's ($7 million vs. $7.875 million) and is locked-in to be a piece of this team throughout his prime. If that means Minnesota has to accept the good with the bad, then so be it.
But on the flip side, Boldy just embarked on a half-season that is unequivocally the worst of his young career, and he's still looking to give Minnesota his 30 goals and 70 points.
Obviously, the top players in the NHL will drive offense and defense to a much higher degree than this. The good news is that Boldy has been elite at both ends of the ice for his entire career. And again, even in this blip on the radar, we're still seeing him track to be nearly a point-per-game player.
The biggest reason to believe that Boldy is destined to be more than the next Fiala? If he can put big numbers up while playing poorly, he has unlimited potential when he returns to form. 
It's hard to pinpoint what's been wrong with Boldy's ability to drive play for these first 40 games, but there's a lot more in his history to suggest he's an elite play-driver than to make the argument otherwise. If he can unlock whatever barriers are in his way to that level of on-ice impact, his numbers should make a big spike towards the second half.
So while, sure, it's fine if Boldy doesn't hit a level beyond a Fiala, a high-end second option, it's fair for Wild fans to still expect more than that from Boldy. At 23, he's still not a finished product, even if it feels like he's been around forever.
Boldy's long-awaited true breakout year might have to be put on hold until next season. Still, there's little doubt that Boldy has what it takes to get hot in the second half the same way he has in the past few seasons. If that happens, Wild fans should be more than willing to live with the slow starts, no matter how frustrating they can get.
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