By Tony Abbott -
Marco Rossi came into this season with something to prove for the third year in a row.
In take two of his rookie season, he proved that he could stick as an NHL player. Last year, he proved that he could be a top-six player... or, so he thought. After a postseason where he was stuck on the Minnesota Wild's fourth line and an offseason where he couldn't land more than a bridge contract, Rossi now has to prove he's a player worth investing in.
To do this, Rossi spent another offseason training to get bigger, stronger, and faster. He worked with Hall of Famer Joe Thornton to improve in the faceoff dot. He worked to be a player who couldn't be denied.
Who can deny Rossi's start now?
The 24-year-old center all but iced last night's game with a breakaway goal to push the Wild's lead to 4-1 against the New York Islanders. It was his fourth goal and 13th point of the season in 15 games. Rossi currently ranks fourth on the team in scoring and sits just outside the top-20 of NHL centers in scoring.
It's a start that mirrors the beginning of last year's breakout season, where he also scored four goals and 13 points through his first 15 games. While the scoring hasn't progressed much, his game certainly has. Rossi started 2024-25 in fairly ideal circumstances: between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello when the former was an MVP candidate. It's a nitpick, perhaps, but the Wild clearly felt he was somewhat a product of his environment.
It's a lot harder to call the start of the season a perfect storm for Rossi to produce. Kaprizov might be his primary winger, but the superstar's game has been somewhat off at 5-on-5. The Wild had to break up their productive top line and jumble their lineup to fix their scoring issues. An early lower-body injury kept him out of a game. He currently ranks eighth on the team in power play minutes.
None of that has stopped Rossi from playing at a high level. The Wild's line changes coincided with the Marcus Johansson Renaissance, with Rossi factoring into six of the 10 points Johansson has scored during his eight-game point streak. His power play deployment hasn't prevented him from putting up big numbers on special teams, notching five points in 27 minutes after scoring 16 power play points in 195 minutes last year.
We're also seeing him continue one of the hallmarks of his game from last year: Getting to the net at an insane rate. Natural Stat Trick credits Rossi with 20 high-danger chances at 5-on-5, which is tied with Boldy, Seth Jarvis, and Mika Zibanejad for seventh in the NHL. That's as many as Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, and Evgeni Malkin have in all situations.
Not only is Rossi producing, but we're seeing him drive the bus in the early goings of the season. With or Without You stats can be tricky, but it's worth noting that every winger that Rossi's spent 20 or more 5-on-5 minutes with has seen them perform better at controlling the play. Here's the breakdown, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick:
Combine all of this, and you have a player who currently sits atop the NHL leaderboard in Standings Points Above Replacement at his position, according to Evolving-Hockey. Look at the company he's keeping over the first month of the season:
Standings Points Above Replacement, Centers, 2025-26
- Macklin Celebrini, 1.8
- Jack Eichel, 1.7
- Quinton Byfield, 1.7
- Connor McDavid, 1.6
- John Tavares, 1.6
- Nick Suzuki, 1.6
- MARCO ROSSI, 1.5
- Nathan MacKinnon, 1.5
- Leon Draisaitl, 1.4
- Claude Giroux, 1.4
That's a stat that will undoubtedly raise some skepticism among fans, but all Rossi has done over the last three years is disprove skepticism. Rossi's been productive, driven play on both sides of the ice, improved his faceoff percentage to around the 50% mark, and now he gets to play between Kaprizov and Zuccarello again.
It might seem outlandish now, but Rossi's in a prime position to launch himself into the conversation of No. 1 Centers by the end of the season.
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