By Tony Abbott -
It's Marco Rossi against the World.
While not as well-attended as the Olympics, there is a solid amount of NHL talent at the IIHF World Championships. We all know about the number of Minnesota Wild players alone populating Teams USA and Sweden. Then you look at Team Canada, which boasts two 40-goal scorers in John Tavares and Jared McCann, and even Connor Bedard.
Then there's Marco Rossi's Team Austria. It's not just that Rossi is the best player on Austria's roster. For all intents and purposes, he's the only one. Austria is churning out more high-level talent than ever. Rossi was the first drafted Austrian in 14 years in 2020 when he went ninth overall. Since then, Marco Kasper (No. 8 in 2022) and David Reinbacher (No. 5 in 2023) have joined him as top-10 picks. But neither player is competing at Worlds.
However, Rossi and a collection of Austrian and Swiss league veterans are enough for Austria to make some noise. They're having their most impressive World Championship run in at least 20 years, or perhaps ever. Back in the 2004 Worlds, an 18-year-old Thomas Vanek led Austria to a 1-3-2 record. Vanek's Team Austria notched a win against France and drew against Canada and Switzerland. Not too shabby.
Rossi's 2024 version of Team Austria is only 2-3-1, but the high points were historic for his country. Between 2005 and 2023, Austria went just 8-40-6 in World Championship play. Three of their wins came against B-tier European powerhouses like Czechia, Switzerland, and Slovakia, with the rest coming against Belarus, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, and Latvia. Their high point might have been taking Team USA to overtime in 2022.
It started in the third period against Bedard and Team Canada, the New York Yankees of the international hockey world. Down 6-1 after the second period, Austria fought back with a flurry of five goals in the third period. Rossi was on the ice for each of Austria's final four goals, with none being bigger than his tying goal with 49 seconds remaining.
Rossi's goal displayed several traits that made him successful with the Wild this season. There's the crafty defense, as he starts his play by snatching the puck from the Montreal Canadiens' Kaiden Guhle. Rossi showed off his nose for the net, not only getting the takeaway but finding it in a position to create a high-danger chance. Then there's the finishing that led to his 21-goal rookie year, roofing a backhander past Jordan Binnington.
The game was historic in many ways. For example, it was the first time Austria had scored even three goals against Canada at the top level of World Championship competition. Had Austria completed the comeback (Tavares scored 15 seconds into overtime without Rossi touching the ice), it would have been the largest comeback in World Championship history.
Rossi put his team on his back on his biggest stage yet, furthering his coming-out party with the Minnesota Wild this season. It won't come as any surprise to those who followed his comeback from myocarditis to the NHL or his summer of skipping family weddings to train to make the NHL last year, but you'd better believe that he cares. "In 50 years, I will still look back to this moment," he said to The Athletic's Chris Johnston. "I won't forget this one."
Austria had more up their sleeve, following their effort against Canada with a 3-2 win against Team Finland. It was the country's first win against Finland in 11 tries at the World Championship level. "That we can beat [Finland] at the World Championship is the best thing that has happened in Austrian Hockey in a long time," said Austrian forward Benjamin Baumgartner. Rossi registered zero points but held Finland scoreless through a game-high 23 minutes and 40 seconds.
That's been Rossi's role for Austria: a heavy workload with shutdown minutes. Rossi is playing 18:59 per night, which is higher than any of his teammates, including Austria's defensemen. He ranks eighth among forwards in the World Championships, with most of those ahead of him being from similarly small countries.
Throwing Rossi against the best the world has to offer (at least, among non-NHL playoff teams) has produced results for Austria that go beyond Rossi's goal and two assists in five games. Through the World Championships, Austria is outscoring their opposition 9-2 with Rossi on the ice. The rest of the team? They've been outscored by a margin of 11-21. At 5-on-5, Rossi's given Austria a clean sheet (five goals for, zero against), with the rest of the team falling behind 8-13.
Again, we're seeing a continuation of Rossi's regular-season success on a big stage. Rossi finished the season tied for sixth on the team with a +5 goal differential at 5-on-5 (44 goals for, 39 against). Without Rossi on the ice, Minnesota was out-gunned 114-124 at 5-on-5, a -10 differential. It's good news that there's no drop-off in these World Championship games, which mean so much to Austria.
We don't have much in the way of a sample size for big games in Rossi's career. His only playoff experience since his days in the OHL (where he scored 6 goals and 22 points as a 16-year-old in the Memorial Cup playoffs) came in 2022-23. For the Iowa Wild, not Minnesota. Still, he produced a goal and an assist in two games against the Rockford IceHogs.
Other than that, we have just 12 games of World Championship play dating back to last summer to gauge Rossi's big game experience. So far, all indications are that he has stepped up in these moments. Rossi has two goals and 12 points over the past two years, and his impact on scoring has been positive in both tournaments. In those 12 games, Austria outscores opponents 16-7 (8-3 at 5-on-5) on a team that is otherwise outscored by a whopping 14-43 margin (10-31 at 5-on-5).
Unfortunately, you can't discuss this without mentioning the trade rumors that continue to surround Rossi this summer. Despite a Calder-caliber rookie year, the Wild allegedly believe Rossi is too small to fit their plans and are open to trading him to add size closer to June's NHL Draft.
Is the front office watching these games? If so, they should be taking notes on what Rossi's doing to will Austria to relevance in a big tournament. Let's face it: The Wild are the Team Austria of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Since Minnesota entered the NHL in 2000--01, the team is 34-62, a .354 winning percentage. Only the Winnipeg Jets (.340) have been worse. When you're looking up at the Columbus Blue Jackets, that's about as embarrassing as things get.
One big reason is that Minnesota has historically lacked players who can elevate their game in the postseason. Not-that-fun fact: 19 games of Kirill Kaprizov is enough to land him fourth all-time in postseason goals during franchise history. When healthy, we've seen Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek emerge as difference-making-type players. But no team gets deep in the playoffs by stopping at two. More must emerge, and we're seeing promising signs from Rossi on the international stage.
Rossi's not the only Wild player performing well at Worlds. Matt Boldy has five goals and 12 points in six games for Team USA. Eriksson Ek has three goals and four points for Team Sweden. Heck, Marcus Johansson somehow has five goals and nine points for Sweden -- as many points as he had in his final 38 regular-season games this year.
With all due respect to them, though, there's a big difference between being a (very good) cog in the machines of Teams USA and Sweden and being the sole NHL player on a team that regularly fights not to be relegated. What Rossi's doing for Austria takes a ton of skill and heart to pull off, and it's the kind of big-game mentality that the Wild can't afford to cast aside.
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