By Tony Abbott -
In many ways, David Jiricek is effectively the Minnesota Wild's trade deadline pickup. Minnesota parted with its 2025 first-round draft pick to land the disgruntled top defenseman prospect, which might have contributed to a quiet trade deadline during which the Wild made few moves to boost its struggling offense.
To be clear, that opportunity cost was well worth obtaining Jiricek. Even if he couldn't catch on with the Columbus Blue Jackets, big, mobile, offensive, right-shot defensemen don't grow on trees. Generally speaking, teams can only get them with top-10 draft picks. The Wild were wise to take advantage and get Jiricek at a discount price.
But despite being, technically, a member of the Wild for the past six games, he's made zero impact for a team that's desperate for offense. It's not because of poor play or rookie growing pains but because he can't get into games. Jiricek has been a healthy scratch since his recall and hasn't played a game at any level since February 28, when the Iowa Wild faced off against the Milwaukee Admirals.
Sometimes, players find themselves on the outside looking in at an unfortunate time. Their team starts rolling, and they don't want to upset the apple cart. However, that's not the case for the Wild, even if they are 3-3-0 through March with Jiricek in the press box.
Over the past six games, the Wild have scored two, zero, four, one, one, and one goals, respectively. Nine goals in six games. They got two points banked for a 1-0 shutout, then a 2-1 shootout victory. Still, the track record of success for teams that score 1.5 goals per game is, generally speaking, not good.
It's no secret how thin Minnesota is on offense with Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek out. It's a situation where most teams would look to a top offensive defenseman for a spark, but the Wild aren't in any sort of hurry to let Jiricek draw in.
Why?
In an ideal situation, the Wild would take things slow with the 21-year-old defenseman. His backward skating will have to be refined and maybe rebuilt, a project that won't be possible until the offseason. Is it theoretically better to wait until he's 100% ready to hit the ground running before putting him in the NHL? Sure.
But, in practice, the Wild need goals. And Jiricek is a player who, regardless of his warts, should help Minnesota score goals.
Almost any coach in a playoff chase will defer to "reliable" veterans over unproven players. Still, we're getting to the point where sitting Jiricek for Zach Bogosian is inexcusable. Bogosian had a surprisingly great start in Minnesota as a trade pickup in 2023-24, but the veteran defenseman has fallen back to earth this season. Bogosian has been out-scored 27-34 at 5-on-5 this season, and his presence hasn't helped much on the penalty kill; he's allowing 11.1 goals against per hour while short-handed.
People often perceive veterans as more defensively reliable than their young counterparts, but Bogosian hasn't been reliable in his own end this year. He also isn't moving the needle on offense. Bogosian has zero goals and two assists over his past 20 games. While it's not the only poor offensive showing on the team, we're not looking at a player who's been doing much on either side of the ice. John Hynes doesn't even appear to have that much faith in him -- since the 4 Nations Faceoff ended, Bogosian's averaged just 14 minutes a night.
You can't say Jiricek would definitely come into the lineup and be an upgrade over Bogosian. But at the same time, what do the Wild have to lose? They're already not scoring and relying on superhuman performances from Filip Gustavsson to get them two points. And it's not like Minnesota even has to go through the trouble of getting Jiricek out of Des Moines. The dude's right there.
But beyond the potential advantages to the NHL club in terms of goals and wins, playing Jiricek should also help Minnesota long-term. Jiricek's been a regular for the Iowa Wild since the trade, but he's been subject to the same general struggles most players have dealt with in Des Moines this year. He's only scored six points in 26 games in Iowa, a huge drop-off from the 60 points in 88 games he had for the Cleveland Monsters in Columbus' system.
The Wild have a chance to get him playing minutes on a playoff team and perhaps even on a power play that still has talent, even without Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek. It's a great chance to get a player who's already been traded and struggled on a new AHL club and get him rolling offensively, giving him something to build on for next season.
While Jiricek's been a good soldier so far, shouldn't Minnesota be careful to ensure the young defenseman they invested so much into is happy with his role? Granted, you can't force-feed a player who's not ready into a playoff chase. Still, how good can Jiricek feel about not playing for two weeks at a time, spending all his time in the press box? Especially when he asked out of his previous team because they didn't trust him to play in the NHL?
You'd hope that wouldn't become a problem for Jiricek on his second team. Still, why even run the risk of damaging the relationship? Why have him ride the pine when the thing he does -- generate offense -- is exactly what Minnesota desperately needs right now? It just feels like continuing to sit Jiricek takes away upside from the Wild in the here-and-now while creating nothing but downside going forward.
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