The Wild Have Become the People's Team

The Minnesota Wild have never lacked fan support. For 41 games a year, over 18,000 pack the Xcel Energy Center to form one of the most passionate settings in the NHL. Players want to play here. Opponents know it’s a tough night coming to St. Paul.

As far as loyalty goes, the Wild belong at the top of the list. However, that hasn’t been the case nationally until this season.

As we reach the midway point of the year, the Wild have become the people’s team. National analysts are starting to realize what Bill Guerin has been building here. With a cast of likable players and a franchise that has seen moderate success, more fans could jump on the bandwagon by the end of the year.

How did we get to this point?

It started at the end of last year. The Wild had missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season. Even if they had qualified, it was unlikely they would have advanced past the first round for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign.

Even the most loyal Wild fans needed a break, and salary cap constraints made it difficult to bring them back in. Many familiar faces returned when Minnesota returned to camp, but something felt different about this team.

They established a “Choose Your Hard" mantra, complete with a giant chain given to players after games. Wild fans gushed over Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy's potential. However, both players were an afterthought behind the heavy hitters in the Western Conference like Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Leon Draisaitl.

Thus, the Wild were considered a fringe playoff team that would be fighting for a wild card spot.

But that’s why they play the games.

Minnesota started the year strong, posting a 16-4-4 record and owning the most points in the NHL after a 3-2 overtime win over the Nashville Predators on Nov. 30. Teams get off to fast starts all the time. Still, it was who was driving winning that slowly started bringing the casual fans aboard.

Kaprizov's emergence was the biggest headline. Wild fans have known about Kaprizov’s skill set since he joined the team for the 2020-21 season, and he has been an All-Star in the past three seasons. But his excellent start (23 goals, 27 assists in 34 games) and Minnesota's success gave him a stranglehold on the top spot for the Hart Trophy, the NHL’s version of the Most Valuable Player award.

While Kaprizov deserves the honor, it also says something about how much the national media is enamored with the Wild. DJ Bean of the What Chaos! Podcast highlighted that Kaprizov has made the Hart Trophy conversation “boring,” and fans may be getting carried away with the idea that he is the undisputed front-runner for the honor.

“I think we are just a drop carried away that Kirill Kaprizov is the only good story in the NHL this season,” Bean explained. “[We’re] certainly getting carried away with the idea that [Kaprizov] is the best player in the NHL this season because far from it. … Definitely one of the best players in the league. Definitely one of the best stories [of] the year. … He is the heart and soul of that team. But that’s happening in other places.”

Bean also mentioned that Kaprizov plays the wing, which degrades him in the Hart Trophy conversation. However, he also believes he’s not playing at the same level Nikita Kucherov has, racking up 62 points in 39 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

What Chaos! Producer Shawn DePaz also added to the conversation that Kaprizov may be getting the benefit of voter fatigue where it would be just as “boring” to give the award to McDavid (three-time Hart Trophy winner) or MacKinnon (203-24 Hart Trophy winner).

“You look back at the conversation we had about the Wild going into the season, nobody expected them to be this good,” DePaz said. “So there’s him dragging this team into relevancy. Part of the conversation that, I think, is why people want to give him the award, even if, based strictly on the numbers, he is not the best player in the NHL this year.”

Again, this says something about the Wild. Kaprizov is a star who is having his coming-out party. But when fans flip on a game, he’s not the only player who stands out.

Boldy was a 23-year-old who broke out with 27 points in his first 26 games. Brock Faber built off a runner-up season for the Calder Trophy by becoming one of the NHL’s best defensemen. Filip Gustavsson rebounded from a tough year to become a strong Vezina Trophy candidate. Jacob Middleton is a breakout candidate who's just as likely to Teen Wolf a Mich Golden Light or say one of George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on television on a broadcast as he is to wind up on the score sheet.

Put that team inside a fun atmosphere and it’s no wonder why more people are jumping on board, even as injuries have forced Minnesota into a midseason lull. It’s a case that may only get stronger and help the Wild become more than just the people’s team this spring.