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  • Why Has Gustav Nyquist's Production Dropped In Minnesota?


    Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
    Robert Brent

    The salary cap handicapped the Minnesota Wild at this year’s trade deadline. After buying out Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, the team is still in the final stages of the dead cap penalties. Injuries have also hampered the team. Despite their limitations, the Wild added Justin Brazeau and brought back Gustav Nyquist

    Nyquist was a late-season addition in 2022-23 and aided Minnesota’s playoff push. The Wild traded a fifth-round pick for him, and he had five assists in six games.

    When the Wild spent a second-round pick on him this trade deadline, it signaled they had high hopes the Swedish winger could add some scoring depth to an injured and top-heavy lineup. Unfortunately, Nyquist hasn’t done that in Minnesota.

    In 18 games with the Wild, Nyquist has registered just one goal and four assists. That output of .22 points per game is the lowest of his career and lags behind the .37 points he put up in Nashville this season, which was already down from his usual production given that he’s a career .62 points per game player. 

    Nyquist’s concerning production isn’t limited to the traditional counting stats, either. According to moneypuck.com, Nyquist successfully drove play for a lousy Nashville team before they traded him to Minnesota. In 57 games with the Predators, Nyquist registered a 57.4 Corsi-for rating and a 55.5 Fenwick percentage, and both metrics were near the top of Nashville’s lineup. Since putting on the Wild sweater, those numbers have cratered for the winger. He has a 45.1 Corsi-for and 45.3 Fenwick. Both of those numbers are the worst of his career. 

    Nyquist’s second stint in Minnesota has been unproductive, and it’s natural to wonder how this happened. Even as an aging player, the Swedish forward has never played like this. Fortunately, we can identify why his production has declined. When you dig into how Nyquist has played with the Wild since joining the team, there are clear reasons for his decline.

    First, let’s talk about what Nyquist can control and improve upon. At first glance, Nyquist’s career-low shooting 3.4% percentage indicates that he’s had some bad luck. Nyquist is a career 11.7% shooter. However, his low percentage is partially a product of how he’s played. The biggest issue with Nyquist since coming to Minnesota is that he’s become a passive offensive threat. 

    Nyquist has had 43 unblocked shot attempts in 18 games with the Wild. According to moneypuck.com, 30 (∼70%) of those shot attempts are considered low-danger, nine (∼21%) are medium-danger, and four (∼9%) are high-danger shot attempts. More of his shots are coming from low-danger areas than ever before, leading to a lower shooting percentage. 

    In Nyquist’s best season (2023-24), he had 212 unblocked shot attempts. 33 (∼16%) were high-danger attempts, 36 (∼17%) were medium-danger attempts, and 143 (∼67%) were low-danger shot attempts. His issue becomes more evident when you look at Nyquist’s shot charts over the last few seasons.

    Screenshot 2025-04-07 at 11.35.56 AM.png

    Screenshot 2025-04-07 at 11.36.25 AM.png

    Nyquist hasn’t been as assertive offensively since the Wild acquired him. Instead, he’s primarily played along the perimeter and isn’t creating high-quality chances. That said, Nyquist has always been more of a playmaker than a goal-scorer. Minnesota could excuse poor scoring if he were putting up lots of assists. The issue with that is that the team can’t deploy him in a way that maximizes that skill set.

    Let’s look at where Nyquist has been playing in the lineup. In his stint with the Wild, Nyquist has played on four line combinations for at least 25 minutes of ice time.

    Screenshot 2025-04-07 at 11.37.09 AM.png

    The issue with how Nyquist fits on the Wild is that he isn’t gelling with the Wild’s finishers. His play has been at its worst when paired with the team’s top goal-scoring units. In Nyquist’s best season, he was on a unit with bonafide goal-scorer Filip Forsberg. Nyquist hasn’t formed chemistry similar to that with Minnesota’s top scorers. If that chemistry isn’t there, it severely limits the forward's ability to use his playmaking skills. 

    Nyquist’s lack of scoring has resulted in the Wild placing him in a role that doesn’t suit his game. One example is which zone he starts most of his shifts. Since joining the Wild, Nyquist has started 18% of his shifts in the defensive zone, 10.8% in the neutral zone, and 11.3% in the offensive zone (with the rest coming during the course of play). 

    These are the least sheltered minutes of the forward’s career. The second-highest percentage of defensive zone starts in his career was a 16.6% mark in 2022-23, when Nyquist played most of the season for the Columbus Blue Jackets. That was another below-average year where he scored 22 points in 48 games.

    Arguably, if Nyquist needs offensive zone starts to boost his offense, he isn’t a very valuable player. While needing to shelter a player isn’t ideal, this is more an issue of asset management. The Wild spent a second-round pick on Nyquist, hoping he could help them this year. They need to put him in whatever situation they can to succeed. 

    Between other slumping players and injuries, Nyquist is far from Minnesota’s biggest issue. Despite a recent big win over the Dallas Stars, the team is still in the playoff mix. However, Nyquist still has had trouble fitting into this year’s Minnesota lineup despite his success in his prior stint. Fixing that issue could turn him into an asset before the playoffs start.

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    Not many Wild players have been on the ice for more goals for than goals against since the Wild added Nyquist. Hinostroza and Hartman are the only regular players on the + side of the +/- ledger since he was added. Ohgren joins them on it with his 1 goal in 1 game, which was assisted by Nyquist.

    There are 6 Wild forwards with more points since he joined the team, and all of them play more even strength minutes than he does. The Wild's top 10 penalty kill unit since they've inserted Nyquist is missing in this article.

    He's scoring points more frequently than Khusnutdinov was with the Wild, and producing better results in the crucial shut down role of the PK. Nyquist also created the opportunity for the short-handed goal the Wild scored recently. For players with at least 20 PK minutes for the Wild, Nyquist has the lowest PP goals against/60 among Wild forwards.

    Another unmeasurable factor is Johansson's scoring increase. Johansson has never been a player who scored even .5 points per game for the Wild when Nyquist was not also on the team.

    No idea how close the 2 are, but Johansson has tallied 12 points in 17 games since Nyquist was added this year, and Nyquist was with the team the only other time that Johansson scored above .5 points per game(for the 20 game stretch in 22-23 where Johansson had 18 points.)

    I cannot speak to any on-ice reason that Johansson would play better with Nyquist on the team. Perhaps it's entirely coincidentally, but the two are close in age and Johansson seems to tally more points with his Swedish team companion on the roster. I don't think the Wild have roster spots for them next season, and I surely wouldn't want to risk only having Johansson again.

     

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    I think that Nyquist is a perimeter player, both this time around and the other time around. He is surrounded by perimeter players too. You have to get into the home plate area. You have to get dirty sometimes. Nyquist is not really doing that. This is where we need the help and supposedly where Breezers would be valuable. 

    Honestly, I'm pretty sick of so many perimeter players, and as a generality, you find these types of players coming in from the Swedish/Finnish systems. Protec is probably right on target with his targeting of NA players, but the other aggressive ones can be found in Eastern Europe/Russia. 

    We don't just need big bodies, we need aggressive down the middle types. And, this is an area where Rossi has been sneaky good, he weaves in there and scores a lot of home plate goals. 

    But, even some of our NA guys still play too perimeterish. This must be addressed in the offseason by both Guerin and Hynes. 

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    4 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I think that Nyquist is a perimeter player, both this time around and the other time around. He is surrounded by perimeter players too. You have to get into the home plate area. You have to get dirty sometimes. Nyquist is not really doing that. This is where we need the help and supposedly where Breezers would be valuable. 

    Honestly, I'm pretty sick of so many perimeter players, and as a generality, you find these types of players coming in from the Swedish/Finnish systems. Protec is probably right on target with his targeting of NA players, but the other aggressive ones can be found in Eastern Europe/Russia. 

    We don't just need big bodies, we need aggressive down the middle types. And, this is an area where Rossi has been sneaky good, he weaves in there and scores a lot of home plate goals. 

    But, even some of our NA guys still play too perimeterish. This must be addressed in the offseason by both Guerin and Hynes. 

    Without Ek, we have Breezers, Hinostroza, Rossi and sometimes Freddy that will go to the net. Boldy will go on a drive there from time to time. Other than Ek and Rossi (sometimes), nobody in front of the net is a big threat IMO. Breezers is good at boxing out but doesn't seem to have the hand speed/reflexes to be consistent. Hinostroza fights hard there but lacks the size make room for himself. I don't see Gadreau there often enough for it to make a difference. One person I don't see there but would like to.....Trenin. He has the strength and attributes to do well there. I understand he's mainly forechecking but it might work to park him in net if he has linemates that can hold possession long enough to get a couple shots off. 

     

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