How Does Jake Middleton Fit In the Wild's Evolving D-Core?

Jake Middleton is a fantastic story for the Minnesota Wild. Acquired him in a low-wattage trade with the San Jose Sharks in 2022, Middleton has beaten the odds as a 7th-round pick. Four years later and a fresh four-year, $4.35 million extension later, Middleton remains an enigma.

With great results playing next to Jared Spurgeon and not-so-great results elsewhere, Middleton’s game is a bit of a mystery. At 6-foot-3 and 220 lbs., he’s one of the bigger guys on the Wild blueline. Still, he sometimes struggles to use his size to his advantage. 

Middleton has a career high of 25 points. He’s never had more than 10 goals or 20 assists in a season, but he’ll go on hot streaks where he looks like Bobby Orr for two weeks.

He posted another season of a negative GF% with 48.4%, ranking fourth on the team among defenders. Middleton also posted 2.23 GA/60, which is good for fifth-best among Wild players. While these numbers aren’t encouraging, he logged the second-most minutes on a team that was seventh in goals against.

Middleton isn’t a plus offensive contributor, nor is he overly physical, but he logs a ton of minutes and can be serviceable in a top-four role. While many fans are perplexed by his contract extension, considering the deals other defenders on the market are receiving, Middleton is on a reasonable contract.

To deliver value on his contract, Middleton must win board battles and be responsible with the puck. He also must limit turnovers in a role where he’s not playing against the opponent’s best players every night. 

Enter Zeev Buium and David Jiricek.

Jonas Brodin will miss the start of the 2025-26 season, so there will be pressure on everyone to step up. However, that’s especially true for Middleton, who’s the next in line to be the top pairing left-shot defender. 

Still, the Wild should let Middleton play a more balanced game when Brodin returns, allowing the D-core to get a more even rotation of minutes. It would be beneficial to everyone, especially Brock Faber, to have more dispersed minutes compared to last season.

Spurgeon is about to turn 36, and Brodin is 32. It’s unsustainable to play Faber as often as the Wild did on their top pair last season. However, Buium should mitigate some of the pressure on Faber. 

If it yields positive results, pair Buium with Faber as the pseudo top pair while Brodin is out. That would allow Middleton to slot back next to Spurgeon in a role where he has excelled the most. The Wild should reduce Middleton and Spurgeon’s minutes and give Jirick and whoever is on the third pair, whether it’s Buium or Brodin, more ice time.

Or if you want to play matchups with Middleton and further reduce his minutes, play him with Jirick on the third pair and let those two big bodies be some bash brothers on the bottom pair. I’d take that seven days of the week and twice in the playoffs compared to the Jon Merrill and Zach Bogosian third pair. 

Middleton has done anything and everything the Wild have asked of him, but his play has steadily suffered due to matchups that are a little bit out of his depth. Given the Wild have NHL-ready young talent and established veterans, it’s in everyone’s best interest to balance out the Wild’s D-core.