It wasn’t supposed to be this way for the Minnesota Will this season. After signing some veterans to questionable contracts before last season and the albatross of Zack Parise and Ryan Suter still around their neck for another year, this appeared to be another season of struggles. Except someone forgot to tell Wild coach John Hynes and his players about this. Instead of struggling, the Wild currently sit in second place in the NHL Central Division with 27 points.
They have accomplished all this while playing 10 of their first 15 games on the road. Everyone knows about the talented Kirill Karprizov, but this story is much bigger than one player. It’s a story of balanced play by the forward lines, the return of their captain, and a stabilized goaltending situation.
Wild Centers and Forwards
This conversation always starts with Kirill the Thrill when discussing Minnesota’s offense. Kaprizov is currently second in the league in scoring with 30 points, trailing only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon by three points. And he is second only to MacKinon in assists with 20. He and linemate Mats Zuccarello have a symbiotic relationship and always appear to know where the other one is. Kirill has improved his game to the extent that he is very prominently mentioned in league circles as one of the favorites for the MVP award.
But the Wild have multiple weapons on offense and a complimentary cast that fills in the blanks. They are bringing along young Marco Rossi, who is second on the team to Kaprizov in assists with nine, and he has upped his game in the past week. Matt Boldy has come into his own after a couple of seasons of inconsistency. He has 10 goals and 7 assists, and as usual, some of his scores have come in crucial situations for the Wild. An example is his game against the Chicago Blackhawks, which led to a 2-1 overtime win on Sunday night.
His line is centered by the Wild’s best two-way center, Joel Eriksson Ek. The third line of Freddy Gaudreau, Marcus Foligno, and Ryan Hartman have arguably been the team’s second-best line the past week.
Defense, Defense, Defense
The Wild are blessed with a very well-rounded defensive core. From youngster to veteran, from skilled practitioner to lunch pale guys, Minnesota has a defenseman for any situation. And it starts with their first unit, 2024 Calder Trophy runner-up Brock Faber and hard-nosed Jake Middleton. Middleton is a physical defender who kills penalties and has found the fountain of youth offensively with career-high highs in goals (7), assists (18), and points (25) last season.
The second unit consists of defensive stalwart Jonas Brodin, who is currently out with an injury, and captain Jared Spurgeon. Spurgeon missed most of the 2023-24 season with an upper-body injury and just returned to the lineup again at the end of last month. His leadership with the team is unparalleled. Zach Bogosian is the team enforcer and an expert shot blocker. He is the type of character player that all winning teams need. He is mostly paired with the youngster, Declan Chisholm. Veteran Jon Merrill provides valuable depth to the unit.
In Gus We Trust
Goalie Filip Gustavsson has played lights out this season after a forgettable 2023-24 campaign. He is second in the league in goals against average at 2.08. He looks nothing like the fragile young player from last season, who lost his confidence and forced the Wild to reevaluate their present and future goaltending situation. And on Oct 16 against the St. Louis Blues, he became the first Minnesota Wild goaltender to score a goal. He gloved a Pavel Buchnevich shot, dropped it to his stick, and shot the puck high into the air, and it slid into the empty net with 8.1 seconds left.
And the ageless one, Marc-Andre Fleury (Flower), continues to play well as he takes his final bow at the NHL’s arenas. He is 3-0 for the year, and Hynes has no hesitation about using the future Hall-of-Famer in any situation. An all-time practical joker and an all-around class act, the league will greatly miss “Flower” when he retires.
Intangibles
Hynes has rewarded the team for sticking with him after he succeeded Dean Evason last season. Given a full camp to install his system, the team has responded well in almost every facet of the game. The two exceptions are the power play and penalty-killing units. They rank 14th and 24% in the league net percentages in these categories. The power play has looked at the time like it is rebounding from its awful start, but Hynes has not found the elixir to cure their penalty-killing blues.
