After quiet offseason, Wild look to somehow improve upon last year

The Minnesota Wild ended their past season in disappointing fashion with a sixth-place finish in the Central division. They missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-2019 season and former head coach Dean Evason was relieved of his duties in November. John Hynes was named his successor shortly after.

A mundane offseason followed the disappointment. The Wild signed veteran forward Yakov Trenin to a four-year contract worth $14 million. Trenin played 76 games last year for the Nashville Predators and the Colorado Avalanche, totaling 12 goals, five assists, and 40 penalty minutes. The Wild also signed defenseman Jake Middleton to a four-year extension and rookie of the year runner up Brock Faber to an eight-year extension.

I’ve been going to Wild games since I was a little kid. When you are that young, you always expect your team to be the best. You want them to win, and you usually don’t have knowledge of their opponents. Nowadays, I try to temper my expectations, especially after the disappointment that was their last season as well as overall Minnesota sports disappointment. After researching a bit more about the team from last year, I’ve found three keys that I think the Wild will need to have to find success again this year.

Writing an article about the Wild wouldn’t be worth it if I didn’t get to mention Kirill Kaprizov at some point. Kaprizov was a star for the Wild last season despite the overall team struggles. He totaled 46 goals and 50 assists, for a total of 96 points, in 75 games played. This pushed him into the top 10 in points per game among other skaters around the league. Kaprizov, along with Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek, combined to create a dominant line for the latter part of the season. However, despite this trio’s success, the Wild need more depth scoring. Initial line groupings for this year suggest that those three will not be playing together, which hopefully means they can boost some of the players around them. Additionally, top six forwards such as Mats Zuccarello and Marco Rossi will need to provide additional offensive support throughout the year if the Wild are going to have sustained depth and offensive success.

The struggles the Wild faced last year didn’t only pertain to the offensive side of the rink. The penalty kill was atrocious most of the year. The Wild’s penalty kill percentage was 72.5% in 2023-2024. For comparison, the Carolina Hurricanes led the league with an 86.43% penalty kill percentage. Compared to the rest of the league the Wild ranked No. 30 out of 32 teams in penalty kill percentage, and while this statistic does not directly correlate to wins, four of the top five teams in PK percentage last year made the playoffs. A better penalty kill and fewer goals in general would lead to more wins. Now, letting in goals isn’t all on the skaters, which brings me to the third and final key for the Wild this year.

The Wild’s defensive core is made up of veterans and a few young defenders, but the most notable defensemen to me are Jared Spurgeon and Brock Faber. Faber, mentioned earlier, and Spurgeon, the Wild captain who was injured the majority of last year, will provide solid defensive play all year long with Jonas Brodin, Jake Middleton, and a few others. However, a key piece missing from last year’s team was goaltending. The league average for save percentage last year across the entire league was .903%. While this is a relatively low number compared to previous years, both main goalies for the Wild last year finished below that number. Filip Gustavsson and hockey legend Marc-Andre Fleury will once again be the goalie tandem this season, and for the Wild to find success they will need one, if not both, to step up in a big way.

Being a longtime Wild fan, I am excited for the season to start once again. I love feeling the energy at the games and having a sense of hope in a team. While these feelings are nice, this season I am tempering my expectations for the team’s overall success. A lot can change in a year, and I am optimistic, but with a lack of new talent, insufficient depth scoring, a poor penalty kill and sub-par goaltending, I can’t help but feel like this may be an underwhelming season for the Wild. Time will tell whether my hesitancy to believe will be for a good reason, but until then, I can’t wait to settle down after a long day of classes to watch my favorite hockey team once again.