2026 Season Preview: Minnesota Wild
Bill Guerin and the Wild pulled off one of the craziest trades in recent history. But will Quinn Hughes stick around and lead this team moving forward?
The Minnesota Wild are one of 10 teams who have never won a Stanley Cup. Since their debut in the league back in 2001, they’ve won a total of just four playoff series, having made it to the Conference Final only once in 2003. After winning their first playoff round in over a decade this past season, the Wild are being spoken about as a team that is ready to be a true contender. But in a conference full of contenders, achieving that status is easier said than done.
2025-26 Outcome
Regular Season Results: 46-24-12
Postseason Results: Defeated Dallas 4-2, Lost to Colorado 4-1
With consideration to both the regular season and playoffs, this was undoubtedly the most successful season the Minnesota Wild have experienced in over a decade. They acquired a generational defenseman in Quinn Hughes, they got 85+ point seasons from Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, 50+ point seasons from their two top defenseman in Hughes and Brock Faber, all while their potential goaltender of the future got well acquainted with playing in the NHL. All of these are positive signs for the future, but there is still plenty of work to be done to get this team over the hump.
Who’s In and Who’s Out
Judging by Minnesota’s offseason business, I’m still very confused as to what they’re trying to achieve. Letting Zuccarello walk was a complete mishandle, considering the fact that he only signed an AAV of $1 million in Los Angeles. By the sounds of it, it seems like GM Bill Guerin took too long and didn’t check in on an extension until it was too late. Therefore, he not only had to let Vladimir Tarasenko walk to free agency, but Zuccarello, too. Marcus Johansson made the decision to sign back home in Sweden, leaving the entire right side of their top nine vacant.
They filled one of those vacancies by signing Maxim Shabanov, who is a good young player to take a chance on, but outside of that, they didn’t do much to address those holes. More notably, they didn’t do anything significant to address their real position of need, which is down the middle. They swapped Jacob Middleton in a move that got them some help at center ice with Blake Coleman, as well as defenseman Olli Maatta, but is that enough to really help this team improve?
