Elimination Eval: Minnesota Wild

After missing the playoffs last season, the Minnesota Wild were back in business and back in the postseason this year. But another early first round exit raises concern for where they stand moving forward. The Wild have only won two playoff series in the post-lockout era. That’s over twenty years worth of hockey and not a whole lot to show for it. For a team that’s never won a Stanley Cup, patience is growing thinner and thinner in Minnesota, as the State of Hockey is starved for any form of success.  

Expectations

"Minor setback-major comeback" is what comes to mind when I think about how the Minnesota Wild entered this season. They missed the playoffs last season, but were in the playoffs the last four years before then. Believe it or not, Minnesota has only missed the playoffs twice since 2013. So, by definition, they’re an expected playoff team more years than not. By that measure, the expectation was that this group would make the necessary progress to go further then they have in recent years, which would mean winning one round in the playoffs, at the very least. 

The Wild didn’t do a ton of major shopping at the trade deadline aside from acquiring Justin Brazeau from Boston. That might have had more to do with who was or wasn’t available, but could also have to do with the fact that things weren’t going all that great for them. They were without Kirill Kaprizov for quite some time and struggled as a result of that. It didn’t make a ton of sense for them to be big spenders, but that didn’t mean they weren’t improving. 

Most of their recent moves have involved setting up their long term future, including signing defenseman Brock Faber to an eight-year contract extension, acquiring another young defenseman in David Jiricek, and beginning to give younger players like Zeev Buium meaningful NHL minutes. Heading into the playoffs, the Wild had a good mix of star power in their current core and their younger, future core that was optimistic to make a dent in a crowded Western Conference. 

Series Recap

In the first postseason meeting between these two teams, it would be Vegas’ Tomas Hertl striking first to give the Golden Knights the lead late in the first. However, Matt Boldy had an answer for Minnesota just two minutes later to take a 1-1 tie into the second period. Pavel Dorofeyev would regain Vegas’ lead midway through. Matt Boldy had both of Minnesota’s goals in this game. Roberto is covering former friends throughout the playoffs, and Brett Howden will surely continue to give him plenty to write about. In this one, Howden extended Vegas's lead early in the third, and had the final say with an empty netter in the final seconds of the game to put Minnesota down a game by the score of 4-2.

Game two would be a game changer for the Wild, as they needed a bounce back win and found a way to get it. Vegas got off to a strong start, but the Wild weathered that storm and once they settled in, took control of the game. Three unanswered goals from Boldy, Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello gave Minnesota a 3-0 lead to take into the second period. Kaprizov became the big storyline in this one, as he followed up a two point game in game one with a three point night in game two. He had the first goal in the second period to make it 4-0 before Noah Hanifin stopped the bleeding to get Vegas on the board. Kaprizov had the empty netter to give Minnesota the game two win by a final score of 5-2. 

Game three would be the high point for Minnesota as Kirill Kaprizov picked right back up where he left off, giving Minnesota a lead within the first three minutes of play. Not long after that, Marco Rossi found the back of the net for his first career playoff goal to make it 2-0, but Alex Pietrangelo cut that lead in half midway through the first. Matt Boldy kept his goal scoring streak alive in the second and Kaprizov converted again on the power play to give Minnesota a huge 4-1 lead. It would go on to be another 5-2 win for Minnesota as they now had the 2-1 lead on the series. 

Things would begin to shift for Vegas in game four. Shea Theodore struck first, but Minnesota answered with goals from Rossi and Foligno, giving the Wild a 2-1 lead through the second period, putting them twenty minutes away from a 3-1 series lead. Vegas would rally to briefly take a 3-2 lead halfway through the third, only for Jared Spurgeon to quickly tie it up at three apiece. This brought us to the first overtime of the series, with Vegas's Ivan Barbashev becoming the hero, picking quite the opportune moment for his first goal of the series, which was now tied at two. 

Game five became the low moment for the Wild, because what’s worse than one overtime loss? That’s right, a second one that puts you on the brink of elimination. Vegas’s Karlsson and Minnesota’s Kaprizov went back-to-back early to tie the game 1-1. Mark Stone would give Vegas a 2-1 lead that they carried into the third period. Matt Boldy came up with another big goal to tie the game, and with just 75 seconds to go in the third Ryan Hartman nearly won Minnesota the game. Vegas decided to use their coaches challenge and were successful in doing so as Hartman's goal was waived off being kicked in. This sent the game to overtime where who else but Brett Howden was the hero to put Vegas up 3-2 in the seires. 

For the second time in three games, Shea Theodore opened the scoring in game six, putting Vegas up 1-0 before Ryan Hartman would tie it up near the end of the first. Hartman would pick up his second goal later in the game, but Minnesota still trailed by one with about three and a half minutes to go. Minnesota gave it a hard push but as time dwindled down to valuable seconds, they just couldn’t muster the magic to force a game seven, ending another playoff run for the Wild far too soon. 

Prediction

I actually had the Wild taking out the Golden Knights in seven games. Perhaps in hindsight that was a bit of a hot take, but they were just one game away from at least getting it to a winner-take-all game seven. Unfortunately, they don’t have anyone else to blame beside themselves, seeing as they had two overtimes to try and clinch the series. 

Was the Season a Success?

Yes and no. This season was successful in the sense that they got back into the playoffs after missing them the year prior. But when you consider the bigger picture, simply being back in the playoffs does not equate to success. All things considered, this was another underachieving season for the Wild, seeing as they failed to yet again to win a playoff series. It becomes all the more disappointing when you consider that Minnesota had the chance to put the series away in five games. With a 2-1 lead in the series in game four, had the puck bounced the other way in overtime in both games four and five, the series was theirs for the taking. 

The Western Conference is a powerhouse with teams like Vegas, Colorado, Winnipeg, and Dallas in the picture. If Minnesota wants to achieve success, they need to be able to compete with and beat these types of teams, and they’re running out of time to do so, at least with a large portion of this current core. This is a contending team that has a promising future with so many younger stars, but for guys like Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello, their leaders such as Marcus Foligno, Jonas Brodin, and Jared Spurgeon, the window is looking tighter and tighter with so many of their contracts winding down. 

UFA’s/RFA’s

In the meantime however, this team will largely look the same. The Wild do have a handful of notable names that are going to become unrestricted free agents this summer. Gus Nyquist, Marcus Johansson, Justin Brazeau, Jon Merrill and, of course, Marc-Andre Fleury, who is set to officially retire. Of those names, I don’t believe they should be overly concerned with bringing any of them back. Nyquist, Johansson, and Merrill are all up there in age. Brazeau is an interesting depth forward but no one you need to worry about spending a ton of money on. 

As for their RFA’s, they really just have Marco Rossi and Declan Chisholm to worry about, with one of those a more pressing need than the other. I really like Marco Rossi’s game and feel like he did enough in the playoffs to prove that he should be a coveted part of this group moving forward. The question is, does management feel the same way? Rossi has sort of gotten the Kaapo Kakko treatment in the sense that he still isn’t really getting the ice time you’d want him to get, and it just hasn’t seemed to click for either party. Is he a part of the future here or do they look to move him? (For the record, I would love to see him as a Ranger.) 

Biggest Question Moving Forward

With Kirill Kaprizov entering the final year of his contract next season, he automatically becomes their biggest question mark moving forward. Getting him locked up to a long-term deal is crucial if Minnesota wants to continue to be a contending team. If there was any doubt about him, he dispelled it with his playoff performance combined with how much the team struggled and nearly fell out of the playoff picture without him through the back half of the season. 

Another big consideration is David Jiricek. The Wild acquired him in late November for their 2025 first round pick and a ton of other assets, but don’t seem to be convinced he is part of their long term plans. There is a chance they could look to flip him in a trade at the draft or some other point this summer to bring in some more established NHL pieces, potentially ones that can fill out their middle six. But how sure are you that there’s a world where you can win a trade involving him?

A package of Marco Rossi and David Jiricek could be a fascinating trade proposal to float around and maybe that helps Minnesota become a more complete team that goes further in the playoffs. Nonetheless, there is plenty of work to be done before this team looks to run it back next year. 

Projected Lineup 

Kaprizov - Eriksson-Ek - Boldy
Foligno - Hartman - Zuccarello 
? - Rossi - Gaudreau
Trenin - ? - Hinostroza

Brodin - Faber
Middleton - Spurgeon
Buium - ?
Chisholm  

Gustavsson - Wallstedt 

(*-RFAs)

Final Thoughts

I do like a lot of what Minnesota is doing, and if they can fill in the blanks the right way this summer, they could become a sleeper favorite in the West. They have the stars to lead the way with Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov. They have a really exciting, young pair of defensemen that can be a key part of this team long term in Brock Faber and Zeev Buium. There’s enough of an identity here to continue to be a playoff team, it’s just a matter of time for them to find a way to win a series.