All Things 2025-26 Minnesota Wild Season Thread

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Grade: B


Minnesota Wild

Preseason over/under: 94.5
Current points pace: 99.8

What has gone right? Being able to consistently field the same roster. Injuries took the Wild from having one of the best starts of any team last season to one that had to fight just to grab a wild-card spot.

To be clear, this season has had its challenges. But it comes with the context that they've had eight players appear in every game, and 13 of their skaters have played in 20 or more of their first 23 games. The impact of that has been reflected in the Wild's defensive core: Three of the top four defensemen in terms of average ice time have played in every game, and Jonas Brodin has sat out only one.

What has gone wrong? They need to score more goals. Anyone who follows the Wild knows how this all works; they struggle to consistently score goals but can often rely or in some cases rely too much on their defensive structure and goaltending to win games.

This season has seen its share of disconnects with that approach. Minnesota's underlying numbers suggest it should be scoring more goals. The Wild are in the top half of the NHL in scoring chances per 60 and shots per 60. They are also 18th in high-danger chances, only to be in the bottom 10 of goals per game. To to get in a more secure playoff position -- they've been jockeying between third place in the Central or a wild-card spot -- they'll need to ramp up the scoring.

www.espn.com

Who's making the grade, and who's failing at the NHL quarter mark? Grades for all 32 teams

From multiple A's down to two F's, here's what has gone right (and wrong) for every club.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 

TRF Guy said:
There slide began when #97 went down. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again
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Absolutely.

Again, a large portion of the West is just plain off to a middling, lethargic, disinterested start to the season. The Wild need to be taking advantage of that and for the most part, they have done a pretty good job of that. One would think some of these teams are going to start getting things rolling before too long but right now, it's just a big pack of teams where nobody really seems to want to assert themselves except Colorado, and then probably MIN and DAL.

Is Johansson really going to keep producing at a 65+ point rate all season?
 

And the hot goalies are no longer hot and offense is bleak hence back to back losses to 2 not so good teams
 

TRF Guy said:
And the hot goalies are no longer hot and offense is bleak hence back to back losses to 2 not so good teams
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that actually would've been a very interesting fade option to miss the playoffs when they were streaking. the goal differential is still terrible and they have one of the worst offenses in the league. the space between in and out is not all that large so far this year due to a ton of OT games, which we've certainly benefited from with 11 OT games (6-5 record) helping to ramp up those points
 




Going out on a limb and hammering a handful of Wild players on scoring a Power Play Point tonight against the Kraken. The Kraken have the worst PK in the NHL at Home, although they allow don't give up very PPs overall. The Kraken and the Wild are among the league leaders in fewest PPs allowed, but the Wild are 2nd in the NHL in drawing PP's (the Wild do draw MUCH more PP at home than on the road though).

Hard to pass up a team like the Kraken who are as shitty as they are on the PK; 67.6% at home. Wowzers.

I got action on KK97, EEK, Boldy, Buium, and even Tarasenko.

Let's go WILD!!!
 






Trading a good player and FRP for a 30-something pending UFA seems right up Guerin's alley:

The Minnesota Wild have reportedly “shown significant interest” in Vancouver Canucks veteran forward Kiefer Sherwood, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith.

Sherwood, a pending unrestricted free agent, is widely expected to be dealt by the Canucks before the trade deadline next year. According to Russo and Smith, “The Canucks have shopped him around the league and originally wanted a good, young prospect.”

Smith and Russo now cite league sources who tell them the Canucks “have since changed gears” in their expectations, and “now want a good roster player and have also asked teams for a first-round pick.”
 






Why exactly you’d totally swing on a scoring d guy with 1.5 years on his contract and has had health issues when that’s not really the deficiency on this team is bizarre
 


TRF Guy said:
Asinine trade
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Think Billy knows if we don’t win it or at least his the wcf in the next 2 seasons, he’s out of a job so I guess he doesn’t want to wait for zeev. Absolutely HATE moving him as he looks like he will be a long term star and doubly that you move Rossi who’s adequate as a middle six scoring center and then a first rounder. Just lol at completely ignoring the what this team needs and how to get it.

He and faber should be a really good first pair for the next 1.5 years til Hughes leaves though lol

In nhl 26 where you can play your starting 5 all game and turn off injuries, it’s an absolute banger of a trade though
 



upnorthkid said:
One would hope yes for a top 6 center/scorer by the deadline
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Yeah, center is thin again but does it matter what position scores the points? Hughes will help put points on the board. A trade to bump Tarasenko down or out of the lineup would be great.
 

GreasyGopher said:
Yeah, center is thin again but does it matter what position scores the points? Hughes will help put points on the board. A trade to bump Tarasenko down or out of the lineup would be great.
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You need scoring across the lineup. This team will be very starting 5 scoring dependent, which is a problem in the playoffs when games tighten and they let more go (see every recent wild postseason)

Ek can play up and down the lineup. A scoring wing works as well. Hughes will add ppp, but he’s a 15-20 goal scorer (which is very good for a dman), but that’s still 10-15 short of a pretty good scoring forward, which the Wild really lack. Johansson really can’t be our 3rd leading scorer in a serious world
 



Gophers1992 said:
You guys are underestimating how good Hughes is. He is legitimately the second best D man in the league.
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Has anyone said Hughes isn’t good?

He’s a point per game defenseman and Norris winner. Those are super rare. Still doesn’t change what’s been the weakness of this team which is forward scoring and scoring depth outside KK and Boldy

Trouble is it’s 1.5 years and you sold a bunch of depth and your offensive dman of the future to get him. If he resigns, it’s a better deal pending what the number is
 

upnorthkid said:
You need scoring across the lineup. This team will be very starting 5 scoring dependent, which is a problem in the playoffs when games tighten and they let more go (see every recent wild postseason)

Ek can play up and down the lineup. A scoring wing works as well. Hughes will add ppp, but he’s a 15-20 goal scorer (which is very good for a dman), but that’s still 10-15 short of a pretty good scoring forward, which the Wild really lack. Johansson really can’t be our 3rd leading scorer in a serious world
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Fair points. However, Hughes doesn’t have to score the goals to have an impact on scoring.

I agree that another Top 6 forward (probably preferably a center to push Yurov down the lineup) would be a great addition especially now that they’re obviously pushing their chips to the center of the table.

Edit: My scenario leaves Johansson in the top 6.
 

upnorthkid said:
Has anyone said Hughes isn’t good?

He’s a point per game defenseman and Norris winner. Those are super rare. Still doesn’t change what’s been the weakness of this team which is forward scoring and scoring depth outside KK and Boldy

Trouble is it’s 1.5 years and you sold a bunch of depth and your offensive dman of the future to get him. If he resigns, it’s a better deal pending what the number is
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Fair, but if you don’t think a guy like Hughes improves your offense you are sorely mistaken.
 


Gophers1992 said:
Fair, but if you don’t think a guy like Hughes improves your offense you are sorely mistaken.
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He does and again, no one has said he doesn’t himself. You’re also subtracting one of your forwards who can score a little plus Buium who has been good when Hynes has actually trusted him to play PP.

The good part is it’ll move any chance hynes plays spurgeon on pp1 (which has been a mistake any time it’s happened this year). Hughes will definitely be an addition to the offense. He’s not quite Makar but he’s damn good.

We have scored about 16% of our goals by defensemen, and are right in the middle of the pack in the nhl despite our scoring deficiencies. Again Hughes will help, but problem wasn’t lack of back end scoring
 

GreasyGopher said:
He’s got to get 60 assists somehow.

Additionally, he likely reinvigorates a power play that’s struggled lately.
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Just to say it, that’s a really high number. 3 guys have averaged that pace (to account for injuries) over the last 3 years, Makar Hughes and Fox. It’s a tough threshold to hit. He’d have to have 39 assists in 51 games which is an even higher pace
 

upnorthkid said:
Just to say it, that’s a really high number. 3 guys have averaged that pace (to account for injuries) over the last 3 years, Makar Hughes and Fox. It’s a tough threshold to hit. He’d have to have 39 assists in 51 games which is an even higher pace
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That is a really high number but he’s hit it multiple times.

The point I was attempting to make is that he’s going to have a greater impact on the offense than number of goals he scores personally.

But I acknowledge your point that it would be better to have another high end forward.
 
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