Before the season, there was some understandable optimism around the Minnesota Wild. They’d convinced/deluded/bribed Kirill Kaprizov into accepting the largest contract in the NHL to stick around. In Brock Faber, Marco Rossi, and Matt Boldy, to go along with Kaprizov, there was, at least, the look of a young core that could actually run with some of the big boys of the league. The Wild, in whispered tones, were said to be a sleeper for not just the playoffs, but May and beyond. A place in the calendar no Wild team has seen in a couple decades.
Living in Minnesota takes a fair amount of delusion, though. One has to convince themselves that the winters are worth it for the 17 minutes of a searing heat summer is worth it. Or that they really aren’t all racist. Or that this mediocre QB can be rehabbed by the Vikings to a Super Bowl. It’ll work this time (it won’t). Any dreamed grandeur for the Wild falls into the same category. Or even mild success.
The Wild have watched the gate open on the 2025-2026 season and promptly ran into the side of it. They’re 3-5-2, having only three teams topped in the West, while having played more games than St. Louis and San Jose, two of the three behind them. And they just lost to the Sharks in overtime, at home. They’re 27th in goals per game, and 30 in goals against per game. So their standing with a dunce cap would seem to be deserved.
Perhaps most dispiriting for the Wild is that they got to measure themselves against two of the league’s hottest teams last week, New Jersey and Utah. They lost by a combined 10-3. That’s after getting clubbed by the Stars and Caps the week before, two other teams that figure to be around the tops of their divisions all season. The Wild have beaten the likewise balloon-handed Blues and Rangers, as well as scraping an OT victory over the plodding and wayward Kings.
It was always folly to believe that a team coached by John Hynes could go anywhere but the nearest open manhole. The angry thumb behind the bench has never driven an outfit he could forget to take the handbrake off of, and the Wild are no different. With Faber and Zeev Buium, there is a get-up-and-go outfit somewhere within the form of the Wild. Hynes would puke up lunch from the three previous days if his team ever approached the speed limit, and so they’re left to try and feed themselves on whatever Kaprizov can create after holding the puck in the offensive zone for a minute and a half. Faber has three points, by the way.
While the Wild spent the summer lamenting Kaprizov missing half of last season and beseeching everyone to think about what might have happened had he remained healthy, they didn’t do a lot to ensure that such a fate wouldn’t cripple them again. They traded for a cadaver that used to be Vladimir Tarasenko, and he has one goal. That was the extent of their offseason shopping, and it’s no wonder things look a bit stale.
Oh, things will probably improve by default. Filip Gustavsson isn’t this bad in goal. Though that also has a touch of the theoretical, as he only has one successful season as a starter. Should this continue much longer, a coaching change would probably spur them in the right direction for at least a little while.
But the Wild probably can never escape the pull toward mediocrity, given how it’s been the main attraction of their entire existence. You can tell from the hockey world’s reaction to Kaprizov signing for the most money ever, “Well, that’s a choice.” He’ll provide MVP results for a team that doesn’t really know what to do with it, much like the teenage nerd actually getting the dream girl. At least you can set your watch to it.
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