The Wild went into the break with momentum, defeating Carolina 2-1 on Thursday and securing a comeback 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Here are five rules recapping the Wild’s back-to-back home wins before the break:

1. The Wild have won two consecutive games – in regulation – at home for the first time this season.

The Wild came into Saturday’s game with a 12-12-1 record at home. This season has brought some rough outings in the building, including a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 5, a 7-1 loss to Edmonton on Dec. 12 and a 6-1 loss to Florida on Dec. 18.

Minnesota came home reeling after a 6-0 drubbing in Ottawa followed by a 3-0 loss to the Bruins, so it was no doubt looking for some momentum before the break.

So, what changed over the last couple of games to get a couple of home victories?

“Pucks went in,” Wild captain Jared Spurgeon quipped. “No, I feel like, we’ve had games where we played well here. And it just hasn’t gone our way.”

Boldy said it was just the Wild getting to their game.

“The home record is what it is, I think we know that,” said forward Matt Boldy. “And to be able to turn it around and get those two wins versus two good teams that are playing really good hockey right now is huge for us. And we wanted to go into break on a high note.”

2. Yakov Trenin scores in back-to-back games.

It’s no secret that injuries and jumbled lineups have been a significant running storyline for the Wild this season, and that’s been especially true with superstar Kirill Kaprizov out for multiple weeks following surgery for a lower-body injury. The Wild need to make up that scoring from somewhere, so it’s always a welcomed sight when bottom-six forwards contribute.

Yakov Trenin gave the Wild a 1-0 lead against Carolina less than three minutes into the game, with the puck coming to him out front on a pretty feed from Marat Khusnutdinov. That goal was a sigh of relief for the Wild, after those back-to-back shutout losses.

“It was a very big goal,” Trenin said. “Especially, few games before, we couldn’t get the lead.”

Against the Islanders, he scored again, finding himself in a good spot for a deflection in front of the crease. It turned out to be the game-winner. His fifth and sixth goals of the season gave him a chance to bring out his celly vibes. He threw himself into the end glass after Thursday’s goal, while Saturday’s tally got him to raise both arms in the air in triumph.

3. Vinnie Hinostroza scores a game-winning goal in his Wild debut against Carolina.

Last week, Ryan Hartman was handed a 10-game suspension. The Wild have consistently played shorthanded this season, but they claimed Vinnie Hinostroza off waivers from the Nashville Predators last week. With 388 career NHL games across 10 seasons with six other teams, Hinostroza made his Wild debut against Carolina.

He also became the 31st player to score a goal in his Wild debut. Against a good Carolina team, the Wild were clinging to a 1-0 lead through two periods. But 49 seconds into the third period, Hinostroza doubled the team’s lead, getting credit for a gritty, greasy goal around the crease.

The puck bounced around off goaltender Frederik Andersen’s back and eventually across the goal line as Hinostroza and Marcus Foligno crashed the net. The play was reviewed but the goal stood.

“I kind of felt like it was because I was right there after I tipped it,” Hinostoza said. “But I saw Moose celly, so I don’t know if he got under the goalie there and stuff. Once I saw the replay, I kind of knew.

“It felt like we had a really good game as a line. We had a lot of opportunities, so that was a lot of fun.”

Hinostroza was on the right wing with Foligno and Gaudreau on the third line. With the final 2-1 score, he also became the eighth Wild player to score a game-winning goal in their Wild debut.

Wild coach John Hynes said Hinostroza played well.

“Good speed, he’s tenacious on the puck, his abilities to make some plays and, you know, plays the game smart,” Hynes said. “He did a nice job.”

4. Matt Boldy helped spark a second-period turnaround with 3 Wild goals in a 5:29 span against New York.

The Wild grabbed a 1-0 lead against the Islanders early in the first period on Marco Rossi’s 19th tally of the season, with a primary and pretty assist from Boldy. But the lead didn’t last long. It was 13 seconds before Palmieri tied the game. The game was knotted at 1-1 at the first intermission, but the Islanders came out flying in the second while the Wild looked like it was already looking ahead to the break.

“For us, we knew that that wasn’t good enough, and that that wasn’t going to win us the game,” Boldy said.

It became the Minnesota show, in a way, as Warroad’s Brock Nelson scored 28 seconds into the second period to give the Islanders the lead. Edina product Anders Lee made it a two-goal margin about seven minutes later.

But in the second half of the period, the Wild picked it up. They also benefitted from a tough-luck night for Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo.

First, Gaudreau made it 3-2 with 6:39 left in the period with a power-play goal. The shot deflected off of DeAngelo. Then just after the last TV timeout of the period with 2:01 on the clock, the Wild tied the game 3-3 on a goal credited to Boldy after he tipped in a Jonas Brodin blast from long range.

Trenin’s go-ahead goal came 51 seconds later.

“We stood mentally strong,” Trenin said. “We didn’t get down after that third goal. And the power play came up huge, scored a big goal and kept us in the game, give us some momentum.”

The Wild are 22-0-0 this season when leading after the second period.

5. Filip Gustavsson needed a breather.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson was so spent after the 2-1 victory over Carolina that he was hunched over in his crease as the line of teammates congratulated him for the effort after the win. No, he wasn’t hurt.

“You just try and breathe as much as you can and move and get something to your brain so you can keep focused,” Gustavsson said. “Usually we’re very happy and then talk to each other when they come down. I just had to catch my breath two seconds first there.”

Gustavsson made 38 saves and nearly had a shutout before Carolina’s Sebastian Aho scored late in the game. Gustavsson also kept them off the board in the second period when Jackson Blake had an unsuccessful penalty shot attempt. Gustavsson is 4-1-0 with a 1.40 goals-against average and .954 save percentage in five career starts versus Carolina.

He followed up that performance with 31 saves against the Islanders to take back-to-back wins into the 4 Nations tournament.

For the season, Gustavsson is 22-11-3 with a 2.63 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and three shutouts.

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Safe to say, things didn’t go as planned.

Maroon departed Minnesota on Friday in one of three trades that didn’t signal a fire sale as much as a soft surrender in a disappointing season. Guerin dealt Brandon Duhaime to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, getting a 2026 third-round pick for a bottom-six winger who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.

Maroon, who remains sidelined following back surgery in early February and is expected back near the end of March, was shipped to Boston for a conditional 2026 draft pick (he has to play in a playoff game for the Wild to get it) and minor league forward Luke Toporowski.

Guerin’s final deal sent bottom-six center Connor Dewar, a pending restricted free agent, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2026 fourth-round draft pick and minor leaguer Dmitry Ovchinnikov. Dewar, Duhaime and Maroon had combined for 18 goals and 38 points and Duhaime had only four goals and eight points in 62 games.

The departures, especially those of Dewy 1 (Duhaime) and Dewy 2 (Dewar), were because Guerin didn’t plan to bring back Duhaime and he also wanted to clear room on the roster for guys like Russian forward Marat Khusnutdinov, who left his KHL team and reportedly will join the Wild in the coming days.

“It’s not great,” Guerin told the Athletic, of being a seller. “To be honest with you, it’s not great. You say goodbye to some guys you really care about and did great things. They played hard for us, and they sacrificed a lot. So to just move guys, it’s not great. I’d rather add. But we’re just not there.”

He’s right about that.

Contract extensions handcuff trades
The Wild’s win over bottom-feeder Arizona on Thursday, which followed a victory over bottom-feeder San Jose on Sunday, put Minnesota seven points out of a wild card spot in the Western Conference with 19 games remaining in the regular season.

What was interesting about Guerin’s comments on being a seller was the fact he could have put himself in a position to make more trades, if not for some decisions made last spring and summer. That was when Guerin decided to give out contract extensions to five veterans.

That list included forwards Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman, Marcus Johansson and Freddy Gaudreau, who not only got extensions but also have trade protection in their deals. All five wouldn’t have been shopped, but a couple certainly would have been prime candidates to move to a Cup contender.

Guerin added to the list of veterans to get extensions this week by signing 33-year-old defenseman Zach Bogosian to a two-year, $2.5 million contract. This one reportedly did not come with any type of protection from being dealt.

It will be interesting to see if Guerin attempts to move off any of the above forwards this offseason as he prepares for one more season of salary cap issues caused by the 2021 buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter’s contracts. Johansson, who is injured, and Gaudreau have had very disappointing seasons and, in Gaudreau’s case, he has a 15-team no-trade list so he could be moved.

Those who wanted to see Guerin hit a reset of any sort had the Wild’s recent skid to thank. Minnesota lost five times in an eight-game stretch, including three in a row.

“We’re not in the best spot, but that doesn’t change anything,” Guerin told The Athletic. “I still expect the team to push for the playoffs and I still expect that type of effort every single night. But again, on the flip side, it’s my job to think about down the road as well.”

Right now, down the road is all that should matter to the Wild’s decisionmakers.

The post Wild Trades appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Wild’s 5-10-4 start had gotten coach Dean Evason fired and now Minnesota was in a 1-7-1 slide that dropped it from being on the verge of a playoff spot to again looking like a team that could begin booking tee times for April.

Guerin, though, claimed he wasn’t giving up hope.

“If you look at our roster like when we are healthy,” he said, “I think it’s a good team. I want to keep the expectations high. … I expect us to compete for a playoff spot.”

Guerin’s competitive nature certainly played a role in his continued confidence, but you had to wonder if his real motivation was making sure the guys in his locker room wouldn’t feel as if he was punting on the season.

That’s exactly what he should do.

The word associated with this is tanking, but that’s such an ugly term. It insinuates an entire team is giving up and, as we know, most coaches and players are too competitive to do this. A more palatable word would be acceptance.

Accepting that even if you sneak into the playoffs, you aren’t getting out of the first round and accepting that an already bright future could get brighter by adding draft picks before the March 8 trade deadline, while also potentially putting yourself in the NHL draft lottery. (Eleven of the 16 teams that miss the playoffs are eligible for the first pick in the draft.)

The two things that should influence Guerin’s thinking are:

1) The depth this team has built up through the draft in recent years. Jesper Wallstedt, the team’s top goalie prospect, has been up a few times this season but is likely to take over as the Wild’s top goalie in 2024-25. Russian Marat Khusnutdinov, a speedy two-way center and forwards Liam Ohgren (Sweden) and Danila Yurov (Russia) are included in a prospect pool that has been replenished in recent years. That doesn’t include rookies Marco Rossi and Brock Faber, the latter of whom is a candidate for the Calder Trophy.

2) Next season will be the final one in which the Wild will carry a combined $14.7 million in dead salary-cap money because of the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. That figure will drop to $1.7 million in 2025-26, meaning that team will have plenty of space to pursue a free agent as well as offer star winger Kirill Kaprizov a long-term extension.

Marco Rossi is part of the Wild’s bright future, and he’s already left a positive mark on the NHL club. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

This plan might not appeal to owner Craig Leipold, who lives and dies with every game and wants his team to be competitive, in part because of the extra cash generated by even a few home playoff games, but Guerin has an opportunity he should embrace.

Wild has plenty no-move, no-trade protection players
The elephant in the room when it comes to the Wild’s potential trade candidates is the fact that in today’s NHL far too many players are afforded either no-move or no-trade protection that gives them a say in whether they want to uproot themselves and their families and go elsewhere to chase a Stanley Cup.

The Wild’s roster has nine players with some type of no-trade protection: Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, Frederick Gaudreau, Marcus Johansson, Ryan Hartman, Pat Maroon, Jonas Brodin, Alex Goligoski and Zach Bogosian. Foligno, Johansson, Hartman, Brodin and Goligoski have complete protection.

There are some guys who aren’t going to be shopped, even though they don’t have no-trade clauses, including Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek. Perhaps the most interesting chip on whom Guerin could take bids is goalie Filip Gustavsson.

Gustavsson has had an up-and-down season, but the 25-year-old could be very appealing to a contender. He’s in the first season of a three-year, $11.25 million contract he signed in July, meaning his average annual salary is a very reasonable $3.75 million per. Teams that could be in the market for a goaltender include Carolina, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles and New Jersey.

Guerin’s ability to create a bidding war among those teams could make what seems like a difficult decision (trading Gustavsson) too lucrative not to do. If there’s internal confidence that Wallstedt will be ready to take over as the Wild’s top goalie next season, getting a first-round pick and needing to find another goalie for next season could be the prudent plan. And that’s assuming Marc-Andre Fleury does not return.

It was interesting that before the game against the Islanders — one the Wild won 5-0 en route to going on a 4-1 run — Guerin did not close the door on making moves at the deadline, if things were not on the right track.

The fact the Wild then lost back-to-back home games against Western Conference rivals Nashville and Anaheim, the latter of which is a bottom feeder, should have given Guerin a push in the right direction entering a 10-day break for the bye and the All-Star Game.

“I don’t think I can sit here right now and say, ‘If it goes sideways, we’re going to do X, Y and Z,'” Guerin said in mid-January. “But we could.”

Actually, the word “could” needs to be amended to “should” because while there is hope for the future of the Wild, the present isn’t worth preserving.

The post Time To Punt appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.