The only team that didn’t make a trade that moved the needle was the third-place Minnesota Wild. Bottom six winger Justin Brazeau was acquired from Boston late Thursday after veteran winger Gustav Nyquist was obtained from Nashville last weekend.

Will Wild general manager Bill Guerin be criticized for not doing more? Probably. Should he be? Absolutely not.

If Guerin had really wanted to deal for a player such as Nelson, Buffalo’s Dylan Cozens, who was moved to Ottawa, or Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, who wasn’t moved, he could have put Joel Eriksson Ek on long-term injured reserve with Kirill Kaprizov and kept both out until the playoffs opened in order to circumvent the salary cap.

But Guerin wisely elected to keep his top prospects and focus on the opening of free agency on July 1. That’s when the NHL’s salary cap will rise from $88 million to $95.5 million and when the dead cap hits of $14.7 million for the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will shrink to $1.7 million.

The Wild and Avalanche both have 76 points, but the Wild are in third place because they have a game in hand. The Avalanche almost certainly will pass the Wild in the coming days, but Minnesota still figures to make the playoffs. A fantastic start to the season that briefly put the Wild atop the NHL standings has helped to give them an eight-point lead on Calgary, the second wild card in the Western Conference, and a nine-point lead on Vancouver, the first team out of the postseason.

But there is no way Guerin could have looked at his roster on Friday — especially once the Jets, Avalanche and Stars started making moves — and thought he had a team that could emerge from the Western Conference. The Wild missed the playoffs last season, were expected to miss again this season and ended up being a pleasant surprise that right now is without two of their top forwards, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek, and a top-four defenseman in Jonas Brodin.

The what-if? game
While Guerin says he expects Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Brodin to return before the regular season is finished, no one knows how effective they will be if they do play again. Let’s say the Wild had acquired Boeser for a 2026 first-round pick — their 2025 first-rounder was dealt to Columbus for promising young defenseman David Jiricek — along with winger Liam Ohgren and a third-round selection.

Would Boeser have joined a team that had a full-strength Kaprizov? The Wild forward has played in three games of 27 games since Dec. 23 after initially being considered day-to-day. Kaprizov underwent surgery for his lower-body injury in late January and still hasn’t started skating. He might return, but will he be his normal explosive self? Clearly, Guerin and the doctors have no idea.

Eriksson Ek, the Wild’s best center, has missed the past five games because of what The Athletic reported is a broken bone in his leg. Wild coach John Hynes told The Athletic it might be a “usage injury,” meaning there is no predicting if Eriksson Ek will be fully healthy again this season. Brodin has dealt with injuries all season and is now out with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot against Colorado late last month.

Add it up and the only thing a significant trade by Guerin would have done is add a player, likely on an expiring contract, to a mix of guys who might be back at some point but also could and should be shut down at the first sign of trouble. The Wild are better off pursuing Boeser when he becomes a free agent on July 1 and not giving up anything for him.

Given Guerin’s penchant for making deals, the guess here is that it pained him to mostly sit out this deadline. But he did the right thing. The Wild’s long-term future looks bright because the cupboard is filled with prospects. Not moving some of them in the name of trying to make a run against what now appears to be superior competition was the type of restraint for which Guerin should be applauded.

The post Less Is More appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

What had been taken for granted in the 1990s and early 2000s is now appreciated given the work it has taken to get back to this point. A record crowd of 10,894 for the second game of the Badgers series on Feb. 1 brought total attendance for the sweep to 21,641.

Connor Kurth and Cal Thomas celebrate a goal against Wisconsin in front of the packed home crowd cheering them on. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)

“For all of us who work in the athletic department and on the external side, where we’re not on the ice every day, having a game-day environment like that is what we aspire to,” said Mike Wierzbicki, senior associate athletic director for the Gophers. “Providing an atmosphere that fans can enjoy and that gives you goosebumps.”

Telling the story of attendance and fan interest at what is now known as 3M at Mariucci Arena, isn’t as simple as throwing out a bunch of attendance figures.

That helps — the average of 9,769 tickets distributed this season is the highest it has been since 2015-16 and is up from 7,867 in 2021-22 — but it fails to address the most important thing: The electricity, as Motzko called it, that has returned to the 32-year-old building.

That is what so often had seemed to be missing until the last few seasons. A student section that wasn’t filled, or season tickets that had been sold to corporations or the general public, but weren’t used. The tickets might have been distributed, but that doesn’t mean sections were full or that the building had life.

The Dropoff
Motkzo was part of two NCAA championship teams during his time as an assistant on Gophers coach Don Lucia’s staff from 2001-05 and returned to replace Lucia in 2018 after spending 13 seasons at St. Cloud State. Motzko remembers the importance placed on getting fans back upon his return.

Bob Motzko has coached the Gophers men’s hockey team since 2018-19. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“It was a major discussion at the administrative level, and they did a lot of things behind the scenes, too, on students and ticket prices,” he said. “It was the perfect storm. I always call it the breakup of the WCHA. That took a decade for people to forgive. I think we’re through that.”

As members of the Big Ten, the Gophers were forced to make the move from the WCHA to the Big Ten when the conference began to sponsor men’s ice hockey in the 2013-14 season. This was triggered by Penn State’s decision to start playing Division I hockey and enabled the Big Ten to have a six-team conference. It resulted in major upheaval for college hockey.

The Gophers had long-established WCHA rivalries with North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State. Throw in Minnesota State Mankato and Wisconsin, and five of Minnesota’s nine conference opponents were within driving distance. The Civic Center and then the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul were the regular hosts of the WCHA Final Five.

Suddenly, all of that was gone, and while tickets were still being sold to Gophers games, the amount of nights on which Mariucci felt like the place to be dwindled. This despite the fact the Gophers finished in first place in the Big Ten each of the conference’s first four seasons and went to the championship game of the 2014 Frozen Four.

Mike Wierzbicki, University of Minnesota senior associate athletic director. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)

Wierzbicki, who grew up in Minnesota, arrived at the university as the assistant athletic director of marketing for the 2016-17 season. The Gophers won the Big Ten before losing in the NCAA regional semifinals to Notre Dame. There was an average of 9,595 tickets distributed as the Gophers qualified for the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in six seasons under Lucia.

The figure plummeted to 8,726 in 2017-18 as the Gophers finished fifth in the conference and did not make the NCAA tournament in Lucia’s final season. Motzko was hired to replace Lucia, but the work was just starting.

“There was a lack of WCHA rivalries and some changes there were not the most well-received things,” Wierzbicki said. “We also knew our team success wasn’t where we are nowadays and we didn’t perform on the ice the way we’re accustomed to.”

That wasn’t the only issue. The other was that a season-ticket waiting list that dated to the 1990s was “pretty much exhausted,” by Lucia’s penultimate season. That meant that when season-ticket holders didn’t renew for 2017-18, the athletic department was left with no built-in place to turn to replace them.

That wasn’t going to be easy, especially with the general public and corporations. The Gophers had the hockey market largely to themselves when the new Mariucci opened in 1993, the same year the NHL and North Stars left for Dallas. But by the time the season-ticket waiting list was gone, the NHL had returned with the Wild in St. Paul, the Twins were playing in a new stadium (Target Field) and the Vikings were opening U.S. Bank Stadium.

The sports dollar only goes so far and fans only want to attend so many events. Tickets to Gophers games weren’t cheap and there also was the issue of students no longer packing the place.

The road back
The low point came in March 2019. The Gophers played host to Michigan in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament. Minnesota swept the Wolverines in two games, but the headline was the attendance.

The Gophers’ 3-2 overtime victory in the opener drew an announced crowd of 1,835 fans. Numerous photos from inside the building indicated that figure might have been generous. According to a 2023 Star Tribune story, the Gophers had an average of only 5,325 tickets scanned per game during Motzko’s first season.

The average number of tickets distributed in 2019-20 decreased to 8,100 during the season in which the COVID-19 pandemic caused the season to be canceled before the end of the Big Ten tournament. Fans were not allowed into games the following season, and the low point of 7,867 for ticket distribution came in 2021-22.

The general public season-ticket sales for that season was 3,991 and the student season-ticket figure was 1,498. The Gophers, however, won the Big Ten and made it to the Frozen Four before losing to Minnesota State in the semifinals.

As disappointing as the attendance figures might have been, things were about to get a lot better. Some of it was in the control of Wierzbicki and his team and some of it was timing.

“Once students got through Covid, there was an opportunity to springboard off that and we saw them more interested in coming to games across the board,” Wierzbicki said.

Ticket distribution has been on the upswing for the past three seasons. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)

The distribution of tickets has been on the rise the past three seasons: 9,129 in 2022-23 as the Gophers lost the NCAA title game after finishing first in the Big Ten; 9,221 in 2023-24 in which Motzko’s team lost to Boston University in the NCAA regional finals after finishing third in the conference; and 9,769 this season. The non-student season-ticket sales have been over 4,500 for two consecutive years and student season tickets have been over 1,500 for three years in a row.

“You have felt it ever since Covid with the students,” Motzko said. “If you remember, right before Covid, student attendance was falling all over the country in every sport. Then, the craziest thing is now we’ve got this uptick going on. For us, there’s no question. Our student section brings our building to life. We have such great diehard fans. They love that young energy. You can’t fool our fans, they want good hockey. But when you get that electricity in this building, I think it’s the greatest atmosphere in one of the greatest college sports.”

Wierzbicki points to the work done by the marketing, digital and social teams in the athletic department.

“We had to make it fun, right?” he said. “A cool and fun thing to do. So that played into giveaways, free food and creating demand and interest. All of those things need to come together. … But it all goes back to the post-Covid buzz and once there was reinvigorated energy to springboard off of that.”

Both season- and single-game ticket prices were dropped in different areas of the arena and a strategy was devised to get more fans into the building. One of those has been moving the faceoff time for Saturday home games to 5 p.m. That has helped the Gophers get more groups, such as youth hockey teams, and families to come to games and get home at a decent hour.

Giveaways also have helped.

“Our marketing team has done a good job of thinking outside the box,” Wierzbicki said. “We’ve done more unique things that students found value in. It might be a scarf giveaway or a unique stocking cap.”

Of course, “it doesn’t move the needle unless the team is successful,” Wierzbicki said.

The Gophers will enter their weekend series at Michigan in second place in the Big Ten, five points behind Michigan State with six games remaining. Their final regular-season home series will be Feb. 21-22 against Ohio State. The Gophers are a Big Ten-best 12-2-2 at home this season.

It feels like old times at Mariucci.

“You go back to (the Doug) Woog days and Lucia days, it’s been that before,” Motzko said. “We’re not creating anything new. Things go in cycles. We’ve always said, ‘Our fans haven’t gone anywhere, we’ve got to give them a reason to come back.’”

Both the team and the marketing department have done just that.

The post ‘Electric’ Crowds Are Back appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Well, happy that he made it through a big NHL milestone, not happy with the result of the Winnipeg Jets sweeping the home-and-home weekend with the Minnesota Wild. The Jets skated to a 3-2 win on Sunday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center, handing Fleury a loss in his 972nd start and 1,000th career NHL game.

“I wish it was a win,” Fleury said. “Disappointing. I thought the guys played great tonight. Battled hard.

“Obviously, very flattered by the reception from the crowd, from my teammates. It means a lot.”

The Minnesota Wild and fans recognize Marc-Andre Fleury’s 1,000 NHL games milestone during a timeout on the ice on Dec. 31, 2023. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

That reception started with treatment usually reserved for rookies. When the Wild came out for pregame warmups in their throwback green-and-yellow sweaters, Fleury led the team out of the tunnel. Except no one followed him. The 39-year-old goaltender took a brief lap around the Wild zone before the rest of his teammates hit the ice behind him.

“Yeah, they got me,” Fleury said. “Usually I’m the one that let the young guys go.”

Better late than never? Fleury wasn’t even sure the rookie laps were a thing when he came into the league 20 years ago.

The Wild acquired Fleury during a flurry of moves near the NHL trade deadline of the 2021-22 season. General manager Bill Guerin was busy with moves that included picking up current Wild defenseman Jake Middleton from San Jose. Guerin grabbed Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks. At the time, Fleury stepped into St. Paul having already amassed a 511-297-85 record, 2.57 goals-against average, .913 save percentage in 928 career NHL games. Fleury is also a four-time All-Star (2011, 2015, 2018, 2019).

Fleury’s first few times in the Wild dressing room left some of his new teammates, especially the younger ones, starstruck.

“I remember when I first came up in the league, you wanted to score on Marc-Andre Fleury,” said Marcus Foligno in March 2022. “To have him on your team, it’s exciting.”

Fleury’s won his Wild debut in net, a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Xcel Energy Center on March 26, 2022. Fleury made 23 saves. Perhaps that was business as usual, but what wasn’t so ordinary was fans tossing flowers onto the ice to show support for their new goaltender. Fleury said at the time that it made him feel like a figure skater.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has 550 career NHL victories, one away from tying Patrick Roy. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Since then, Fleury’s play hasn’t wilted too much in goal. He wrapped up 2023 becoming the 10th Wild player to play his 1,000th NHL game in a Wild sweater, reaching the milestone a few days early following the injury to his counterpart Filip Gustavsson on Saturday in Winnipeg. Fleury will likely see the net for a while now, as the Wild announced on Monday that Gustavsson was placed on injured reserve. Through 1,000 games, Fleury is 550-321-93 with 73 shutouts.

On New Year’s Eve, Fleury received a loud cheer when his name was announced as part of the starting lineup. Then at the first TV timeout in the first period, the videoboard showed graphics recognizing his 1,000 games complete with an in-arena announcement of the milestone. Fans rose to their feet for a thunderous ovation as Fleury skated out of his crease in acknowledgment.

He made some strong saves in goal, including a windmill motion for one and a couple of solid pad saves later that got the crowd roaring yet again. The Wild took 1-0 and 2-1 leads but ultimately fell 3-2 with a third-period Jets comeback, spoiling the weekend and Fleury’s pre-New Year celebration as he was denied a victory.

“Tonight again, so many people cheering for my time out there,” Fleury said. “I got some goosebumps and some butterflies. I don’t think no other job in the world can give you that.”

His teammates can’t speak highly enough about the veteran and what he means to the team.

Fellow Quebec native Frederick Gaudreau said he was emotional thinking about the thousand games for his goaltender and teammate.

“The thing that’s crazy about this thing, it’s not so much about the thousand games, it’s about how he’s done it,” Gaudreau said. “He’s the best teammate I’ve ever had. Still having fun.

“I feel very grateful that I’ve been able to share a locker room with him for a few years already.”

Ryan Hartman and Marc-Andre Fleury embrace during a home game Dec. 3, 2023. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Having the Flower in net for his 1,000th game made it a little extra special for the rest of the Wild as well. Foligno called the milestone “unbelievable,” and noted how much easier it can be as a skating player to hit 1,000 games rather than a goaltender.

“We’re so proud to have him here as a teammate, and as good as a player he is on ice, off ice he’s even better,” Foligno said after Sunday’s game. “We’re lucky to have him in our room, and it’s great to be a part of something so special in a player’s career.”

Forward Ryan Hartman also noted how amazing it is that only four goaltenders have reached the milestone, and Fleury is one of them. Martin Brodeur (1,266 games), Roberto Luongo (1,044) and Patrick Roy (1,029) are the other three goaltenders.

“To have the chance to play in front of him is special,” Hartman said. “We obviously wanted to win that one for him.”

The Wild plan to honor Fleury’s milestone during a future home game this season. Some of the recent 1,000 games Wild players were Alex Goligoski, Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Ryan Suter and Eric Staal.

The post Flower’s 1,000th Game appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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The post Gallery: Wild vs. Panthers appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The very next night, the Minnesota Wild opened their season across the river at Xcel Energy Center. Fans turned the page quickly to all the hope and promise a new season offers.

“It was kind of whiplash,” said Melissa Berman. “Obviously the Twins season ended on Wednesday night, and then right the next day, the Wild opened.

“I think it was really helpful for people to have something to immediately turn our attention to.”

Berman, a dedicated Minnesota sports fan across multiple sports (she attended more than 60 regular-season Twins games in both 2022 and 2023), attended all four home Postseason Twins games. But many months before the Twins popped champagne on an American League Central Division title, Berman purchased tickets to the Wild’s season opener on Oct. 12. Because she’s always wanted to go to a sporting event on her birthday.

Brock Faber and Jonas Brodin on the ice against Florida. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Luckily for her, and a lot of Minnesota fans, there was no overlap in the Twins and Wild schedule. The Twins lost games three and four to the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series on Tuesday and Wednesday, though an if-necessary Game Five was slated for Friday night. The Wild opener was sandwiched in the middle, giving fans like Berman a chance to be present at both instead of streaming a baseball game on her phone from her seat at Xcel Energy Center.

Berman went from sellout crowds of 40,000-plus in the open-air Target Field waving red Homer Hankies to a packed crowd of 18,000-plus at the X waving lighted towels in a dark arena during pregame introductions.

“The light-up towels were incredible,” Berman said. “I had never seen something like that before.”

The Wild towels had either red, green or white lights along the edges with three different settings to blink slow, fast or stay illuminated.

Saul Stensvaag, of Inver Grove Heights, also thought the towels were a nice touch. He attended the Wild game with his wife, Mary Kay, after taking in Game Three of the ALDS with his son Ken. The Stensvaags get to at least a half-dozen Wild games a season, and Saul purchased tickets to the opener earlier in the week because he just couldn’t wait for hockey season to get started.

“I’m glad that I went ahead and bought the tickets,” Stensvaag said. “I paid more than I usually do, but it was worth it.

“It’s the beginning of the season and just seeing a lot of the prospects that the Wild has, I think we’re very optimistic.”

Sure, comparing the Postseason games for the Twins and a regular-season, home opener for the Wild isn’t exactly apples to apples. But there were still a lot of similarities and crossover. Stensvaag thought both crowds at Target Field and Xcel Energy Center were fantastic.

Former Twins players Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire wave to the crowd during the Wild game Oct. 12. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

“The Wild have an advantage at the X because it’s an easier place to do really impressive stuff like with the lighted towels… the laser show and the video,” Stensvaag said.

Even some of the crowd interaction was the same. Bon Jovi’s “Livin On A Prayer” blared over the Target Field sound system Wednesday, while the same song was featured on the Crowd Karaoke videoboard segment at the X.

While the Target Field videoboard captured Wild players attending the Postseason baseball games as fans – Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy were each featured to end the popular Celebrity Look-Alike segment in between innings – some familiar former Twins attended the Wild game Thursday. In-arena and TV cameras showed former players Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and their former manager Ron Gardenhire watching hockey together in a suite.

On the ice against Stanley Cup finalist Florida Panthers, Wild rookie defenseman, playing in only his ninth NHL game (third in the regular season), Brock Faber gave the crowd something to cheer about when his first-period blast from the point made it through traffic for his first NHL goal and point.

His goal came about 24 hours after young phenom Royce Lewis hit a home run for a 1-0 Twins lead. Youngster Edouard Julien also homered in the game. For the Wild, 22-year-old Marco Rossi scored a pretty goal that was negated due to an off-side call, and 25-year-old Filip Gustavsson was spectacular with a 41-save shutout. It’s all the young talent on both rosters that keeps fans optimistic for the future.

 “It’s just really encouraging to see these young players on both the Twins and the Wild rise up to their leadership positions and come through in big moments for their teams,” Berman said. “And it makes me hopeful that both teams are going to have a lot of success for the future as these players continue to develop.”

Brock Faber and Matt Boldy embrace after Faber’s first NHL goal. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Faber, a Maple Grove native, also attended a couple of Twins games in the past couple of weeks with his teammates, including game two of the Wild Card series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Being at Target Field for a game the Twins eventually won 2-0 to advance in the postseason for the first time since 2002 was a great environment, Faber said.

A little more than a week later, Faber was playing in front a crowd that was still just as loud and engaged for a season opener to get hockey season started.

The Wild defeated the Panthers 2-0, the same score the Twins used to beat the Blue Jays in Game Two last week.

“It was super cool. It felt like a playoff environment,” Faber said. “Fans were loud, the towels were out. It was everything you could ever imagine. Just glad we could come out of here with a win.”  

The Wild already started out this season better than the last, which came with a 0-3 start. As the summer and baseball chapters close for another year, the autumn (and winter is coming soon) and hockey book is just starting. The optimism for a new season is there. Berman encourages fans to attend in-person to soak in the atmosphere. Stensvaag will return to the X again soon, too.

“I just love being there,” Stensvaag said. “Win or lose.”  

To see additional photos from the Wild vs. Panthers game on Oct. 12, 2023, click here.

The post Seasons Turn appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It was so bad that Fleury heard boos from the crowds at Xcel Energy Center and was replaced by newcomer Filip Gustavsson in the second period of the Kings game. Gustavsson was given the start in the Wild’s next game against Colorado, also played in downtown St. Paul, and gave up five goals on 37 shots in a 6-3 loss to the Avalanche.

The Wild’s goaltending situation, and defense, looked like a mess.

Fast forward a year to opening night at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday and the storyline could not have been more different. Gustavsson, now entering the season as the Wild’s No. 1 goalie ahead of the 38-year-old Fleury, stopped 41 shots by the Florida Panthers in a 2-0 victory over the defending Eastern Conference champions.

Filip Gustavsson watches play in front of him against the Florida Panthers. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The 18,976 who packed the X were on their feet throughout as Gustavsson made key save after key save. The Wild were outshot, 41-21, including 14-5 in a poor first period and 15-5 in the third, but Gustavsson never looked rattled and was always in control.

“(He’s) definitely the reason we got two points,” Wild winger Marcus Foligno said.

This type of performance was the reason that Wild general manager Bill Guerin rewarded Gustavsson with a three-year, $11.25 million contract during the offseason. That extension came a little more than a year after Guerin obtained Gustavsson from Ottawa for veteran goalie Cam Talbot.

That trade was only made because it was clear Talbot was not going to be happy having to share the net with Fleury and Guerin isn’t going to keep anyone who doesn’t want to be on his team. Gustavsson had played in a combined 27 games with the Senators the previous two seasons and many thought Guerin was taking what he could get for the disgruntled Talbot.

Those same people, present company included, had to rush to the Internet to find out who Gustavsson was and came away assuming he might not last the season.

Gustavsson quickly proved that given an opportunity, he belonged as an NHL starter. He started 37 regular-season games, only eight fewer than Fleury, and finished the season second in the league in goals-against average (2.10) and save percentage (.931). Gustavsson was brilliant in the Wild’s 3-2 overtime victory at Dallas in their first-round series, stopping 51 of 53 shots.

The 25-year-old — known as the Gus Bus and the subject of a fantastic commercial the Wild have begun airing in their “Not Weird. Wild” ad campaign — was the beneficiary of goals by defenseman Brock Faber, his first in the NHL, and center Joel Eriksson Ek. But that wouldn’t have been nearly enough if Gustavsson hadn’t kicked out shot after shot and stopped any rebounds that came his way.

“It’s not going to be like that every night, that’s for sure,” he said. “But sometimes you’re lucky, and you create your own luck.”

Gustavsson was being modest. There was nothing lucky about making 10 saves on Matthew Tkachuk or four on Evan Rodrigues or three on Aleksander Barkov.

His fourth career shutout had little to do with luck and far more to do with proving he belongs as the Wild’s No. 1 goalie.

The post All Aboard the Gus Bus appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

What’s important to Kaprizov is important to the Wild, and Zuccarello remaining a teammate of the superstar from Russia clearly ranked very high. The two have been wingers on the same line for multiple seasons and, just as importantly, are very good friends. Zuccarello had 24 goals and 79 points in 70 games two seasons ago and 22 goals and 67 points in 78 games last year.

The biggest factor, at least for those who don’t understand this decision, is Zuccarello’s age.

He is 36, and had been set to enter the final season of the five-year free agent contract he signed with the Wild in 2019. But concern about his age wasn’t as important as the focus on keeping Kaprizov happy. Zuccarello’s new agreement will begin with the 2024-25 season and means he and Kaprizov have the same number of years left on their deals.

Leipold, whose team also agreed to a four-year, $16 million extension with veteran winger Marcus Foligno on Friday, tipped his hand a bit on Thursday between periods of the Wild’s preseason game against Colorado as he answered questions in his suite at Xcel Energy Center. Asked about keeping Kaprizov happy and giving him a sense of hope about the Wild’s future, Leipold said:

“I would be lying to you (if I said) it’s not on our minds. Kirill’s a special player and we want him to believe that we’re going to help field a Stanley Cup team. And he’s a huge part of our future, but only if he stays here. We have a great relationship with Kirill. I think he enjoys it here. … He’s a good kid, a really good kid. And we have to make sure that when his next contract comes up, it’s going to be a long-term contract that he signs here.”

Kaprizov already has signed one contract extension since arriving in Minnesota, agreeing to a five-year, $45 million in September 2021. The goal is for Kaprizov’s next contract to be in the eight-year range with much more money attached.

Despite what Leipold said, Kaprizov is no kid. He might still have a boyish look to him but he will turn 27 next April and has 114 goals and 234 points in 203 games over his first three seasons. That includes a franchise-record 47 goals and 108 points two seasons ago.

The Wild have made the playoffs in each of Kaprizov’s three seasons only to get bounced in the first round. He had seven goals and eight points two years ago in a six-game loss to the Blues, but contributed only one goal in a six-game loss to Dallas last spring. Kaprizov, who was coming off an injury, looks like a guy who is tired of successful regular seasons turning into playoff flops and this is where the Wild needs to give him reason to want to stay and not jump to a bigger market or a team that looks ready to win a Cup.

The Wild’s prospect pool offers encouragement, but the reality is the team still has two years left of $14.7 million in dead salary-cap hits because of the decision to buy out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. That leaves general manager Bill Guerin with little cap space for this season and a big unknown for 2024-25.

The only certainty for Guerin from a cap standpoint is that in 2025-26 — the final year of Kaprizov and Zuccarello’s deals — business should return to normal. That creates the possibility that the Wild will have to do everything in their power to prove to Kaprizov that patience will pay off.

What better guy to help with that than his buddy, Zuccarello.

Leipold, knowing a Zuccarello extension was close, acknowledged the veteran’s importance to Kaprizov on Thursday, without tipping his hand about the upcoming news.

“Everything comes into play,” Leipold said. “Their chemistry is so good, they work hard at it, they trust each other. I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t tell you that’s an important part of why he’s important to our team, because they have a lot of chemistry together, and you want to keep those guys together.”

And if that helps keep Kaprizov in Minnesota long term, all the better.

The post Keep Kirill Happy appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

MHM Photo / Rick Olson

Guerin looked like a guy who hadn’t slept much since the Wild was ousted by the Dallas Stars during a lifeless performance that earned well-deserved boos from the home crowd on Friday night in Game 6. That potential lack of sleep could be tied as much to Guerin’s concern about the future, as his frustration with opening round losses to Vancouver, Vegas, St. Louis and now Dallas since he became GM in August 2019.

In his opening statement, Guerin said he didn’t, “view this season as a failure,” before adding, “it is extremely disappointing.”

His agitation level quickly grew when Michael Russo of The Athletic asked him about how the Wild will get over the hump. “What hump do you want us to get over?” Guerin said. When told that would be getting past the first round, Guerin said: “They’re not going to put our name on the Stanley Cup (by making) it to the second round. They’re not going to give us a ring. But you know what? That’s not our goal. Our goal’s not to make it to the second round. Is it going to make it feel any better? It’s not.”

Maybe not for Guerin, but it would certainly would make Wild fans feel better to see the team end a streak of seven consecutive first-round exits and eight consecutive series losses. Guerin won two Stanley Cups as a player and two as an executive with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He knows exactly how important playoff experience can be for a team and its players. Getting to the second round isn’t the goal, but it’s certainly an improvement on how far he and coach Dean Evason have managed to the take franchise so far.

Ryan Suter and Jake Oettinger share a celebratory moment after Game 4 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

So why be so defensive? Because that’s what happens when you realize better days might not be immediately ahead. The reality of the Wild situation simple: Guerin’s decision to buy out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in July 2021 will continue to haunt this franchise for two more seasons and there’s nothing that can be done about it. To be clear, I’ve always supported the decision because in order to get the Wild headed in the right direction, Parise and Suter had to be removed from the locker room.

The fact that Suter was just part of a Dallas team that beat the Wild — and that no one on the Wild came close to retaliating for Suter’s cross-checks on Kirill Kaprizov in Game 1 — likely will bother Guerin well into the summer. But nothing will bother him as much as the fact that Suter and Parise’s buyouts will leave $14.7 million of dead money on the Wild cap for the next two seasons. That figure was $12.7 million this season and, because the cap continues to grow slowly, caused issues.

The cap for 2023-24 is expected to be $83.5 million in 2023-24, only a $1 million growth of this past season.

“I rarely bring this up, but I’m going to bring this up today because it’s real and it’s important,” Guerin said with Evason sitting beside him. “I think our players and our coaches deserve a lot of credit because they are fighting with one hand tied behind their back because of these cap restraints. We don’t apologize for it, it’s fine, we’re fine with it.

“But I think our players and our team have done a fantastic job in just ignoring that and moving on and playing hockey. (Is this playoff loss) disappointing in the end? 100 percent. I’m very disappointed but I don’t view this season as a failure. Our team played well. Back to back 100-point seasons. We have two of the best seasons that this franchise has ever had. Winning is hard, it’s hard and we’re working towards it.”

But Guerin is at an important crossroads with this team.

He is never going to use the word “rebuild” or acknowledge he’s OK with the Wild missing the playoffs, but deep down knows next season needs to be one in which he begins making decisions with the future in mind and giving chances to some of the heralded prospects, such as center Marco Rossi. The ninth pick in the 2020 draft, Rossi has gotten cups of coffee with the Wild the past two years before being dispatched to Iowa of the American Hockey League to gain more experience.

Marco Rossi (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“Marco just wasn’t ready,” Guerin said of Rossi, who had one assist in 19 games this season. “The worst thing we could have done was forced him into the lineup every night. He’s going to spend the bulk of the summer here to focus on his fitness here, rather than going back home. We don’t want to put him in positions to fail, or to stunt his development.”

The Wild now have little choice.

They need to find out if Rossi, and some other young players, can handle the NHL. Their playing time needs to come at the expense at some of the grinders and veterans that Evason, a grinder himself in his playing days, and Guerin love so much. If nothing else, those young players can get valuable experience and put little strain on the salary cap.

Guerin has built two very different teams the past two years. Last season, the Wild produced plenty of goals and dramatic comebacks but fell flat in a six-game loss to the Blues in the first round. This season, Guerin put together a group that was far more defensive-minded and had the ability to grind. It looked like a team built for the postseason. Unfortunately, after taking a 2-1 lead against the Stars, this collection provided a no-show as bad as the one against St. Louis. 

Kaprizov, the Wild’s star, had one goal in six games against Dallas, while winger Matt Boldy, coming off an incredible March, didn’t score a goal. In both 2022 and 2023, Guerin made deals at the trade deadline to try to improve the Wild in order to help them make a playoff run. It didn’t work and now Guerin is faced with being so tight against the cap entering next season that he almost certainly is going to have to subtract some veterans. That means longtime defenseman Matt Dumba, who will be a free agent, won’t be the only recognizable name departing.

Matt Boldy never found the scoring touch he was looking for once the postseason began. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

And this isn’t even getting to the concern about Evason, who is now 8-15 in the playoffs as the Wild’s coach and was 1-12 with four playoff series losses while coaching Nashville’s minor league affiliate in Milwaukee before he joined the Minnesota organization.

Evason’s lack of adjustments and uptight nature in the postseason raises questions about his ability to coach in the spring, but he has two years remaining on his contract and his job doesn’t appear to be in jeopardy. Should it be? Depends on how you look at the situation. If the Wild had big aspirations for next season, it would make sense to consider a coaching change. But if the Wild is going to spend next season resetting, there likely isn’t a hurry to make a move.

“That’s not what I’m going for,” Guerin said when asking about sacrificing a season in the playoffs for developmental purposes. “Craig (Leipold, the Wild owner) and I have talked about this at length, even while I was interviewing for this job, and, quite frankly, neither of us had time or the stomach for a rebuild.

“We felt we were good enough to kind of do it on the fly, and I think we’re doing a good job of it. We’ve kept all our picks and things like that. We’ve got some really good young players in the system that will be here soon and I think they’ll help. Honestly, I wish I could kind of speed things up and get some of these kids here now. I don’t want to miss the playoffs. That’s not my goal and I know it’s not Deano’s goal and it’s definitely not the players’ goal.”

The Wild’s salary-cap situation — and the need to get a look at at least some of those kids — might mean Guerin and the franchise need to reset those goals. No matter how painful  that might be.

The post Capped Out appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Ryan Hartman and his fellow Wild forwards found the grip of Ryan Suter and the Dallas defense too much to overcome in the series. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“This city deserves better than what we gave them,” Hartman said quietly as he sat in the Wild’s dressing room at Xcel Energy Center following the Wild’s 4-1 loss in game 6 that ended Minnesota’s season and sent rival Dallas to the next round.

For the home fans who remained in the building following the traditional post-series handshakes between the Stars and Wild that night – though they were far outnumbered by empty green seats at that point – their cheers and applause seemingly willed the Wild players back to center ice for one final salute to the State of Hockey faithful.

“The fans, they’ve shown up for us all year, and we failed them,” Hartman said. “There’s opportunities throughout this series where we could have not necessarily put the nail in the coffin, but we could have separated ourselves a little bit more, and we failed to capitalize on opportunities throughout the series.”

Unfortunately for the Wild, not capitalizing on opportunities is the all-too-familiar refrain for a team that hasn’t stepped on the ice for a second-round playoff game since getting swept away by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. The Wild’s last second-round playoff game victory came nearly nine years ago, with a 4-2 win in game four at home against the Blackhawks; the Wild lost the series in six games.

The similarities to last year’s first-round playoff exit for the Wild are clear. A two-games-to-one series lead before the divisional foe (St. Louis last year, Dallas this year) rattled off three consecutive victories to advance to the second round. A Minnesota penalty kill surrendering goals was something one could count one like they could of snow falling in April in Minnesota. The Wild allowed eight goals on the penalty kill last year to St. Louis and 9-for-22 this year to Dallas.

The Wild’s penalty kill actually went 2-for-2 in game six against the Stars, but that’s little consolation when the Wild still ended up on the losing end of the scoresheet. It was often touted in this series how much better the Wild were during 5-on-5 play.

In game one, both Stars goals were scored almost immediately on two power-play opportunities, for example. But unfortunately for the Wild, special teams was once again magnified in a negative light in the playoffs.

“Were they (Dallas) the best 5-on-5? I’m not so sure,” said Wild coach Dean Evason said after game six. “Our group was real good in that area. We had to be better on the power play. Obviously, our penalty kill wasn’t great. But if we could have scored on our power play and made them pay for some penalties like they made us, it might be a different series.”

Freddy Gaudreau and the Wild proved to be no match for the heroics of Lakeville’s Jake Oettinger in net for the Stars. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Could have. Might be. Yet wasn’t meant to be.

With four losses in the six games, credit to Dallas where credit is due, of course. Its best players came through when needed, they seized offensive chances and crushed special teams, not to mention a winning series from Lakeville native Jake Oettinger in net.

But so much of the poor results for the Wild were self-inflicted wounds. Or in one case, a much-discussed goaltender change.

After the Wild fought through its longest playoff game in team history to get the double-overtime game-one win in Dallas, they responded in game two with the most lopsided contest in a 7-3 loss. Fans questioned the decision to stick with the tandem system in net and start veteran Marc-Andre Fleury after Filip Gustavsson’s amazing 51-save performance in game one.

Seemingly proving all the naysayers correct, Fleury had a rough night in goal. But his teammates in front of him certainly didn’t make his job any easier. The sloppy defense hung him out to dry, the penalty kill units were on the ice six times helping to allow three more goals. The Wild actually got within a goal after Marcus Johansson and Freddy Gaudreau goals 11 seconds apart. But the goals Fleury would like to have back came after, and the game ended with a 7-3 defeat.

In front of a rocking Xcel Energy Center for game three in a tied series, the Wild played their most complete game of the series. Zuccarello scored a pair of goals, briefly giving fans hope that his recent slide in his offensive play was in the rearview mirror (spoiler: it wasn’t). Foligno – who will be known in this series as either a player who got screwed on poor penalty calls or as a goon who was tossed from a game, depending on which fanbase you align with – was all over the ice playing a solid game and scored a power-play goal.

The Wild grabbed the series lead again with the possibility of taking a 3-1 lead in the next game. Something they’ve never done.

Game four turned out to be a preview of some of what was still to come in the series. The low-scoring affair started out with an odd-man rush for the Wild seconds into the game, but they couldn’t connect for a goal. Put that on repeat a few more times throughout the game as Oettinger turned in his best performance of the series.

This was the game that got away for the Wild, allowing two pesky goals on the penalty kill as the Stars evened the series 2-2 with a 3-2 victory. The Wild played well enough to win but just didn’t – all together now – capitalize on their chances. Meanwhile, the Stars were opportunistic.

In a pivotal game five, someone was going to take a 3-2 series lead. But in order to lead, a team first has to score. The Wild did not, taking a 4-0 loss back home for a must-win game six. With Kirill Kaprizov scoring only the team’s first goal of the series way back in game one, and Matt Boldy still scoreless, Evason said he had “no doubt” these players would show up for game six.

But Kaprizov, though visible and not without chances in the series, only had that lone goal to show for this playoff series. His performance was the opposite of thrilling. It’s a role reversal from last season when he scored seven goals and an assist in the series against the Blues.

Boldy, a forward who signed a seven-year, $49 million deal during the season and went through a stretch in March with multiple hat tricks where nearly every shot he took was a goal, recorded only two assists in the series. In 12 career playoff games this season and last, he has one goal and two assists to show for it.

Those are the two most glaring examples of where the Wild’s offense was lacking.

Miro Heiskanen (4), Tyler Seguin (91) and the Dallas Stars kept Kirill Kaprizov in check throughout the series. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

But the Wild still had a chance to force a game seven. They buzzed around the rink early in game six, and Hartman found himself at the goalmouth with a grade-A chance to take a 1-0 lead. Somehow in the scramble, the puck stayed out of the net. Seconds later, the Stars Roope Hintz went down and popped a goal for his fifth of the series on the first Dallas shot on goal.

“I put the puck from my backhand to my forehand and I mean, I’ve watched it 100 times in slow motion between periods and a rolling puck as soon as I go to push it into the net it bounces over my blade and their defenseman whacks it off their goalie’s foot and then it goes and hits the post,” Hartman said. “And they [expletive] score right after.”

Wyatt Johnston made it 2-0 in the second period on a bang-bang play getting a puck in the slot. And there isn’t more of a series dagger than the goal Mason Marchment scored with less then a second left on the clock in the second period, making it 3-0 on a breakaway after the Wild had another scoring chance.

In the third period, as the math was done to see just how long the shutout streak was for Oettinger, Gaudreau at least gave the fans something to cheer about (a twist from booing both the team’s penalty kill and power play) when he scored at the 12:53 mark to get within 3-1 before a late empty netter from Dallas had fans flooding the exit doors.

Reflecting on yet another failure to advance to the next round was still fresh for Wild players Friday night.

“It’s so frustrating,” said captain Jared Spurgeon. “We had spots in the series where we could have won games and put them away and we didn’t do that. That’s something we’ve got to focus on next year and years out. That when we get those opportunities, we do finish them. It’s just frustrating every year when it ends like this.”

The post ‘Sick’ in Game 6 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.