The Minnesota Wild have been a pretty good team since they chose to buyout F Zach Parise and D Ryan Suter’s contracts in the summer of 2021. Since then, they’ve made the playoffs 3 out of the 4 seasons. They also went over 100 points in 2021-22 & 2022-23. They missed the playoffs in 2023-24 but made it back despite injuries to their best player, Kirill Kaprizov, and arguably their 2nd best player, Joel Eriksson Ek.

But they don’t want to be “pretty good.” They want to be great and there’s a plan to do that, a 5-year plan that is entering year 3.

“Pretty good” won’t get it done in the playoffs as Minnesota sports fans know All Too Well when it comes to their male pro teams. Entering their 25th season, they’ve made the postseason in 14 of their 24 seasons but have only advanced past the 1st round 3 times and won 4 rounds total in the playoffs, twice in their first postseason in 2003 and in back-to-back seasons in 2014 & 2015. 

Wild General Manager Bill Guerin & owner Craig Leipold created a 5-year plan 2 years ago to become a Stanley Cup contender. That plan is entering year 3 and the top goal of that plan was to re-sign their superstar forward, Kirill Kaprizov, to a contract extension. 

According to The Athletic, that plan continued with:

• The team’s current core and rising stars like Matt Boldy and Brock Faber must thrive.
• The team’s top prospects, like Jesper Wallstedt and Danila Yurov, must arrive and be impactful.
• And next summer, when the Wild have some cap space, they need to hit on a few difference-making free agents. It’s not a ton of space, but Leipold says that they have already identified one or two players they want to sign and that next July 1 will feel like “Christmas.”

Did or has that happened?

Kirill Kaprizov Signs Biggest Contract in NHL History – Check ✅ 

Minnesota Wild F Kirill Kaprizov signed an 8-year/$136M ($17M AAV*) contract extension on September 30th. He’s Made for Minnesota! He loves Minny and we love him and now we get to watch him for the next 9 seasons and they can win a championship or two or more.
*Average Annual Value

They have some more work to do to get there though…

A Thriving Core…

F Matt Boldy is thriving and getting better. Joel Eriksson Ek qualifies as a core player and is a major part of this team winning. Marco Rossi is developing into that type of player and there’s D Brock Faber on the blue line. 

They have a great starting goalie in Filip “Gus Bus” Gustavsson who was also just signed to a contract extension for 5 more years for $34M ($6.8M AAV). 

The core is developing. We should also mention the culture that’s been built by captains D Jared Spurgeon, F Marcus Foligno and F Kirill Kaprizov and the rest of the team. On December 6th, 2024, they led the league with 40 points and a record of 18-4-4 then injuries hit and they needed a last second win in overtime to make the playoffs.

They play for each other and even though they still lost in the first round last season, they battled to the end and looked like a different team. Is it a step? It’s hard to imagine they care about a step but they may have learned from that experience and it will help them succeed this season.

Youth Gone Wild and/or Breakout Vets?

Some players have to have breakout and impactful seasons to win it all whether that’s from a veteran having a career season or your prospects providing the depth needed to keep the team rolling through injuries and the occasional losing streak. Last season, F Marco Rossi qualified as impactful along with maybe D Jake Middleton and Fs Marcus Foligno & Frederick Gaudreau but they also had players with down years like F Ryan Hartman. 

They didn’t have a really surprising breakout though. This season, Ds Zeev Buium & David Jiříček and Fs , Hunter Haight and Danila Yurov along with F Liam Ohgren as the youth they might need to Go Wild. Will any other Iowa Wild players get the opportunity to help?

We’ll be keeping our eyes on Ds David Špaček, Carson Lambos & Jack Peart and Fs Riley Heidt & big Rasmus Kumpulainen.

Hit on a Few Difference-Making Free Agents

The Wild didn’t get much of a chance to spend in free agency since there weren’t a lot of options for “difference-making free agents” for the Wild to hit on so they pivoted to the trade market.

The Wild acquired 2-time Stanley Cup champion F Vladimir Tarasenko from the Detroit Red Wings for “Future Considerations*” on June 30th as an option to get a rebound year from a player who averages 30 goals per 82 games over his career.
*which means nothing as we’ve never seen “Future Considerations” turn into anything so it’s taking that player off their hands and their salary cap.

Ridin’ the Sturm Out!

The Wild did dip their toes into free agency to add a former Wild player in F/C Nico Sturm for a 2-year/$4M ($2M AAV) contract to be their 4th-line center and a faceoff specialist and killer of penalties. 

Nico was signed as a college free agent by the Minnesota Wild back in April of 2019 but was traded to Colorado on March 15th, 2022 because at the time, Nico thought he deserved more money and was a player that could move up the lineup. He won a Stanley Cup with Colorado and another last season with Florida. He was traded “because he turned down a five-year contract extension, at the time envisioning a bigger role and not seeing a path to it with the Wild because of the centers in front of him. But a little more than three years later, Sturm realizes that this is who he’ll probably be the rest of his career and has embraced being a terrific penalty killer and elite faceoff guy.”

I always liked Nico because he worked his butt off and knew how to play the game with Clutter. It’ll be fun to have him back in a Wild uniform. Unfortunately, that will wait for a while as he’s out long term with a back injury along with F Mats Zuccarello who’s out until at least 6-7 more weeks.

The Wild placed both players on Injured Reserve (IR) and recalled F Hunter Haight from Iowa and he will likely make his NHL Debut on Thursday night. D Daemon Hunt was claimed off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 1st. He was part of the trade the Wild made to acquire D David Jiricek. He was claimed to have another left-shot defenseman as depth for Jonas Brodin. 

Brodin wore a regular jersey in practice yesterday so he’s likely close to being okay to play. Who knows what that’ll mean for Hunt when that happens.

Here’s the Opening Night roster:

Name Change, Game Change, Make Change! Hit the Slots, boys!

The Minnesota Wild have a new arena to play in… well, the arena isn’t new but the name is. It is no longer The X as Xcel Energy no longer has the naming rights but will stay on as a partner of the team so the Wild and the NHL announced a new naming rights deal with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe—which owns and operates Grand Casino Hinckley and Grand Casino Mille Lacs—and the arena will be named Grand Casino Arena effective September 3, 2025.

The salary cap is going up and the salary Kap is going up. Spending at the Grand Casino Arena is going up. Will it be a gamble for opponents to enter the Grand? Is Filip Gustavsson’s house now called… The Gusino? HA!

So… the Minnesota Wild may still have some work to do when it comes to getting over the hump but the start to last season should give Wild fans hope that this team may have figured a lot of things out last season. If they can avoid the big injuries.

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Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck for the 25th Season of Minnesota Wild Hockey!!!

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Next up: 

Wild at the St. Louis Blues on October 9th at 7pm CST on FanDuel Sports Network North. There’s a 30-minute pregame at 6:30pm and Becoming Wild with Vladimir Tarasenko is on at 6pm so you can Become Wild before the game. HA!

Bring the Clutter, ‘Puckers!!!

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