This is not at all the kind of start the Minnesota Wild envisioned in 2025-26 after making Kirill Kaprizov the highest-paid player in NHL history over the summer.
Despite winning two games in a row, John Hynes' club is 5-6-3 and currently sitting 30th in league standings. That's not satisfactory for general manager Bill Guerin, who is already looking to improve the team externally, as The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta reported earlier this week.
Specifically, Minnesota is looking to potentially add a top-six scoring winger on the trade market.
“They’re definitely exploring,” Pagnotta told Irfaan Gaffar on Wednesday's episode of DFO Rundown Insider Edition. “Coming into the week, the narrative from that perspective was they’re looking for a mid-six guy, somebody that could be interchangeable, provide them with secondary scoring depth, and be a guy that can play in the second line, play in the third line and just be versatile.”
The hockey insider added: “Yesterday (Tuesday), I started to hear that maybe they have up those efforts, maybe into a top-six guy and then eventually move somebody on the current roster down. We’ll see kind of where that goes. But my understanding is that Minnesota is going to be looking and trying to see if there’s a scoring winger that they can they can add to the mix.”
Wild need to score more goals
The Wild could certainly use some more firepower up front; Kaprizov is the only skater playing at above a point-per-game pace through 14 games. He remains elite with eight goals and 18 points, although Matt Boldy isn't far behind with 13 points of his own.
While Marco Rossi (12 points in 13 games) and Marcus Johansson (12 in 14) are off to great starts as well, it falls off significantly after that. Joel Eriksson Ek has managed nine points, as has offseason addition Vladimir Tarasenko, but no other forward has more than six points.
The result is a team that is scoring 2.79 goals per game, which is 23rd league-wide. That will need to improve if the Wild hope to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs next April.
Guerin and the front office currently have just above $4.43 million in salary cap space to work with, per PuckPedia, which adds a bit of flexibility. That's something the franchise hasn't had in recent years, with the cap hits of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter on the books.
Minnesota could add an effective roster player without needing to move a skater currently on the roster, although to truly make a splash, Guerin would probably need to execute a hockey trade that involves roster players going both ways.
It's still quite early, and only three points separate the Wild from a playoff spot in a crowded Western Conference. Still, it's been a discouraging start, and it'll be interesting to see if Guerin pulls the trigger on a deal to try to imminently improve the squad.
The Wild are in action next against the Hurricanes in Carolina on Thursday night.
