The Minnesota Wild missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons in 2024-25 — and general manager Bill Guerin sees no reason why history needs to repeat itself next year.
“I think we certainly have the players in place that there's no reason we can't make the playoffs,” Guerin said recently, per NHL.com's Jessi Pierce. “We need to get off to a better start. We have the players that have the capability to produce offensively. But we need to be ready to go at the drop of the puck, game No. 1.”
The executive added: “I still feel that we have guys that can score. We need to get harder, grittier, and we need guys to have bounce-back years, no question. But I think they have it in them.”
Besides Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Matt Boldy, Mats Zuccarello and Brock Faber, the depth on the Wild really struggled last season. No player outside of that group scored above 45 points, with Marcus Johansson and Marcus Foligno specifically having down years.
The Wild ended up finishing sixth place in the Central Division with a discouraging 39-34-9 record, firing coach Dean Evason on November 27 and replacing him with John Hynes. Although the team performed better under a new bench boss, they ended up finishing 11 points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card berth in the Western Conference.
Wild have the talent to compete for a postseason spot
Despite the rare missed playoff, Guerin believes that Hynes is the right guy for the job as the franchise looks to steer the ship back on track.
“You look back on the past season, Kirill had six goals when we made the coaching change. Matt Boldy had one,” Guerin said of the necessity of the coaching change, per Pierce. “John came in and really reignited a lot of pieces. And I have no doubt that will continue now that he'll have a full camp and [he’s] starting the year.”
The hope in the State of Hockey is that a full season of Hynes along with a couple of bounce back years from a few veterans will be enough to push the club back into Stanley Cup contention.
Adding Yakov Trenin from the Nashville Predators in free agency will also help; the Russian brings size and physicality to a roster that could really use both of those things.
“When you think particularly at our team, our 9-12 forwards, we felt we had to have more of an identity — more speed, bigger, stronger, faster,” Hynes explained recently, per Pierce. “Guys that can play with an edge, guys that can tilt the ice, guys that bring energy to your team with the way that they play. That's certainly something that he brings, so we're excited to have him, as well.”
There's no doubt that the Wild will challenge for a spot in the dance come next April, and it'll be intriguing to see if the squad will be able to rectify last season's shortcomings.
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