No More Superstar?
In 2021, there was the big “will he, won’t he” surrounding Kirill Kaprizov’s contract extension that didn’t end until the night before training camp started. Fans spent months picking apart anything they could find to figure out if Kaprizov was coming back, including tracking his social media “likes” to sway opinions one way or the other.
Russia Trip Gone Bad
The summer of 2022 was even bigger. It contained the mega Kevin Fiala trade, where the Wild received Brock Faber and a draft pick, which they ended up using on Liam Ohgren. That would’ve been enough, and fans could’ve spent the rest of the summer waiting for the season to start. Except Kaprizov was stuck in Russia, and the Wild were incredibly tight-lipped about giving any information away. He ended up back in Minnesota by the beginning of August, but not after almost a month of worry.
Ill-Fated Contracts?
During the 2023 off-season, the Wild signed many veteran players to contract extensions. The Wild handed Freddy Gaudreau, Marcus Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, and Marcus Johansson multi-year contract extensions. And at the time, all of these contracts made at least a little sense. Minnesota had traded for Johansson that year, and he had set Matt Boldy on fire. The other three were coming off career years. However, hindsight makes everyone do a bit of a double-take.
What About This Off-Season?
The biggest story was Brock Faber’s contract extension. It’s awesome and well-deserved for the young man, but it wasn’t exactly a secret. Fans knew it was coming and even knew the price range it would fall into. Otherwise, it’s all been smaller news.
Why Is That Good?
Considering all of the above, it doesn’t seem to matter much how chaotic the off-season is. However, all of those seasons ended with a playoff run until this year. While those ended in the first round, it was at least a battle to the very end.
2024 was different. There was a point late in the season when it was mathematically impossible for the Wild to make the playoffs. Still, they had to go out there and play a few more games, knowing that they had effectively failed.
After that, the players ended up doing two different things and were valuable in their own way. The first was rest and recovery. As always, a handful of players battled injuries and needed surgeries or procedures. They were able to start the healing process a month early, so hopefully, they can come into training camp fully healed.
The rest of the players flew to Europe to play in the IIHF Men’s World Championship, giving them a unique opportunity to play with different players and under different head coaches. It was a good way to work on honing their skills or trying out something new and allowed them to maintain their conditioning for an extra month.
2024 Season, Here They Come
In the best possible outcome, the Wild players will be extra motivated to start the year off with a bang. Between the losing record last October that ended with Dean Evason being fired to missing a playoff run, it seems like they will be giving 110% from the start. Despite a roster that some see as lacking, their hunger to win may help overcome that in the end.
