Hockey Wilderness May 24, 2022
Wilderness Walk: Guerin defends Dumba, rags on Fiala
Photo by Brandon McCauley/NHLI via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild On a local radio interview, Minnesota GM Bill Guerin spilled the beans on what he thinks about certain players on his roster. With trades needing to happen this summer, Guerin made it clear that he wants to keep defenseman Matt Dumba in St. Paul and could easily depart with Kevin Fiala because he has only “had three good months.” “I think [Dumba] is a damn good defenseman. And people want to ride him out of town because Kevin...
Hockey Wilderness May 23, 2022
Roundtable: Would you trade Fiala for the 7th overall pick?
We went around the writers room and asked an important question for this summer. The Minnesota Wild are going to have a busy summer deciding who should stay and who should go with all the salary cap implications you can think of. One of those key names is Kevin Fiala and it has been rumored that some teams are going hard after him and are willing to deal their top-10 picks in this draft. It has been reported that the Ottawa Senators are interested and their seventh-overall pick is up for grabs. So the question is: Would you trade Fiala for a package surrounding the...
Hockey Wilderness May 21, 2022
Foligno stresses importance of tight Wild core
Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via After finishing his season, Moose still believes in this group. All season long, the Minnesota Wild have been a group of players focused on being together. When they were on the ice, there was seemingly wads of connected tissue between each skater, keeping each simultaneous stride in the same direction. This obviously led to enough success that it was a point of conversation at multiple times, and even more so when one of the team’s leaders is in a reflective mood after the team got kicked out of the playoffs. “I think the positive...
Hockey Wilderness May 20, 2022
Wilderness Walk: Pain in Finland
Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild There are three Minnesota Wild skaters over in Finland playing for Team USA in the 2022 IIHF World Championship, but the only one that is even currently playing, just got a little banged up in game action. Defenseman Jon Merrill fell a little awkwardly with an opponent and apparently looked to hurt his arm or wrist in his debut. #mnwild defenseman Jon Merrill clicked skates with an opponent in Great Britain-USA game,...
Minneapolis Star-Tribune May 19, 2022
Legendary hockey voice Al Shaver still bleeds Minnesota sports from afar at age 96
At age 96, the former North Stars and Gophers announcer lives on Vancouver Island while keeping up on the Wild and Minnesota's other sports teams. His voice is still unmistakable for a Minnesota sports fan.
Hockey Wilderness May 19, 2022
What a Kevin Fiala trade might look like
If this happens, Minnesota will have examples to start with. Sigh. We had to talk about this eventually. As we get deeper into the Minnesota Wild’s offseason, day by day, it seems more and more likely that Kevin Fiala will not be on this roster at the start of next season and he will be enjoying the sport of hockey somewhere else for some other team and some other fan base. The reasons why have already been repeated ad nauseam, but if you need a reminder, the Wild simply do not have enough cap space because of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts to re-sign Fiala to an...
Minneapolis Star-Tribune May 19, 2022
Who goes, who stays? Wild's player-by-player outlook for next season
It's more than just salary cap issues that will shape the Wild for next season. There are roster sports and roles that need to be hammered out based on merit.
Hockey Wilderness May 19, 2022
Wilderness Walk: Guerin doesn’t regret buyouts
Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin spoke before his hectic offseason and among the countless things he mentioned, he expressed no regret at all when it came to the buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. [The Athletic] “Would we love to have that cap space? Of course we would. But we knew exactly what we were doing. We knew exactly what position we were putting ourselves in. I’d do it again. We’re just going to deal with...
Hockey Wilderness May 18, 2022
Jared Spurgeon named finalist for Lady Byng
The captain might earn a trophy. Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon might earn the first individual award of his career. Announced by the NHL on Tuesday, Spurgeon has been named as one of the three finalists for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. He was also a finalist last season. Proud Our Captain is a finalist for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for the second year in a row ⬇️— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) May 18, 2022 The Lady Byng is awarded to the “player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard...
Hockey Wilderness May 18, 2022
Wilderness Walk: Joel Eriksson Ek’s toothless smile
Photo by Rick Ulreich/Icon Sportswire via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek got whacked in the face by his won teammate’s stick during the first round of the playoffs, and is now sporting a big massive, gigantic, large, substantial gap in the middle of his mouth. Joel Eriksson Ek’s face is a mess from the friendly fire high stick in Game 7. He went through a lot of gruesome stuff in the medical room in order to come back in that game. Unfortunately for the...
Minneapolis Star-Tribune May 17, 2022
Wild coach Dean Evason stands by decision to start goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in bulk of playoff games
Stanley Cup-winning experience gave Marc-Andre Fleury the edge over Cam Talbot, Wild coach Dean Evason said, but the team was happy with the play of both.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune May 17, 2022
Wild GM Guerin: We want both Fleury and Talbot back in net
The Minnesota Wild stocked their net with a three-time Stanley Cup winner at the trade deadline, fetching Marc-Andre Fleury to form an accomplished goalie tandem with All-Star Cam Talbot down the stretch of the best regular season in franchise history.
Hockey Wilderness May 17, 2022
Breaking down Wild’s goaltending options for next season
Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via What can they do? What will they likely do? Now that the Minnesota Wild are eliminated from the playoffs, there is one position that, going forward, is still a giant question mark. GM Bill Guerin acquired Marc-Andre Fleury at the trade deadline to secure some goaltending stability down the stretch and into the post-season, but at the same time, the one goalie that they didn’t trade away, veteran Cam Talbot, exceeded any previous expectations and performances from the first half of his season. This created a weird mix of...
Minneapolis Star-Tribune May 17, 2022
Wild's Kevin Fiala knows he could be gone despite best season of career
The Wild could be forced to trade Kevin Fiala after he became a 30-goal scorer for the first time. Several factors are part of the unusual situation.
Hockey Wilderness May 17, 2022
Wilderness Walk: Kaprizov enjoying Minnesotan life more
Photo by David Berding/ Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild Despite his successful rookie campaign that earned him the Calder Trophy, Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov has had even more fun this year. During the final media availability before players head off for the summer, Kaprizov said through a translator that with his general quality of life in Minnesota has gotten better — he is learning the language more, his parents can visit without COVID restrictions, and he can even talk to people at...
