Bobby Brink finally put one in the net, and the timing matters.
After going scoreless through his first 12 games of the 2026-27 campaign, Brink broke through in the Wild’s most recent game against the Vancouver Canucks. The finish showed off exactly why Minnesota has been willing to keep betting on him, as he slipped in a nifty move to beat Leevi Meriläinen.
That goal may be the first real sign that the points are about to follow. The early results have been frustrating, and Brink has taken criticism for it, but the underlying play has been stronger than the box score suggests.
Over his last nine games, Brink has quietly been driving positive possession numbers. He has posted a Corsi-for percentage above 50% in nine straight games and has better on-ice expected goals percentage in eight of his last nine contests. In plain terms, the Wild have generally been the better puck-moving team when he’s out there.
Still, those metrics only tell part of the story. They show good territorial play, not automatic offense.
Even so, head coach John Hynes said he’s seen Brink doing the right things despite the lack of production. Hynes called it “good hockey,” and added:
“It’s our job too to try to help these guys get better and stay with it and make sure he’s not getting discouraged,” Hynes said, “and he’s not.”
The biggest issue for Brink so far has been finishing. He’s always been more of a playmaker than a pure scorer, and that has continued this season. He has five assists, all primary, which is solid support work even if the Wild would like a little more from the shooting side.
The numbers show why the goal drought has stood out. Brink has scored once on 18 shots on goal, a 5.6% shooting rate.
For his career, he has shot 12%. That kind of drop usually points to one of two things: worse shot quality or plain old bad luck.
In Brink’s case, the shot quality doesn’t look dramatically different. Money Puck says his best chance-producing season came in 2025-26, when his average shot on goal carried .097 expected goals.
This season, that number is .087. It’s down a bit, but not by much, and it still fits with his other seasons, including .089 in 2024-25 and .082 in 2023-24.
So if the chances are still there and the quality hasn’t fallen off sharply, the more likely explanation is that the bounces just haven’t come yet. That can change fast, especially in a small sample. The goal against Vancouver could be the start of that correction.
Brink’s best season to date came when he scored 41 points in 79 games, a .52 points-per-game pace. He now has six points in 13 games, which works out to .46 per game. If the shooting turns around the way the underlying numbers suggest it can, there’s a path for him to climb back toward - and possibly past - that previous mark.
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