Danila Yurov’s start with the Minnesota Wild has given the team something it was going to need sooner or later: a real source of scoring outside the top line.
Minnesota is 6-1-2 largely because Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, and Joel Eriksson Ek have been rolling. That trio has driven the offense, and John Hynes has plenty to work with there. But the Wild can’t live forever off one stacked unit, which is why Yurov’s emergence matters so much right now.
Yurov has four goals, which puts him third on the team behind Kaprizov, who has 10, and Boldy, who has five. Max Shabanov and Blake Coleman are the only other Minnesota forwards with more than one goal. His fourth came Sunday night in a win where the Wild’s big names scored only once.
Sure, the shooting percentage is loud - 26.7 percent usually doesn’t hold up. A hot streak can fade fast. But Yurov’s case for a breakout goes beyond the goals that are going in at the moment.
The defensive foundation has been there for a while. As noted over the summer, his rookie-season work without the puck was a sign of what might come next. Players who can already handle that end of the game in their early 20s often have more offense tucked away, and Yurov showed that in the KHL with 21 goals and 49 points as a 20-year-old.
That two-way game is still showing up. In nine games this season, his defensive numbers have stayed strong. Among 347 forwards with 60 or more minutes of 5-on-5 ice time, Yurov sits 14th with 1.68 expected goals against per hour.
Hynes sees the whole package coming together. “He’s going to be a top-two-line center.
The way that he thinks the game, sees the game. Now we’re starting to see his skating, his confidence, his offensive instincts on top of his hockey smarts and acumen without the puck, which is excellent.”
The offense has started to catch up, too. Last season, Minnesota managed just 2.56 expected goals per hour with Yurov on the ice at 5-on-5, which ranked 11th among 12 Wild forwards with at least 400 minutes. That made it tough for him to pile up points, no matter how dependable he was away from the puck.
This season, the picture looks different. Minnesota is averaging 3.20 expected goals per hour with Yurov on the ice at 5-on-5, and only Eriksson Ek at 3.29 and Boldy at 3.25 are better among Wild forwards. The striking part is that Yurov rarely shares the ice with either of them.
That’s why this doesn’t look like a case of easy minutes padding the numbers. The Wild are getting good results with Yurov driving play, not just riding alongside the stars. The sample is still small, but Shabanov, Yakov Trenin, Blake Coleman, Bobby Brink, and Rieger Lorenz have all seen the ice tilt in their favor with Yurov out there, and it has gone the other way when he’s not.
All of this is happening while Dylan Larkin trade rumors are heating up again. Minnesota is one of Larkin’s preferred destinations, and Yurov is the most logical centerpiece in a package headed back to Detroit if that deal ever materializes.
There are plenty of ways to massage a player’s numbers if a team wants to create a selling point. A bigger power-play role.
More offensive-zone starts. Better matchups.
The Wild have not taken that route with Yurov.
He has seen time on Minnesota’s second power play, but he trails Coleman, Brink, and Ryan Hartman among the other second-unit players in ice time. Hynes has mostly been sending him out on the fly, not feeding him a steady diet of offensive-zone starts the way the top line gets.
That’s what makes the trade possibility feel so uneasy from Minnesota’s point of view. Yurov looks like he’s building toward something real, and the Wild are seeing it in plain sight.
Yet with two months left before his 23rd birthday, he could still be the piece sent out for a 30-year-old center. Larkin would still bring useful hockey, but the move would also mean shipping out a rising player just as he appears ready to break through.
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Wild Keep Getting Linked To A Trade Fans Will Obsess Over
The trade buzz around Dylan Larkin keeps growing, and Minnesota remains the team most tied to the situation. The 30-year-old Detroit center has requested a move, and the possibility of a deal has become a legitimate talking point around the league, with the Wild sitting right at the center of it because of his reported preference to land there.
Detroit, though, is not expected to let this go cheaply. The Red Wings are said to be looking for a premier return, and Larkins no-trade clause has helped complicate every layer of the discussion. For Minnesota, the intrigue is obvious: this is the kind of name that can alter a roster conversation in a hurry, even if the path to actually getting him remains tangled. [Read more 🡒]
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For Minnesota, the update adds another layer to a deadline deal that already carried some long-term curiosity. Khusnutdinov was a second-round pick by the Wild in 2020 and had only arrived in North America midway through the 2023-24 season before getting moved, so there was always a sense that his next contract would say something about the value he was capable of reaching. Now that Boston has locked him in, Wild fans are left looking back at what went out the door and wondering how the trade will age from here. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Face A Franchise Defining Call On Danila Yurov
Danila Yurov has given the Wild exactly the kind of early-season jolt they were hoping to see from a young center trying to take hold in the NHL. Through the first stretch of his sophomore season, he has looked more comfortable in every area, with his scoring ticking up and his work at the dot becoming a real asset rather than just a nice bonus.
That kind of progress is what makes any conversation around his future in Minnesota so complicated. The Wild are trying to measure where they are in their competitive window and what it would take to push the roster closer to contender status, which is why Yurov has surfaced in a theoretical trade discussion built around a proven top-line center. No move has been made, but the very fact that a player with this much promise is part of the conversation says plenty about the franchises next big decision. [Read more 🡒]