The Minnesota Wild have opened the season at 4-2-1, but Ryan Hartman’s start has given them a fresh problem to sort out. With Thursday night’s meeting against the St. Louis Blues on deck, Hartman sits in a spot that matters: the final year of his three-year, $12 million contract extension, a season in which Minnesota was counting on him to be a key offensive piece and even a possible top-line option after he put up 23 goals and 43 points last year.
Instead, the first seven games have looked nothing like that version of Hartman. He has just one point so far, and the early return has put a spotlight on one of the most frustrating parts of his game: when he’s not producing, the whole package can get hard to trust.
That’s the version Minnesota is seeing now.
Hartman has delivered plenty for the Wild since joining them for the 2019-20 season. In 487 games in a Minnesota sweater, he has scored 120 goals and totaled 259 points. His best stretch came in 2021-22, when he posted 34 goals and 65 points and looked like the kind of player the Wild would love to find more often.
But that peak has made the drop-off easier to notice. Over his last four seasons, Hartman has averaged 17.5 goals and 37.8 points, and last season brought some of the roughest moments yet. He finished with 11 goals and 26 points in 69 games and also served a 10-game suspension that was later reduced to eight after ramming Ottawa Senators center Tim Stutzle’s head into the ice.
That’s the tightrope with Hartman. At his best, he gives the Wild a useful edge. At his worst, he becomes exactly the kind of player fans start checking on Puckpedia and wondering how the team gets out of the deal.
This season, the numbers and the usage both point in the wrong direction. Hartman has failed to record a shot on goal in five of Minnesota’s seven games.
He has four penalty minutes, putting pressure on the Wild’s new-look penalty kill, and his defensive work has also slipped to a minus-7 rating. His ice time has fallen too, down from 16:45 per game last season to 13:18 this year.
There is also the matter of what comes next. Hartman is set to become a free agent after this season, and he has also been mentioned in trade discussions tied to a possible move that could land Dylan Larkin from the Detroit Red Wings. He does have a 10-team no trade clause, and while nothing has been confirmed, it is possible Hartman added the Red Wings to that list in an effort to stay in Minnesota.
So far, though, the bigger concern is simpler than the contract talk: the Wild need more from him. If Hartman is pressing, it could explain some of the quiet starts and shaky stretches. It could also lead to the kind of frustration that has caused problems before.
Minnesota can live with a slow start. It can’t afford for Hartman to disappear for long.
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