The Minnesota Wild keep banking points, and the same two names keep driving the conversation.
Even in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, Minnesota managed to grab another point and stay tied for first in the Central Division at 6-2-2 with 14 points through 10 games. The headline numbers belong to Kirill Kaprizov and Quinn Hughes, who have been carrying a heavy load while the Wild work through a depleted defensive group.
Kaprizov is out in front of the entire NHL with 11 goals in 10 games, while Hughes is taking on more ice time than ever. That was on full display Tuesday, when Hughes logged 31:18 and looked reluctant to leave the ice in overtime.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton zeroed in on just how much Minnesota’s two stars have mattered this early in the season.
Yaremchuk pointed to the injuries on the blue line - Faber, Spurgeon, and even Olli Maatta, whom Minnesota brought in as a lower-lineup depth piece - before turning to the workload on Hughes.
“hey’re missing Faber, they’re missing Spurgeon, they’re even missing Olli Maatta, who they brought in to be a lower-lineup depth piece - and last night, Quinn Hughes played 31:18. He kind of got yelled off the ice in overtime, and he looked like he did not have any interest in coming off the ice in OT - maybe that’s why he was jonesing to jump on a little bit early.
But this dynamic duo for Minnesota, even though it was a loss last night, I mean, they don’t get a point if it’s not for these guys. Kaprizov factored into two of the three goals; the third goal, Quinn Hughes got an assist on.
They were all over the ice last night.”
He added that without Hughes handling 30-plus minutes on the back end and Kaprizov producing at the top of the league in goals, Minnesota’s situation would look very different.
Hutton echoed that view, tying Kaprizov’s early-season production directly to the Wild’s results.
“Yeah, it shows [Kaprizov’s] earning his money right now, right? With 11 goals in 10 games, being the X-factor, and this is kind of what we thought of this team - it was always going to be the question mark of depth. But they look good now when they start to get bodies back and they start to fill in the lineup.”
In Other News...
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 🡒]
Wild Fans Just Got A Painful Reminder Of That Marat Khusnutdinov Trade
Marat Khusnutdinov is already settling in with the Bruins, and Boston has moved quickly to make sure he stays a while. The forward, whom the Bruins picked up from the Wild at the 2025 trade deadline, has been extended on a three-year deal after carving out a role as a middle-six winger, a reminder that his transition to North America is starting to pay off in a real way for his new team.
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 🡒]