The Minnesota Wild’s center situation is drawing fresh scrutiny, and not for a flattering reason. In a tiered ranking of every team’s top-six centers from The Athletic, Minnesota landed in the seventh tier, labeled “Major weakness.”
That’s a blunt assessment, but it lines up with the long-running issue in Minnesota: the Wild still don’t have a dynamic No. 1 center who stacks up with the league’s best pivots. The top two centers are supposed to be the spine of a contender, and for the Wild, that spine looks thin.
The Athletic listed Minnesota’s pair as Joel Eriksson Ek and Danila Yurov. Eriksson Ek drew praise as an underrated all-around player, but the piece made the case that he profiles more like a strong 2C on a Cup team than the club’s best center. The 29-year-old Swede has mostly lived in the 50-to-low-60s point range over the past four seasons, and while his offensive output isn’t eye-catching, his value goes well beyond the box score because of his shutdown defensive work.
Still, the issue is what he isn’t. As The Athletic put it, you’d want your 1C to bring more offensive pop.
The Wild’s problems don’t stop there. The Athletic also noted that Minnesota doesn’t have a true 2C, either.
Yurov had a decent rookie season, finishing with 27 points in 73 games, and there’s still upside there because of his two-way IQ. But his quiet playoffs suggested he has a long way to go before he can be trusted as a true top-six center.
Harman Dayal also pointed out that the Wild don’t even have a defined second-line center right now. Yurov can become that, but since the departure of Marco Rossi, Minnesota has been left without a locked-in answer behind Eriksson Ek. And even with Eriksson Ek’s value, he still shouldn’t be viewed as the best centerman on a team trying to win multiple playoff rounds.
The question now is whether Minnesota can find a real difference-maker down the middle. And if Dylan Larkin were ever in the mix, it’s hard not to wonder what that would do for the Wild.
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