The Minnesota Wild are off to a 10-3-3 start, and the good news keeps stacking up. Brock Faber has been cleared from a skull fracture, and Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Foligno and Nick Foligno were all back at Thursday’s practice as they work their way through injuries.
But the biggest move still hanging out there is the one that would bring Dylan Larkin to Minnesota.
The former Detroit Red Wings captain remains locked in a standoff after his trade request from last summer, and the Wild have been pushing hard to land him as the answer to their top-line center problem. If they get him, it would be a major swing. It would also come with a price that could reshape the roster in ways Minnesota might not love.
According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, no team has gone after Larkin more aggressively than the Wild. The rumored package is a heavy one: Danila Yurov, Charlie Stramel, two to three first-round picks and forwards Yakov Trenin and/or Ryan Hartman.
Bobby Brink could also be part of the deal, giving Detroit another young piece with upside and immediate help. But the Red Wings have been holding out for a better offer.
Some of those names are there because of salary math, not because Minnesota wants to move them. Trenin and Hartman fit that description.
Brink, meanwhile, has brought energy and defense to the lineup even with just one goal and nine points in his first 17 games. Still, the Wild would be giving up real pieces, and that’s where the conversation gets tricky.
Larkin would instantly change the look of the top six. He could slide in next to Kirill Kaprizov, which would let John Hynes break up the current top line of Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek. That could open the door for a second scoring unit with Maxim Shabanov and Blake Coleman moving up.
The problem is what happens behind them.
Minnesota’s ideal fourth line of Nick Foligno, Marcus Foligno and Michael McCarron could be bumped up to the third line, but that group would not bring much scoring punch. And moving on from Yurov would sting. He has six goals and seven points in 17 games, and he has also made an impact with his speed, his ability to draw penalties and his work on the defensive side.
The Wild do have some options to patch together the bottom six. Nico Sturm is still under contract, Tyler Pitlick could stay with the NHL club, and Reiger Lorenz has already shown enough in a brief stint earlier this year to leave a mark. Even so, the roster would suddenly have a lot more questions than it does now.
Larkin’s appeal is obvious. He’s a six-time 30-goal scorer, and he’s also a good friend of Quinn Hughes, who is waiting for a deal that could end up north of $20 million per season. But Hughes also said there would be no guarantee he would re-sign if he were traded to Minnesota.
That’s the tradeoff for the Wild. Larkin would bring star power and top-six certainty, but the cost could leave Minnesota thinner in the very areas that have helped fuel this strong start.
As of Thursday, the Wild had the most points in the Western Conference with 25. The question is whether they should keep leaning into what’s already working, or take the big swing and deal from their strength to fill one glaring need.
In Other News...
Wild Waste Big Night From Maxim Shabanov In Painful Collapse
Maxim Shabanov gave the Wild a night worth remembering for most of regulation, scoring twice as Minnesota kept its point streak alive and looked positioned to leave Tampa Bay with another strong result. The rookies breakout performance fit the kind of depth scoring that has helped keep Minnesota rolling, and for a long stretch it appeared the Wild had done enough to turn his big night into a road win.
Instead, the finish turned cruel. Tampa Bay erased the cushion late in the third period and forced overtime before Nikita Kucherov ended it on the power play for a 4-3 Lightning victory, with Jake Guentzel driving the comeback with two goals and an assist. For Minnesota, the point streak reached eight games, but the collapse left Shabanovs effort feeling like a footnote instead of the headline. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa Wild Have Some Intriguing Names Trending Up On This Road Trip
The Iowa Wild kept their road trip moving in the right direction with a 3-1 win over the Milwaukee Admirals at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, a result that offered a little bit of everything for Minnesotas development pipeline. Riley Mercer handled the crease well, turning aside 28 shots, while Dylan Gambrell and Justin Kirkland each chipped in multi-point nights as Iowa found enough offense to control the game after settling in.
The scoring came in a timely way, with three goals overall and two of them arriving in the second period to swing the momentum. For a club trying to sort out which names are starting to trend up, this was the kind of performance that stands out on a road trip, and it leaves Iowa heading into its next matchup against the Rockford IceHogs with a little more intrigue around several players worth watching. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Suddenly Have An Even Bigger Reason For Optimism
The win over San Jose gave Minnesota a milestone night at Grand Casino Arena, where the Wild picked up their 1000th regular-season victory with a 4-1 result and got another big offensive push from Kirill Kaprizov. He finished with four points, including his NHL-leading 16th goal, while Quinn Hughes added three points in a game that kept the building buzzing and reinforced how dangerous this group can be when its top end is rolling.
Brock Fabers progress only adds to the sense that the Wild may be getting a boost beyond the scoreboard. After the fractured skull he suffered in a preseason game, the defenseman has returned to practice and is expected to travel with the team, even if his actual return to game action remains unsettled for now. For a club already stacking reasons to feel better about its trajectory, that kind of news matters just as much as another two points in the standings. [Read more 🡒]