The Minnesota Wild are piling up wins fast enough that the numbers are starting to look absurd.
At 14-3-4, Minnesota has gone 10 straight games without a regulation loss, rolling to an 8-0-2 stretch that has turned a strong start into something much bigger. Thursday’s 5-2 win in Toronto pushed the Wild’s road winning streak to seven, which matches the second-longest run in franchise history.
That victory also moved Minnesota to 32 points, leaving them just one behind the Edmonton Oilers. In the Central Division, though, the gap is even more striking: the Wild are seven points clear of Nashville and Colorado, both sitting at 25. Only the Carolina Hurricanes, in the Eastern Conference, have as many points as Minnesota right now.
It’s still mid-November, and the Wild still have 63 games left in their 84-game schedule. But the early surge has been so convincing that the playoff conversation is already starting to feel less like speculation and more like math.
According to Dom Luszczyszyn’s run through The Athletic’s postseason projection model Friday morning on the Wild’s live blog, Minnesota now carries a 98% chance to reach the playoffs in 2026-27. If you trust the robots, that’s about as close to a sure thing as you can get.
The model also gives the Wild the top spot in the Central on paper, with a projected 114 points. Here’s how the division stacks up in that forecast:
Wild 114 points, 98% playoff odds
Avalanche 110 points, 96%
Stars 104 points, 86%
Mammoth 101 points, 79%
Jets 95 points, 54%
Predators 94 points, 51%
Blues 88 points, 24%
Blackhawks 64 points, less than 1%
Minnesota’s outlook goes beyond just making the field. The Athletic’s model pegs the Wild with a 48% chance to win the Central, a 14% chance to take the Presidents’ Trophy and a 9% chance to win the Stanley Cup.
That 114-point projection is actually below the pace the Wild are on right now. With 32 points in 21 games, Minnesota is tracking toward 128 points over an 84-game season.
The other projection systems are right in line. MoneyPuck has the Wild at 98.9% to make the playoffs, with 114.2 projected points, a 63.9% chance to win the division and a 9.9% chance to win the Cup. Hockey-Reference is nearly as bullish, putting Minnesota at 97.8% for the postseason, though its point projection is lower at 108.5.
The betting markets have followed the same path. Sportsbook Review lists the Wild at anywhere from -10000 at BetMGM to -5000 at Bet365, which translates to implied odds between 98% and 99%. Those numbers have climbed a long way from the opening prices of -500 at Bet365 and -530 at FanDuel.
And there’s still one more checkpoint ahead. Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26, six games from now, and NHL.com says 76.3% of teams in a playoff spot on that date have gone on to make the postseason bracket.
In Other News...
Wild Suddenly Have A Goalie Dilemma They Cant Ignore
Filip Gustavssons recovery from offseason hip surgery has quietly turned into one of the more interesting roster storylines around the Wild, because his return is no longer just about getting a goalie back. Kaapo Kahkonen has handled the starting job well enough this season to give Minnesota a real sense of stability in net, which changes the conversation from simple reinforcements to something far more complicated.
Once Gustavsson is cleared medically, the Wild will have to sort out what that means for the depth chart and the rest of the roster. A strong goaltending situation is usually a good problem to have, but it can also force a hard look at whether Minnesota might use the extra value in goal to address other needs, even though no trade or official decision has been made yet. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Could Be Closer To Dylan Larkin Than This Trade Suggests
The Matt Duchene deal from 2017 is worth revisiting now because it offers a template for how a team can move a star without making the process feel impossible. In that case, the Colorado Avalanche used a three-team trade to solve multiple problems at once, and the same kind of structure could matter if Detroit tries to work through Dylan Larkins trade request. For the Wild, the interesting part is not just the player involved but the ripple effect around him, especially with Larkins 10-team no-trade list and the salary piece making a straightforward deal harder to pull off.
Minnesotas angle is a little different, but no less relevant, because the clubs current position could shape how much value its draft picks carry in any larger trade framework. If Detroit needs flexibility and a partner willing to help balance the moving parts, the Wild are at least close enough to the conversation to make this worth watching. The question is whether that proximity turns into something real, or whether Minnesota simply ends up as one of the teams circling while the bigger mechanics of a Larkin deal get sorted out elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Fans Have A Quinn Hughes Situation Worth Watching
The Quinn Hughes watch has become one of the more interesting side stories around the Wild, even if the club is in no rush to force the issue. General manager Bill Guerin said there is no urgency in contract talks, and Hughes is taking his time as he weighs his future. For Minnesota, that kind of patience matters because any uncertainty around a player of that caliber can ripple well beyond one roster decision.
Around the league, the market for defensemen is already getting noisy. Carolina is reportedly eyeing Erik Karlsson if Pittsburgh ever makes him available, Toronto is still hunting for a top-four upgrade while juggling cap limitations, and former NHL defenseman Erik Johnson has voiced frustration with how often players now push for moves before contracts run out. Against that backdrop, Hughes remains a name worth tracking closely, even if the next step is still being left to unfold. [Read more 🡒]