Minnesota Wild: how 2025/26 actually went
A 104-point season, Minnesota’s best since 2021-22, built on a December trade nobody saw coming that brought Quinn Hughes over from Vancouver. They then ended an 11-year wait for a playoff series win by putting out Dallas. Colorado ended it in five, and the clincher went to overtime after the Wild had led that game 3-0.
Key numbers
2025-2026 record: 35-27-20 (272 goals for, 240 against)
2025-2026 NHL ranking: 3rd in the Central Division
2025-2026 top scorer: Kirill Kaprizov (45)
2025-2026 top playmaker: Quinn Hughes (48)
2025-2026 points leader: Kirill Kaprizov (89)
Average age of roster (2026-2027): 29.9 years
Available cap space (2026-2027): $1.15M
Offseason moves
Four players came in: goaltender Calvin Pickard 
, forward Maxim Shabanov 
, forward Blake Coleman 
and defenseman Olli Maatta .
Two went the other way: Mats Zuccarello 
to Los Angeles and Jacob Middleton to Calgary.
Franchise outlook
Minnesota Wild – Future contracts and draft picks
Every question about this team runs through one player. Quinn Hughes, acquired last December for Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick, is in the last year of his contract with nothing signed.
Bill Guerin says he is confident. He also cannot manufacture a signature, and the talk about Hughes wanting to play alongside his brothers Jack and Luke in New Jersey has never gone quiet.
The rest holds up well. Kirill Kaprizov signed an eight-year extension last year and is still the leading point producer, with Brock Faber and Matt Boldy providing the medium-term spine.
The draft cupboard is where the bill came due. No second-round pick until 2029. That only looks smart if Hughes re-signs. Minnesota bet the next few years on one summer of negotiation.
The clock is ticking for the Wild
Hughes played 48 games in a Wild sweater and put up 53 points, second among all defensemen in assists over that stretch despite arriving in December. He added 15 more in 11 playoff games.
Faber found another level next to him, the extra room letting him shake off a rough second year. Kaprizov carried the offense as usual with 45 goals and 89 points. Boldy settled in as a near point-per-game player.
Kaprizov and Hughes together give Minnesota one of the more frightening two-way cores in the league. It is also a core with an expiry date, because Hughes can leave next summer without an extension.
Two jobs at once, then. Go further than last spring, and convince the best defenseman the club has had in years that Minnesota beats New Jersey.
Player to watch: Jesper Wallstedt (G)
Wallstedt went from insurance policy to playoff starter in a single season. He posted 18-9-6 with four shutouts across 35 regular-season games, and the organisation trusted him with most of the postseason work over Filip Gustavsson, the nominal number one.
He held up against Dallas and did not embarrass himself against Colorado. Now Gustavsson is starting a five-year extension, so Wallstedt has two things to do: show last season was not a spike, and build a case for his own next contract while doing it.
2026-2027 target
Projected Minnesota Wild lines 2026-2027
Bill Guerin has stopped hedging: “Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup.” The Colorado exit hurt because the room believed it had enough. Making the playoffs is no longer the stated ambition.
What that requires: Wallstedt keeping his form while Gustavsson works back from hip surgery, more scoring behind Kaprizov, and the Hughes question answered early enough that it stops eating the season. The Central Division does not hand anything out.
Another series win, or a conference final, and Minnesota belongs in the contender conversation. Anything flat, and people will start asking whether the window Hughes opened shut before anybody got through it.
My prediction
First real Cup candidate in this countdown. Minnesota has the pieces: a 100-point pace, a blue line that can defend, scoring across the lineup, and depth that holds when someone gets hurt. Playoff spot, then a conference final run at minimum.
Photo credit: wallpapersafari.com | rpeck78
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