Wild Move to First | Wild Wednesday
Wild Move to First!
The Minnesota Wild are starting off December as the best team in the NHL with 38 points, and have officially passed the Winnipeg Jets (18-8-0) who have now lost four in a row. Since last Wednesday, the Wild have secured all eight possible points after beating the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 on Wednesday, the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Friday, the Nashville Predators 3-2 in overtime on Saturday and the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 also in overtime last night. The Wild still have yet to lose consecutive games in regulation and hold a current record of 17-4-4.
Bad Beat
In Friday’s matchup against the Blackhawks, the Wild were down 2-0 shortly into the second period, but they rallied and scored two goals in just 17 seconds halfway through the second. Towards the end of the period, captain Jared Spurgeon secured the game-winning goal and his second of the game on his 35th birthday.
The over/under for this game was set at 5.5 goals and the Wild to win by two goals locked at +105 odds. Anyone who bet the over or Wild puck line thought they had cashed in when Foligno scored in the empty net with 32 seconds left in the game, but the ref mistakenly called icing and blew the whistle as Foligno scored.
The rule states that if the player from the team with the lead beats the other player to the top hash mark of the faceoff circle inside the blue line, icing is waved off. In this situation, Foligno clearly beat Hawks defender Alex Vlasic to that mark, but icing was still called, not allowing that goal to count. The ref admitted his mistake by having the faceoff at center ice afterwards, instead of down in the other zone if it had actually been icing. That makes the bad beat that much worse because the goal should have counted with a center ice faceoff, but because the whistle was blown, so was everyone’s money on the over or puck line... including mine.
Secured Another One
On Saturday, the Wild secured 21-year-old defenseman David Jiricek and a 2025 fifth-round pick in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets received NHL ready defenseman Daemon Hunt, a conditional 2025 first-round pick, a 2026 third and fourth-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick.
Jiricek was the sixth overall pick in the 2022 draft, so when I first heard about this trade, I questioned why the Jackets would be wanting to get rid of a young, top-ten selection when they are a team that is currently rebuilding. The answer is that the Jackets did not currently see a place on the roster for Jiricek and they were afraid they would lose too much value in him if they waited any longer on a trade, so they figured they would build up as many assets as they could get for him.
“With training camp, how it went, as a group we got together and said, you know, we gotta put him down in the American League and let him play,” Jackets general manager Don Waddell said in an interview with Nick Kypreos.
Jiricek has only played 10 games this season, four in the AHL and six in the NHL, due to just being the healthy scratch for most of the games with the Jackets. According to Jiricek, his requests for this season were that he just wanted to play even though he was not entirely happy playing down in the American League last season, but he still reported and performed quite well, which kept his value high. The Jackets know that Jiricek has the potential to become a star NHL defenseman one day even though he has looked a little sloppy in the few chances he has had in the NHL, but they knew it was neither fair to their team, nor Jiricek to just have him sit up in the press box for most games.
This is obviously a gamble for the Wild and head scouts cringe at the idea of giving up first-round draft picks in any trade, but with a few of the Wild’s defensemen getting older and a young Brock Faber, this trade is set up to succeed for the Wild.
According to Russo, NHL scout Judd Bracket claims that with Jiricek, Jesper Wallstedt, Danila Yurov and Zeev Buium, the Wild now have four picks outside of the NHL that carry top-ten value if they were redrafted.
“That’s a pretty strong way to build, not just current success, but long term too,” Brackett told the Athletic.
It remains a big gamble for the Jackets as well since the first-round pick they received is lottery-protected, meaning if the Wild were to entirely collapse this season and become eligible for a top-five pick, Columbus would not receive it and it would transfer into a 2026 first-round pick.
Since Jiricek has not played many games this season, Guerin wants to ensure he is comfortable before playing in his first game with the Wild. His first start will also depend on injuries, but with Brodin still out and no clear timetable for his return, the 6’3”, 220-pound defenseman could be in the lineup very soon.
Wild Night at The X
In the 3-2 victory over the Canucks last night, Kirill Kaprizov secured his ninth career overtime goal and is tied with Martin Necas and Nathan Mackinnon for most points (39) in the NHL this season.
It was a crazy overtime with showstopping saves from both goalies, but Filip Gustavsson kept the Wild in this game when trailing by one after the first period, allowing the Wild to eventually secure both points. Gus remains one of the top goalies this season after stopping 30 of 32 shots last night and the Wild rank first in the league for lowest goals against average (2.33) in team goaltending.
It was a chippy game, especially for Joel Eriksson Ek who delivered and received most of the hits in last night’s game. In the second period, Ek absolutely wrecked Kiefer Sherwood in a huge hit along the boards.
There is some controversy surrounding the hit because there was no penalty called and Ek did make contact with Sherwood’s head, but it is clear that Sherwood ducked right before the hit, which is how his head became involved. There is no doubt that it was a hard hit, but Ek certainly did not target Sherwood’s head like some people are claiming.
Later in the third period, Tyler Meyers cross-checked Ek directly in the ribs right in front of referee Kelly Sutherland and there was once again, no call on the play. This one stung Ek for quite a while as he slowly made his way back to the bench, but seemed to eventually skate it off.
And then in overtime, as Ek was crashing the net with the puck, Jake Debrusk hit Ek and their knees collided, injuring Ek.
Ek has been playing through a wide variety of injuries this season, but this one is going to cost him some significant time out of the lineup as he is currently listed as week-to-week. This is a huge hit to the Wild as they already severely lack depth at center.
What’s Ahead
The Wild are now off for a few days as they head into another three-game road trip. They play the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, the LA Kings on Saturday and the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday.
Kelly Rivard
Kelly is a Minnesota native and a proud Gopher alumna who enjoys making people laugh and spending time with family. Her skills include going 5/6 on parlays, managing multiple incredibly great (fantasy) sports teams and throwing 30 mph fastballs. When she’s not at the X, Target Field or US Bank Stadium cheering on her favorite teams, you can find her pouring drinks for customers at her hometown pub.
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