ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 John Hynes enjoys working with young players. They can be a pivotal part of a team, especially in a salary-cap world.<\/p>\n
But the Wild coach is in a spot now where \u2014 partially due to injuries \u2014 he\u2019s going to have to rely on a bunch of them early in the season. Case in point: Thursday\u2019s season opener, with Hunter Haight making his NHL debut, plus Liam Ohgren, David Jiricek and Zeev Buium all in the lineup. Danila Yurov should make his debut soon, too, perhaps Monday night against the Los Angeles Kings. Jesper Wallstedt could make his season debut Monday, too, and should make a couple of\u00a0 starts this week due to back-to-backs.<\/p>\n
Is there some uneasiness that comes with that?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, for sure,\u201d Hynes said.<\/p>\n
The Wild are not in a rebuilding phase like the Chicago Blackhawks or San Jose Sharks. There\u2019s pressure here to not only make the postseason, but also, as owner Craig Leipold put it, \u201cbe more than just a playoff team.\u201d Ten straight years without a series win will do that to a franchise.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why, as much fun as it sounds to inject so much youth into a lineup, there\u2019s risk, too. And the Wild can\u2019t just throw them to the wolves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s balancing this, right?\u201d Hynes said. \u201cIt\u2019s just, \u2018Play the kids,\u2019 but this is the hardest league in the world. It\u2019s the best league in the world. The difference sometimes between younger players and veteran players. Veteran players, they\u2019ve been around, they know how to play, they know what the game is about. The NHL is a different beast. It\u2019s not college. It\u2019s not junior. No matter how good you were at other levels, you\u2019re playing against the best guys in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you have to balance, \u2018Are they ready to play?\u2019 If they\u2019re ready to play, we\u2019ll play them. But we also can\u2019t just put nine kids in the lineup and think that all of a sudden, they\u2019re going to be ready to go. We\u2019re not in a rebuilding situation. We\u2019re in a situation where we want to be a competitive hockey team. So it\u2019s going to be a balance. It has to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wild gave Ohgren and Yurov every opportunity in training camp to snag a top-six spot in the lineup. There was room, thanks to the injury to Mats Zuccarello. But neither knocked the door in and seized it. They\u2019re on the team, partly because of necessity, but it was telling that they were both outplayed in camp by Haight, who secured his fourth-line role only after Nico Sturm\u2019s back injury worsened to the point where he\u2019ll miss significant time.<\/p>\n
If the Wild\u2019s young guys can\u2019t handle it early in the season, it\u2019ll be incumbent on president of hockey operations and GM Bill Guerin to be aggressive in making a move to bolster their lineup. Minnesota needed every single point from its remarkable start last season just to make the playoffs. Guerin already showed that he wasn\u2019t necessarily satisfied with the current lineup, considering the Wild pursued Jack Roslovic before the winger signed a one-year deal with Edmonton last week.<\/p>\n
This is not just about keeping the Wild afloat this season. It\u2019s about the health and development of their top prospects.<\/p>\n
It had to be a kick to the teeth for Jiricek to be scratched Saturday night against his former Columbus Blue Jackets. But Jonas Brodin was ready to return from offseason surgery, Hynes wanted to keep Buium playing with the steady Jared Spurgeon, and the reality is even though Jiricek was plus-3 in St. Louis, he made three huge errors that could have resulted in goals if the Blues even managed to get a shot off.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why longtime defenseman and current player development adviser Alex Goligoski spent Saturday\u2019s home opener in the scratches\u2019 suite next to Jiricek, going over every detail of the game with him in real time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re not ready, we\u2019re not going to force them. That\u2019s it,\u201d Guerin said during training camp. \u201cThrough my playing career and then working in player development over the years, you\u2019ve just seen it time and time again: If a player\u2019s not ready, he\u2019s not ready. That\u2019s OK. That\u2019s OK! The worst thing we can do is force-feed a kid in the league, because this league is unforgiving. Young players can lose confidence in an instant, and it can take months to get it back. Or they might not ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wild showed that patience with Marco Rossi, sending him to AHL Iowa his rookie season after the first-round pick had just one point in his first 19 games. He went to Iowa and developed further over 53 games. It was the best thing for him. Rossi hasn\u2019t missed a Wild game since and is now their top-line center with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.<\/p>\n
Rossi is an impact player at a very important position. That\u2019s what you expect from first-round picks. It\u2019s vital in building a contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need guys that come in and make an impact and do something, not just make the team and take a seat in the locker room,\u201d Guerin said this past summer. \u201cHelp us. Do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buium is a great example. The No. 12 pick from 2024 has the pedigree of being a two-time world junior champion, a national champion and Hobey Baker finalist at the University of Denver. Teammates rave about how special Buium is, how he can be a game-breaker; you saw it on the rookie\u2019s first career NHL goal during a third-period power play Saturday. You add him to the top four and power play and all of a sudden, it\u2019s another building block. But Buium isn\u2019t immune to growing pains, and he plays a very demanding position, especially starting the season paired with Spurgeon.<\/p>\n
\nbringing the Buium!!!!!! pic.twitter.com\/mAUwOLNWfo<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 12, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
That\u2019s why the Wild are trying to do whatever they can to support him. Give Boldy credit for taking initiative and inviting the rookie to live with him once he arrived in the Twin Cities in late July. It made a world of difference to Buium in his comfort level off the ice, he said, and that translates to the ice, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hard adjustment from college \u2014 it\u2019s not easy,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big jump. We\u2019re treated so well here. Little things like food. College, you go to the dining hall and everything is made for you, you choose from 10 choices, and that\u2019s not the case when you come here. At home, you cook dinner. Can only UberEats so many times. It\u2019s a big jump away from the rink. You\u2019ve got to grow up quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veterans are trying to help Yurov along, too. Vladimir Tarasenko and Kaprizov, each of whom made the jump from the KHL to the NHL, spent quite a bit of time with Yurov after Friday\u2019s practice. Yurov spends time at Tarasenko\u2019s home and goes to dinner with Kaprizov. It\u2019s hard to find two better mentors for the 21-year-old Russian than that.<\/p>\n
What the young players are learning, too, even more than pep talks, is watching how the veterans play. They\u2019ve seen guys like Marcus Foligno get down and block a shot in the waning seconds of the first period in St. Louis. They see Rossi going to the dirty areas of the ice. They watch Ryan Hartman make an impact all over the ice in an attempt to help the Wild make up for losing Sturm.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom top to bottom, our team plays the right way,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anyone that\u2019s on their own page that wants to do their own thing. For young guys to see that, you see guys doing the right things over and over, it just sets the tone. As a young guy, if you can play that way, that\u2019s how you stay in the lineup. Points come, chances come, but that\u2019s the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Riser\u2019 reflects on time in Minnesota<\/p>\n
Doug Risebrough was thinking late last month when Kaprizov signed his $136 million contract just how much has changed in the 25 years since the inaugural Wild season.<\/p>\n
Kaprizov\u2019s salary the first four years of the deal \u2014 the max $19.1 million he\u2019s allowed to make \u2014 \u00a0\u201cwould have been our payroll.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say the first three years of the franchise was hovering around 20,\u201d said Risebrough, the Wild\u2019s GM from 2000-09. \u201cAt the end of the day, we didn\u2019t have any free agents that were signing big then. I guess Brian Rolston would have been the first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolston signed a four-year deal with the Wild at $3.3 million a season. He lost the first year because of the NHL lockout, but at the time, that was the biggest deal in Wild history. Rolston eclipsed 30 goals three times in Minnesota. Today, Yakov Trenin makes more.<\/p>\n
\nLegends in Minnesota pic.twitter.com\/NcIq4HaEJA<\/a><\/p>\n