Inside look at Minnesota Wild

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Minnesota Wild.

The Minnesota Wild have been right on the edge of contention.

They've qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 11 of the previous 13 seasons. In their past eight appearances, they've lost in the opening round.

To Wild general manager Bill Guerin, this season is the time to take a step.

"I like high expectations. I want high expectations," Guerin said. "I'm not doing this job to kind of sit in the corner or anything. These are big jobs. These are important jobs. There are a lot of people out there that love the Minnesota Wild and I'm trying to deliver something to them. We all are. We're trying to deliver that to them."

Guerin, with plenty of room under the NHL salary cap thanks to a massive reduction in the cap charges for the bought-out contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, signaled an active offseason after Minnesota (45-30-7) was the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference and lost in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round.

"I like to be aggressive," he said. "I don't want to sit on my hands at all. I'm kind of tired of doing that."

The market didn't work that way. Many big-name free agents elected to sign new contracts with their current teams, leaving the Wild to make smaller additions that still addressed key needs.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Nico Sturm should give forward depth and Stanley Cup experience.

Tarasenko, 33, was acquired in a trade from the Detroit Red Wings on June 30 after winning championships with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 and the Florida Panthers in 2024.

Sturm, who played his first 111 NHL games for the Wild from 2019-22, signed a two-year contract on July 1. The 30-year-old has won the Stanley Cup twice (Colorado Avalanche, 2022; Florida, 2025) since being traded from Minnesota to Colorado on March 15, 2022.

"Our team is better than it was a couple days ago, I feel," Guerin said July 1. "I said it after last year and the year before and the year before, today is a big day for a lot of teams, us included. Now, it's an ongoing process. ... When the season starts, it doesn't matter who signs who on July 1. You have to play the games. We'll see."

Even if the Wild stand pat, there will be a notable difference from much of last season.

Kirill Kaprizov missed 40 of 43 games from Dec. 27-April 6 with a lower-body injury. He returned April 9, when fellow first-line forward Joel Eriksson Ek also came back from missing 21 games with a lower-body injury.

"Usually, when you have that, things tend to fall apart, but they didn't and we made the playoffs, which is great," Guerin said.

Kaprizov at full health would provide more than a hypothetical acquisition or signing. He had 56 points (25 goals, 31 assists) in 41 games last season, his fifth in the NHL, and nine points (five goals, four assists) in six postseason games.

The 28-year-old is also at the center of the most important piece of business left for Minnesota; Kaprizov is entering the final year of a five-year, $45 million contract ($9 million average annual value) signed Sept. 21, 2021.

"Every time, it's about winning. Everyone wants to win," Kaprizov said May 4. "Me too, same. I like everything here."

Signing Kaprizov is "priority No. 1," Guerin said. But then there's forward Marco Rossi, who remains a restricted free agent after being issued a qualifying offer.

"We like Marco. He had a very good year for us," Guerin said. "He's a good hockey player, but we have a structure in our pay that we have him slotted in at a certain level. And that's just the way we're doing our business. This is nothing personal."

Rossi had 60 points (24 goals, 36 assists) last season, second on the Wild behind forward Matt Boldy (73 points; 27 goals, 46 assists), but his average ice time dropped from an NHL career-high 18:15 in the regular season to 11:08 in the playoffs.

"It's not a situation where, like, we don't trust him or we don't like him," coach John Hynes said of Rossi. "I think if you look at how much I played him and relied on him and have a relationship with him and put him in situations to succeed, as well, some of it does come down to performance."

And that's how Minnesota plans to operate across the board, opening the door for 21-year-old forwards Danila Yurov and Liam Ohgren, and 19-year-old defenseman Zeev Buium, to make a team yearning for a playoff run.

"We are willing to let our young players play," Guerin said. "It's not 'play at all costs.' They have to earn their way. They have to earn their keep every night and they have to play winning hockey. That's just it."