Star Wears: Wild award helmet with night vision goggles to player of game

Welcome to Star Wears, where our Short Shifts squad will highlight each participating NHL team’s unique and creative way to honor their player of the game after each victory, handing them a token of appreciation that usually lasts at least one season, and sometimes takes on a life of its own.

Team: Minnesota Wild, 2026-27 season

Item: Camouflage helmet with night vision goggles

Origin Story: The player of the game item was inspired by a pre-season talk from Aaron Bogosian, a human performance specialist with the Wild and brother of defenseman Zach Bogosian. Aaron is a military veteran. GM Bill Guerin’s speech inspired last year’s player of the game item, the Redwood hat.

City/Team connection (dubious or otherwise): You need great vision out on the ice in the NHL, so why not a vision-enhancer for the player that sees it all out there?

Fun Fact: While the night vision goggles you may see in TV or movies usually have two lenses or "tubes," upgraded night vision goggles since the 1990s have featured four tubes to give the user an ultra-wild panoramic field of vision (97 to 120 degrees) close to a persons natural range.

Quotable: "I’m pretty sure just doing things as a team together and kind of pulling your weight, doing your job to bring us closer to winning games. That was pretty much the message," Zach Bogosian said. "Super proud (of Aaron)... We have a great bond as brothers. It’s really fun to be in the same organization. It’s fun for our families to be together, and my mom and dad to kind of pay attention to one organization. A ton of fun. Super proud of him."

"Pretty cool hearing the roots of it," said Wild forward Rieger Lorenz, the first recipient of the helmet and goggles this season. "Obviously, Bogo’s brother, I worked pretty close with him throughout my four years in Denver, so he’s been awesome for me. And obviously he’s got a military background. He’s been a guy I could kind of lean on for advice throughout my four years in college. He’s helped me quite a bit throughout my path here."

-NHL.com Independent Correspondent Heather Rule contributed to this report.