Off to camp: Wild preps for return to play with a return to the rink

Throughout the 123-day shutdown that stopped the 2019-20 NHL season in its tracks, the League and the Wild has been confident that it would get an opportunity to finish the campaign properly.

On Monday, the team will move one step closer to doing just that.

For the second time this season, the Wild will embark on a training camp -- this one coming at a time when players are usually enjoying rounds of golf or maybe dipping their toes back into their routines by skating in Da Beauty League or other rinks near their homes.

But when the Wild reports to TRIA Rink for the official start of camp, it will be just 13 days from its departure for Edmonton to begin an unprecedented 24-team tournament. A best-of-5 qualifying round series against the Vancouver Canucks is all that stands between the Wild and an official return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for an eighth time in nine seasons.

That series will begin Aug. 2. But between now and then, there is plenty of work to do.

For a vast majority of the four months since we last saw the Wild on the ice, players have not skated. While some in Europe have been working on the ice for a couple of months (COVID restrictions in Sweden, for example, have been far more relaxed), many others have only returned to the ice in the past couple weeks.

"There's no rush to get out there that first skate and get on the ice for two hours and skate them," said Wild interim coach Dean Evason. "We're definitely going to ease into things and hopefully do the right things to ramp up to be prepared to play when we do get to Edmonton."

Think of the early days of camp like the first few days of school.

"We'll worry about us and getting back. Talking about our structure, teaching our structure, how we want to play, and then we'll have some scrimmages in between. There and then we'll talk about Vancouver," Evason said. "We don't want to overload them too much because we've got so much time [before the first game]."

The amount of stoppage between the last NHL game and its next one will be several weeks longer than the normal time between the end of the Cup Finals and a normal season opener.

Nobody knows exactly what this training camp will be like, or the 24-team tournament that will follow from Edmonton and Toronto. There won't be fans in the stands. There won't be travel between games. Guys haven't played games in months and will now be knee-deep in some of the most consequential games of the season.

No excuse, Evason said.

"The puck is dropped, you play," Evason said on a call with media last week. "Growing up, whatever, whenever, even now. Wherever you play, you play the same way."

But there is no doubt that every player is anxious to get back on the ice and so much time off.

"Everyone [has been] very focused on shaking the rust off and preparing for the games coming up [during Phase 2]," said Wild forward Zach Parise. "But I would imagine that on Monday, everything is going to elevate to another level and ramp everything up to prepare ourselves to play."

"I went in the other day ... and that was my first time seeing the guys and being around them. Spirits seem to be really high," said Wild General Manager Bill Guerin. "When something that you love to do gets taken away from you then you get to go back and do it, you're gonna be happy. Everybody seems like they're excited about it and in a good mood and ready to roll."

As the Wild returns to camp, there will be a number of things to keep an eye on before the puck drops in Edmonton on Aug. 2:

1. Who's in goal?

When the season came to a halt back in March, goaltender Alex Stalock was in the midst of one of the better stretches of play over his NHL career. The South St. Paul native had started 11 of the final 14 games before the stoppage, posting a 7-3-1 record to go with a .923 save percentage and a 2.27 goals-against average.

But all that may do is earn him some extra reps early in camp.

Stalock and Devan Dubnyk will be entrenched in a three-way battle with goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen for starting duties in what is expected to be the most-watched competition of camp.

A difficult start to the season made it difficult for Dubnyk to get his numbers back to his career averages since joining Minnesota. A family medical emergency sidelined him for nearly a month midway through the season and when Stalock took off in February and March, he was mostly relegated to backup duties.

But Dubnyk is well rested, completely healthy and has some peace of mind regarding his wife's health. Of the Wild's goaltenders, he's the most battle tested of the group and that has to count for something.

"The one thing that I've never really liked as any kind of a coach is when you say, 'This guy is our guy,'" Evason said. "The guy that's in that net that night is our guy. The four guys that are playing center ice, those are our guys that night. That's the way it is. That's the mentality we have to have. You have to trust that each guy is going to get the job done and that's no different in our net."

The dark horse among the group is Kahkonen, the 23-year-old rookie who made his NHL debut in November by stopping 32 shots in a win at New Jersey. Kahkonen played in five NHL games this season, winning three of them, but was named the American Hockey League's Goaltender of the Year after securing a 25-6-3 record with a 2.07 goals-against and a .927 save percentage in 34 games with Iowa.

Kahkonen had sustained an upper-body injury a week before the hiatus but is completely healthy now and could be a factor in camp.

"If one of the three guys are in our net we expect them to get the job done and we expect them to be the ultimate team guys and play for their teammate," Evason said. "If they aren't in the net then we expect them to be very good teammates being positive about supporting the guys that are playing the games. That's the same with every guy on our team."

Former University of Minnesota goaltender Mat Robson, who played in 26 games in Iowa this season, will also be at training camp.

2. Picking up where he left off

The Wild was 8-4-0 in 12 games under Dean Evason, and one of the main reasons why was forward Kevin Fiala.

Fiala scored nine goals in those 12 games, including two in Minnesota's 5-4 win in Anaheim in the final game before the stoppage, one that encapsulated the kind of impact Fiala is capable of making on an every-night basis.

With the Wild and Ducks in overtime, Fiala made a nifty play in the offensive zone to draw a penalty and create a grade-A scoring chance. Off the ensuing faceoff, the puck came to him in the right circle and he rifled a shot past the goaltender to give Minnesota the walk-off victory.

In all, Fiala had 16 points in those 12 games, with 11 of those points coming 5-on-5. In 64 games overall, Fiala had 23 goals and 31 assists, with his 54 points marking a new career best.

"I think one of the biggest things with Dean was letting players like Kevin take off, and other players. I think just allowing guys to be comfortable making plays, to be comfortable trying stuff on the offensive side and getting our defensemen more involved in the rush," Parise said. "I think once we did that, we started to score a lot more, we started to have way more offensive-zone time, and we weren't just defending the whole game. So I feel like that suited us a lot more, and we got better at playing that type of hockey."

Fiala was brimming with confidence as the season came to a stop, and Minnesota's ability to make a deep run in the tournament would be greatly aided by Fiala not missing a beat.

3. Health

By all accounts, the Wild come to camp almost fully healthy.

Defenseman Greg Pateryn has an upper-body injury and is out indefinitely, a tough break for the veteran who had been limited to just 20 games this season because of other injuries.

Other that than, Minnesota should have a full complement of players ready.

Defenseman Carson Soucy, who sustained an injury in Edmonton on Feb. 21 that may have kept him out for the remainder of the regular season, is ready to go. So is Kahkonen, who was hurt in Iowa's game in San Jose on March 2.

Navigating things in the COVID-19 era will continue to be a challenge, which is why the NHL has granted teams expanded rosters to bring to camp.

Among the group from Iowa that will be with Minnesota for the next few weeks will be Kahkonen and Robson, forwards Gerry Mayhew, Sam Anas, JT Brown, Kyle Rau, Nico Sturm and Luke Johnson as well as defensemen Matt Bartkowski, Louie Belpedio and Brennan Menell.

Also joining the group is defenseman Calen Addison. Acquired with Alex Galchenyuk and a draft pick from the Penguins in the trade that sent Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh, Addison had 10 goals and 52 points in 50 games with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League this season. He was a second round pick of the Pens in 2018.

Schedule

Wild Training Camp presented by Toyota, will feature two on-ice sessions per day at TRIA Rink. In addition to video work and on-ice practice, the team will have daily off-ice workouts to get ready for the potential two-month grind of the postseason.

All practices are closed to the public.