The Hat Story: A preseason speech from their General manager led to the Wild’s player-of-the-game gear

Player of the Game has turned into more than a simple postgame nod to a player who contributed to a team’s win. Many teams in various sports have some kind of prop, or hat, that gets passed around to a well-deserving teammate. 

“I think it’s something cool to hand out after the game,” said Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian. “My son’s hockey team does it, too. It’s kind of part of the hockey culture of pointing out someone who did the right things throughout the game, was a good teammate.” 

Ahead of this 2025-26 season, the Minnesota Wild were hunting for its item. Then President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin unknowingly provided some inspiration on the topic through his preseason speech to the team which referenced the Redwood tree. 

“After that, we sort of knew that that was the theme we were going to go with,” said Wild captain Jared Spurgeon.

The Redwoods can be up to 100 feet tall with roots that aren’t very big, but the tree grabs onto other trees around their roots. 

Guerin related that to his hockey team by encouraging them to be good teammates, rely on each other, “and you can be however tall you want to be, or you can go to some great heights,” said forward Marcus Foligno. 

“The Redwood trees are some of the biggest trees in the world, and yet their roots are only five feet long or six feet long, but they intertwine with the ones around them and make them stronger,” Foligno said.

“The moral of the story is you’ve got to use your teammates and be a team player and rely on one another to be the tallest tree in the forest, and that’s obviously winning the Stanley Cup.” 

While it’s obviously not possible to carry around an actual Redwood tree throughout NHL dressing rooms, the Wild settled on a Redwood tree style hat as their player-of-the-game item awarded to a deserving teammate after each victory this season. 

They took their time deciding on the best hat, which Bogosian ended up getting for the team.

“It’s not just a random helmet or something just random,” said forward Ryan Hartman. “It has meaning to us.

“It doesn’t make much sense if it’s just a pointless hat.” 

A few weeks into the season, the Redwood hat made its first appearance in the Wild dressing room after the team’s 5-2 home win over Vancouver on Nov. 1.  

After a rough start to the season in October, the Wild went on a 11-1-2 run in November and have been one of the best teams in the NHL ever since. 

“The hat has nothing to do with that, no,” Bogosian said, with a laugh. 

Just a Redwood coincidence. Or, as Foligno put it, the Redwood brought the team a bit of good fortune and good luck. 

Halfway through March, the Wild are 35-11-9 since Nov. 1, with the Redwood in play. The player who had the hat the previous game usually makes a short speech in the dressing room after the game – and only after Wild victories – often heaping praise on other teammates along with the player of the game that night before tossing the hat to the winner. 

Fans can see the hat pop up in postgame photos and videos on the Wild’s social media channels.

That hat doesn’t always get passed around to players who might seem like obvious player-of-the-game choices, like a player who scores an overtime winner, for instance. The Redwood could be awarded to the player who had an important blocked shot or great play on the penalty kill, a fight that got the team going or a big hit on the opponent. 

It’s not necessarily the best player of the game but the player who shows a team-first mentality, Foligno said. 

“It’s not always the main hero that everyone sees from the outside,” Spurgeon said. “There’s a lot that goes into the game that goes unnoticed. I think the guys in the room have done a good job of seeing that.”

The hat could get handed out to a lot of guys on any given night, Bogosian said. 

“It’s generally guys who either have obviously a huge game, but guys that are blocking shots or doing the right, little things that most people from the outside wouldn’t understand or see all the time, and we see it down on ice level,” Bogosian said. 

“It’s kind of that selfless mentality of being a good teammate, it’s the thought process of handing it out.” 

With so many strong performances from Wild players this season, the hat has made its way around the room a lot. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson was awarded the hat after he made 44 saves in a 5-2 win in Colorado on Feb 26. He left the game early due to illness, but his teammates were there to make him feel better after the game.

“They saw I was battling hard,” Gustavsson said. “We got the two points in the end. I guess they thought it was a little funny, they gave it to me.” 

He said it was probably the second time this season he’s received the hat, adding that “it’s nice recognition for your confidence.”

Wild newcomer Bobby Brink wore the hat in his first home game in a Wild sweater, a 5-0 victory over Utah on March 10. Michael McCarron, another recent trade acquisition, also received the hat soon after he joined his new team. Of course, Wild top scorers Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy have worn the hat a few times, too. 

No one keeps a formal count of who gets the hat after wins, and the Wild equipment staff takes charge of the hat in between games like any other piece of equipment.  

They even added some feathers and a patch on the hat “just to spice it up a little bit,” Bogosian said. Foligno said it has “a little bit of Indiana Jones look to it.” 

“Some guys looked really good in it, some guys looked like they could be a detective or play a role in the Indiana Jones movies,” Foligno said. “But some guys definitely look funny in it.” 

The Redwood boosts morale for the team and is something to have fun with throughout the season. Shortly after the Redwood hat made its season debut in November, Foligno noted that tight teams always have something, whether it’s a slogan or something to gather around. 

“Hopefully, the Redwood tree hat is something we can get around this year,” Foligno added.