Brock Faber, the Wild's rookie defenseman, is doing more than just playing well in his first NHL season, he is thriving and his consistency has been why.

ST. PAUL - Just a couple of nights ago, Brock Faber put up three points on the power play alone in a game the Wild scored five power play goals. He followed up his three-point game with two more assists in Carolina and currently has one goal and seven points in his last four games, which leads all NHL defensemen in that span.

Thriving isn't even the right word to describe how well Faber has played this season. He looks and acts like an NHL veteran who has played almost 800 games in the league, yet he has only 48 career games under his belt. 

"It's his consistency. He's been very consistent night in and night out, game in and game out playing in that type of a role," Wild head coach John Hynes said on Faber. "To me, that's impressive."

At the age of just 21, Faber currently ranks first in the NHL amongst all rookies in assists and is second on the Wild in assists. He also is the first rookie in team history to record five games with 30 or more minutes of ice time in a single season. 

"You can have the skill sets and you know how hard the league is with so many games. To me, the situations that he's played in are the hardest situations you can play," Hynes said. "Whether that's matchups, top power play, top penalty kill, 4-on-4, 3-on-3, and all those types of situations. He's been really consistent in his game, he's been reliable. That's what it takes to have the talent that Brock has. But to take that talent to the highest level is that consistency, reliability, and the ability to thrive in those situations, it's been great to see."

Faber has really stepped up in the absence of Jared Spurgeon, who has always been the Wild's No. 1 type of defenseman. Spurgeon would play top minutes a night against the opposition's best players. He would also play on the top power play and penalty kill units. 

Now without Spurgeon, Faber has stepped into that role and has done more than just play good, he's thriving at an elite level. 

"I think it's been an opportunity for us to see what Brock Faber is really all about," Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin said on Faber. "He's playing 25 to 30 minutes a night and playing on our first power play unit. So I don't think that ever would've happened if Spurge wasn't hurt. But listen, I'd take him healthy any day of the week, but the silver lining is, we're seeing what Brock Faber is all about and I think it's good stuff."

After recording two assists in Carolina on Sunday, Faber reached 24 assists on the season, which tied both Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov for the second-highest single-season assist total in Wild rookie history. 

If Faber records a point in tonight's game against the Capitals he will set the Wild franchise record for the longest point streak for a rookie defenseman in Wild history. Filip Kuba and Willie Mitchell both had a four-game point streak in the club's inaugural season in 2000-01. 

Entering tonight's game, Faber is on pace to record 48 points in a full 82-game season. There are only three active defensemen in the NHL who have recorded more points than that in their rookie season. Moritz Seider, Quinn Hughes, and Cale Makar all had more. Seider and Makar both had 50 and Hughes had 53.

"Yeah, it's been a grind obviously with a lot of ups and downs," Faber told The Hockey News on how he would assess his rookie season so far. "A lot of learning experiences too. It's kind of how a season goes and just trying to keep my body aligned as close to 100% as I can and try to be as consistent as I can."

It isn't often that a player can easily translate his game from the college level to the NHL this quickly. Both Hughes and Makar did, and Faber seems to be on the same level when it comes to continuing to play the same way he has played his whole career. 

But Faber said he is taking things game by game and knows he has made mistakes and will continue to make minor mistakes, but that's part of the growing pains of playing NHL hockey in your first season. All though, Faber hasn't made any glaring mistakes. 

"Obviously you're going to turn pucks over and things like that are going to happen," Faber said. "Just trying to learn each day how I can help this team in a positive way more and more each game, is really what I try to do."

According to Evolving-Hockey, Faber currently ranks tied for 14th in the NHL amongst all defensemen in even-strength defensive goals above replacement. In 46 games, Faber has played a total of 1,137.6 minutes. There is only one other defender ahead of Faber in EVD that has played 1,000 or more minutes, and that's Colton Parayko of the St. Louis Blues at 1,042.1.

Faber was a part of last year's Minnesota Golden Gophers team that went all the way to the NCAA National Championship game. Five players, including Faber, from last year's Gophers team are playing key minutes for NHL teams. One of which is Logan Cooley who got to recently play against Faber just over a week ago. 

Cooley had some high remarks on Faber. 

"You see what he does on a nightly basis," Cooley said on if he is surprised to see how good Faber has been this season for the Wild. "I could see it when we were at World Juniors and when we were at the Gophers. Just the way he competes and just how much he loves the game too. It's really fun to see and I'm happy to see him having success."

Tonight, Faber will continue to be relied upon when he will likely be given the task of shutting down one of the league's most prolific scorers in Alex Ovechkin.

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