The Wild need their second line center to get going.
ST. PAUL - Last season there was a heavy emphasis on the need for a few players to be better for the Wild in the 2024-25 season.
Those three players were Freddy Gaudreau, Marcus Johansson, and Ryan Hartman. All though Hartman had 21 goals and 45 points in 74 games last season, he still was mentioned in the same sentence as the other two forwards in terms of having a better season next year.
The Wild have played 32 games this season. They are 20-8-4. Johansson has four goals, nine assists, and 13 points in 31 games this year. He is on pace for 34 points. Gaudreau has six goals, nine assists, and 15 points in 32 games and is on pace for 38 points.
Hartman, 30, has four goals, three assists, and seven points in 27 games this season. He is on pace for 12 goals, eight assists, and 20 points in 77 games this year if he keeps this up.
In his last 21 games, Hartman has one goal. He hasn't scored in 14 games and has zero points in his last 13 games.
“When he’s playing his best hockey, he’s moving his feet, and he’s competing on the puck," Wild head coach John Hynes said on Hartman's struggles. "Today’s game (Wednesday) is a skating game and if you want to be able to produce offense, you’ve got to skate, you’ve got play with pace, you’ve got to be a willing skater, you gotta be on pucks, you gotta get over pucks."
It is tough that this team is without Joel Eriksson Ek, Jakub Lauko, and Yakov Trenin upfront, but this gives chances and opportunities to other players to play in bigger roles.
One of those guys has been Hartman. He is currently the Wild's second-line center despite having one goal in his last 21 games.
"When you have opportunities to make plays, you gotta make them," Hynes said. "Those are things for him or anybody else if you’re going to be counted on to play a big role and you’re going to be counted on to produce you have to play with pace.”
After the Wild's 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on home ice, Hynes stated that certain guys need to step up.
Sure it sucks that Eriksson Ek is out of the top six. But it is a chance for Hartman, who is in year one of his three-year contract worth $4,000,000 AAV with a no-move clause, to step up and produce.
There is no doubt the Wild hope he can get going. Because recently, he has been a non-factor.
"I do think that you need to be able to find ways to win games. I think we have capable players. We need some guys to step up. That’s for sure. When you get these opportunities, when you have a healthy team, certain guys play in certain roles but when you’re in those situations, usually guys want more. They want to do it now. You have the opportunities, but we need a complete team effort with everybody playing to their max capabilities and then you play with strong structure.
"Right now coming into Friday we gotta get a team to play at max capacity on Friday night. That’s how we’re going to win the game and that’s what the focus is and we can do that but we’ve got from now till then to get us ready for that.”
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