The Minnesota Wild allocated some practice time today focusing on their penalty-kill units, aiming to improve on last season's mediocre results.
As the Minnesota Wild continue to prepare for the start of the 2026-27 NHL season, they turned their attention to the penalty kill during Tuesday morning's practice.
In the 2025-26 regular season, the Wild ranked 16th in the NHL, killing 79.8 percent of their penalties. In the playoffs, they ranked 15th out of 16 teams, killing just 60.5 percent of their penalties.
The Wild will no doubt need to be better in this area this season, and working on their strategies and deciding what their units will look like is important.
In today's practice, coach John Hynes rolled out a forward unit of:
Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Blake Coleman - Nick Foligno
Marcus Foligno - Nico Sturm
Yakov Trenin, Michael McCarron, and Danila Yurov, three other Wild forwards who featured on the penalty kill last season, skated with the other group, so they couldn't participate.
The biggest difference in the group is the inclusion of Blake Coleman. Throughout his 10-year NHL career, Coleman has been a penalty-killing specialist. His speed, quick stick, and fearlessness in blocking shots not only help keep the puck out of the net, but he can also create offense for himself.
The 34-year-old scored four shorthanded goals last season and has 22 in his career. Coleman's inclusion will be a major help.
As for the defenders, they say their pairing appears as:
Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber
Olli Maatta - Jared Spurgeon
Zach Bogosian- Jonas Brodin
Adding Maatta should help the defensive unit, but more important is Brodin's health. Brodin played just 62 regular-season games last season and then only five playoff games, all in the first round.
Brodin is one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL, and his absence glaringly affected the penalty kill.
Another interesting note is that Quinn Hughes was the only defenseman not to feature in the early penalty-kill outlook. Hughes plays big minutes for the Wild, arguably the best minute-eater in the NHL, but if the Wild can avoid playing him on the penalty kill and give him rest, it should only help his offensive impact.
If the Wild's penalty-kill effectiveness improves and they maintain last season's standard as the league's third-highest power-play conversion rate, they'll win the special-teams battle every night and be in a strong position to win most games.
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