3 Minnesota Wild Who Will Regress In 2024-25

The Minnesota Wild have one more year before they can go crazy and bring in some high-end talent. This doesn't mean they will be bad as the team has typically made the playoffs with the exception being last season. While the Wild will likely remain a bubble team, there are some players bound to regress this season.

Mats Zuccarello

Mats Zuccarello can only keep up his seemingly ageless play for so long, and this seems like the season he will show a more noticeable decline. The 37-year-old's ice time dropped by over a minute from 2022-23 to 2023-24 and he scored the least goals he has in his career when playing at least 60 games, just 12. The team still isn't amazing, and if Kirill Kaprizov gets injured at all, Zuccarello's production is going to drop over that time.

Ryan Hartman

Ryan Hartman won't be competing for the first line center role as it seems Marco Rossi has secured that. This means Hartman should be on the third line, leading to less playing time and lesser linemates to see his production even stay the same from last season. There is a good chance he scores less than 21 goals and 45 points because he isn't going to be logging 16:31 minutes per game this season.

Jared Spurgeon

I don't expect Jared Spurgeon to regress offensively as he only recorded five assists in 16 games last season, but he will likely just regress overall. He is coming off a lot of missed time, so it will take some time to get back up to speed. Beyond that, Brock Faber has established himself as the number one d-man on the team, so Spurgeon's ice time will drop as well. Spurgeon should still be solid, but the soon-to-be 35-year-old won't be at the same level as he once was.