Minnesota Wild: Defensive group in the ‘league best’ conversation

The Minnesota Wild defensive group has always been a strong one; it seems it’s been a trademark of the organisation in recent years.

Whether we’re talking Ryan Suter and his impressive minutes or the much-younger, Matt Dumba, who is starting to rack up equally impressive minutes; the pairings that the Minnesota Wild can field on defense are very well-versed in stifling the opposition.

It seems the writers over at ESPN have even decided to start recognising this fact.

In a recent article examining the best defensive group in the NHL, the usual suspects; Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson and the San Jose Sharks, P.K. Subban, Roman Josi and the Nashville Predators and this year’s trendy pick, Dougie Hamilton, Jaccob Slavin and the Carolina Hurricanes.

However, buried among their discussion of these three teams, there is a nod to the Minnesota Wild. It’s just a mere mention, but it still rates the team, at least in the ESPN writers’ eyes as a top-four in the league in terms of the defense.

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In Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin, the Wild have possibly two of the most underrated and over-looked guys on defense in the whole league and I’m not exaggerating.

Their pairing leads the team defense in Corsi For, with Spurgeon at 52.98% meaning that more often than not, when this duo is on the ice, the shot attempts are positive in the Minnesota Wild’s favour.

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Likewise, of the regular defensive pairings, only Nick Seeler has seen less goals go in whilst he’s on the ice.

There is only one goals’ difference between his and Spurgeon’s goals against total though, despite Jared playing forty-plus more minutes over the season so far.

If I could I’d like to blame it on favourable zone starts. Again, not the case as Suter and Dumba claim the majority of the offensive zone starts!

All in all, it’s safe to say that the Minnesota Wild second pairing is just that good; it’s purely a case of nobody else seeming to recognise it.

Moving on to the third pairing; Nick Seeler has recently shown a point-scoring flair and Greg Pateryn is proving the ideal partner in that pair.

Pateryn was a very useful summer acquisition, offering a more traditional shut-down player to partner the younger Seeler and mentor him in the skills of defense.

Between them, they do a great job of limiting scoring chances on the Minnesota Wild net. The team typically isn’t generated scoring chances on the opposition net when they’re on the ice, but equally they’re not having chances in Minnesota’s end. All you need from a third pairing really.

Suffice to say, it’s about time that the media start realising that the Minnesota Wild have several top-tier pieces in their defensive group. They don’t deserve to always be ignored.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.