The Minnesota Wild had a busy trade deadline and among the players that came into town was Bobby Brink. The winger was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for David Jiricek and Minnesotans couldn’t help but mention the fact that he grew up in Minnetonka.
Such a story has been embraced plenty of times by Wild fans throughout their history. But when discussing Brink’s arrival, general manager Bill Guerin sent a clear message to his new addition.
“The first thing I told him was, this is not a family reunion,” Guerin said via The Athletic’s Michael Russo. “This is not to get together with your buddies. Tell your buddies and your family they know where the ticket office is, ‘Buy your own freaking tickets, OK?’
“I’m serious, too. Like I’m half kidding, but I’m half serious. He’s coming here to work and to be part of the Wild and to win. Like this is not coming home to hang out in Minnetonka, Wayzata and all that stuff. He’s here to work.”
Guerin’s comments weren’t received well from Wild fans who watched Marcus Foligno go on a brotherly reunion tour with Nick Foligno and the rest of the team stationed themselves at a local lakeside establishment after being eliminated from last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. But Guerin may have been telling the truth as the Wild need Brink to be more than just a homecoming story as he approaches his first full season in Minnesota.
Bobby Brink is under pressure to avoid a familiar Wild disappointment
Coming home to play for the hometown team has some pressure built in, doing it in Minnesota is another story. Some Wild fans probably remember Brink leading the Minnetonka Skippers to the Class AA State Championship in 2018 and others may remember him being part of the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, who won the national championship in 2022.
That history made Brink a second-round pick (34th overall) by the Flyers in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft but after making his NHL debut during the 2021-22 season, Brink never seemed to factor into Philadelphia’s plans. The biggest issue came from a hip injury that forced him to miss the beginning of the 2022-23 season and his skating, which kept him from earning an everyday spot in the lineup under head coach John Tortorella.
Brink seemingly broke through with 12 goals and 41 points over 79 games during the 2024-25 season and had 13 goals and 26 points through 55 games with Philadelphia last year. But with Oliver Bonk and Matvei Michkov also arriving in Philadelphia, the Flyers opted to trade Brink in exchange for Jiricek.
The move is solid in a vacuum as Jiricek wasn’t getting minutes in Minnesota and is out of minor league options as he begins his first full season with the Flyers. But after trading a 2025 first-round pick, third- and fourth-round picks in 2026 and a 2027 second-round draft pick to acquire him, attaching Brink to this tree didn’t do him any favors.
There’s also the erratic play that was on display, showing his IQ, playmaking vision and work ethic at times but also producing inconsistent results before he suffered a shoulder injury. With two goals and four points in 13 regular season games and one point in four playoff games, Brink looked a lot like promising Wild players of the 2010s, who had potential but never came close to their ceiling. But as the Wild prepare for next season, it’s clear that they’ll need Brink to go where Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker could not during their time in Minnesota.
The Wild’s championship dreams could depend on Bobby Brink’s breakout
While many are obsessed with the Wild’s pursuit of a top-line center or Quinn Hughes’s negotiations on a potential contract extension, the wing position should be another area of concern. Between Mats Zuccarello, Vladimir Tarasenko and Marcus Johansson, the Wild lost 150 points at that position and are basically having open tryouts in the top six.
This is a reason why Brink agreed to a team-friendly one-year, $2.75 million contract last month when he could have received somewhere between $3.5 million and $4 million in arbitration as a restricted free agent. But that opportunity only makes it a bargain if Brink produces.
Playing on the top line with Kirill Kaprizov would be one way to boost his production and 10.3 percent of The Athletic’s fan survey believed he should get that opportunity. The only players that received a higher percentage of the vote were Matt Boldy (19.5%) and Maxim Shabanov (51.9%), but even if Brink earns that role in camp, there’s no guarantee he’ll produce, which could raise more questions.
The middle six seems like a better fit for Brink. But even that needs to replace the 49 points that Johansson or the 47 points that Tarasenko left behind. While that may not be out of reach based on his 2024-25 production, the way he played after coming to Minnesota makes it seem like there is plenty of work to do to reach that level consistently.
For a team that has its eyes set on more than a playoff berth, Brink will be a key reason whether they reach those goals. If he flops, it could have a damaging effect on the Wild and perhaps validate whatever concerns Guerin had when he talked to reporters last spring.
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