The Minnesota Wild have already made some surprising moves this season but one of the biggest so far was the decision to let Mats Zuccarello leave in free agency. Zuccarello’s departure was a shock considering he signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings and had a strong bond with Kirill Kaprizov. But in the end it may have been that bond that punched his ticket out of Minnesota.
Elliotte Friedman shed some light on why the Wild let Zuccarello walk and it’s a familiar refrain. While Kaprizov and Zuccarello were effective on the ice, an anonymous coach believed they were too reliant on each other and their chemistry bogged down the rest of the offense.
“I think some people were surprised that they would move Zuccarello when he played so well with Kaprizov,” Friedman said on his 32 Thoughts podcast. “This coach said to me that sometimes when he watched them, it was almost like two [players] on the ice versus five. And he said, he wasn’t criticizing those two guys, but he said, when they were out there, they were looking for each other so much, and they were so in simpatico. It was almost like the other three guys on the ice from Minnesota were not involved. He said on some level, it made it…not easier to defend…but it wasn’t as effective for the Wild as it could have been. And he wondered if that was the reason why Minnesota decided to move on.”
Mats Zuccarello’s departure could unlock Kirill Kaprizov and the rest of the Wild offense
Friedman’s intel falls in line with the drumbeat that led to Zuccarello’s departure. The 39-year-old spent the last seven seasons in Minnesota and was effective last season with 15 goals and 54 points in 59 games. But The Athletic’s Michael Russo hinted that the Wild were frustrated by Zuccarello’s tendency to “drag [Kaprizov] into an east-west game.”
General manager Bill Guerin also hinted that the Wild needed to be a younger and faster team to get through the grind of the playoffs, which meant letting Zuccarello walk and replacing him with free agent signing Maxim Shabanov.
Replacing a fan favorite with a relative unknown isn’t going to be a popular move for any fan base, especially one who just watched the Wild advance out of the first round for the first time since 2015 only to be disposed of in five games by the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. But it also is a move that can help the Wild get more out of their offense and more specifically more out of Kaprizov.
Kaprizov has done well for himself, scoring 230 goals and 475 points during his six-year career. But he also relied on Zuccarello frequently with the veteran assisting on 93 (40.4%) of Kaprizov’s regular season goals and nine of Kaprizov’s 19 career playoff goals.
It’s hard to imagine Kaprizov finding an extra gear after netting 45 goals and recording 89 points one year ago, but it could also help him get more people involved including Shabanov and whoever the top-line center will be whether it’s Joel Eriksson Ek or Dylan Larkin coming in via trade.
The Wild also didn’t need Zuccarello to set up Kaprizov anymore as Quinn Hughes’s playmaking ability and Brock Faber’s growing offensive game could take another leap with the veteran heading off to Los Angeles.
This won’t be enough to console fans who may be upset about Zuccarello’s departure but it could be something that unlocks the Wild’s offense. After finishing 10th with 3.27 goals per game last season, the Wild are looking at ways to improve and if they spread the wealth, it could create a tougher team to defend going into next season.
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