The Minnesota Wild have high expectations for this year’s team and a big reason is the presence of Quinn Hughes. A true superstar on the blue line, Hughes elevated the Wild after he was acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks last December. But for as good as Hughes is, he can’t do it all by himself.
That’s where the Wild’s depth on the blue line is becoming a problem. Minnesota’s top six (and top seven if you include Daemon Hunt) defenseman are locked in less than a week from the season opener against the Nashville Predators. But the amount of talent behind them took a hit when the Wild waived 2021 first-round pick Carson Lambos on Thursday per The Athletic’s Michael Russo.
Lambos was unlikely to crack the NHL roster and with no options remaining, it felt like his departure was a formality entering this season. But losing another player on defense could hurt the Wild and elevates a problem that wasn’t addressed over the summer.
The Wild may be one injury away from a defensive crisis
Like most areas on the roster, the Wild are top-heavy on defense with Quinn Hughes lining up across from Brock Faber. Even the second pairing feels secure with Jonas Brodin and captain Jared Spurgeon. But outside of that, the only big move was swapping out Jake Middleton for Oli Maatta and re-signing 36-year-old Zach Bogosian.
With most of last year’s defensive core in place, the Wild will be fine to open the season. The one question, however, is what happens when someone gets hurt.
This is not a matter of if but when. Brodin is one of the Wild’s best defenseman but he can only be counted on for about 60 games per season as he’s hit the 70 game mark just once over the past five full regular seasons with the last occurrence coming in a 73-game campaign during the 2021-22 season. His health became a major factor when he was injured in Game 5 in Minnesota’s first round playoff series with the Dallas Stars and missed the entire second round series against the Colorado Avalanche last spring, but the Wild are still hoping he can avoid the injury bug at age-33.
The outlook may look even bleaker for Spurgeon. While Spurgeon earned a silver stick for his 1,000th career game last season, he’s hit the 70 game mark just twice over the past six seasons, albeit with a 79-game campaign last year. There are also questions about how long he can play at a high level after notching one point and a minus-2 rating in 11 playoff games last spring.
This isn’t even accounting for what happened with the third pairing. While the Wild made the right move with Middleton by trading him to the Calgary Flames and got forward Blake Coleman, who is projected to slide into the second forward line to begin the year, Maatta isn’t a guarantee to be an upgrade after notching one point and a minus-5 rating in 22 games with the Utah Mammoth before being traded to Calgary in the middle of last season.
Bogosian is also a part-time player who is on the Silver Stick tour this season and was dreadful in the playoffs with a minus-2 rating while playing through injury.
Wild waiving Carson Lambos makes their defensive depth even worse
With four players in the lineup over the age of 30, there’s a good chance the Wild will have to dive into their defensive depth at some point and that’s where losing a player like Lambos stings. The 26th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Lambos had 17 goals, 35 points and a minus-12 rating during his three seasons with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. While he could still wind up back in Iowa, he could also wind up getting claimed, which could make Minnesota even thinner on the blue line going into this season.
The move also stings after the Wild’s failed acquisition of David Jiricek. After sending a 2025 first-round pick, third- and fourth-round picks in the 2026 draft and a 2027 second-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets to acquire Jiricek, the sixth overall pick in the 2022 draft never could crack the Wild’s lineup, causing them to throw in the towel and trade him to the Philadelphia Flyers for Bobby Brink at last year’s trade deadline.
Hunt was also in that trade but came back to Minnesota when the Blue Jackets waived him last fall. While Hunt played well with a plus-1 rating in five playoff games, last spring, he’s more of an “in case of emergency” player at this point of his career, even if he projects to split time with Bogosian on the third pairing.
Unless prospects such as David Spacek, Viking Gustafsson Nyberg or Ben Dexheimer takes a massive leap this season, the Wild’s blue line depth is a big question heading into this season – especially if Lambos is claimed by another team.
It’s an issue fans will have to keep an eye on and while Hughes is good enough to carry the load, the Wild will have to stay healthy and step up to make sure it doesn’t become a bigger problem.
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