The Minnesota Wild have gotten off to a strong start to the 2026-27 season, largely thanks to their star players. Injuries have forced head coach John Hynes to play a “superline” of Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Kirill Kaprizov full time. That line usually plays alongside Quinn Hughes, one of the league’s top all-around defensemen.
For now, that quartet is carrying the Wild and helping them get off to a strong start while they wait out a potential Dylan Larkin trade. It’s nice to see the Wild’s stars play like stars, and dream of what it could look like when Brock Faber returns from a fractured skull. However, it’s also fair to wonder if the Wild are leaning too heavily on those stars. Will it come back to bite them at the end of the season?
Given the Wild’s current state, the core players need to play at their best. Kaprizov has gone the extra mile, leading the NHL with 11 goals in his first 10 games. Matt Boldy had a slow start but has come alive, scoring five goals and putting up nine points in his last six games. Eriksson Ek has been gritty, scoring his first goal of the season in Thursday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers, and Hughes has also chipped in with two goals and 13 points.
You could even throw goalie Jesper Wallstedt into this conversation. Tasked with a workhorse role while Filip Gustavsson recovers from offseason hip surgery, Wallstedt looks like a Vezina-caliber goaltender, posting a 6-1-2 record with a .915 save percentage and 2.20 goals-against average in nine starts.
With Faber out indefinitely, the Wild’s 6-2-2 record doesn’t look bad. If they can stay afloat, they should have a chance at making the playoffs and could make noise if they get there, especially if they trade for Larkin.
But the Wild learned the hard way that the season is a marathon and not a sprint. That happened last year when Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin missed the entire second-round series with the Colorado Avalanche. While their absence stung, the team also became exhausted as they got deeper into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, preventing them from making their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 2003.
The same gauntlet the Wild endured last season still lies ahead — the Central Division looks strong again this year. That’s why it could be an issue, given how much the Wild are leaning on their stars before Halloween.
Kaprizov is the most welcome of the group, since he’s officially in the eight-year, $136 million contract he signed a year ago. While it’s nice to see him put pucks in the net early, he’s doing so at a 32.4 percent shooting percentage, double his career rate of 16.8 percent. That doesn’t mean Kaprizov won’t flirt with 40 or 50 goals this season, but it likely means regression could come as the season rolls on.
For Hughes and Wallstedt, the concern is physical. While Hughes does a little bit of everything on the ice, he’s averaging 27:03 of ice time per game, well above his career average of 24:54. That number is also below the 27:54 he averaged after the Wild traded for him last December. Still, he could get closer as the season continues, with Jared Spurgeon, Olli Maatta, and Faber nursing injuries on the blue line.
Wallstedt has his own concerns. While he’s been fantastic, he already leads the NHL with nine starts in the first 10 games. The Wild will likely reduce his workload when Gustavsson returns, but Gustavsson’s return to form after surgery that has taken several goalies longer to recover from isn’t guaranteed.
If he has a transition year, Wallstedt may never get a rest, and he could soar past the 35 games he started a year ago. It could also push him closer to the 45 starts he made for the Iowa Wild in 2023-24 and put him on the fast track to burnout.
I’m not trying only to present doom and gloom; some players could pick up the slack. Boldy is a prime example. He leads the NHL with 44 shots on goal but has an 11.4 percent shooting percentage. That number is well below the 16.5 percent he posted last year and his career rate of 12.8 percent, and we’re already seeing more pucks go in after being snake-bit to start the year.
Faber’s return could also help the Wild. After breaking out offensively with 15 goals and 51 points last season, Faber can ease pressure on Hughes and add another star to the lineup. But his recovery from a skull fracture is complicated and may leave fans waiting until the early months of 2027 to see him back on the ice.
If they trade for Larkin, he could be a consistent contributor. He has scored 30 goals six times in his career. But that move could further deplete their depth, which has been dealing with injuries and disappointing play from players like Ryan Hartman through the first month of the season.
For now, the Wild can be happy their stars are playing like stars. But they also need someone to step up and contribute. That could happen as players get healthy and the team makes a potential big move. But if the Wild lean too heavily on their top players early in the year, their season could end in a familiar place.
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