{"id":315740,"date":"2025-11-21T21:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/315740\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:35:11","slug":"matt-boldys-defense-is-gaining-as-much-attention-as-his-offense-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/315740\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Boldy’s Defense Is Gaining As Much Attention As His Offense – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMinnesota Wild fans have known that Matt Boldy<\/a> arrived<\/a> in the NHL a long time ago. The only question is how high<\/a> his ceiling could be.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFor most of the 24-year-old\u2019s career, the conversation has been centered around his offense. Bill Guerin<\/a> mentioned before last season that he believed<\/a> that Boldy could someday become \u201ca 50\/50 guy,\u201d recording 50 goals and 50 assists in a season. His playmaking ability is also apparent when he\u2019s on the ice, using space correctly and finding an open teammate.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for all the talk about Boldy\u2019s offense, his defense is beginning to take center stage, and it could be the final step needed to go from an All-Star caliber player to a franchise player.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBoldy\u2019s defensive play has been a hot topic as he\u2019s made a couple of crucial plays during the Wild\u2019s recent hot streak. Minnesota has won seven of its past nine games and collected points in eight of its last nine. The key has been a commitment on defense, where the Wild have allowed two goals or fewer in seven of those games.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTo that extent, Boldy has been leading the charge. In a Nov. 16 overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights, Mitch Marner<\/a> went on a breakaway in overtime that seemed to spell doom for the Wild. When Marner passed the puck behind him to Shea Theodore<\/a>, it was Boldy who sprinted down the ice after a turnover and lifted his stick to extend the game and help Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> score the eventual game-winner.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday night, Boldy\u2019s defense played another key role in the Wild\u2019s win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Already up 1-0 on Brock Faber<\/a>\u2019s goal early in the game, Boldy made an excellent read on an entry attempt by the Hurricanes, leading to a breakaway and giving Minnesota a 2-0 lead.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hurricanes came back to force overtime, and Boldy\u2019s shootout winner drew the headlines along with a highlight-reel save by Jesper Wallstedt<\/a>. But if it weren\u2019t for Boldy\u2019s play earlier in the game, the Wild may have never been in that position, which shows how big a development his defense has become.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLike many aspects of Boldy\u2019s game, he laid the foundation a long time ago, and it\u2019s beginning to reach elite levels. According to Evolving-Hockey<\/a>,\u00a0 Boldy is currently a top-20 defensive forward in their goals above replacement metric at 1.9. He also ranks in the 91st percentile defensively, which puts him among the league\u2019s best defenders at the forward position.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a result, the Wild have given Boldy priority assignments throughout the year as part of the Wild\u2019s top defensive line alongside Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a> and Marcus Johansson<\/a>. But it also serves as a steady foundation to an offensive game that is still growing.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGuerin mentioned during a TV interview earlier in the year that a strong defensive game is critical to long-term success in the NHL. When the offense runs dry, players can lean on their defensive game and remain viable contributors.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBoldy did some of this one year ago when he endured three stretches without a goal in nine games or more. The worst drought came late in the year, with a 15-game stretch with just two goals coming out of the 4 Nations Tournament. The slide, where the Wild posted a 6-8-1 record, turned a fast start into a crawl toward the playoffs, but Boldy worked on the little things to keep the team afloat.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s hard to score, no question about it,\u00a0 when things aren\u2019t going your way, things aren\u2019t going in,\u201d Boldy said<\/a> at\u00a0the end of that slump last March. \u201cAs I\u2019ve played more and more, you realize that you\u2019re going to go through these ups and downs. You don\u2019t want to. But you can\u2019t be nonexistent when it\u2019s not going in.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo far this season, both aspects have come together. Boldy is tied for the team lead with Kirill Kaprizov with 11 goals and second on the Wild with 22 points entering Friday\u2019s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. While his offensive output has been key, his defense has been just as crucial on a team that needs to limit offensive chances until it can find dynamic upgrades deeper in its lineup.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the Wild want to keep their recent hot streak from being their annual Thanksgiving resurgence, Boldy will still have to contribute on the offensive end. However, his defense is providing the team with a steady foundation and could be the cornerstone that turns him into the franchise player the Wild fans believe he can be.\n<\/p>\n

\n Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we’ll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Wild fans have known that Matt Boldy arrived in the NHL a long time ago. The only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,799,161,38,5280,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-315740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-matt-boldy","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115589842492893284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}