Koivu, Kaprizov highlight Wild’s NHL quarter century team

The best players from one of the NHL’s younger franchises over the past 25 years have been revealed.

The league has begun rolling out its multi-phased celebration, honoring the best players for each of the 32 franchises, including the team based in the State of Hockey, the Minnesota Wild.

Both teams have a healthy amount of players from this year’s team and stars of the earlier days of the franchise.

The First Team is headlined by the franchise’s first star, Marian Gaborik. The team’s first-ever draft pick was a big part in getting it to its first playoff berth in 2003, scoring 437 points across eight seasons with the Wild.

Kirill Kaprizov has been Mr. Excitement for a team that earned the reputation of being a fairly dull team. The 2021 Calder Trophy winner is one of the key reasons the Wild are one of the better teams in the league, scoring over 95 points twice in his young career.

Mikko Koivu was the longest-tenured player for the team in its history. The longtime Wild captain played 1,028 games for the franchise, scoring 205 goals and 709 points before ending his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon have spent their entire careers with the Wild. Spurgeon, the team’s current captain, has played 15 years with the team, has played 899 games for the Wild, while Brodin has appeared in 833 games.

Nicklas Backstrom was, at one point, one of the more underrated netminders in the NHL. In nine seasons with Minnesota, he posted a 194-142-50 record with a 2.48 goals-against average, a .915 save percentage and 28 shutouts. Backstrom and Manny Fernandez won the Jennings Trophy in 2006-07 after giving up a league-low 176 goals.

The Second Team features two guys who infamously came to St. Paul at the same time. Ryan Suter and Zach Parise signed massive 13-year contracts together (that would’ve ended this year) in 2012, giving the team some needed star power. Though it didn’t bring any team success, it sure gave the team some excitement.

Joel Eriksson Ek, unquestionably one of the top two-way players in the league today, has played 524 games over his career in Minnesota, scoring 287 points over that span. Andrew Brunette helped put the Wild on the map when his overtime goal in Game 7 of the first round of the 2003 playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche gave the team its first series win, effectively ending Patrick Roy’s career.

Nick Schultz was the second-ever player drafted by the Wild, and went on to play 743 games for the team. Devan Dubnyk was a big part of the franchise’s return to prominence in the mid-2010s, earning the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2015.