3 Minnesota Wild Players Who Could Regress in 2026-27

The NHL offseason is finally starting to come to an end as training camps will be starting up in about a week and a half. The Minnesota Wild have yet to make any news regarding Quinn Hughes, but they do still have time. Since free agency, they haven’t done too much to bring in any other players, so their roster remains the same with the exception of the free agency additions and losses. 

We already looked at their roster for players who could be breakout candidates, and now it’s time to do the same for the opposite type: players who may be regression candidates. As much as teams want everyone to be successful, there are always players who struggle through the season. In this article, we’ll take a look at which players may regress this season compared to last. 

Spurgeon’s Already Regressed

Unfortunately for the Wild, while their captain Jared Spurgeon is still a strong leader, his points have already started to head in the wrong direction. It’s important to remember he is one of their elder players, with the oldest distinction going to Nick Foligno, who is a couple of years older than Spurgeon. Throughout his career, Spurgeon’s had trouble staying healthy, with a lot of it being due to his smaller size and being on the receiving end of big hits. 

Those injuries have also contributed to his up-and-down point totals; however, at 36 years old, his age is playing a factor as well. Last season he dropped 10 points despite playing 13 more games, and it wouldn’t be surprising if his point totals take another hit this coming season. As a defenseman, he’s not expected to contribute a lot of points, but he exceeded expectations and produced decently during the peak of his career. 

As much as the Wild wish he would go in the opposite direction and continue to register quite a few points, the reality is his career is nearing its end. Although something that is interesting about the last few seasons is that while he’s had issues keeping his points going, his hits and blocked shots haven’t dropped; they’ve increased. If he can keep that up, the point regression isn’t so difficult to take, but unfortunately his defensive skills will likely follow suit as well. It’ll be something to keep an eye on this season as he enters the final season of his contract. 

Gustavsson’s Surgery Question Mark

As hard as it is to accept, players aren’t the same after they’ve had to undergo surgery, and that means Filip Gustavsson. The Wild’s goaltender had to have hip surgery during the offseason, and it’s unclear whether he’ll miss the start of the season as was originally thought or not. Regardless, when he does return to action, he’ll likely face some regression at least at first. 

Any time someone comes back from surgery, there’s bound to be some adjustment issues as they get back into the swing of things, and the same goes for hockey, especially goaltenders. The bigger question is how long the regression lasts, and whether Gustavsson can bounce back or will continue to falter. 

Since he joined the Wild back in 2022-23, he has yet to have a season under .500, although he has come close with a 20-18-4 season back in 2023-24. So even though Gustavsson may regress from his previous stats, it may not be too bad if he regresses only a little. However, there’s not a lot of room for error, and the Wild will need him to fight any regression that tries to creep in. 

Trenin’s Impressive Physicality

Yakov Trenin struggled to impress during his first season with the Wild, but he came back ready to redeem himself the following season. He did so in a big way that will make it almost impossible for him not to regress. He set a pretty high number in hits with 413, nearly 200 more hits than the previous season and a difficult number to obtain more than once. 

Not that it can’t be done, but there’s likely to be some regression, especially after he suffered an injury during last postseason, although he did return relatively quickly. However, whenever a player throws that many hits, it puts strain on the body, and it can be difficult to stay healthy. He found a way to do it last season, but can he keep it up?

No one would be upset with a little regression in hits, especially if he can keep playing the way he did last season. He was faster both with his skating and his mental game, which really helped his team out. Hopefully, if he does regress, it’s only a little bit, and he can get his game back on track, but he’ll have to continue to focus on having a strong mental game if that’s the case. 

Of course, best case scenario is that none of these players regress, but realistically at least one, if not all of them, will face some sort of regression, and possibly others will join them. It’ll be interesting to see which players find a way to breakout, which players fall back into regression, whether we were right in our choices for those players, and if the Wild can find success.