Faith in Wild’s Bill Guerin, John Hynes? Season predictions? Fan survey results, Part 2

In Part 1 of The Athletic’s annual Minnesota Wild fan survey, we broke down polling on questions regarding the team’s quiet offseason, future captain, Kirill Kaprizov’s linemates and a potential trade for Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin.

On to Part 2, with questions regarding the team’s future, predictions for the 2026-27 season and, of course, a certain opposing fanbase.

Which of these young players do you think is most likely to have a breakout season in 2026-27?

4,667 votes

Joe Smith: Danila Yurov’s paying off on these expectations would be a great development for the Wild, either from a roster perspective or as a potential trade chip.

For Yurov to break out, he would likely have to improve on his faceoffs, which were an issue throughout his rookie season. The Wild do believe there’s more offense in Yurov, who had 12 goals and 27 points in 73 games, so a step up in production could enhance his role.

Low-risk, high-reward offseason acquisition Maxim Shabanov’s getting support here is another sign of the hope within the fanbase. The Wild lost 150 points from last season in Marcus Johansson, Vladimir Tarasenko and Mats Zuccarello, and so far they’ve added just Blake Coleman and Shabanov up front, so the Russian winger’s hitting would be a big deal.

Hunter Haight looked like an NHL player during his call-ups last season but would probably have to blow people away in camp to crack the opening night roster.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “cool as a cucumber” and 5 being “freaking out,” what’s your level of concern for the future given the number of picks and prospects the Wild have traded?

4,678 votes

Michael Russo: Fans are starting to get concerned, and they have a right to be. The Wild, after four years of buyout penalties, have been aggressive now the constraints are off. They went from having one of the top prospect pools in the league to, well, not in a span of two years. And we’ve seen how that hurt them this offseason, because Yurov and Charlie Stramel, at least so far, haven’t moved the needle in a potential trade for Larkin.

And who could blame the Wings for saying no? The Wild don’t even know yet what Yurov or Stramel can become, so why would Detroit part with its No. 1 center for them? Wild general manager and president of team operations Bill Guerin has put all his eggs into winning now, but that puts pressure on this organization to actually win because if some of these kids don’t pan out, and if Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber and others can’t lead the franchise to its first Stanley Cup, the check could come due if the Wild don’t start replenishing their prospect pool.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being least confident and 5 being most confident, how confident are you in John Hynes as head coach?

4,677 votes

Smith: Hynes gets good support here, and for good reason. He did just lead the Wild to their first playoff series victory in a decade, so there’s that.

But the big question here is whether the Wild brass believes Hynes can take a contending team over the top. And it’s fair to have some hesitance, as that was Hynes’ only playoff series win in his career (11-25 postseason record).

Hynes is likely to be extended before the start of this season, which is the last year of his current deal. Guerin was effusive in his praise of Hynes, talking up how detailed he is and how good he is at messaging. Hynes isn’t a flashy or rah-rah speaker, but players say he’s a strong communicator, is detailed and gets them prepared. This is the highest expectation for a team Hynes has ever coached at the NHL level, so there’s going to be some pressure.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being least confident and 5 being most confident, how confident are you in Guerin as president and general manager?

4,675 votes

Russo: The majority continues to be bullish on Guerin, the reigning GM of the Year in the NHL, and his ability to lead this team to that elusive Stanley Cup. The reality is last year’s Hughes trade moved the needle in a giant way for this franchise. Trading for Hughes was the kind of franchise-altering move fans love and reinforced the idea Guerin will swing for the fences, and Hughes validated the confidence in his play in Minnesota and at the Olympics.

The Wild also finally won a playoff round. Guerin locked up Kaprizov. He has a solid foundation with Kaprizov, Hughes, Boldy, Faber and Joel Eriksson Ek — and Boldy, Eriksson Ek and Faber are on sweetheart deals. Guerin navigated the dead-cap years without tearing things down to the studs.

Now, can he get Hughes extended and turn the roster from a second-round team into a Cup winner? Or did he give up too much of the future for Hughes? Can he find that other impact forward, preferably a center? The jury’s out for some.

How many goals will Kaprizov score this season?

4,674 votes

Smith: Somewhere in the 40s seems like a pretty safe bet for Kaprizov, who has scored at least 40 goals in four of his six seasons with the Wild — the other two being the COVID-19-shortened season and 2024-25, when he missed half the season because of injuries.

What will be interesting is how Kaprizov adjusts to life after Zuccarello, and what kind of chemistry he’ll have with one or two potential new linemates, but Kaprizov is such an elite player, he won’t  have a drop-off.

How many goals will Boldy score this season?

4,675 votes

Smith: Guerin has said he believes Boldy could score 50 goals and notch 50 assists in the same season, and Boldy came through with a career-high 42 goals this past season in 76 games. He’s becoming a true superstar, and his highlight-reel, clutch goal in the Olympic gold medal game was another example, so the confidence here he’ll score between 40 and 49 goals seems reasonable.

It certainly wouldn’t be surprising if Boldy cracks 50, depending on how well he meshes with a tweaked line (perhaps Coleman replacing Johansson?).

How many points will Hughes score this season?

4,670 votes

Russo: Fans have big expectations for Hughes. And, hey, it makes sense if you extrapolate what they watched after the December trade. Hughes scored 53 points in 48 games with Minnesota — a 93-point pace if he maintained it over this coming season’s 84-game schedule — before adding 15 points in 11 playoff games. He also had at least one assist in every game of the Olympics and scored the overtime winner in the quarterfinals against Sweden.

Hughes hit the 92-point mark in 2023-24 with the Canucks, so 100 wouldn’t be an unprecedented leap, especially considering so much of the Wild’s offense runs through him. He led the league in ice time last season and should pile up plenty of points on a power play with Kaprizov, Boldy and Eriksson Ek.

How many standings points will the Wild earn this season?

4,663 votes

Russo: The Wild earned 104 points last season, finishing third in the Central and the West. Most fans are expecting a repeat, despite the loss of 150 points in Zuccarello, Tarasenko and Johansson.

One likely big reason is a full season of Hughes, plus obviously Kaprizov and Boldy. Not many teams in the league have three bona fide superstars, so the high end is formidable. The defensive foundation, if healthy, is excellent. If Jesper Wallstedt can repeat his play from last season, they should be strong in net. Coleman and Olli Maatta should improve the penalty kill.

Still, this feels like an unsettled lineup. It’s not even obvious which forwards will start the season on the top line to the right of Kaprizov. The Wild will need big seasons from the likes of Shabanov and Bobby Brink and vast improvement from Yurov.

What’s a reasonable expectation for the Wild’s season?

4,675 votes

Russo: How times have changed.

A year ago, winning a playoff round for the first time since 2015 would have qualified as a breakthrough season for the Wild. Apparently, doing it once was enough for fans to immediately raise the bar. Nearly 46 percent of you now think reaching the Western Conference final is a reasonable expectation — and 57.4 percent expect at least that much. Only 12.3 percent, meanwhile, believe missing the playoffs or bowing out in the first round would be reasonable.

There’s still some restraint here. Only 3.4 percent of you say winning the Stanley Cup should be the expectation. But the message is pretty unmistakable. With Hughes joining the Wild core for a full season, fans no longer seem satisfied merely to see this team in the playoffs.

How satisfied are you with the Wild’s plan to stream games along with a linear plan of having games on cable and some over the air?

4,608 votes

Russo: Compared with the Wolves, the vast majority of Wild fans seem to be satisfied with the Wild’s plans, which were loosely announced in July.

The team’s plan is to be linear, so though there will be a local streaming option, games are still expected to be found on cable/satellite if that’s your desire, and some will even be broadcast over the air.

The reality is the Wild should have more eyeballs on them this season compared with the last few.

How obnoxious are New Jersey Devils fans?

4,626 votes

Russo (who spent a large part of his childhood in Summit and Verona, N.J.): For some reason, Devils fans seemed to know my always professional colleague, Joe Smith, had nothing to do with this question.

OK, OK, I get it. This one might have been a little gratuitous.

For any Devils fans who stumbled upon our innocent little Wild fan survey and didn’t appreciate being used as the punchline of the final question, my apologies. This was intended as some good-natured trolling, not a declaration of war on the great state of New Jersey.

And, yes, I recognize there might have been some flaws in the methodology. Asking 4,626 Wild fans to objectively assess the obnoxiousness of Devils fans probably wouldn’t survive peer review.

But allow me to explain myself.

For months now, seemingly every time I’ve reported anything about Hughes — what he’s thinking, what the Wild are thinking, what his agent is thinking, where contract talks stand, what I’ve heard and sometimes even what I haven’t heard — my mentions and replies are immediately flooded by hundreds of Devils fans. Some are funny. Some are good-natured. Some are genuinely interested in the reporting. And some seem to believe I am personally negotiating Hughes’ next contract, holding him hostage in Minnesota and actively preventing him from fulfilling his lifelong destiny of playing with his brothers in Newark.

I can assure you: I have considerably less influence over Quinn Hughes’ future than some of you apparently believe.

And after weeks of being called an idiot, a liar, a homer and various other things unsuitable for publication by a small but extremely dedicated segment of the Devils fanbase, I decided to have a little fun with the final question of our survey.

Apparently, our readers were happy to participate.

Nearly 61 percent rated Devils fans either “incredibly obnoxious” or “beyond obnoxious,” although I should emphasize that 100 percent of the available choices technically classified Devils fans as obnoxious. Again, we might have some sampling issues here.

So, Devils fans, consider this my mea culpa. I know the lunatic fringe on social media doesn’t represent an entire fanbase. Wild fans have their share, too. Every fanbase does, and I completely understand why the possibility of Quinn’s someday joining Jack and Luke has become such an irresistible topic in New Jersey.

But if you’re one of the hundreds of people who have spent the summer screaming at the Wild beat writer every time he reports Quinn might actually like Minnesota and feels a sense of loyalty to his USA Hockey GM, who gave up a boatload to acquire him when he wanted out of Vancouver, I reserve the right to believe the poll wasn’t entirely without merit.

All in good fun.

Mostly.