Which depth players have stood out for Wild?

The Minnesota Wild are heading to the second round to take on the Colorado Avalanche after vanquishing the Dallas Stars in six games.

While the continued rise to stardom of Matt Boldy, the impact acquisition of all-world defenseman Quinn Hughes, and the steadiness of rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt have been the dominant story out of St. Paul, players up and down the roster are making impactful contributions that have helped shape the identity of this team.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Seth Toupoal of Locked on Wild to break down why players like Yakov Trenin and Vladimir Tarasenko have helped set the tone in the bottom six.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Yes, you need your big guns to be your big guns, but to go on a long playoff run, supporting cast has to be huge. I mean, I saw that in Edmonton the last number of years, like if the supporting cast isn’t there, you’re not going very far. So who have been those guys in the first round for Minnesota lower in the lineup where maybe it’s not a goal a game or something like that, but they find ways to contribute and sort of form the identity of this team?

Seth Toupoal: I think Yakov Trenin has been a massive part of that. The leader in hits in the NHL for the regular season by a wide margin, but you know, it’s funny because when he was first acquired, a lot of people here in Minnesota just weren’t sure about the fit. You know, you have Marcus Foligno, do you really need multiple guys like that? And it was Barry Trotz who said he’s built for playoff hockey. And fans, I think, had their eyes opened last year against Vegas. He was a very key part in just kind of setting the tone. That was on full display again in this series, and we saw how much he was missed when he came out of the lineup. You know, I was telling listeners like, yeah, as much of a loss as Mats Zucarello is in the lineup, don’t overlook missing Yakov Trenin, and when he came back, it seemed like that helped shore up that bottom six that really just, to a line, won their battles all series long. I mean, you had four bottom six goals from the wild in this series. Dallas had none. So they won those battles. They gave the Wild multiple lines that could win and could score… I was really happy to see Vladimir Teresenko score that goal in Game 6. I think he’s going to have more to say in round two, a guy with a ton of postseason experience. That’s why Billy [Guerin] brought him in. I think he’s going to be a bigger figure in round two, but just a bunch of guys that brought a lot of experience to the table this year.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…