Wild GM Bill Guerin commits to naming the team's next captain in short order
News coming out of Minneapolis/St. Paul on Monday has the Minnesota Wild inching closer to naming the team's next captain, per NHL.com's Tom Gulitti, who received the update from Wild GM Bill Guerin himself.
With former Wild captain Mikko Koivu - who wore the "C" in Minnesota for the past 11 seasons - having signed in Columbus during this off-season, the team has a few prime candidates in mind to take on that responsibility, including a couple of veteran leaders in defenseman Ryan Suter and winger Zach Parise, who both currently wear an "A" for the club.
Despite those two players being the most likely candidates, Guerin has no shortage of options for the gig, with Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba also fitting the bill, but he has not tipped his hand or provided any other hints as to who might be next in line for the great honor of leading the team moving forward.
"We'll name a new captain and we'll move forward," Guerin said. "Big shoes to fill, but my personal belief is it's an important position to fill and you just don't want to leave the team in limbo."
Dumba is a particularly interesting candidate, especially given how highly Guerin seems to speak of the 26-year-old blueliner, who was a 50-point defenseman just two short seasons ago. One might find it odd to think that someone who had been in trade rumours as recently as this off-season could be considered to captain the team this season, however it would serve us all very well to realize that Guerin is not Paul Fenton or Chuck Fletcher.
"I'm prepared to start the season with him, and we really like that," Guerin said. "He's a good young player. He's got good energy. I love his competitiveness. Our defensive corps, I'll put them up against anybody's."
Though it's more likely that one of Parise or Suter wears the "C" next season, Dumba, a former top 10 draft pick (7th overall in 2012), is my dark horse in the conversation.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||