ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two seasons ago, when hits were significantly down in the NHL, the league did a midseason audit, having a third party rewatch games and retabulate the hit totals for scores of players.

Ever since, the “hits” statistic, which can be subjective with off-ice officials in all 32 buildings, has been constantly monitored, audited during and after games and is, frankly, much more liberally recorded for players.

The Minnesota Wild’s defensemen could use even more help in the area. Through Sunday, the group ranked 24th in the NHL with 48 hits in 10 games — 49 behind the league-leading Vegas Golden Knights.

Now, we all know by now that the Wild have largely built their blue line based on mobility.

Zeev Buium is a world-class skater who looks like he’ll turn into an offensive star. Brock Faber is a world-class skater, and Jonas Brodin has the feet to spin out of trouble in a nanosecond and skates backward better than a lot of guys skate forward. Jake Middleton brings mobility and size, and Jared Spurgeon has great wheels.

But in a day and age where big blue lines seem to be the ones lifting the Stanley Cup in late June, it’s a bit worrisome that in 10 games, Faber has four hits, Buium two and Brodin and David Jiricek one each.

We asked Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin if the lack of physicality is a concern to him.

“It doesn’t matter if you hit and you’re no good,” Guerin said. “Hey, look, you’re right. But Middsy brings some of that. When (Zach Bogosian is) in, he brings some of that. But, yeah, you’re right. We have to be harder. But it’s very hard to find guys that can bring that and mobility.”

Even though the name of the game isn’t putting players through the glass, the lack of physicality exemplifies a problem we’ve seen with the Wild defense so far this season. Just look at the game against the Utah Mammoth. The Wild got into an immediate three-goal hole, then tried to mount a comeback, almost pulling it off. But to get back in it, Filip Gustavsson had to make 29 saves in a row with the high-danger chances severely in the Mammoth’s favor. It’s because they were having no issues getting to the inner slot and net front.

“I don’t think we’re closing hard enough, like on arrivals or in D zone, where they’re able to get from below the goal line, and they’re able to get out of some of those puck battles, or those battles we’re in,” coach John Hynes said. “That’s what, at times, can then open up, you know, whether maybe they move it low to high, it comes back down low, and then we’re not closing on that play, and then our wingers are coming back to the slot. You’ve got to get quicker.

“But when you’re not as hard as you need to be down low, some of those chances come up.”

Hynes said it “comes down to the hardness in those battles, whether that’s a hit or physicality or defensive-side positioning or stopping the man so there’s not a second play coming out of that — that there’s a hit and pin and you can get numbers to the puck and be able to get up and out.”

LOGAN COOLEY JUST SCORED AGAIN 🤯

He’s got five goals in his last four periods of hockey! pic.twitter.com/6x2c8saZXr

— NHL (@NHL) October 25, 2025

On one of Logan Cooley’s goals Saturday, Faber and Brodin were on the ice.

Brodin has never been a physical defenseman, but over the past few years, especially, he’s too often allowed players to get second and third swats at pucks because he’s trying to stick check rather than muscling a player off the puck or away from the goalmouth. In the past three years of the Wild’s penalty kill being ghastly, Faber’s been on the ice for 70 goals and Brodin for 55.

Faber’s built like a linebacker. You’d think he’d be more physical.

Same thing with Jiricek, who is 6-foot-4. Ryan Reaves’ goal Sunday night came after Jiricek barely attempted to win a board battle, stick checking rather than even trying to use his body — one of many battles he’s lost in the early going.

Ryan Reaves makes it 4-2 #TheFutureIsTeal! pic.twitter.com/m4dWvvez4l

— JD Young (@MyFryHole) October 26, 2025

So the one “hit” this season for Jiricek is indicative of a larger issue: not using his big frame to win battles in the dirty areas.

It’s not like the Wild expect Jiricek to suddenly become Chris Pronger, Scott Stevens, Adam Foote or Derian Hatcher on the ice. But they need a bit more physicality.

“You can’t try to turn somebody into that,” Guerin said. “Like, if they don’t have that in them, it’s not going to be natural. What you want them to do is be highly competitive and use the size to his advantage. We don’t need David to kill guys. If that’s in your nature, then OK. But if it’s not, if you try to change guys, you’re always going to be disappointed. So we just want David to use his size and be harder.”

Foligno respects the big hit

Marcus Foligno was getting ribbed in the Wild’s team group chat last week over the booming hit he took from Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider.

The open-ice collision just inside the blue line knocked Foligno to the ice and broke his stick in the process.

But Foligno didn’t try to fight Schneider. He laughed it off and gave him props. A heavy hitter himself, Foligno had respect for it.

“You know what, I got caught,” Foligno, who has since gotten injured, said two days after the win at Madison Square Garden. “I normally don’t get caught. I try to be a skilled player at certain situations. He baited me and got me. I’ve hit so many guys, and it’s one of those where you tip your cap. I wasn’t injured. It was all good. Just laugh it off and get back out there and take another run at each other.”

HIT STICK 💥 pic.twitter.com/8h6JRVZYgF

— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) October 20, 2025

There are times when even a clean and hard hit like Schneider’s will result in a fight or big scrum. Just look at Middleton against the Dallas Stars earlier this season. He nailed Matt Duchene with a good open-ice check and immediately drew an instigating penalty from Alex Petrovic and had to fight for the clean hit.

Alex Petrovic and Jacob Middleton go at it after Middleton laid a HUGE hit on Matt Duchene 🥊 pic.twitter.com/1MngqKQa3g

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 15, 2025

But Foligno said these kinds of hits — a shoulder to chest play on the puckhandler — should be celebrated, not criticized.

“It’s a physical game,” Foligno said. “That’s kind of a good play by him. Those hits have to be looked at as an example. … We’d rather have hits like that than the other way around with an elbow or something.”

Was that the hardest he has been hit in a while? Foligno smiled.

“(Joel Eriksson Ek) hit me the hardest in training camp last year,” Foligno said. “It was before camp started. (The Schneider) hit was nothing compared to when Ekker hit me. That’s all I’ll say.”

‘Uncle Eddie’

Foligno wore a patch on his helmet for Monday’s game in New York in honor of his late great uncle, Eddie Giacomin, a Hall of Fame goaltender who died in mid-September. He’ll also wear the patch for the Wild’s game in Detroit in April. The Red Wings and Rangers were the two teams Giacomin played for.

“Everyone talks about my dad, but we’ve got a lot of bloodlines on the other side, too,” Foligno said. “When I stepped into MSG for my first game, you’d look up and see Eddie Giacomin (jersey). My uncle has been to a lot of my games, especially when I was with Buffalo. They put him on the Jumbotron, and you hear the ‘Eddie! Eddie!’ chants. You’re like, ‘Whoa.’

“When I was young, I didn’t realize how big he was. Played before my time. And having the relationship I had with him, he was always around family reunions, family events. Good man and legendary goaltender.”

Hunt biding time

Prior to the season, the Wild didn’t feel Carson Lambos was ready for an NHL role. Veteran Jack Johnson didn’t earn a contract on a tryout. So in need of a left-shot defenseman as insurance if Buium wasn’t ready or Brodin or Middleton got hurt, the Wild plucked Daemon Hunt off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was especially necessary, the Wild felt, because Brodin was coming off offseason surgery.

But 10 games into the season, Hunt has yet to play a game. The Wild have not wanted to risk putting him on waivers to get him to AHL Iowa because the Blue Jackets could simply reclaim the defenseman and stick him on AHL Cleveland, provided none of the other 30 teams also put in a claim. Columbus would be the only team permitted to send him right to the minors, so it’d be an easy claim for them.

The problem is that Hunt not playing doesn’t help anybody. He needs to be getting reps to develop as a 23-year-old with only 13 NHL games under his belt. And if the Wild do suddenly need him, he’ll be rusty.

There could come a point where the Wild and Hunt agree to a 14-day conditioning stint in Iowa, but it’s the type of thing the NHL may not allow if it feels the Wild are doing so just to avoid placing him on waivers. There’s a note in the collective bargaining agreement that allows the league to investigate. Last season, the Oilers kept young defenseman Alec Regula on their roster all season without a conditioning stint or a single NHL game played, so it’s uncertain if the Wild would be permitted to go this route. If they ever got to the point of wanting to send him to Iowa, they would obviously check with the league and explain the circumstances.

Hynes would like to get Hunt in soon.

“We made lineup (decisions),” Hynes said. “It doesn’t mean that all the defensemen playing right now are going to play every single game. We’ve got to look to manage some of these young guys, back-to-backs, a lot of hockey, first time into it. It doesn’t mean that it would just be a young player. … It doesn’t mean that there’s no opportunity for him to play here. We may make the decision to have a guy take a night off.

“It’s not like the six guys that are playing, they’re locked and loaded no matter what. Hunt’s a good defenseman. He’s a good player. He’s another young player. So it doesn’t mean that he’s just going to be out all the time.”