{"id":467688,"date":"2026-02-14T05:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/467688\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T05:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:54:10","slug":"the-wild-should-see-the-david-jiricek-project-through-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/467688\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild Should See the David Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek Project Through – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek<\/a> has had to be patient.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSince requesting a trade<\/a> out of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, the sixth overall pick of the 2022 Draft has yet to carve out a spot during his 15 months with the Minnesota Wild. Unfortunately, he’s had to be patient in getting his first point for the 2025-26 season. With 25 games and 292 minutes, Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek has had the most playing time without a point in the NHL.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wild knew they were signing up for a project when they traded Daemon Hunt<\/a>\u00a0— who they’ve since re-acquired<\/a> — last year’s first-round pick, this year’s third-and-fourth-rounders, and 2027’s second to grab Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek. Despite his immense talent, Minnesota limited him to six NHL games, preferring that he rebuild his skating in the AHL and over the summer.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAt age-22, Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek needs more reps, although he has played in 17 AHL games. Still, issues with his decision-making have the Wild in a bind. When John Hynes puts Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek on the ice, a lot of pucks get directed at Minnesota’s net. Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek ranks 236th of 237th among defensemen with 200-plus minutes with 3.60 expected goals allowed per hour. It’s hard to blame Hynes on this one.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota is in win-now mode, and Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek is probably the piece who is the most awkward fit. The Wild could likely use an upgrade over Zach Bogosian<\/a>, or even someone to push Jared Spurgeon<\/a> for minutes. As a project player, the Wild can’t count on Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek for that this year, so where does that leave him?\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOne option is for Guerin to cut losses and retain some value by flipping Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek for either a player who can help win now or an asset that can be used as currency to acquire that player. The Athletic’s Michael Russo has recently noted<\/a>\u00a0the Nashville Predators’ interest during the Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek sweepstakes in November 2024.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wild have preached patience with\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek so far.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Everyone wants to fast-track guys, and it\u2019s hard,” Wild director of player development Brad Bombardir<\/a> told<\/a> Russo and Joe Smith in January. “He\u2019s going to be a tremendous player for us. I have no problem with him at all. I know internally we\u2019re extremely happy with him.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis trade deadline is going to be a litmus test for how honest those words are. Minnesota wants to be active at the trade deadline, and they’d surely like to retain young center Danila Yurov<\/a> and goaltender Jesper Wallstedt<\/a>. If\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek is a path to getting help without sacrificing either of those pieces, it’s got to be tempting.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the potential long-term reward of\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek is higher than scooping up a second-rounder, or maybe even a late first. He’s at a point in his development where the focus is on working through his weaknesses, but we can’t forget his strengths.\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek stepped into the AHL at age-18 and immediately put up 38 points in 55 games for the Cleveland Monsters during the 2022-23 season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThat winter, he was named Best Defenseman at the World Junior Championships. That tournament included future Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson<\/a>, Luke Hughes<\/a>, and Brandt Clarke<\/a>. We’re three years past that tournament now, for sure, but\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek remained productive in the AHL until the point he got to the Wild organization. That offense is still there.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHe just has to get things in his own zone in order and cut down on the plays that go against him before we can see it. Offense starts in the defensive zone, and unless you’re on the top power play — which\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek won’t be, given Quinn Hughes<\/a>‘ presence — points can’t come to a defenseman without quick decisions that lead to clean breakouts.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn theory, the support should be there. 1,000-game veteran Alex Goligoski<\/a> has been mentoring Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek<\/a> behind the scenes, and Iowa Wild head coach Greg Cronin has had success developing young blueliners. Jackson LaCombe<\/a> experienced significant growth during his age-23 and 24 seasons under Cronin, and he’s helped develop highly touted players like Pavel Mintyukov<\/a> and Olen Zellweger<\/a> into the NHL.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe process has been longer than fans perhaps expected, or than the organization needs it to be. Still, it’s no less worthwhile. The need Minnesota has on the right side isn’t going away. Bogosian is set to become a UFA, and it’d be wise to let him walk. Spurgeon is slowing down<\/a> in his age-36 season, has one year remaining on his contract, and must prepare for life without the top-four defenseman.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOther than fellow Czech David Spacek<\/a>, there’s little in the Wild’s defense pipeline on the right side, and they may find themselves with two holes to fill.\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek still represents the highest upside option for the Wild to affordably fill out the right side of their top-four.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wild paid full freight to get\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek because of his unique traits as a defenseman. It’s tough to find right-shot defensemen, harder to find ones with the shot and skill\u00a0Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek possesses, and nearly impossible to find that in a 6-foot-4 frame. Sticking with him might be a risk, and it might not help the team this spring, but it feels more worthwhile than selling him for mere dimes on the dollar.\n<\/p>\n

\n Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we’ll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek has had to be patient. Since requesting a trade out of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[183717,4828,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-467688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-david-jiricek","9":"tag-minnesota-wild","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}