The Minnesota Wild’s season ended less than a week ago, which means it’s time for report cards. This season, the first players to receive their grades will be the newest members of the lineup, Justin Brazeau and Gustav Nyqvist.
Their respective grades will be broken down by regular-season performance, playoff performance, and overall grade. Since they came at the trade deadline, they didn’t play enough to warrant a full report each, so they will share. We’ll start with their regular-season performance with the Wild only, not their previous teams, and move on from there.
Brazeau & Nyquist Unimpressive in Regular Season
Brazeau was likely the most questionable acquisition the Wild have made in the past few seasons. While his size is impressive, the rest of his play was not, at least not in the regular season. He recorded one goal and one assist for two points in his 19 games played and only 11 shots on goal. His lone goal was the game-winner in their 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in late March.
However, his size made up for some of his offensive production, as he threw 34 hits over that time. He did have 10 giveaways and four takeaways, which definitely could’ve been better but also worse.
Switching to Nyquist, his regular season wasn’t much better, especially after his 75-point season in 2023-24. In his 22 games played, he had two goals and five assists for seven points. He did have 32 shots on goal, which was a small bright spot. He also had 15 hits and eight blocked shots, but the most crucial part of his game was being on the penalty kill, which was even more important in the postseason.
Brazeau & Nyquist Interesting Postseason
Brazeau somehow improved his game when the postseason came around. He didn’t produce much, but he did assist on two big goals in the playoffs. His presence was noticed, and although he made some mistakes, he proved he could contribute more than others in the lineup. His physical side continued in the postseason as he threw 22 hits, and while not all of them were important to the play, some helped him pick up those two assists. He recorded only one blocked shot, one giveaway, and one takeaway.
Nyquist, on the other hand, will likely only be remembered for one play in this past postseason, and that was his inability to stay onside when Ryan Hartman scored in Game 5. In his exit interview, Nyquist said he couldn’t see the puck and should’ve dragged his foot.
“Yeah, for sure, obviously it’s an unfortnate play, at the end of the day it’s on me to stay onside there and from my view, there’s a guy in between, I can’t really see the puck and I was not sure it was over the line obviously, and it wasn’t so obviously that’s unfortunate…,” said Nyquist on his ability to see the puck. That play will likely haunt him for some time and it did affect his grade slightly.
Brazeau & Nyquist’s Overall Grades
Now that we’ve looked at their impact during the regular season and the playoffs, it’s time to release their grades. Brazeau’s grade is a C-, and I’m sure many will think that is too high, but it’s essential to put into perspective what was expected of Brazeau. Many were disappointed he didn’t do better, but he fulfilled his physical side of things, which is why his grade and playoff performance weren’t lower. On the flipside, he was expected to do more in front of the net, and he lacked in that area, which explains his grade.
Nyquist had higher expectations, so his grade is a D+. He had zero points in the postseason, and he was expected to be a lot more involved. The offside call is only a small part of his grade, and it had to be factored in because it affected the team’s outcome in a play where he admitted fault. His grade isn’t lower because he contributed to the penalty kill, which had to account for something, even if it was minimal.
Related: 4 Takeaways From the Wild’s 3-2 Loss to the Golden Knights in Game 6
These two players will likely be among the lowest-graded on the team. They were traded to the team in hopes of helping, and they didn’t do as much as hoped. The Wild will likely move on from these two and they should after this lack of performance in both the regular season and the postseason. Hopefully, whatever team they are on next season, they’ll contribute more.
