Wild 2025-26 Report Cards: Zach Bogosian

The Minnesota Wild have entered the third week of their offseason, the same week that the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vegas Golden Knights will start their battle for the Stanley Cup. As that battle gets underway, Wild report cards will continue as well. Their goaltenders have been given their grades already, and the latest report card was the first of the Wild’s defensemen, Daemon Hunt. 

Now it’s time for another defenseman, veteran Zach Bogosian, who was paired with Hunt at times through the season. He’s been with the Wild for the past three seasons and has made himself a solid presence on their blue line. In this article, we’ll take a look at his performance through the regular season and the playoffs, starting with his rough regular season. 

Wild’s Bogosian Injury Struggles 

The Wild brought in Zach Bogosian, knowing he would have an impact on their defense, and he has. This past season, however, was a bit of a struggle with all of the injury issues he had that caused him to miss a good chunk of the season. He played in 41 out of 82 games and contributed just six points offensively. 

He’s not known for being a big contributor with scoring, but his main priority is defense. He’s a stay-at-home defenseman and usually patrols in front of the net, which is why he had 37 blocks shots in his 41 games played. Like several of his teammates, he wasn’t afraid to throw his weight around with 47 hits. 

The problem with blocking shots is that it increases the chance of injury, and Bogosian was a victim of that at least once this season. Again, he was an impact player when he was in the lineup, but he did miss half the season due to injuries. His grade is a little difficult to come up with since he missed that many games, but when he did play, he contributed to the lineup. 

Knowing he’s more of a stay-at-home defenseman, it’s important to put more weight on his defensive stats than his offensive because that’s where everyone expects him to be. After looking over his stats and factoring in his injuries, he earned a B for the regular season. 

While a C is average, he played slightly above average when he was in the lineup, and he did what he could defensively. It wasn’t higher because, of course, the Wild could’ve used more from him when he was playing, and there’s room for improvement as every player has room for in their play. There was a very slight part that also accounts for the amount of time he was injured, and the Wild needed to find someone to put in his place. While he can’t always help when he’s injured, the team also needs someone on the ice for more than half a season if they can. 

Bogosian’s Quiet Postseason

Bogosian hasn’t been one to put up a lot of points over his career, and the same goes for the postseason, especially the one he just participated in. He played in nine of the Wild’s 11 playoff games; he missed the other two due to injury. The majority of players aren’t 100 percent by the time they make it to the postseason, and that was clear with Bogosian as he missed Game 2 against the Colorado Avalanche and went on to miss Game 5 as well. 

In the nine games he did play, he didn’t have any points, but he did step up defensively again, with eight blocked shots and 10 hits. He contributed what he could, especially in the series against the Dallas Stars, where all eight of his blocks came from, as he didn’t register any against the Avalanche. 

The postseason was relatively short for the Wild, and although he once again didn’t have a huge impact offensively, Bogosian did make an impression defensively. All of that went was considered for his grade, and after looking everything over, he earned a B+. He earned a slightly higher grade for the postseason because everything is more important during that time of the season, and his contributions defensively helped his team get past the Stars.

Although he struggled against the Avalanche, the entire team did, and he missed two of their five-game series. The Wild could’ve used him in those games, but again, they did what they could with what they had, including Bogosian. 

Bogosian’s Overall Grade

After going through his regular season performance, where he earned a B, and then the postseason, where he earned a B+, when combining those two grades, he earned a low B+/high B. He played above average when he was in the lineup, but he missed a lot of time that the Wild needed him for. 

His grade could’ve been lower, but he deserves a little slack for the injuries he had to deal with, and his defense was his top priority, as was expected. It would’ve been great if he could’ve produced more offense, but that’s not his style, and he did what was expected of him and then some when it came to blocked shots. 

Bogosian is currently 35 years old, but he’ll be 36 going into next season, and he’s currently an unrestricted free agent (UFA). It’s hard to say if the Wild will bring him back or not, with how many UFA’s they have to think about bringing back, and with his age, he’s probably not near the top of their list after Quinn Hughes. 

If he is brought back, it’ll likely be for one year, near the league minimum, unless he elects to leave. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this offseason as the Wild have a lot of decisions to make, and whether Bogosian will be able to improve his grade next season.