Now that the draft and free agency have come and gone for the most part, there will still be some signings happening, but it’s time to dive into some more offseason items. The Minnesota Wild report cards took a small pause for all the festivities this past week and a half, but they’re back, and we’ll continue with forward Marco Rossi. He’s been making headlines for the past few weeks as he’s been mentioned in nearly every team’s trade rumors, and now the Wild have made him an offer sheet.
It’ll be interesting to see where this goes from here. At first, it seemed like the Wild were ready to let him go, and they might still be, but for now, we’ll focus on his past performance with the team and wait to see what happens in the future. In this article, we’ll look at what he did in the regular season and the playoffs to come up with an overall grade for him, starting with the regular season.
Rossi Exceeds Expectations
He had a rough start in the NHL, but this past season he truly showed what he’s capable of and was an integral part of the roster, especially after all the injury issues they faced. Rossi bounced all over the lineup but spent quite a bit of time on the first and second lines, depending on who was playing that night. Through it all, he found ways to adapt to whichever line he was on and produced throughout the season.
He was one of the few players who stayed healthy all season and played in all 82 games. He registered 24 goals plus 36 assists for 60 points and only accumulated 26 penalty minutes. He was more aggressive, and his game style has become very similar to Joel Eriksson Ek. He’s a pest in front of the net, and that’s where many of his goals came from.
While he contributed on the offensive side, he didn’t forget his defensive priorities. He threw 62 hits but also had 41 blocked shots, which is also like Eriksson Ek’s game. However, an area that Rossi needs to improve is his 60 turnovers, but only 18 takeaways. He has to get a bit better at handling the puck and not allowing it to get taken away as much. Hopefully, as he continues to play and improve, that part of his game will as well.
Rossi’s Rough Playoffs
The regular season went well for Rossi, but the postseason was a different story. The Wild as a whole had a good run in the playoffs despite the difficult early ending, but his…
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