All eyes will be on Kirill Kaprizov and Jack Eichel in the upcoming Western Conference series between the Minnesota Wild and the Vegas Golden Knights, which begins Sunday, April 20. The Wild had an up-and-down season and only clinched the final playoff spot with a 5-1 win over Utah Hockey Club on the last day. Vegas, on the other hand, won the Pacific Division for the fourth time in eight years.
The Golden Knights are the clear favorites, but with Kaprizov in the lineup, the Wild are the definition of a wild card.
Projected Lineups for Minnesota Wild vs. Vegas Golden Knights
Golden Knights center Jack Eichel had a franchise-best 94-point season, scoring 28 goals and adding 66 assists in 77 games. That includes 34 power-play points and strong penalty-kill play. His name is in the mix for both the Hart Trophy as league MVP and the Selke Trophy for top defensive forward.
For the Wild, Matt Boldy led the team with 73 points on 27 goals and 46 assists in all 82 games. Kaprizov added 25 goals and 31 assists despite missing 40 games with a lower-body injury that required surgery. Minnesota was 21-10-4 before his injury, but went 21-19-3 while he was out.
Veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury could also be a key player. He was part of the Golden Knights’ team that reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2018.
“With this particular team, I just really, really enjoy coaching them. There’s a lot of heart, there’s a lot of character, there’s a lot of characters,” Wild coach John Hynes said via NHL.com. “It’s fun to come to the rink every day and have the opportunity to coach them and I just appreciate the way that they work and their ability to be coached. Now we’ve got to continue to push forward.”
Golden Knights Projected Lineup
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Brandon Saad — Tomas Hertl — Pavel Dorofeyev
Brett Howden — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith
Tanner Pearson — Nicolas Roy — Keegan Kolesar
Defensemen
Nicolas Hague — Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin — Zach Whitecloud
Goalies
Adin Hill, Ilya Samsonov
Scratched:
Ben Hutton, Kaedan Korczak, Victor Olofsson, Cole Schwindt
Injured:
None
Wild Projected Lineup
Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson — Frederick Gaudreau — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno — Marco Rossi — Gustav Nyquist
Yakov Trenin — Ryan Hartman — Justin Brazeau
Defensemen
Jacob Middleton — Brock Faber
Jonas Brodin — Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill — Zach Bogosian
Goalies
Filip Gustavsson Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched:
Vincent Hinostroza, Declan Chisholm, Zeev Buium
Injured:
None