With the 2026 Winter Olympics underway, the NHL is officially on a break until Wednesday night, Feb. 25, when games will get back underway. The Wild’s final game before the break was an overtime win over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, Feb. 4. It was an up-and-down game as the Wild jumped to a lead but gave it up and then had to come from behind to finally get the win.
Although there are no Wild games this week, they do have eight players participating in the Olympics who have games coming up this week. Here are a few storylines to follow for the week of Feb. 9 – Feb. 16.
Wild Represented Strongly
Of course, the major headlines for men’s hockey at the Olympics will be about Team Canada and Team USA, both of whom just announced their respective captains in Sidney Crosby for Canada and Auston Matthews for USA. The Wild don’t have any players on Team Canada, but they do have players on Team USA, Sweden, and Germany.
Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, and Quinn Hughes are on USA, Joel Eriksson Ek, Filip Gustavsson, Marcus Johansson, and Jesper Wallstedt are on Sweden, and Nico Sturm is on Germany. USA and Germany are in the same group, so they will play each other in the preliminary round on Sunday, Feb. 15, but Sweden is in another group and will not see USA or Germany until the later rounds if they all make it through.
Wild Needed Rest
Every team in the NHL has been busy with this compressed schedule, but now with the Olympic break, many players will get the rest they desperately need. Of course, every sports schedule comes with its difficulties, and these players are used to playing a lot, but it was easy to tell these players needed a break.
The Wild had quite a few players who dealt with injuries already this season, and this break will give them the chance to try and heal as much as possible before returning for the final run towards the postseason. The two downsides to the break are too much rest for players, although it’s only a couple of weeks, taking vacations during the season can cause a little rust to develop in some cases. The good news is that it usually takes only a couple of games before they’re back to their normal level of play.
The other downside is the Olympic players won’t get as much rest as their teammates who stayed home. While it’s an honor for the Olympic players to play for their countries, it’s also risky because those players can also come back injured or even more fatigued than before. Even though they are used to playing at such a high level, getting a small break can be very beneficial. Hopefully, the players will come back healthy and with some rest so they can play at a high level for the Wild, as well.
Wild Do & Don’t Have Time
Ever since the Wild made the trade to get Quinn Hughes, everyone’s been talking about how they’re one move away from being a team that competes for it all. Before the break, many were throwing Jesper Wallstedt’s name around in trade rumors, and although nothing happened prior to the break, afterwards could be a different story.
Related: A Minnesota Wild Fan’s Guide to the 2026 Winter Olympics
When they return from the break, there will be just under two weeks until the trade deadline for the Wild to decide if they plan to deal Wallstedt or anyone else to try and nab that one last big piece. There have been several names tossed out there with Wallstedt, but nothing is for sure yet, and like Michael Russo said in The Athletic, Guerin is willing to be patient and doesn’t want to lose Wallstedt for just anyone, (from ‘Could Wild trade Wallstedt for Trochek? Or Thomas? Hughes? Hischier? Tkachuk? Ask Russo and Smith’, The Athletic, Feb. 5, 2026).
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the teams return from the break, but it’s safe to say the Wild will be seeing what’s out there regardless of whether they decide to act on it or not. Hopefully, they come back from the break ready to keep the winning streak alive.
