Minnesota Wild fans disappointed in the on-ice impact made by Yakov Trenin last season were certainly not alone.
With his second Wild training camp underway, Trenin himself admits he was a disappointment, scoring seven goals and adding eight assists in 76 games – numbers that landed him on the fourth line for Minnesota’s first-round playoff series.
“No excuse. I’m fully responsible for my game, and I didn’t perform,” said Trenin, who signed a four-year, $14 million free-agent contract in 2024. “Try to bounce back this season.”
Those efforts included summer workouts that leave him noticeably slimmer, in some of the best shape of his career for the 28-year-old Russian.
“I obviously wasn’t happy with my last season and tried some different practices during the summer,” he said. “I worked with a power skating coach, tried to lose some weight to see how my body’s going to respond during the season. It’s stupid to do the same thing over and over again and hope for different results.”
The bright spot in Trenin’s first Wild season came in the playoffs, where he had a pair of assists and played a hard-charging brand of hockey.
“It’s more his style of game, I think, going on the forecheck,” said Marco Rossi, who centered Trenin’s line in the playoffs. “He’s physically really strong and wants to be forward on the forecheck.”
If the preseason opener was any indication, the offseason efforts are paying off. Trenin scored the Wild’s first and last goals in a 3-2 overtime win in Winnipeg,
He was one of the veterans who made the trip to Dallas for the second game of the preseason on Tuesday night.
Hynes has noticed Trenin’s revamped body, as well as a different attitude in the early days of camp.
“One of the big things in camp is you want to be able to build confidence as an individual player,” Hynes said. “For (Trenin) himself, I think it was important. Even though it is (preseason), he did score a couple goals, I thought he played really well. His line was very effective in the game, and he was a big part of that.”
As one of a quartet of Russian speakers on the team, Trenin has also taken rookie Danilla Yurov under his wing, serving as a guide for the ways of the NHL and a translator for the coach’s instructions when language is a barrier.
“I think he really just tried to deliver on his free-agent contract. That’s what guys do. They want to earn their money, and I think he got caught in that,” Wild general manager Bill Guerin of Trenin’s first year in Minnesota. “By the end of the year, I think he was just more comfortable (in knowing) ‘OK, this is my game. This is how I’m going to have success.’
“And when he played that way, he was really impactful for us,” Guerin said. “So hopefully that’s still kind of fresh in his mind, and he can kind of just pick up where he left off and be that imposing force on the forecheck and protect pucks and get to the net.”
Buium progressing
Summer was a nice break for Wild rookie defenseman Zeev Buium. Between this time last year and May 2025, he played a full season for the University of Denver, won a World Junior gold medal, won a World Championship gold medal in May and, in the midst of it all, signed his first pro contract and made his Wild debut in Vegas during the NHL playoffs.
He came back to TRIA Rink rested and ready to go, then suffered a setback almost immediately when he took a puck off the hand on the first day of training camp. That kept him out of practice for a few days. Although he did not make the trip to Texas for the Wild’s second preseason game, he was back practicing with the team on Tuesday.
“I didn’t think anything of it, then it just kind of swelled up. But everything’s good,” Buium said.
Hynes hinted that Buium might be ready to go for the Wild’s preseason home game Thursday versus Dallas.
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