Marco Rossi keeps proving himself to Wild brass: 'I’m not looking to trade him'

Like the smart guy he is, Marco Rossi does his best to tune out the noise and stay off social media.

But trade rumors are always hard if not impossible to shield away.

“You always see that somewhere or you hear it from someone,” the Wild’s No. 1 center said. “So, of course, I would be lying if I say I didn’t hear anything about it. But I’m just trying to keep focus and know you can’t control these things. I try to control what I can control, and that’s how I go out there and play.”

Well, if Rossi, 23, continues to play the way he is and produce points on a team that’s often starved for skill and — to be blunt — drafted and developed centers, he’ll make it impossible for the Wild to trade him.

Rossi’s name has blown wildly in trade circles since the offseason. Actually, to be honest, a couple of offseasons.

One reason? The Wild continue to try to project his ceiling.

Is Rossi a true No. 1 center? A top-six center? Can he play middle-six if the Wild upgrade up the middle in free agency or prospect Danila Yurov turns out to be a bona fide star? Will his size – 5-foot-9, 185 pounds – preclude him from performing in the playoffs?

But after watching Rossi follow up his impressive rookie season by performing admirably on the top line for the majority of the first 35 games, it’s fair to say Wild management is starting to buy into what Rossi’s selling.

Asked point-blank last week if he’s talking to other teams about Rossi, Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin said sarcastically, “Not today.”

But he then turned serious, and while he added the caveat that any player can be traded if the deal makes sense, Guerin told The Athletic, “No, I’m not looking to trade him.”

“I’m very happy with Marco – oh my god, yeah,” Guerin said. “Just his pace of play, his engagement every night, he has been one of our best players. I think the biggest thing, too — and I know this is the hardest thing for young players — is his consistency. We were commenting last game, he’s one of our better net-front presence guys. And he’s not the biggest guy, but he stands in there and that’s why he’s getting rewarded. All his goals are from 10 feet and less. He’s doing all the right stuff.”

Guerin is bang-on.

According to NHL Edge, nine of Rossi’s 12 goals are from high-danger areas. That’s 95th percentile in the NHL. Thirty-one of his 60 shots are from high-danger areas (91st percentile).

This isn’t an aberration, either. Last season, 66 of Rossi’s 167 shots (87th percentile) and 14 of his 21 goals (85th percentile) came from high-danger areas.

(NHL Edge)

Two of those goals this season were game-tying goals in the final minute against Calgary and Utah to force overtime with an extra attacker on the ice. The one in Salt Lake City came in front of his Ottawa 67s coach, Andre Tourigny, the fourth-year coach of the Arizona Coyotes/Utah Hockey Club who has been one of the biggest influences in Rossi’s hockey career.

As much as the goal by Rossi stung Tourigny, he also had that proud papa sensation on Utah’s bench.

Tourigny called Rossi a “big-moment player.”

“There’s nothing to not like about Marco,” Tourigny said. “He’s the ultimate pro, character guy, no excuses. He’s dedicated to his craft. There’s nothing wrong about this guy. He’s elite defensively. He’s tuned in on faceoffs. You talk about soft skill and hard skill; he has a lot of hard skill. He is the same player I knew he would be in the sense that he’s so dedicated. Everybody at the time was talking about his size and his speed. I said, ‘Don’t worry, he’s on it.’”

After a 29-goal, 65-point rookie year with the 67s, Rossi scored 39 goals and 120 points in 56 games in his second season to become the first European to lead the OHL in scoring and the first European to lead the entire CHL in scoring since Alex Radulov (152 points) in 2005-06. He led the OHL with 81 assists and a plus-69 and was the second European import in OHL history to be named MVP. His 2.14 points per game ranked second in the CHL by one hundredth of a point behind the 2020 draft’s No. 1 overall pick, Alexis Lafrenière.

The Wild drafted Rossi with the ninth overall selection.

Rossi says he has adjusted his game since his junior stardom. After missing a year of hockey due to a heart ailment stemming from COVID-19, Rossi discovered quickly in 2022-23 that he wasn’t ready for the NHL. He tallied one assist in 19 games and was ultimately assigned to Iowa after Thanksgiving. He’d follow his 18-goal, 35-point rookie year in the AHL with 51 points in 53 games.

He realized if he planned to score in the NHL, he needed to get to the net more consistently.

A couple of weeks ago, linemate Mats Zuccarello joked he was no longer going to the net after missing a month with a ruptured testicle when struck by Brock Faber’s point shot.

Rossi kiddingly said, “Now that Zuccy’s not going there anymore, I know I have to do it all the time now.”

But in all seriousness, Rossi knows Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov like to play with the puck. “So if I don’t go there, nobody’s there, so I just try to force myself to go there more. And I’ve seen if I go there, you have some bounces and I’m good with tipping pucks and stuff and reading the play.”

In juniors, Rossi was the 67s’ Kaprizov. In other words, he was the driver. Everything went through him. He’d facilitate everything. The big adaptation he’s making playing alongside Kaprizov is learning to play with a facilitator rather than being one.

With 12 goals and 28 points in 35 games so far, after 21 goals and 40 points playing in all 82 games last season, Rossi is on pace for 28 goals and 66 points.

“He’s on pace to blow last year out of the water,” Guerin said.

Rossi ranked second in goals, tied for third in shots, tied for fourth in game-winning goals and fifth in points among all NHL rookies last season. Rossi and Faber joined Kaprizov as the only rookies in Wild history to have 40 points in a single season and Rossi became the second rookie in franchise history to record 20 goals (after Kaprizov).

As Tourigny said, Rossi is a total pro.

After the 2022-23 season in Iowa, Guerin suggested to Rossi that he should stick around Minnesota most of the summer to skate with skating and skills coach Andy Ness and work out with strength and conditioning coach Matt Harder. Rossi not only did just that, he also missed his sister’s wedding so he wouldn’t miss a single week.

Rossi says that was the turning point in his career. He got to skate with Kaprizov, Faber and other NHLers like Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, James van Riemsdyk, Blake Wheeler and Nic Dowd.

“Plus, just staying around here with the guys, it made me even more comfortable with the Minnesota guys,” Rossi said. “I would say that was the best decision I’ve made.”

So when coach John Hynes called him last summer and asked him to skip Austria’s 2026 Olympic qualifier, Rossi again obliged and returned to Minnesota rather than sticking around for the late August/early September round robin that Slovakia ultimately won.

If you know anything about Rossi, he is the ultimate pro.

He doesn’t drink alcohol. He eats impeccably. He works out incessantly. He’s not in the back of the plane playing cards with the fellas. He’s quiet, reserved and all about his family, girlfriend and devotion to his religion.


Marco Rossi looks down at his hometown of Rankweil, Austria, from the town’s stunning Catholic church. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)

In pro sports, that can sometimes make you an outsider with your teammates.

“But Marco’s just a good guy,” Guerin said. “He’s not the life of the party. He’s not a locker room comedian or anything, but he’s just … a good guy. And we have created a culture here that you can be yourself and you’re not going to get left out … as long as you’re a good guy.”

Marcus Foligno sure confirmed that.

“I’m really excited for Marco,” the Wild veteran said. “I’m just really happy that he’s turned out to be the center that this organization has kind of looked (for). Man, he just comes to work every day, sometimes without a smile on his face. You don’t want to compare him to Mikko (Koivu), but it’s a little bit like that.

“But you know what? He’s such a good kid. Everyone loves him in the room, and just to see him get those minutes, and then to be put in situations that as a young kid is overwhelming sometimes, but he’s taken off. He’s been a guy that can get you that game-tying goal, can play those hard minutes, those crucial minutes, where the game’s on the line, and he’s kind of Steady Eddie and calm, cool, collected, and makes good plays under pressure.”

Now Rossi’s worth ethic, hard work and — according to Hynes — self-evaluation skills are getting rewarded.

Earlier this season, Rossi may have been producing, but Hynes wasn’t thrilled with his overall game. Hynes dropped him in lines a few times, had a couple of meetings with him, gave him some tips. Then Rossi took ownership in his game.

Just like when he was sent to Iowa in 2022-23, as ticked as Rossi was about that at the time, he didn’t blame anybody else. He looked in the mirror and worked hard in the AHL to improve.

Well, as Hynes says, Rossi again took action this season.

“And now he’s been very consistent,” Hynes said. “I think he’s playing a fast game. I think he’s making plays when he has opportunities to. I’d say he’s probably one of our top two players that gets to the net front offensively, and he scores there. I think the competitive nature of the game that he needs to play with is all there, and it’s great to see, because that’s what you need.

“You want to be able to help guide the player into, ‘This is the foundation. These are the expectations that we need to see and the level you need to get to.’ He takes the information, he understands it, and then he takes it upon himself to continue to make those changes and make it consistent.

“He likes communication, likes some feedback. But the nice thing is you don’t have to overdo it with him. It’s not showing him clips all the time. It’s quick hits with him. And then he takes initiative to get going, whether that’s his off-ice training, his summer habits, his in-game, in-season play, and that’s why he’s really rounding out his game.”

He didn’t realize it at the time, but Rossi said the best thing for him two years ago was going back to Iowa.

“You have to take it like a man and just say, ‘OK, I have to get better in my game,’” Rossi said. “It was really important to go down there and just find my game. I trusted their process.”

The Wild are following the same development path with 2022 first-round pick Liam Ohgren, who’s just 20. He had no points in eight games for the Wild earlier this season. Now he’s in Iowa and has 10 goals and 15 points in 16 games. Yet instead of calling him up, the Wild are letting him bake.

Like Rossi, Ohgren needs to stay patient and accept the process.

“Just like Marco, Liam’s down there doing what he’s meant to do,” Guerin said. “If we kept him up here and kept playing him in the spots that we were, he was not going to be doing that up here. He just wasn’t. And that’s why it’s good for him. He’s confident, he’s getting the touches, he’s scoring the goals. And then at some point in time, he’ll be up here. But we don’t need to rush him.

“Even look at (2021 first-round pick Carson) Lambos. Lambos is playing really well. It takes time. Not everybody just jumps right in.”

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Marco Rossi ‘almost killed a horse’ and other tales, from Austria to the cusp of the NHL

Rossi is excited his second full season in the NHL is starting out as well as it is. It shows that his offseason hard work paid off just like the previous summer.

“I had a good rookie year, but for me, it was OK,” Rossi said. “Like, it was a good season, but I want to be better and I knew I still had to improve a lot and I did a lot of work in the summer, and I think the biggest thing is always confidence with me. I just try to keep getting better every day and then obviously playing with Zuccy and Kirill helps me a lot just to put my game to another level, and I just try to push myself every day and get better every day.”

Rossi is in the final year of his contract. He’s a pending restricted free agent with no arbitration rights.

As of now, unlike Matt Boldy in January 2023 when he signed a seven-year, $49 million extension, Guerin has no plans of extending Rossi’s contract in-season. He’s yet to discuss a new contract with Rossi’s agent, Ian Pulver.

It’s unknown if the salary cap for 2025-26 will be roughly $92.5 million or go as high as $97 million. Plus, since Kaprizov can be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026, preparing for an extension for Kaprizov after July 1 is top priority.

But, as of now, Guerin’s anticipating re-signing Rossi — not trading him — whether to a bridge deal or a long-term deal.

“There’s no rush or anything,” Guerin said. “No rush at all.”

While Rossi “100 percent” hopes to stay in Minnesota for the foreseeable future and says an extension “would obviously be nice,” he also says “my focus is just trying to keep helping the team win.”

That’s Guerin’s only focus, too.

He wants to see Rossi keep playing well and then prove himself in the playoffs, something he has yet to experience in the NHL.

“Well, we got to get there first,” Guerin said. “Look, we want Marco to just keep doing what he’s doing. Every year these guys gain experience. They figure it out a little bit more. You don’t get it instantly sometimes. You have to wait and let these guys go through their process. Marco keeps learning. He just plays. He never complains. He just keeps proving himself to us.

“I’m very happy with Marco. I’m proud of him.”

(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)



Sumber

ARTIKEL TERKAITDARI PENULIS