2025 Stanley Cup Playoff Preview: Vegas Golden Knights vs. Minnesota Wild

Christmas, 2024. The Minnesota Wild are the fifth-best team in the NHL at 20-10-4. Kirill Kaprizov is the leading candidate for the Hart Trophy with 23 goals and 50 points in 34 games, on track to best his career-highs in both goals and points. Then, disaster. He gets hurt once and then again. Minnesota goes a mediocre 24-20-3 in his absence, scoring the fewest 5-on-5 goals in the league after that point. They back into a playoff spot.

Now he's back, and the Wild will challenge for the 2025 Stanley Cup with a healthy roster. Unfortunately, their reward for clinging to a playoff spot without their superstar is a date with one of the deadliest and consistent Cup contenders of the decade. 

A first round exit last year was not how the Vegas Golden Knights intended to defend their 2023 championsh