Mikael Granlund

Lore & Background

The Wild of the early 2010s were a team in search of an identity, and Granlund arrived in 2011 as a second-round pick with a reputation for speed and a temper that suggested he would never let a shift end quietly. His rookie and sophomore seasons were rough, but by 2013-14 he had found his gear, and the franchise began to orbit around his relentless two-way game. He was not the most decorated player on the roster, but he was the one fans pointed to when they said, 'That's our team.'

The 2015-16 season crystallized everything. Granlund was a top-ten young player in the league, his one-timer a weapon that defensemen learned to fear in the slot, his speed in transition a constant threat that forced opponents to play a full 200 feet. He carried the Wild's offense with a physicality and a competitive edge that felt almost personal, as though every faceoff was a private argument he intended to settle. The Xcel Energy Center crowd learned to read his body language: the head down, the stick dragging, the eyes locked on the opponent's back. That was Granlund saying he was not finished.

His departure in the 2019 trade to St. Louis landed like a punch. Fans who had watched him grow from a raw second-rounder into a franchise cornerstone felt the loss acutely, not because of a single statistic but because Granlund had become shorthand for the Wild's best self: fast, hungry, unapologetically competitive. The empty jersey in the crowd, the quiet sections of the building that had once roared on his name—those became part of the Wild's emotional landscape for years after.

In Their Own Story

The arena is half-dark. A single overhead light catches the ice, turning it to hammered silver. A lone pair of skates taps a slow rhythm on the boards, the sound echoing off the empty seats. A stick scrapes the ice in long, deliberate arcs. The puck sits in the slot, waiting. Then the skate picks up speed, the stick pulls back, and the one-timer cracks through the silence like a gunshot in a cathedral. The puck hits the back of the net and bounces out, spinning. The skater skates to the boards, drops the stick, and stands there breathing hard, staring at the empty seats as if waiting for a crowd that will never come back. The light flickers. The ice keeps its silence.

Reader's Guide

The stat that matters to a Wild fan isn't a career point total. It's the image of Granlund at full sprint, stick extended, one-timer already cocked, and the Xcel Energy Center going absolutely feral because he was about to score. That was the franchise's sound in the mid-2010s.

He arrived in 2011 as a second-round pick, a Finnish kid with more speed and anger than polish. The Wild's early years with him were a learning curve, but by 2014 he was the engine. His peak season, 2015-16, saw him among the league's elite young players, his one-timer a genuine weapon, his two-way speed forcing opponents to play the full length of the ice. He was not the most talented player the Wild ever drafted, but he was the most *Wild*.

The moment that made him an icon wasn't a single goal. It was the cumulative weight of a thousand shifts where he chased the puck, won the faceoff, and refused to let the other team breathe. Fans described him as the guy who made the team *mean*.

He left in 2019, traded to St. Louis, and the building felt quieter. For a generation of Wild fans, Granlund was not just a player. He was the version of the team they wanted to believe in, and his absence left a silence no new name has fully filled.

Did You Know?

• Granlund was drafted in the second round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, making him one of the Wild's most impactful late-round selections in franchise history.
• His one-timer from the slot was so consistently dangerous that opposing defensemen developed specific positioning habits to cut off his release angle, a rare feat for a center.
• Granlund represented Finland at multiple IIHF World Championships and Olympic tournaments, carrying the same competitive intensity on the international stage that defined his Wild years.
• Wild fans in the mid-2010s adopted a near-religious loyalty to his competitive style, often citing his refusal to lose a single shift as the defining trait of the team's identity during that era.