After a season in which his production was down, he was sidelined by a lengthy suspension and the Wild failed yet again to get out of the first round of the playoffs, Ryan Hartman focused on the future.
With 75 seconds left in the third period, Hartman capitalized on a net-driving shot to give the Wild a 3-2 lead … until the Golden Knights signaled for a video review that showed the Wild’s Gustav Nyquist precede the puck into the offensive zone for an offside ruling that negated the goal.
The Wild went on to lose in overtime, and instead of returning home with a chance to clinch their first series victory in 10 years, they were knocked out with another one-goal loss.
“I definitely thought about it, probably a lot longer than other people, maybe,” Hartman said. “But that’s hockey. Stuff happens. Not much you can do about it afterwards, but would have been nice obviously to change some things.
He played his way up the lineup and finished as one of the Wild’s top scorers against the Golden Knights with two goals and four assists, all while drawing three penalties and taking just one. If there ever was a blueprint for how Hartman can be at his best, that was it, and now his challenge is to carry that consistency over to the regular season.
“It’s no mystery that if he plays with the intensity level and the discipline and the details that he played with in the playoffs, he can be a major impact for our team,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “When he plays that way, he’s an impact player.”
Although he arrived as a depth addition in 2019, the forward had a breakout performance in 2021-22, when he netted a career-high 34 goals skating with Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello. Hartman had 15 goals the next season and another 21 in 2023-24, but then he scored only at 11 in 2024-25.
His ice time declined, but Hartman also missed eight games for roughing Ottawa’s Tim Stützle on Feb. 1; initially, he was docked 10 games for “using his forearm to violently slam” Stützle’s head into the ice after a faceoff, but Hartman appealed, and Commissioner Gary Bettman reduced the suspension to eight games.
“I think he learned his lesson,” Hynes said. “… I think he understands, too, he can play on the edge, but he can’t go over the edge. I think he realizes when you do, those situations, it does hurt the team. Part of being a great teammate and a good player and a guy that we need in the lineup [is] to help us play to the edge, play as hard as he plays, but let’s make sure in the confines of not putting himself or the team at a disadvantage.”
“You happen to be in the right areas because that’s where you know where to be instead of having to consciously think of where I should be,” he said. “That’s when things start going the wrong way.”
While Hartman acknowledged there will be off games — “You don’t have your legs or it’s a long travel day,” he pointed out — he believes he can make a difference when he isn’t burying his shots or the puck luck isn’t there.
“I can be physical or fight or do other things,” he said. “So, my game might not always show up on the scoresheet, but I feel I can be a presence no matter how I feel.”
He is also valuable for his versatility, with the Wild able to deploy him on the wing or as their only righthanded center; currently, he’s centering wingers Marcus Foligno and Marcus Johansson, and Hartman is penciled in to appear in his first preseason game Sunday against Chicago at Grand Casino Arena.
“If you look at all the stuff that he did in the playoffs, it was around the net,” Foligno said. “It was smart plays, getting pucks to the net and then moved his feet really well, too. He’s a heads-up player, so that’s something that I feel if we can connect as a line early, then it’s going to be awesome for him and our team.”
“I’m pretty confident that I’m a 20-plus goal scorer,” Hartman said. “Obviously, minutes and that stuff have to be earned. I’d like to help out special teams-wise and be a guy used like I have been in the past and help this team, because I know that when I have the puck on my stick in good areas I can score.
The 2020 first-round pick was in limbo for most of the summer after being demoted to the fourth line during last season’s playoffs, but he now is in camp with a three-year contract in hand.