Nothing sums up the Minnesota Wild’s first-half dominance better than a visual of the plus-minus leaders in the NHL. The first four are Wild players – Ryan Suter, Jason Zucker, Jared Spurgeon and Mikko Koivu – and Mikael Granlund is tied for fifth.
Matt Dumba (14th) and Nino Niederreiter (17th) round out the seven Wild players in the top 20.
We did some digging to see if a a team has ever completed a season with so many players in the top 5, 10 or 20. It happens, but doesn’t always result in a Stanley Cup.
Tampa Bay finished with three in the top five and four in the top 20 in 2014-15 and went on to lose to Chicago in the Stanley Cup Final. Boston had three in the top 10 in 2012-13 and lost to Chicago in the Final.
Boston had each of the top four in 2013-14 and seven in the top 20 but lost in the second round to Detroit. They had all of the top five and six of the top 10 in 2011-12 but lost to Washington in the conference quarterfinals. Ironically, Washington was coached by Bruce Boudreau.
