Stanley Cup playoffs: How a culture of loyalty built the Wild's success - ESPN

ST. PAUL, Minn. — One of the most insightful perspectives about what the Minnesota Wild have done to foster a culture around loyalty comes from someone who just got there.

Veteran forward Nick Foligno, who is now on his sixth NHL team, arrived ahead of the trade deadline in March but knows a lot about how the franchise operates. That's what happens when you have a brother who has been loyal to that franchise for nine seasons.

For all the times that the brothers have talked about where they could play whenever free agency rolled around, one thing was clear: Marcus Foligno was never going to leave Minnesota.

«One thing about Marcus, and me as well, is when you commit somewhere and put your heart into it, you jump in with two feet, and I think he felt that way,» Nick Foligno said. «They brought him in when they traded for him, and he wanted to help make a difference in bringing this organization success.

»He's had a lot of great people to work with. He's had other leaders that he's talked about and I think he's just fallen in love with this organization and this fanbase with the way that they have embraced him."

A number of narratives exist about the Wild, the most pressing being how they have struggled to get beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and are now facing an 0-2 series hole in the second round against the Colorado Avalanche.

Within that narrative, however, lies another: how loyalty was instrumental in the Wild even being in this position. The Wild have drafted homegrown talents like Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov, while trading for others like Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes. All that has been built upon how veterans such as Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon, Mats Zuccarello and Foligno