The Puck Stops Here

When most pundits looked at the Minnesota Wild this summer, they found an aggresive bunch of forecheckers with little offensive ability (except for Marian Gaborik). One player who has shown a suprising level of offensive success while maintaining the strong defence that would be expected on a Jacques Lemaire coached team is Brian Rolston.

Rolston has earned a spot on the US Olympic team. He leads Minnesota with 43 points in 43 games played. He leads their forwards with a +12 +/- rating (he falls second to defenceman Willie Mitchell on the team as a whole). Rolston has really come into his own lately. Since December 1st, he is fourth in the NHL in scoring with 25 points (falling behind Ilya Kovalchuk, Jaromir Jagr and Joe Thornton - an exceptional group of players with whom to be compared).

Rolston has been his team's best most consistent offensive player so far this year as well as a serious candidate for the Frank J. Selke trophy (though I would pick Rod Brind'Amour for that honor). Should Minnesota capture a playoff spot (they are currently not too far back) it will likely be due, in a large part, to Rolston's play.