After slimming down, Wild’s Yakov Trenin hopes to play more like himself

Yakov Trenin had a target in mind for how much weight he wanted to shed coming into a new season.

Then he noticed Wild teammate Marco Rossi.

“I come back to training camp, and I see Marco looks so big to me now,” Trenin said. “I’m like, ‘I gotta stop somewhere.’ ”

Trenin weighed in at 200 pounds, down from the 214 he was listed at last season, and the change was one of a few he made over the summer after he wasn’t happy with his Wild debut.

“We’ll see how my body is going to respond during the season,” Trenin said. “But it’s stupid to do the same thing over and over again and hope for different result. So, try something different.”

A year ago, Trenin was the Wild’s prized free-agent pickup after the 6-foot-2 winger signed a four-year, $14 million contract following stints with Nashville and Colorado.

He was expected to improve the Wild penalty kill, chip in on offense and make the bottom of the lineup tougher to play against. But he did that only occasionally: In January, Trenin was a healthy scratch, and he ended the regular season with seven goals and eight assists through 76 games.

“By the end of the year, I think he was just more comfortable: ‘OK, this is my game. This is how I’m going to have success.’ And when he played that way, he was really impactful for us. So, hopefully that’s still kind of fresh in his mind, and he can kind of just pick up where he left off and be that imposing force on the forecheck and protect pucks and get to the net.”

In the playoffs vs. Vegas, Trenin was one of the Wild’s peskiest forwards because of that style, forming a fourth line with Rossi and Justin Brazeau that contributed two goals.

On the first in Game 3, Trenin directed a pass to Rossi in front of the net after Trenin skated deep into Golden Knights territory; for the second during Game 4, Trenin finished his check into the boards, won the puck and again threw a pass to the front of the net for a waiting Rossi to bury.

“Just was more direct and was able to get the puck on the forecheck and make the next play and puck went to the net,” said Trenin, who posted career highs in goals (17 in 2021-22) and assists (12 in 2022-23) during his Predators tenure. “When the team has success when you get points, it kind of builds confidence and just keep building on that.”

The 28-year-old acknowledged he did feel pressure to live up to his contract — “From fanbase, too,” he said — but he made it clear that wasn’t an excuse.

During the offseason, Trenin practiced with a power skating coach aside from losing weight by counting calories (he misses eating croissants), and his new look stood out in the Wild’s preseason opener on Sunday at Winnipeg.

After taking an early tripping penalty, his first of two in the game, Trenin scored the team’s first goal to cut into a 2-0 deficit and then completed the Wild’s 3-2 comeback in overtime by pouncing on a loose puck in the slot — an early indication that he won’t let this fresh start go to waste.

“I’m fully responsible for my game, and I didn’t perform,” Trenin said. “Try to bounce back this season.”

The Wild have 52 players left in training camp after assigning forwards Lirim Amidovski, Adam Benak and Carter Klippenstein and goalie Chase Wutzke to their junior teams and releasing forwards Matthew Sop and Ryan McGuire, defensemen Rowan Topp and Jordan Tourigny and goalie William Rousseau from their tryouts.

Wutzke, a fifth-round draft pick by the Wild in 2024, signed a three-year, entry-level contract after going 17-25-5 with a 3.38 goals-against average and .895 save percentage in 50 games last season for the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League.