Neal: Wild wanted Patrik Laine, but Laine did not want the Wild

Winger Patrik Laine got what he wanted. He was dealt from Columbus to Montreal on Aug. 19 to get a fresh start following a difficult 2023-24 season during which he battled injury and spent time in the NHL’s player assistance program.

It’s too bad he couldn’t launch his comeback with the Wild. But what can General Manager Bill Guerin do when a player doesn’t want to come here?

Guerin joined me at the State Fair on Thursday to discuss the Wild’s offseason and the approaching training camp. He engaged Columbus about trading for Laine — which would have been complicated because the player is earning $8.7 million in each of the next two seasons and Wild salary-cap space is limited.

Guerin said he had made progress on a deal and believed he had a chance to complete a swap, until he couldn’t. When I asked him if Laine wanted to come to the Twin Cities, Guerin said. “No.”

That suggests, and what I suspect, is that Laine had the Wild on a no-trade list.

Laine has since spoken up about his mental health challenges, so I hope he’s in the right headspace to move forward with his career. He was a 44-goal scorer way back in 2017-18 with Winnipeg and hasn’t reached 30 goals since 2018-19. He has missed at least 25 games in each of the past five seasons, playing in only 18 games last season. His plus-minus rating over that stretch has ranged from minus-10 to minus-29.

He is definitely a sniper. He would have added octane to the power play. At the same time, he’s not a two-way player and his motor isn’t always switched on.

There would have been some risk involved in bringing him in, so the Wild might be better off without him. We will never know how he would have fit in with Kirill Kaprizov and Co.

What we do know is that hockey season is quickly approaching.

On Sept. 15, the Wild will head to St. Louis to join the Blues and Blackhawks for the Tom Kurvers Prospect tournament. Training camp begins Sept. 19. The first preseason game is Sept. 21. They open the regular season at home Oct. 10 against Columbus. That’s what I love about hockey: Camp opens, a few preseason games are played, then they drop the puck on the season.

I’m hearing that Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi are in excellent shape heading into camp. John Hynes enters his first camp as Wild coach after replacing Dean Evason midseason, and he’s going to look at all kinds of line combinations. There are young players in Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov to watch develop.

Laine didn’t want to play here. So focus on the ones who want to.

One thing I watched for Thursday was if the Gophers run defense would show signs of improvement after being one of the worst in the Big Ten in 2023. There are reasons for concern.

North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton, who rushed for more than 1,500 yards last season, gave the unit all it could handle, rushing 30 times for 129 yards. He gained 54 yards on 13 carries in the third quarter.

And the Gophers front six is full of veteran players.

“Omarion is a really good tailback,” Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. “I think when we’re going back through the film, we’ll see we missed a lot of tackles.”

The Tar Heels threw for only 105 yards, averaging only 4.6 yards per completion, in their 19-17 victory. But Hampton still was effective against a defense that didn’t have to worry about being attacked through the air. This will be an issue when the Big Ten schedule arrives.

There was only one division in Major League Baseball that had four teams above .500 entering Friday: The AL Central.

The Twins were looking up at the Royals and Guardians in the division as they began a three-game series against Toronto at Target Field. Detroit, with lefthander Tarik Skubal having a terrific year, had a winning record as well.

The Twins might not repeat as division champions and could miss the playoffs altogether, given the way they have played recently. And if the division is trending in a more competitive direction, the Twins better pack a lunch over the coming seasons.

“The middle of the country, sometimes, we get overlooked,” Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said on Wednesday at the State Fair. “This is not a division to overlook.”

The Twins were 7-6 against Detroit this season, are 2-7 against Cleveland with four games remaining and 7-3 against Kansas City with three remaining. They also went 12-1 vs. the 100-loss White Sox.

• The surging Lynx will go 7-3 over their final 10 regular season games and enter the postseason as Western Conference champions. One of those losses will be to Indiana and Caitlin Clark.

• Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis have been in the Twins lineup together only 17 times this season. They will play in the same game only seven more times in September.

The 3-2 Pitch: La Velle E. Neal III’s three observations and two predictions for Sundays.