Reusse: Wild match North Stars for years in Minnesota, but there’s no danger of losing this team

The North Stars started the 1992-93 season in St. Louis on a Thursday night, then played the Blues in the home opener two nights later. This was the 26th year at Met Center for our originals in the modern NHL.

The North Stars reversed the result in the first game with a 5-2 victory. There were goals from Tommy Sjödin, Mike Craig, Mike Modano, Russ Courtnall and, finally, the Gator — Gaétan Duchesne — the last two goals were shorthanded. Jon Casey required 31 saves to get the victory.

The crowd that night was announced at 13,277, roughly 2,300 short of a sellout.

The luster of the North Stars’ all-time, unlikeliest appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in the spring of 1991 had worn off, better arrangements had not been forthcoming with owner Norm Green’s Bloomington lease, and the possibility of sharing the new Target Center in downtown Minneapolis was being floated.

Again, it was going to take strong incentives for Mr. Green, and the building still was owned privately by Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, Timberwolves co-owners.

Pat Forciea, a hot product in local public relations after being in on Paul Wellstone’s astounding senatorial upset of Rudy Boschwitz in 1990, was working for Green and offered this comment to reporters on the non-sellout:

“Our location has always been a minus. Season ticket-wise, we don’t do particularly well in downtown Minneapolis. Any number of businesses have made it clear that they want to see us downtown …"

“We played with some pizazz tonight with our plays, our passing and thought patterns of the players. But I also saw the arena was almost empty in the third period. I’m glad we won the game, but I guess we didn’t impress the people enough.”

There has been a similar pattern for the start of Wild’s 26th year in St. Paul, with the season opener in St. Louis on a Thursday (won 5-0 by the Wild) and the home opener to follow on Saturday night, vs. Columbus in the freshly christened Grand Casino Arena.

The rest of what happens with the fan base in this Year 26 will be far different than it did with the North Stars with Stormin’ (Away) Norman in 1992-93.

First, there will be no need to explain a large number of unsold tickets, since the official capacity of 17,954 figures to be surpassed by 1,000 or more. The Wild was 35-for-41 in regular-season sellouts in 2024-25. That put them at 809-for-944 (86%) for sellouts since arriving as an expansion team in the fall of 2000.

The number of years here are the same as for the North Stars. The 2025-26 Wild have one fewer season due to the complete lockout of players in 2004-05. MLB’s Rob Manfred is probably in frequent contact with the NHL’s Gary Bettman on how baseball can get into one of those with his players association in 2027 and come out way stronger at the other end.

First of all, Hynesie is working for the greatest public outreach organization in Minnesota sports history, loves this job and also is experienced as to how they come and go in the NHL, and criticism of fans ... that will never be uttered by this gent.

I mean, even if he had an idea of what it meant, we will never hear Hynes repeat original North Stars coach Wren Blair description of this area’s hockey fans as “phlegmatic Swedes.”

Secondly, it’s a Saturday night, and those Woodbury grade schoolers don’t need their sleep, so the families of four you see in a variety of Wild jerseys (including in North Stars colors) aren’t leaving unless it’s 6-0 Blues with five minutes left.

And you know what you’re going to see more than ever Saturday night:

No. 97 jerseys with Kaprizov on the back. On Sept. 30, General Manager Bill Guerin signed Kirill Kaprizov, 28, to an eight-year, $136 million contract.

Otherwise, he takes a hike for the NHL’s wildest free-agent bidding contest in history in 2027.

Meantime, for an extra $5 million, the Wild have Kaprizov for nine years — $7.5 million this season, then eight years of the big bucks.

And what was the reaction of this investment by owner Craig Leipold? This week, the Wild was informed by the NHL’s marketing department that the league’s No. 1 selling jersey had become Kaprizov’s.

It has been amazing to see the Wild’s ability to take advantage of North Stars’ nostalgia by wearing their colors. Few remember, it seems, the average attendance dropped 4,000 per game from one season to the next early in North Stars history; that they averaged 7,838 in 1990-91 before that miraculous run to the Stanley Cup Final; that they sold to Green in the summer of ′90 for roughly $100 million less than Kaprizov will be making over the next nine seasons.

No Cups yet, but a fan base that has made this franchise an astounding Minnesota success, and a fan base that does not have to worry about this coming in Year 26 for the Wild:

Seven home games left and big crowds, drawn by the desire to shout Norm and an action verb.