Brock Faber has become the Minnesota Wild’s most productive defender in the postseason, and he has done it without giving up the game that made him indispensable. In nine playoff games, Faber has nine points, with four goals and five assists, and four of those assists have been primary assists.
He also has 28 shots on goal, the most of any Wild defenseman and the third-most on the team, while continuing to play nearly 30 minutes a night. One of his goals came on a rush play when the puck bounced in front of the net, the kind of strange, quick-turn chance that has become part of his playoff story.
The numbers show how complete the run has been. Among Minnesota defenders, Faber’s scoring chances against per 60 sit at 22.92, second-best on the team, and his expected goals percentage is 53.82, also second on the club. He has posted better Corsi-for, expected goals per 60 and scoring chances per 60 marks than he did in last year’s playoffs, a sign that the offense has come with sustained control rather than a short burst of luck.
Faber’s rise has been fast, even by NHL standards. The Los Angeles Kings picked him in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft after his time at the University of Minnesota, and the Wild later acquired him. He immediately developed into a No. 1 NHL defender in his rookie season, even after early injuries and occasional stretches of inconsistency threatened to slow the climb.
That makes this postseason more than just a hot streak. It has helped power a Minnesota run that included its first playoff-round win since the 2014-15 season, and it has done so while preserving the defensive reliability that has always been Faber’s calling card. Quinn Hughes may have taken away some of his shine as the top blueliner in town, but Faber’s case is getting harder to miss: he is producing like a leading defenseman and defending like one, too.
The only real question now is how long a pace this demanding can hold. Nearly 30 minutes a night is a heavy load in any series, and Faber is carrying it while driving offense at a third-highest scoring-defenseman rate in the postseason. For Minnesota, that is no side story. It is the story.
