NEW YORK — For a year, the Minnesota Wild seemed like a team trying to get rid of Marco Rossi. And the Vancouver Canucks seemed like the team trying to get him.
So when Rossi arrived here on the weekend after his trade to the Canucks, part of the blockbuster that sent Quinn Hughes to the Wild, the 24-year-old centre felt like he was finally where he was wanted.
“Even the coach, you can just see it’s a completely different mindset here,” Rossi said of the opportunity. “I can’t wait.”
His new coach is Adam Foote. The old coach, John Hynes, shoved Rossi to the fourth line during Minnesota’s six-game series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the opening round of the National Hockey League playoffs last spring. Rossi scored twice despite averaging just 11:08 of ice time.
That followed a regular season in which he averaged 18:15 and posted 60 points in 82 games, tilting his NHL trajectory upward after a 40-point rookie season the previous year.
But it also followed rumours that the Wild had talked to the Canucks about a trade, discussions that sparked up again at the draft in June, and preceded strained contract negotiations over the summer between Rossi and Minnesota.
Rossi finally capitulated in August and signed a three-year bridge deal for $5 million per season.
He is grateful to the Wild for drafting and developing him, and the organization may have saved his life when he was diagnosed with myocarditis (heart inflammation) after a 2020 bout with COVID and sent him home to Austria to recover.
But after all the trade rumours and contract tension — and his abrupt and bewildering demotion in the playoffs — Rossi wondered if the Wild really wanted him.
“It’s in the back of your mind, you know,” he said. “You always hear around like teams are interested and stuff. It’s always a good feeling when you know a team is interested in you, because you know they want you really. So yeah, I’m really happy to be here now.”
So, what happened in the playoffs?
“Good question,” he said, unequipped with an answer.
“I mean, of course, it was hard,” he continued. “I had a really good season last year, you know, a regular season with 60 points. I was playing first line, second line. And of course, after one game (in the playoffs) making a decision like that, I couldn’t understand. I told (Hynes) I didn’t understand. But you know, as a player, you have to respect the decision and try to help the team anywhere you can. Of course, we talked to each other after the season, but no, I still don’t understand.”
Rossi spent his first two games with the Canucks, both wins, as their first-line centre.
But even when top centre Elias Pettersson eventually returns to the lineup — he is expected to miss his sixth straight game Friday due to an undisclosed injury — Foote isn’t placing a ceiling on Rossi.
“I think too many times — and I’m not saying Minny did this because I don’t know, but I’m saying hockey in general — players will get labelled too early in their career,” Foote said this week. “I’ve seen it happen so many times when I played, they’d label guys, right? You just can’t do that. You’ll never know what (level) they can get to. Marco’s got a great opportunity here, but we won’t know unless we let him play and see what he can do in all situations. You don’t want to label a guy.”
The Wild selected Rossi ninth in the 2020 draft after he led the Ontario Hockey League in scoring with 120 points. But there were questions whether he was big enough or fast enough to be a top-of-the-lineup forward in the NHL. The player believes he has gotten significantly stronger and quicker since then.
Rossi has looked quick in his two Canuck games and certainly plays a direct game, battling for pucks and going into hard areas.
“He’s got a good hockey brain,” Foote said. “It’s hard to explain, but when he gets the puck… if it should be a pass or give-and-go, he does it. Like, his reads are, you know, the right read for me. If he’s got a shot, it’s a shot. If it’s a shot for a rebound, he’ll do that. If it’s a shot for a stick, he’ll find the stick. So for me, what I saw, he’s got a hyper-high hockey IQ. I liked a lot of what I saw.
“When you get a real young group, you’re trying to get them to learn to play the shift that’s given to you sometimes, and not always pushing the envelope for offence or pushing the envelope to strike. Sometimes you want to wear a team down, cycle, things like that. You find real smart hockey players play the shift that’s given to them, and he (Rossi) seems to be that type of guy.”
The Austrian is the only proven NHL player Vancouver received for Hughes, although 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium is obviously NHL-ready and has massive upside. The Canucks will try to turn 21-year-old winger Liam Ohgren into a player.
But Rossi said his ceiling is much higher than he has shown. He believes he can do more. As the Canucks reset and reload with younger players and prospects, the organization is open to letting Rossi try.
“I was saying that in Minnesota all the time, like, I haven’t shown everything that I have in me,” he said. “So I can’t wait, and I’m so happy to be here and just try to show everyone how good I am and what I have in me.”
ICE CHIPS – Pettersson was a partial participant at the Canucks’ practice Thursday on Long Island. . . Foote told reporters that Thatcher Demko, coming off a 23-save 3-0 shutout Tuesday against the New York Rangers, will start his fourth straight game Friday against the Islanders. Kevin Lankinen will be in goal when the Canucks play the second half of back-to-back games Saturday against the Boston Bruins. Vancouver’s pre-Christmas road trip ends Monday against Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers.
