Wild lost leadership, toughness when Marcus Foligno was hampered because of injury

Marcus Foligno showed up for Wild training camp a year ago feeling great after spending the summer recovering from hernia surgery.

Ditto for this season.

“It’s unfortunate because it’d be nice to get both done at the same time,” the veteran forward said.

But the wear and tear that sapped one side of Foligno’s body didn’t affect the other until last season when he was in and out of action throughout the second half before finally leaving the lineup for good to undergo the same procedure he had the previous May.

Now pain-free, Foligno is expecting a different brand of déjà vu, the kind where he turns back the clock to the player he was before he had these setbacks.

“I know that I’m 100%, and now I can play out there 100%,” Foligno said ahead of the Wild’s final preseason game Friday at Chicago. “I know there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way, but it’s just nice to know, hey, I don’t have this issue going on.”

The groin injury that cut Foligno’s season short wasn’t only affecting him in hockey.

Getting out of bed was “rough,” he said, and even lifting his leg became a problem. But after surgery in April, Foligno was back lifting weights by July.

Earlier this week, he played in his first preseason game of camp, skating almost 15 minutes and doling out a team-high four hits on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center in the Wild’s 7-2 rout of the Blackhawks, who are captained by Foligno’s older brother, Nick.

That physicality is a staple of the younger Foligno’s style, as is being a defensively responsible winger who kills penalties.

What he wants, though, is to be an impact player at both ends of the rink, so that means producing offense.

Fortunately for Foligno, he’s shown he can do that.

Before his two surgeries, he scored a career-high 23 goals in 2021-22, when he had the best shooting percentage in the NHL.

“Let’s try that again,” said Foligno, who has shared a line with free-agent pickup Yakov Trenin throughout camp.

In 55 games last season, Foligno still reached 10 goals, a clip that would have stretched to approximately 15 goals if he didn’t miss any time.

A boost to their secondary scoring supply, however, wasn’t all the Wild were missing when Foligno, 33, was hurt: They were down an alternate captain, and Foligno’s leadership coupled with his on-ice contributions are why he’s fused to the Wild’s core with a four-year, $16 million contract that kicks off this season.

“Being out of the room and being not with the guys in the battle is the biggest thing,” said Foligno, who has been with the Wild since a 2017 trade and is two games away from 800 in his NHL career after breaking in with Buffalo. “The day-to-day laughter, the day-to-day seriousness of meetings, you’re not in on it. You kind of feel you’re a part of it, but you feel like you’re not important and that’s always tough to do.

“We’re competitors, and we want to play.”

Foligno’s absence coincided captain Jared Spurgeon being on the mend from his own surgeries, but both have been back with the team in camp to help the Wild look like the Wild again after they were rarely at full strength last season.

And when he assesses the group assembled, Foligno notices a lineup that needs a by-committee approach.

“Everyone on the third, fourth line, you can throw a lot of guys around now,” he said, “and it’s good. That’s huge for us. That’s something I think we didn’t really have a lot of last year, especially with all the injuries.

“It wasn’t the ideal season, but I see us as a playoff team and the mentality is just gotta get in the playoffs and see what happens.”