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50 free Minnesota Wild trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Minnesota Wild were born because the North Stars left for Dallas, and the franchise has spent 25 years turning that grievance into an identity: a retired No. 1 for the fans, water from local lakes poured into the rink, and a logo whose eye is the North Star. This Wild trivia quiz covers all of it: the naming finalists, Jacques Lemaire, Marian Gaborik's first goal, the 2003 run with two comebacks from 3-1 down, the rotating captaincy, the Parise and Suter contracts, Devan Dubnyk's arrival, Bruce Boudreau's 106-point team and the Kirill Kaprizov era. There are questions on the arena in Saint Paul, the goal songs from Steppenwolf to Prince, Nordy, the North Stars warm-up jerseys, the Quinn Hughes trade and the 2026 series win that ended a nine-year drought. Easy questions for casual fans sit beside genuinely hard ones about the expansion years and the smog-delayed scouting trip that found Kaprizov. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedic and reference sources before publishing, and each question carries a citation. For more, try our NHL trivia and hockey trivia pages.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which season did the Wild begin play?
2000-01
They were awarded on June 25, 1997, alongside three other expansion clubs.
Q 02Which Saint Paul mayor and future U.S. senator campaigned to bring the NHL back to Minnesota?
Norm Coleman
An attempt to move the original Winnipeg Jets to Minnesota fell through, and they went to Phoenix instead.
Q 03Which of these was NOT among the six finalist names announced in 1997?
Timberwolves
Northern Lights and White Bears rounded out the list; Wild won and was unveiled to Steppenwolf's 'Born to Be Wild'.
Q 04Which Minnetonka native led the expansion bid and became the Wild's first majority owner?
Bob Naegele Jr.
Craig Leipold bought the club later and now owns it through Minnesota Sports & Entertainment.
Q 05Who was the Wild's first head coach?
Jacques Lemaire
He coached from 2000 to 2009 and notched his 500th career win as the Wild clinched their first division title.
Q 06Who scored the first goal in Wild history, at Anaheim in October 2000?
Marian Gaborik
Hendrickson, a Minnesota native, scored the first home goal five days later.
Q 07Why did the Wild retire the number 1 before their first home game?
To honour the fans
No Wild player has ever worn it; the fans were declared the true 'number one'.
Q 08By what score did the Wild beat Dallas in the former North Stars' first regular-season visit?
6-0
An emotional sellout crowd of more than 18,000 watched the shutout.
Q 09Which team swept the Wild in the 2003 conference finals behind goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere?
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
Minnesota scored just one goal in the four games.
Q 10Whose 2003 Game 7 overtime goal beat Colorado, the last goal ever scored on Patrick Roy?
Andrew Brunette
The Wild had trailed the series 3-1 and won Games 6 and 7 in overtime.
Q 11What playoff first did the 2003 Wild achieve against Colorado and Vancouver?
Winning two seven-game series after facing elimination in Game 5
Both series were rescued from 3-1 down.
Q 12Which former Wild player died of a heart condition during a game in Europe in 2004?
Sergei Zholtok
He died in the arms of teammate and former Wild player Darby Hendrickson.
Q 13Which goalie was traded to Edmonton in 2006 for a first-round pick, ending a Wild goalie controversy?
Dwayne Roloson
Q 21Whose 2014 Game 7 overtime goal knocked out the Central Division champion Avalanche?
Nino Niederreiter
The Wild dressed seven goalies that season, including Ilya Bryzgalov at the deadline.
Q 22Which goalie's January 2015 arrival sparked a 27-9-2 run to the playoffs?
Devan Dubnyk
Minnesota then beat St. Louis for what stood as its last series win until 2026.
Q 23Whose 'Let's Go Crazy' became the Wild's goal song after his death in April 2016?
Prince
It later became the win song, followed by the fight song 'The State of Hockey'.
He promptly backstopped the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final.
Q 14Which Slovak veteran did the Wild acquire from Los Angeles on draft day 2006?
Pavol Demitra
He joined countryman Marian Gaborik up front.
Q 15In which season did the Wild win their only division title?
2007-08
Gaborik set franchise marks with 42 goals and 83 points that year.
Q 16Which team did the Wild's original franchise scorer sign with as a free agent in 2009?
New York Rangers
Martin Havlat was signed to soften the blow.
Q 17Who became the Wild's first full-time captain in October 2009 after nine seasons of monthly rotation?
Mikko Koivu
He held it until 2020 and passed Gaborik as the club's all-time points leader.
Q 18Where did the Wild open the 2010-11 season with two games against Carolina?
Helsinki
The games were at Hartwall Areena.
Q 19Which star defenseman did the Wild trade to San Jose in 2011 for Setoguchi, Coyle and a first-round pick?
Brent Burns
They flipped Martin Havlat to the Sharks for Dany Heatley the same summer.
Q 20Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed identical 2012 contracts worth how much over 13 years?
$98 million
Parise is a Twin Cities native; the deals were signed just before the 2012-13 lockout.
Q 24Which coach led the Wild to a franchise-record 106 points in 2016-17?
Bruce Boudreau
A 12-game win streak ended on New Year's Eve against Columbus, itself mid-streak.
Q 25Which forward and prospect did the Wild lose to Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft?
Erik Haula and Alex Tuch
Both became key Golden Knights.
Q 26Which general manager was fired in July 2019 after just 14 months on the job?
Paul Fenton
Bill Guerin replaced him that August.
Q 27Kirill Kaprizov scored the overtime winner in his NHL debut in January 2021 against which team?
Los Angeles Kings
He won the Calder Trophy with 51 points in a 56-game season.
Q 28Which round of the 2015 draft was Kaprizov selected in?
Fifth
He went 135th overall; scouts only saw him because smog from California wildfires delayed their flight home.
Q 29Kaprizov's overtime 'golden goal' at the 2018 Olympics beat which country?
Germany
It was Russia's first Olympic hockey gold since 1992.
Q 30Which KHL club did Kaprizov win the 2019 Gagarin Cup with?
CSKA Moscow
He had started with hometown Metallurg Novokuznetsk.