Logging the Minutes for Minnesota: Faber brings success to the Wild D-Core
The 2024–2025 National Hockey League season is 60% complete and the Minnesota Wild stand in third place in the Central Division. Part of that can be attributed to the defensive play of Brock Faber, who is being overlooked, mainly because of his age. The 22-year-old plays for Minnesota, who is 29–17–4 during this year’s campaign.
The local Twin Cities standout is making some noise, but with NHL defensemen, being a quality player sometimes means your work on the ice goes unnoticed. A good defenceman should be invisible and Faber has done just that. Going into this season, the Wild locked up Faber for eight years to the tune of $68 million. His contract comes out to be an average annual value of $8.5 million a year.
Faber has played 46 out of 50 games for the Wild this season … the only games he missed was due to an injury. He ranks seventh on the Minnesota roster in this area, according to StateMuse.
He’s currently averaging 24:58 minutes of ice time per game, a relatively high number for a 22-year-old in the NHL, good for fifth in this category in the NHL. He is the youngest player in this category.
The next youngest player in ice time is 25-year-old Quinn Hughes from Vancouver, clocking in at 24:25. This stat is important because the more minutes a defenseman plays on the ice, the better sense of the game they get which helps the entire team.
Faber was drafted to LA Kings as the 45th pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. While he was playing his college hockey at the University of Minnesota, a 15-minute drive from Xcel Energy Center, the home of the Wild, his rights were traded back to Minnesota.
Faber was on a Gophers team that played in the 2023 Frozen Four, but his team fell in the National Championship game after leading 2–0 to a Quinnipiac Bobcats team that was able to clinch the national championship 10 seconds into overtime in Tampa.
The Wild ranks 21st in the NHL on the power play with Faber. For a young player, he’s averaging 2:25 seconds on the power play per game, according to RotoWire. Although Minnesota’s power play ranks in the middle of the league, Faber is certainly logging his minutes in this area.
Taking a look at other defensemen in the league, Jake Sanderson, who played his college hockey at North Dakota and currently plays for the Ottawa Senators has scored one goal this season. Faber has scored four goals, according to LineUp Experts. While goals are great from defensemen, it’s the cherry on top for their season stats.
Both players play on the first defensive pair, the first penalty kill unit and are both getting power play time. Faber is getting less time on the power play and leads Sanderson in goals. Sanderson is also 22 and shares the same birthday as me, July 8.
Last year, Faber was a candidate for the Calder Memorial Trophy. The award is given to the best rookie in the league. Faber is certainly making his case to win the Norris Trophy, given to the league’s best defencemen.
Minnesota’s push into the playoffs will certainly be supported by Faber. Next time your watching a Minnesota Wild game, look for #7 — he’s the 346th player in the National Hockey League to wear that number.
Note: This article was researched and written on Wednesday, Jan. 29 and Thursday, Jan. 30 so some stats may have slightly changed.
