Ryan Hartman's ‘mind-body reset' during latest suspension paying off — for him and the Wild

New York Times

19-03-2025

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It's amazing how far your mind wanders when you have enough time.
And Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman had plenty of it during his eight-game suspension, which stretched over a month due to the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
Going through lonely bag skates and watching the team on TV from home, there's a tendency to consider tweaks. Changes. From the big to even the smallest details.
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'I messed with the sharpness of my skates,' Hartman said. 'I hadn't changed since I was 5 years old.'
Everyone wondered how Hartman would respond after his fifth career suspension, with even commissioner Gary Bettman hoping it'd be a 'wakeup call' for the veteran forward. Patience was running thin from the referees, the NHL Department of Player Safety and the Wild organization. President of hockey operations and GM Bill Guerin said there was 'no more leeway' for Hartman and expected him on his 'best behavior.'
Minnesota's Ryan Hartman has been suspended for ten games for roughing Ottawa's Tim Stützle. https://t.co/BlPfYB9dqo
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) February 4, 2025
Early returns are promising.
Hartman has made the kind of impact the Wild hoped — and needed — since returning. The team is banged up in a big way, missing key forwards Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno, who missed Monday's game with an upper-body injury.
Hartman has two goals and 5 points in his past seven games, including the game-tying goal in Monday's 3-1 victory over the Kings. His crafty tip on the power play made it 1-1. His line with Vinnie Hinostroza and Yakov Trenin was the team's best, buzzing from the opening faceoff. And speaking of the dot, Hartman won 13 of 19 draws, a bright spot in a black-hole area for the team this season.
He's got only five penalty minutes in those seven games, all on one fighting major in Vancouver. He's drawing more penalties than he's taking.
'He's focused, right?' coach John Hynes said. 'He's in control. He's focused on the game. He's focused on his play. And that's what we need from him. He's making good puck decisions. He's hard on the puck. He's moving his feet. He made a huge difference in the game (Monday) on faceoffs. It's a little thing but wound up a big thing.'
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Hynes said the team had a plan for Hartman while he was sitting out. He did strength and conditioning work with Matt Harder in the gym and on-ice skating and skills with skating coach Andy Ness, going on the ice five to six days a week. He would be at TRIA Rink for those full mornings, even when the team was on the road. Watching Hartman go through those lengthy workouts, staying way past when his teammates had already showered, you could get a sense of how seriously he was taking it.
'He was all-in on the plan,' Ness said. 'For me, I didn't discuss what happened (with the suspension). He didn't either. It was just looking forward and taking each day and just seeing the bigger picture.'
Ness said he watched clips of every one of Hartman's goals from the past three seasons, looking for themes, then tailored most of his drills to mimic how he's been effective in the past. For example, Hartman scores a lot of his goals around the net, so Ness set up bumpers near the crease where Hartman could read and react to shots. They worked on tips — not just stationary ones, but Hartman moving into position for deflections, like he did on Monday's goal, backing into the slot after winning an offensive zone faceoff. They worked on the deception Hartman has in the release of his shot.
Another look for ya pic.twitter.com/ryfTCdWumn
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 18, 2025
'He's very good with his timing,' Ness said. 'That's why he's always in the right spot at the right time because he's smart. We did a lot of wall work. A lot of rims. Lot of pucks off the wall. Down low for him. Getting pucks on the wall. Protecting the puck.'
When it was a lighter day on the ice, it was more intense in the gym, and vice versa. The idea for the change in the sharpening of his skates came from Hartman, which has already paid off.
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'He had a deeper hollow, and we went a bit shallower hollow which gives you more glide,' Ness said. 'It's more efficient when you're skating. We've tested him in the summer, and he's sneaky fast. You can see with his bursts. People don't think he's (fast) because he's not moving 100 miles per hour. Ryan is more timing. So it's slow, slow, slow, burst.'
Being back at center unlocked something in Hartman. It allowed him to use that skating ability in open ice.
It rejuvenated him.
'That's a big thing,' Hartman said. 'I started the year at center. And with the injury (missing five games with an upper-body injury in mid-October), when I came back, I still wasn't able to take faceoffs. But it's good to be back at center. Working on draws and being in the middle of the ice and playing with the puck.'
The kind of stuff Hartman worked on during his suspension could be considered monotonous. And grueling. Take the drill where Hartman pulled the 165-pound Ness with a bungee cord up and down the ice, with the skating coach providing resistance.
'The bungee is a beast,' Ness said. 'I've done that with numerous high school kids that have thrown up after.'
Ryan Hartman on extra work he's put in during suspension: 'I've been able to work on a lot of things with shooting and skill work and just putting some hard work in on the ice and just make sure I'm ready for when I come back.' #mnwild pic.twitter.com/qzgGxZHbKv
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) February 25, 2025
Hartman did work skating. Puck work, picking up pucks along the wall. And shooting. Lots of shooting.
'You go through practices and you work on system stuff through the year,' Hartman said. 'Sometimes it gets hard to get reps in.'
On Hartman's goal Monday, he put everything together. He won the offensive-zone faceoff on the power play (the Wild put him in for defensive-zone draws on the penalty kill, too). Then he went to the front of the net, positioning himself perfectly to redirect Jared Spurgeon's point shot.
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'He's scoring goals and winning faceoffs and playing well,' Mats Zuccarello said. 'That's the Hartsy I've known for six years.'
What struck Ness too was that Hartman wasn't making excuses about the suspension, or really talking about it, even as he was going through the appeals process, when Bettman reduced it from 10 games to eight. Hartman has maintained that the play that led to his match penalty, shoving Ottawa Senators star Tim Stützle's face into the ice off a faceoff on Feb. 1, wasn't intentional.
'If he were to try to rehash it every day, you know that it'd be on his mind,' Ness said. 'But I think we've got to eventually look forward and that's what our thought was. 'What's today's goal?' 'What's today's task?' And let's do that. And that's really why I think it was a successful little reset for him.'
Hynes has commented recently on how Hartman has been more purposeful in his skating and is at his best when he's moving his feet. They had one-on-one talks earlier in the season when Hartman was going through a scoring slump and the Wild wanted more out of him.
If Minnesota is going to solidify its playoff spot — and even win a round — it's going to rely a lot on Hartman, so his recent play has been a good sign. As Hartman put it, 'It was a good mind-body reset for me.'
'He's obviously fresh,' Hynes said. 'He had a lot of time off. But he put some work in. I think he's just in the right mindset, and he seems like a really determined player right now.'