Is All This Danila Yurov Love Real… or Just Part of MN Wild Trade Talks?

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Is All This Danila Yurov Love Real… or Just Part of MN Wild Trade Talks?

Is All This Danila Yurov Love Real… or Just Part of MN Wild Trade Talks? — Matt Blewett-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect

Eric Strack

Tue, Oct 20, 2026 ·

4 min read

MN Wild head coach has big praise for Danila Yurov

But recently, it's been Danila Yurov grabbing the attention of, not just his coach, but tonight's opposing coach as well. Through nine games, Yurov has four goals and five points (13:30 TOI). Three of those goals have come in Minnesota's last four games.

In the Wild's 2-1 win over Columbus Sunday, Yurov opened the scoring at 18:12 of the first period, thanks to a beautiful feed from his fellow Russian, Yakov Trenin. After the victory, John Hynes met with media and made a rather bold declaration, telling reporters that Yurov is on track to become a top-six center in the NHL.

Hynes raves about Yurov after the game: "he's going to be a top-two-line center" in this league

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 18, 2026

The Wild drafted Yurov 24th overall in 2022. As a rookie in 2025-26, Yurov finished with 12 goals and 27 points in 73 games. At his current pace, he will surpass that goal total around Game 27 of 84 this season.

Where he struggled last season was in the faceoff circle. Yurov won just 39.2% of his faceoffs (291 of 742) as a rookie, the lowest rate of the 120 NHL players who took at least 500 draws.

Nine games into this season, he's winning 56.6% of them (43 of 76), including 19 of 30 in the neutral zone. On Sunday vs Columbus, he won 66.7% of his faceoffs, scored a goal (on four shots) and upped his ice time to 14:57, which clearly caught the attention of tonight's opposing head coach, Mike Babcock.

Oilers head coach has big praise for Danila Yurov

On Monday, the Oilers' seasoned coach met with media, where he too began gushing over Minnesota's young centerman, bringing Yurov into the conversation unprompted… though he struggled to remember "the Russian kid"'s name.

"Obviously, they have real good players. They have good depth. I was real impressed. Who's 22? The Russian kid. He's really good. (Danila) Yurov or something like that. He looks like a real player to me, too. So, they look like they've got lots of players."

Oilers HC Mike Babcock ( via The Athletic )

Babcock had nothing to gain by praising a player on the opposing team. Hynes' comments on Yurov being a future "top-two line center" a night earlier, though? Well, they may have some subliminal motivation behind them. At least, that's what a couple of NHL insider/experts thought after reading Russo's tweet from earlier in this article.

Is John Hynes pumping up Yurov for a Dylan Larkin trade?

Remember, Yurov has been reported as a main piece to the Dylan Larkin trade conversations with the Detroit Red Wings. Monday on Frankly Hockey with John Buccigross and Frank Seravalli, the two openly discussed how much of Hynes' praise for Yurov was meant as a message for Red Wings management.

"I think it's probably a little bit of both. I mean, you mentioned the start to the season that he's had, but our intrepid correspondent Michael Russo said that John Hynes was raving about Yurov after the game, saying he's going to be a top two-line center in this league. It was probably to pump up his confidence a little bit after a really good start to the season, but also to send a shot across the bow for the Detroit Red Wings, who, look, it's really no secret at all that Yurov has been kind of the centerpiece of this proposed transaction."

Frank Seravalli – Frankly Hockey

Seravalli added that he gets "a real sense that Larkin wants to be in Minnesota." He said the framework he and Buccigross have discussed for a deal is Yurov, Charlie Stramel, a first-round pick and another roster player.