Photo by Jenn G from Seattle, WA, CC BY-SA 4.0
Brock Faber
Minnesota Wild Defense #7
Twenty-three years old and already playing twenty-five minutes a night against the other team's best.
| Season | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 80 | 15 | 36 | 51 | +18 | 39 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 173 | 8.7 | 24:41 |
| Career | 242 | 33 | 94 | 127 | +17 | 88 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 434 | 7.6 | 25:01 |
Last Season
Fifteen goals and 51 points in 80 games, plus-18, on 24:41 a night and 1,628 five-on-five minutes — the most on the team by a distance. Fifteen goals from a defenceman who is not the power-play quarterback is a striking number.
The Finesse Game
He skates well enough to defend the rush against anybody and to join it without getting caught, which is the foundation of the whole workload. The first pass is quick and accurate, and he has become comfortable carrying the puck out himself when the forecheck takes the outlet away.
The shot is heavier than expected and he gets it through — a good deal of his offence is simply arriving at the right moment from the point and putting a puck on net through a screen.
He plays 50 percent of his five-on-five minutes alongside Hughes, and the two of them are the reason this defence functions. Watching which of them drives that pairing is one of the better arguments available about this team.
The Physical Game
Six-one and 200, and he defends physically without being punishing. He is strong on the wall, willing in front of his own net, and takes the body when it ends a play rather than when it looks good.
The concern is mileage rather than durability. He has played enormous minutes since the day he arrived, at an age when most defencemen are being protected.
The Intangibles
Acquired as a prospect in a trade for a franchise winger, which is the kind of deal that follows a player around. It has aged extremely well.
He is not a flashy player and he will not win awards while playing beside somebody who does. He is, on the evidence so far, going to be a number-one defenceman for a decade.