Wild 2025-26 Report Card: Brock Faber – Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The NHL offseason is in full swing, and while the signings and trades are coming up, they will be distributed more than all at once. The Minnesota Wild may still have some news to do, but for now, it’s all about their last season and how their players performed. We continue to pass defenders to get grades, and we’re almost down to the last two.

The Wild have easily one of the best defensive pairings in the NHL in Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber. They are the last two defenders left to earn their marks, and it’s time to take a look at Faber and how his season played out. We’ll look at how he did in the regular season and then look at his postseason and come up with a total grade.

Faber Went Back

After a rough 2024-25 season and a slow start last season, Brock Faber found a way to dig deep and bounce back. After registering 29 points in 2024-25, he tallied 51 points in 2025-26, 15 of those goals and a career high. He also set a career high in assists with 36, and his points were also a career high.

He has had a quiet start to the season, along with the rest of the team, as they battle to finish the month of October. With those problems, when asked about them, he admitted that he thought he was part of the problem: “I don’t know, it’s hard to put your finger on it now; there have been all different situations, every game is different. It starts with keeping the puck out of our net. I’m a big part of that. I have to be better,” said Faber talking to the media following the Wild’s back Utam.

Faber has regressed with his body, not only this past season with 33 hits, but also the previous one with 36 hits; However, in his rookie season, he had an impressive 65 hits. He may not have been physical, but he never stopped giving his body as he blocked 148 shots; that’s just the second time in his rookie season that he’s had 150. After looking at these stats, it was easy to see how much of an impact playing with Quinn Hughes could have.

Not surprisingly, he led the Wild in blocked shots, and that’s a big factor in his regular season range. For his offensive rebounding and defensive efforts, he earned an A. Although he started slowly, the whole team did, and he carried a lot of responsibility. That’s why his grade was not below A, but it was not A+ because there is still room for improvement and he made some mistakes.

Faber Continues to Improve

The Wild made it out of the first round of the postseason for the first time in 11 years, and Faber was a big part of that. He played in all 11 playoff games and contributed four goals and six assists for 10 points, which ranked him fourth among Wild players behind Kirill Kaprizov, Quinn Hughes, and Matt Boldy. It shouldn’t be too surprising since he spent a lot of time with Hughes.

While he had an impressive 21 blocked shots, he was edged out by his defensive teammate, Jared Spurgeon, who had 22 blocked shots. He also kept his hits to a minimum, but the blocked shots were crucial for the Wild to get past the first round. He has shown great improvement in a short period of time, and hopefully that will continue as he is only 23 years old.

“Faber. Look, my brain was spinning. I thought Fabes, I thought Fabes, got better right away. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was like Fabes saw Quinn play and said, to me it was like, ‘oh wow, you can do those things as a defender.’ And soon he got stronger. He used his legs a lot. You just got more involved. He was not; he just wasn’t good at moving the puck up and waiting to defend. He started walking. And that was, that for me it was a really positive impact that I think Quinn had on him…,” said Bill Guerin to the media in his end-of-season interview when asked about Faber and Hughes.

Looking back at the way he played in the postseason, even though the team didn’t have the finish they wanted, he did everything he could to make sure they got a chance to win. That thinking is why he got an A last season as well. Some might think it should be less, but he was one of the hardest workers on the team, and he did well. Some may think it’s too low, but then again, he’s not the best he can be.

Faber Strong Overall

While Faber had a strong partner in Hughes, he was already a great player. However, being with Hughes gave him that edge, as Guerin mentioned above. He already had the ability to block shots, and his team should be grateful; without him, that’s over 100 fewer blocked shots and more scoring chances from the opposition.

After making it through both the regular season and the playoffs, Faber earned A’s for his entire grade. He clearly found ways to improve his game from last season, and set his career high offensively. These are the main reasons why he got an A, but he wasn’t at the top because hopefully this is just the beginning and he can continue to improve.

It will be interesting to see how Faber’s stats improve next season when he is paired with Hughes again, this time for a full season. He knows what it’s like to play with him now, and his game will be fixed; regardless, this past season Faber did well. Hopefully, he can continue that and have an even better grade next season.