He doesn't always score a goal.
His screen time in the highlight reel is often minor.
And when it's time to parade out the game's three star performers, he usually isn't invited.
But subtract the effect captain Mikko Koivu has on the action and the Wild might not be winners — a reality last season and throughout the 35-year-old's stint in the NHL as one of its best defensive forwards.
"I don't think he gets enough credit at all," winger Mikael Granlund said.
Such is the epitaph that's attached to Koivu's career, a businesslike worker bee who grinds without much glory.
Winning defensive-zone faceoffs and suppressing chances for opponents aren't typically the sequences that are rehashed around the water cooler the next day, but like the gears that crank behind the face of a clock, Koivu helps the Wild tick — and has for years.
Perhaps it's unfortunate, then, that as he closes in on 1,000 NHL games, all with the Wild and as captain for much of his tenure, Koivu hasn't received more recognition for the commitment he's invested into an organization that has become one of the steadiest in the league despite not capturing a Stanley Cup.