Wild defenseman Calen Addison healthy scratch despite his lofty point total

Calen Addison is breaking Wild rookie records while skating as one of the most productive first-year players in the NHL, but the Wild are still looking for Addison to become a better defender.

That's why he was a healthy scratch Wednesday against the Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center, the second time this season he's been benched because of his play.

"He knows that there's some things he has to correct in his game," coach Dean Evason said, "and we've asked him to and we haven't seen the level of improvement that we want."

Addison was sidelined Dec. 9 at Edmonton for the same reason, a one-game pause that preceded the progress the Wild were seeking from the 22-year-old.

At the time, Evason called the decision a "wake-up call." This latest timeout? Evason described it as an opportunity to get Addison to realize what he has to do to stay in the lineup. Veteran Alex Goligoski subbed in for Addison on the blue line.

"This league is too hard to just be a specialist, right?" Evason said. "You have to play in all areas and you have to play the game 5-on-5, as well."

Since making the team out of training camp, Addison has helped revitalize the power play as its quarterback on the point.

His 18 assists with the man advantage are tops among NHL rookies and so are his 24 assists overall. He's one assist away from passing Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy for the most single-season assists in franchise history for a rookie, and Addison already has the most assists by a Wild rookie defenseman in a season.

With his assist on Monday in the 2-1 shootout loss to the Panthers, Addison moved past Filip Kuba for the most points in a season by a Wild rookie defenseman — a record Kuba held since the team's inaugural season in 2000-01. Addison has 27 points through 52 games to go along with four from last season as a call-up from the minors.

But before he factored into Kaprizov's game-tying goal on Monday, Addison was on the ice for Florida's tally, with the player he was marking in front of the net (the Panthers' Eetu Luostarinen) tipping in a shot.

"Everyone wants to be in every night," Addison said. "For me just round out that game a little more. But, yeah, it's frustrating."

Asked what Evason's message was for him, Addison said, "Playing scared I guess. I'm not scared out there but just keep doing what I'm doing."

The progress the Wild's penalty kill has made this season was on display Monday when the unit snuffed out seven power plays.

That performance lifted the Wild to an 81% efficiency that ranked 10th in the NHL, this after they were 25th a season ago at 76.1%, and it signaled 13 successful penalty kills in a row.

"There's a lot of guys blocking shots and getting in the way of things," captain Jared Spurgeon said. "But the main thing is when we got the opportunity to get it out, we did that."

What's worked for the Wild is their aggressiveness, and that leads to effective clears that can occasionally put them in the offensive zone. Connor Dewar getting a breakaway during a Florida power play wasn't an unusual sight. Not only had he scored three shorthanded goals before then, but the team overall had registered eight, a nod to the defensive play that's enabled the Wild to shift the action down the ice.

"Our commitment level on the penalty kill and the willingness to do whatever it takes to get those pucks out and not let pucks get to the net has been great," Evason said.

Marcus Foligno's status hasn't gotten worse, Evason said, but Foligno did not play against the Avalanche after blocking a shot with his left knee on Monday.

Sam Steel returned to action after he was a healthy scratch vs. the Panthers.