Wild center Marco Rossi seeks perfection, but plays a game of uncertain bounces

When Stefanie Prast cooks — Swedish meatballs are a favorite — she tidies up the kitchen once she’s finished preparing the food.

But if her boyfriend and Wild forward Marco Rossi is her sous-chef, he cleans up the mess as they make it.

Their Minneapolis apartment is organized to perfection, Rossi is always on time, and he’s a model student. Prast taught Rossi over FaceTime to make his own meals, and he followed her directions to a T except for once: He set off the smoke alarm because he burned rice.

“Every person can count on him,” Prast said. “He has the biggest heart I know, and he cares about everything.”

Rossi is no different on the ice.

In just his second full NHL season, he’s become one of the Wild’s most important players because of how reliable he is. He’s skated in every game and delivers in crunch time, whether it be the third period or the month the Wild were without leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov before he was shelved again to have surgery on his nagging injury. Even Rossi’s goals are predictable, the majority coming right around the net.

A first-round draft pick honed in the organization’s pipeline before climbing the depth chart all the way to No.1 center, Rossi is a homegrown success story — all because he was himself, the person and player one and the same.

“Marco is Marco,” his dad, Michael, said.

The Wild have gone from missing the playoffs last year to ranking near the top of the league, and Rossi helped spur the turnaround.

He’s already surpassed his point total from his rookie season, his 46 points through 52 games second on the team and 18 goals tied for second.

But Rossi’s statement game came as playmaker, the 23-year-old matching a team record Jan. 4 at Carolina when he assisted on four consecutive Wild goals — a feat he accomplished again last week.

Combine that knack for offense with his defensive awareness (63% of the goals scored while Rossi is in action at 5-on-5 are for the Wild), and Rossi has turned into the player the Wild envisioned he could be when they drafted him ninth overall in 2020.

“He was sort of the apple of our eye going into the draft,” recalled Judd Brackett, the Wild’s director of amateur scouting. “We thought he had the potential to not only remain a center but be where he is today as a top-line center in the National Hockey League.”

To fulfill the Wild’s forecast, Rossi played like he always has.

Growing up in Austria, Rossi started hockey when he was 2½ years old.

He suited up for his hometown team until he was 10, which is when he joined a club in Switzerland just 10 minutes across the border. At 13, Rossi began a three-hour round-trip commute to Zurich to play.

One time, his dad suggested they skip practice and instead work out at home. Five minutes later, “The hockey bag was in my car,” Michael said, “and he was waiting in my car, and he said, ‘Let’s go.’”

Michael played professionally in Austria and taught Rossi to be relentless in the defensive zone so that he could retrieve the puck quicker and spend more time on offense. While other parents stressed goals, Michael treated Rossi to McDonald’s if he had an assist or simply a good game.

Rossi understood how to win, and he takes feedback “right away to heart,” Michael said.

Finally, when Rossi was 16, he left Europe for Canada, where he dominated.

He led the Canadian Hockey League in scoring his second season with a mindboggling 120 points in 85 games for the Ottawa 67’s and was named the Ontario Hockey League’s most outstanding player.

“He’s an ultimate pro, character guy,” said Utah Hockey Club coach Andre Tourigny, who coached Rossi on the 67’s. “He’s big into his craft. There’s nothing wrong about this guy.”

Brackett scouted Rossi in person, but because he was still working for Vancouver in the lead-up to the 2020 draft, not getting hired by the Wild until July, Brackett didn’t have Rossi as one of his targets since the Canucks’ first pick wasn’t until the third round.

The pandemic postponing the draft to October, however, gave him and the Wild more time to evaluate.

They talked with Rossi only once, which made Rossi feel like the team wouldn’t draft him, but the Wild were won over by Rossi’s production, competitiveness and consistency.

“You know what to expect from him every single night,” Brackett said.

But a health scare forced Rossi’s career to come to a standstill.

He was diagnosed in 2021 with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that can be a complication from COVID-19. Rossi returned to Austria to recover by doing nothing, and that’s when he met Prast after Rossi’s sister Estelle introduced them; she and Prast worked at the same bank.

Prast and Rossi went on slow walks, and she reminded him to stay positive when doctors told Rossi they weren’t sure if he’d play hockey again.

“I tried to be on his side,” Prast said.

After resting for five months, Rossi was cleared to resume physical activity.

He made his NHL debut on Jan. 6, 2022, and logged two seasons in the minors with the Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate in Iowa while recalibrating to hockey after being away from the sport to heal his heart. Then last season, he stuck with the Wild for good.

“We want the best player when they are most prepared and ready to play, and Marco is a very good example of that,” Brackett said. “Had he been our No.1 center the very next year that would have been incredible. But that wasn’t his development path.”

Rossi appeared in all 82 games after training the previous offseason in the Twin Cities, even missing his sister Marielle’s wedding back home in Austria. After Christmas, he felt like he was really part of the Wild.

“I’m happy of course how the season went, but I knew I have another step,” said Rossi, who made the league’s all-rookie team. “Even now, I want to do another step.”

Rossi clicked with Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello early, the trio leading the Wild to one of the best starts in the NHL.

But during a November game at Anaheim, Rossi was demoted to the fourth line. While he was putting up points, his overall play wasn’t sharp. Coach John Hynes talked with Rossi and after reviewing video, Rossi adjusted.

Just like that. Rossi knew where his game was at, and he took care of it.

“He’s an action guy,” Hynes said. “He takes action on what needs to be done.”

Especially when the Wild need him most.

During the 12 games the Wild were without Kaprizov when he was first sidelined with a lower-body injury, Rossi’s 12 points were second on the team to only Zuccarello’s 14.

Aside from opening the scoring a team-high five times, Rossi has the most game-tying goals inside the final 10 minutes of the third period league-wide with three.

This is old hat for Rossi: He scored timely goals in junior and as a kid when he was the best player on his teams.

“You trust yourself more,” he said, “and your confidence obviously goes up.”

But crashing the other team’s crease is a newer trend.

“It’s annoying for them to defend,” he said.

While Rossi got to the middle of the ice with Ottawa after realizing that’s where he could thrive on the smaller rinks in North America, he wasn’t the net-front presence that he is now at 5 feet, 9 inches and 190 pounds: His 13 high-danger goals — which is within 29 feet from the center of the goal — are in the 95th percentile in the NHL. Rossi’s average shot distance on goals is 14 feet, according to MoneyPuck.

“I feel comfortable around the net,” he said. “I just have a good feeling of where the puck might go.”

Amid this evolution, Rossi hasn’t been spared from trade talk, rumors indicative of the business and playing a premium position like center.

His current contract expires after the season, so the speculation likely isn’t going away, but Rossi tries not to worry about it.

“I try to control what I can control, and that’s obviously playing hockey,” Rossi said. “Everything else, you have no idea.”

Aside from cooking together, Rossi and Prast hang out with Chanel, their Pomeranian, who loves the snow.

March will be their four-year anniversary, with Prast meeting Rossi just one week into his recovery from myocarditis — what Rossi described as his lowest point. A big believer in manifestation, Prast always told Rossi to write down what he wanted.

“You are who you think you are,” Rossi said.

He wanted to have a good season with the Wild, which he has, but now he can make it great.

The Wild are at a crossroads: Their struggles during the past month haven’t spoiled their first-half surge, but they’ll have to reestablish their identity without Kaprizov, who will be on the mend from surgery for at least the next month.

Rossi has shown he can be relied on; in fact, he wants that role, and he’s well-suited for it.

First line, the second or either power play unit, Rossi has already adapted to best serve the Wild.

“He can be a bit of a chameleon,” Brackett said. “Whatever the opportunity or responsibility is, I think he’s got enough tools in his toolbox to still be successful.”

Even if he didn’t commit like he has to hockey when he had reasons not to, from long car rides to a life-threatening condition, dependability like Rossi’s is an accomplishment.

But he won’t dwell on the satisfaction.

Prast encourages him to, though.

“He has a good game, he gets home, and he watches the game and what he can do better,” she said. “It’s never enough for him. He always wants more. But I feel it’s important that he can also be proud of himself.”