Wild left off top 25 players under 25 list again; will that change soon?

Even a completely subjective list — or lists, in this case — can reinforce an unpleasant truth.

ESPN, for the last several years, has released before the start of the season a list of the top 25 NHL players under the age of 25.

You will find a lot of superstars on the list, and some players whose ascent turned into a decline. You will not, however, find a player from the Minnesota Wild.

In 2015. Or 2016. Or 2017 (SB Nation list, since I couldn't find the ESPN list and perhaps they didn't do one). Or 2018. Or 2019. Or 2020.

Yes, I went back and looked at all of them, prompted by the release of this year's list and the possibility that one might find 24-year-old Kevin Fiala in the mix. He did at least crack the honorable mentions. But not the top 25.

No, to find a Wild player on the list you have to go all the way back to 2014-15 and defenseman Jonas Brodin (then just 21, and cracking the list at No. 23).

The Wild made the playoffs in a lot of those seasons and had some good young players. But their lack of an emerging young star says about as much about the last half-decade of Wild hockey as anything else.

It also speaks to why fans might have a twinge of excitement for this upcoming season — whenever it might start, and whomever Minnesota might play — that has been missing in past years.

There is Fiala, their best pure goal scorer since ... well, I don't know if I'm ready to say Marian Gaborik but I might be. Fiala will be too old for the list next season, but he's still young enough to inspire hope.

And there is the arrival of 23-year-old Kirill Kaprizov. If Kaprizov is anywhere as good as he looks like he could be, he might finally crack that top 25 under 25 list for the Wild and break the streak next year.

I, for one, am more intrigued by this year's team than I have been by a Wild team in a long time. I'm probably just a sucker for potential, but hope is a powerful thing.