The New Best Player On My Team

Looking for his biggest fan, Steph, in the stands...

I present to you the top five reasons I think Mikko Koivu is becoming the best player on the Wild:
5.) He wins faceoffs. A lot of faceoffs, and this is something the Wild have been severely lacking in.

4.) He actually works hard. Hear that Gaborik? Hard work. Foreign words to you, I know.

3.) Koivu is carrying on the Finnish tradition on the Wild of being good at shoot outs. Dude has moves. Hopefully Backstrom will carry on the tradition on the other end of the spectrum.

2.) He's future captain material. I can really see him becoming a leader on this team. He's mature, thoughtful, and clearly has good genes.

1.) He plays a lot of games. He's rarely hurt (yet again, I'm looking at you, Gaborik) unless he gets karate chopped with a stick (to throw in a MN term, Paul Bunyan style!) by a douchy, probably jealous player from the other team. My mom alway did say that Swedes and Finns don't like each other...

Honorable mention reason: he doesn't take any crap, and is even showing signs of being feisty.

Added bonus for the ladies: cute!

Mikko Koivu is becoming a really good all around player. Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune said that the more comfortable he he becomes off the ice, the more comfortable he has seemed on it. I completely agree. He started to learn the language and come out of his shell, and he is blossoming into a franchise-type player, and one I hope we will have a long time beyond his current four-year deal.
Yes, this was a bit of an attack on Gaborik, but in order to be the best player on the team, you actually have to play once in a while. He has skills, but he's not as well-rounded as Mikko.