Minnesota Wild vs Florida Panthers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/26/26

It has been a tale of 2 seasons for these teams, as the Minnesota Wild have their sights set on the Stanley Cup if they can make it out of the Central Division gauntlet, and the Florida Panthers are going to hope for some draft lottery luck after a down season. The Panthers, with all their injuries, may not look like back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, but they’ve been playing a bit better recently, winning 2 of their past 3 games with a loss to the Calgary Flames in between. It has been the opposite recently for the Wild, as they’ve lost 2 of their past 3 games, but the win was an important one, and an overtime victory over the team they are chasing in the standings, the Dallas Stars.

The big difference for these teams over the past 3 games has been the strength of the schedule. Florida was on the West Coast playing against the “pillow fight” division with two of their victories, while one of the Wild’s losses was against the other half of the Florida trip, the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was disappointing for Minnesota to lose a potential Stanley Cup Final preview. Still, it should only motivate them more to shake off their recent losing ways with a win over Florida.

Filip Gustavsson took the loss for the Wild on Tuesday, and with the way he has been playing lately and the way that rookie Jesper Wallstedt has been playing, Bill Guerin is thankful that he didn’t pull the trigger on a deal after all the trade deadline rumors surrounding The Great Wall of St. Paul. Wallstedt has been lights out over his past 5 starts, allowing just 9 goals and owning a .922 save percentage. Sergei Bobrovsky has been a better overall performer lately than earlier in the season, including a shutout against the Edmonton Oilers on the West Coast trip, but he also allowed five and four goals against the Vancouver Canucks and the Kraken.

The Wild will be looking to shake off the losses and secure 2 points here, while the Panthers are still just trying to run out the season despite a couple of wins lately.

Wild vs Panthers prediction: Minnesota Wild ML (-140) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.