As Mikko Koivu watches his jersey raised to the rafters on Sunday in the arena where he played over 500 regular season games and 27 playoff contests, fans will reflect on the 15 years Koivu played in the green, red and white. Many will celebrate everything he did for the Wild, while some will question whether his numbers make him worthy of the honor of never handing out number 9 to another Wild player.
Some, hopefully a select few, will wonder why the Wild never followed the hashtag and decided to “#StripTheC” from the only permanent captain the Wild ever had, until the team opted not to resign him and let him walk for a one-year deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets — a team for which he played only seven games before hanging up his skates for good in 2021.