“He’s strong,” said Hartman, who’s at right wing but can also play center. “He battles. There were a lot of one-on-one battles this training camp, and I went against him a couple times, and he’s strong. He’s like a little pit bull in there.

“He’s got skill. He can score goals. He can make really strong plays. He’ll go to the net. The goalie might be looking over him a little bit, but he’s there: He’s creating chaos in there.”

Add in Johansson’s smooth skating and vision alongside Hartman’s grit and shot, as evidenced by the 74 goals he’s accrued since 2021-22 for the fourth-most on the Wild in that time behind only Kaprizov, Boldy and Eriksson Ek, and the Wild’s new-look second line brings plenty to the table.

“[Hartman’s] shown over the course of a while now in the offensive zone he gets to the net front,” Hynes said. “He’s a real competitive guy, and he’s playing competitive in those areas of the ice, and that’s what you need. When you have a guy like Marco and Johansson where they’re good-skating, open-ice players, when Hartzy’s moving his feet to keep the pace with those guys and then he competes in hard areas, it complements them.”

As expected, Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Boldy made an impact, with Kaprizov scoring the first go-ahead goal in the third period to break a 1-1 tie with a nifty deflection while his back was toward the net.