A stellar sophomore season from Matt Boldy wasn't enough to earn a pat on the back from Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin heading into the summer.

"In talking to a guy like Boldy, his style of play in the playoffs doesn't … He's got to change certain things in his game," Guerin told The Athletic's Michael Russo. "It is a different game in the playoffs. It's just different.

"And I think a lot of people get frustrated with that in hockey, but I think it's one of the things that makes hockey great is that it is a whole different ballgame. You look at the goals that are scored, they're hard goals. There's not a lot of pretty goals, and you've just got to get your nose dirty. For him, that's something that he's got to work on."

Boldy tallied 31 goals and 32 assists in 81 games during the regular season, but he was held scoreless with three helpers in six playoff contests before the Wild were eliminated by the Dallas Stars.

"Still not good enough," the 22-year-old answered when asked to compare this postseason to last year's. "To be honest, I don't think I played well. That's my opinion. It just wasn't what it needed to be, and obviously it sucks. It's not what you want to have happen, feeling like you let teammates down and stuff like that. But it's another thing to learn from, and we don't want to let it happen again."

Boldy recorded one goal and zero helpers in six games during the 2022 playoffs after producing 39 points in 47 contests as a rookie.

The 6-foot-2 winger was selected 12th overall by Minnesota at the 2019 NHL Draft. He signed a seven-year, $49-million extension in January that will make him the Wild's third-highest-paid player next season.

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