How to play the Minnesota Wild history timeline

This is the Wild's franchise history as a deck of cards, each one a milestone with a short line below its title. You put them in order of the year they happened. One card is on the timeline at the start, showing its year. You then place every new card in a gap; correct placements reveal the year, and incorrect ones move the card to its true place and cost you one of three lives.

The Wild are a young club, so this deck covers a short span and the cards sit tightly packed. Coaching and front-office hires, big signings, a few trades and the team's best regular seasons make up most of it. Because the timeline is so compressed, think about which stars were on the roster at the time rather than how long ago something feels.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 18 of the 18 cards you might be dealt. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Awarded an expansion franchise The NHL grants the Twin Cities a team, ending a seven-year gap since the North Stars left
Team named the Wild A fan-submitted name is chosen over finalists like Freeze and Northern Lights
Inaugural season at Xcel Energy Center The club plays its first NHL games in a brand-new downtown St. Paul arena
Run to the Western Conference Final In only their third season, back-to-back 3-1 series comebacks carry them within four wins of the Cup Final
Marian Gaborik's five-goal game The young winger lights up the Rangers for five in a single night
First division title The club finally tops the Northwest Division standings
Mikko Koivu named first captain After years with no permanent captain, the Finnish center gets the 'C'
Traded Brent Burns to San Jose The blueliner is dealt west in a package that returns Charlie Coyle
Signed Parise and Suter Two identical thirteen-year deals reshape the roster on the same July day
Returned to the playoffs A lockout-shortened season ends a five-year postseason drought
First-round win over Colorado A Game 7 overtime goal finishes off the Avalanche
Drafted Kirill Kaprizov A future star is taken in the fifth round, years before he can leave Russia
Bruce Boudreau hired as coach The veteran bench boss takes over behind the bench
Franchise-record 106-point season A 49-win campaign sets a new club standard for points
Eric Staal's 42-goal season The veteran center posts a surprising career-high goal total
Bill Guerin named general manager The former NHL forward takes over hockey operations
Kirill Kaprizov wins the Calder The Russian winger is named the league's top rookie in his debut season
Retired Mikko Koivu's No. 9 The same season the club sets a franchise record with 113 points, its first captain's number goes to the rafters