If Brock Faber has flown a little under the radar in camp this fall, it’s only because the defenseman, still only 22, has been such a steady force for good in the Minnesota Wild’s lineup.

In a 2023-24 season derailed by injuries, Faber played 82 games and led the team in minutes. He set the franchise rookie record with 39 assists, and when the team lost captain Jared Spurgeon for all but 16 games, Faber stepped into the breach to quarterback on a power play unit that finished 10th in the NHL.

In short, training camp is generally spent talking about how a team will fix the things it didn’t do well the previous season, and Faber just doesn’t fit into that conversation. No one, for instance, is asking Kirill Kaprizov what he can do better when the season opens Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.

Even success hasn’t changed Faber. In June, he finished second to Chicago’s Connor Bedard for the Calder Trophy that goes to the league’s outstanding rookie, and in July he signed an eight-year contract extension worth $68 million that should keep the former Gopher playing for the Wild through the 2032-33 season.

His goal in camp has been largely the same as it was last fall.

“Nothing different,” he said. “You just try to work as hard as you can to get better every day. That’s the goal, and that was the same mindset as last year.”

Why change what has proven to work?

“After the year that he had, and goes through what he went through in the summer, to come back as focused, as coachable — and that continues to get better in his game — it’s good signs for him, and certainly for the team,” head coach John Hynes said this week.

Not that Faber has reached his ceiling. His combination of size (6-foot-1, 220 pounds), speed, hands and professionalism makes that nearly limitless. Consider that the two-time Big Ten defensive player of the year never played on the power play as a Gopher, yet moved there midseason last year because of injuries. He already has earned the QB role on the top unit.

“I’m still learning, and I’m still learning to get more comfortable,” he said, “and I think being able to do that in practice before the season even starts, and have preseason games to learn as well, it helps a lot, for sure.”

The Wild missed the playoffs last season for the second time in 12 years, and while Faber had a summer filled with the NHL Awards ceremonies in Las Vegas and signing a mammoth contract, it stuck in his throat.

A long, hard camp — the team’s first under Hynes — that featured a 4-2 record in preseason games has the team feeling confident that last season was an anomaly.

Faber’s overall takeaway from training camp? “Excitement.”

“We had a really good camp, I think everyone came in ready to go. It’s so exciting,” he said. “Obviously, it was a bitter taste we had last year, and you get to think about that all summer long. To be able to let loose again feels good. Everyone’s in the right headspace, and healthy, and ready to go.”

Briefly

The Wild will play host to a free, open-to-the-public outdoor practice at the City of St. Louis Park Rec Center in St. Louis Park on Thursday, Oct. 17. Start time is set for 11 a.m.