ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin saw more than enough potential in Brock Faber’s rookie season to give the defenseman an eight-year, $68 million contract extension on Monday.

The deal won’t kick in until the 2025-26 season, after Faber’s rookie contract expires. It comes after the 21-year-old finished second to Chicago Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard in the Calder Trophy voting for the league’s rookie of the year award.

“He’s shown he’s mature enough to handle it. He’s shown he’s going to keep getting better,” Guerin said. “Yeah, it’s worth the risk.”

Faber is one of four Wild players in history to make the NHL All-Rookie Team, joining Jonas Brodin (2013), Kirill Kaprizov (2021) and Marco Rossi (also 2024).

From Maple Grove, Minn., Faber led all rookies and was sixth among NHL skaters with an average of 24 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time per game last season. Faber’s ice time total (2,047:53) was the most by an NHL rookie since 2000-01. He also finished tied for second among rookies with 47 points in 82 games, and his 39 assists were a franchise rookie record.

Faber is one of the young building blocks of a team already looking forward to having more salary cap space to sign players once the bulk of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter’s bought-out contracts come off the Wild’s books next summer.

Parise and Suter count toward Minnesota’s salary cap this season for a combined $14.73 million after their contracts were bought out in 2021. That drops to $1.67 million in each of the next three seasons.

Faber was selected by Los Angeles in the second round of the 2020 draft. Two years later, the Kings traded Faber and 2022 first-round pick Liam Ohgren to Minnesota to acquire forward Kevin Fiala.

Faber’s contract extension through the 2032-33 season comes three weeks after the Wild signed Jake Middleton to a four-year, $17.4 million contract extension that also runs after this season.

Faber, who played for the University of Minnesota, grew up a huge Wild fan and his bedroom was decorated with all kinds of memorabilia.

“I’m a Minnesota kid, born and raised,” Faber said, “and it’s always been a dream of mine to be able to wear this jersey and play for this team.”

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The Associated Press