Wild preview, can they make it past the first round?

[yave1964]

PREVIOUS SEASON 46-25-11 103 points, 3rd in Central, lost to Dallas in first round. plus 21 goal differential

 

ADDITIONS Pat Maroon came aboard to provide bottom six grit. That is it as far as i can find. Additions are difficult as every Wild fan knows and laments as they still have this year and next to pay huge money to Parise and Suter before the cap hit flattens out at a manageable figure. They have tough decisions on Hartman and Zuccarello as both are UFA at the end of the year. 

 

SUBRACTIONS Dumba moved on, kind of a mutual thing. Klingberg was a poor fit and is gone as well. Sundqvist, Steel and Reaves are all gone from the bottom six.

 

ROOKIES Rossi failed to impress much with 1 point in 19 games last season, he has to break through into the middle six this year. Dumba will be replaces by talented Brock Faber who is a puck mover on the back end. Carson Lambos is a stay at home defender who will likely be the first callup on the back end when injuries occur. Losing four bottom six forwards and adding one means that Adam Beckman may earn a role with his grit, surprised with 24 goals at Iowa then went pointless in nine games with the big club. These are the names that will be breaking into full time roles this year. If injuries and age finally catch up to Fleury, there is a chance that uber talented goalie Jasper Walstedt is given a chance.

 

SO THE QUESTION, CAN THEY WIN A SERIES OR MORE IN THE CENTRAL DIVISION? Dallas is better and the Avalanche were the Stanley cup champs two years ago. They have two of the toughest teams in the entire conference that they must get past in order to move past the first round. 

 Colorado first, Landeskog is going to miss the season again but they are simply stacked and proven. Dallas added Duchene as well as spare parts Steel and Craig Smith, and like the Wild has three or four very talented kids. 

 

  My opinion is the Wild are talented and with Kaprisov and Boldy leading the offense they are an absolute lock to make the postseason, likely as the third seed. I just dont see them making it out of the first round unless something significant happens and with the cap hell they are in significant is very unlikely. 

 

Clear playoff team. Losing in first round to the Stars with the hope that they can resign one of Hartman or Zuccarello and ride out the next two years and then build around a very talented young base once the Parise/Suter check is finally (mostly) paid. 

Edited September 26, 2023 by yave1964

[Tomdog]

After looking at their roster, I’m not so sure they make the playoffs. 
As always injuries will play a roll. After Kaprizov, Boldy, Zuccarello and EEk you really don’t know what you are going to get for production. 
And let’s face it other than Kap and EEk I’m not so sure what we see from the rest. 
I’m going to watch this season and hope for the best and except the rest. 

[Alexandron]

I am more optimistic for this season results. We will make playoffs and will pass the 1st round. Dallas is a beatable team. We should pass the 1st round of the playoffs this season if we hadn't EEK injury, and control better Suter. Referees were not as good too, especially against Foligno, penalizing him for nothing multiple times. 

[yave1964]

Just now, Alexandron said:

I am more optimistic for this season results. We will make playoffs and will pass the 1st round. Dallas is a beatable team. We should pass the 1st round of the playoffs this season if we hadn't EEK injury, and control better Suter. Referees were not as good too, especially against Foligno, penalizing him for nothing multiple times. 

I think Dallas is One of the deepest teams in hockey right now with kids bursting on the scene as well. The signing of Duchene may have been the best under the radar this offseaon.

[Alexandron]

6 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

I think Dallas is One of the deepest teams in hockey right now with kids bursting on the scene as well. The signing of Duchene may have been the best under the radar this offseaon.

And also I think we have a better goalie (Gustavsson). Without him it will be more difficult to make playoffs for our team. Probably,so far, he is the best goalie in our Wild history. His NHL stats were outstanding last year.  Hopefully, he will show this season similar play as he did last season. 

And hopefully also, we will see soon in a main club very talented prospect (Walker). Second year in a row he is impressing me with his play, which is very similar to Kaprizov's. His more recent records of the last week 5 goals, 1 hat trick, and 2 assists (7 points in 3 games).

And Rossi maybe will start producing and will play smarter for the big club too. Entire summer he had a special individual training with coaches to prepare him for this season which I had never seen in our club. 

I also believe that our 2nd line Boldy-EEK-Johansson will make a solid impact in our production. All players of that line are very talented and very experienced. 

[IllaZilla]

I think a big part of the equation is going to be Dean Evason. He is very reluctant to change up a line, even if it is doing poorly. He also is not very good making in-game adjustments.

 

I don't know if this will have an impact on their season or not, but he needs to tone down the barking at the referees. It's great to see he is passionate, but I felt last season, and especially in the Playoffs, it was a detriment to the team. He was jawing at the refs constantly, and then Marcus Foligno and others picked up on it, and it snowballed. If you are constantly arguing with the the refs, you are going to get a reputation with them. And not a good one. 

 

This season is certainly going to be interesting, with the Wild having to rely on youth instead of big name free agents. I'm curious to see what happens, because they have never done this before. Is Evason going to be patient with the kids? He's going to have to be, because the Free Agent Cavalry is not coming for another two seasons...

[CreaseAndAssist]

I think the team can make the playoffs; but doing anything once we get there...not so much.  I agree Dean isn't exactly a strength.  However, I do like what I've seen out of the power play so far.  But this team has a regular season level and can't seem to find a post-season one.  So its tough to get too excited about it and they only doubled down on the 'core' who hasn't really done anything notable.