What The Wild Should Expect This Season
By James Beck
This could very well be a question that is pointless to ask. We will ask it anyway, and we will answer it. What should be expected of a team that will be adding over 6 new players to their roster. The answer should be a small improvement 8ver last year. With adding that many players there should be no expectations. Yet this is reality, a winning record is obvious but the playoffs is more like it.
Fans will see the signings of Parise and Suter and think that these two guys make them much better. Where they make them better but not as good as the fans believe they are. Sure they are improved there is no denying that. As far as I can remember there has never been a Devils Forward who signed somewhere else and came close to what they were in New Jersey. Parise is a very nice player but not a player who will put you over the top.
Suter is the same as Parise, except he is probably not thought of as top 10 defense man maybe not even top 15. I love the style he plays with but is he just a good defense man made better playing with the best in the league in Weber. We will find out now won’t we. The contracts length and money will make it hard for Minnesota to sign any further help. This wasn’t a smart move by the Wild. Not with the conference they play in and not when you have the talent they have coming up through the farm.
The roster is smallish 17 players 6-0 and under while they are not afraid to play a physical game a smaller body wares faster then a big body. The wild needed some big NHL ready talent now. Which is why I’m stumped a Jason Arnott fits this team perfect. So would a Bobby Ryan trade not make sense for the Wild. Or how about a Rich Nash before he was moved to the Rangers. I know, I know they would have to give up prospects to get both players. http://espn.go.com/nhl/team/roster/_/name/min/minnesota-wild
And my answer to that is so what, prospects can miss it happens. With either Nash or Ryan your getting proven talent. How about the defense man Schenn that Toronto traded for an injury prone JVR. Truth is the Wild could’ve had three of these players for less then what they gave Parise and Suter. And they’d be better off for it. Could’ve signed Garrison that gives you four players instead of two. And only one prospect would’ve had to go in the Nash deal.
I don’t think Wild fans should expect much of anything this year. Maybe just a winning record. They signed two very good players for all star money and years. Ask the New York Rangers how over spending for players worked for them. Gomez, Drury, Wade Redden and Bobby Holik yeah some really bad moves on the Rangers behalf. And there’s still Keane, Skrudland and Nedved.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/313510-top-10-worst-glen-sather-moves-of-the-past-decade
What made the Wild better is that teams that finished ahead of them got worse, Phoenix and Nashville just to name two. St Louis is an enigma and are the kings what they were at the end of the year or was that just a miracle run. Detroit didn’t improve and lost Lidstrom and Huddler. That is what will make the Wild better this year. Will that equal more wins for the Wild or more losses for the teams who got worse that I don’t know.
Then there is Colorado and Edmonton who have gotten better. The wild will finish with 43 wins this year barely missing the playoffs. Let that be the expectations that way if anything more comes of their season it is just an added bonus. Do they have a shot at the playoffs yes. It usually takes a team time to gel after this much turn over.