Minnesota Wild: Projecting the Forward Lines to Start the Season
By Turner Olson
With the moves made over the offseason, the Minnesota Wild have given themselves flexibility in terms of where to line up players. Lets take a look at what the lines are likely to look like come the start of the regular season.
LIne 1: The top line has long been rumored since the signing of Eric Staal to be Parise at left wing, Staal at center, and Coyle at right wing. This line has the potential to boast 3 players with 25 plus goals. Even if Staal struggles this season, expect both Parise and Coyle to hit the 25 goal mark and that might even be too low. of an expectation.
Line 2: To start the year, the guess is this line will consist of Granlund, Koivu, Zucker. This line has the potential to score a lot of goals and produce some pretty plays. However Zucker is coming off a down year and there are questions whether he can bounce back or not. He could be replaced with Nino Niederreiter if he plays poorly.
Granlund should take a step forward and finally become a 50 point player after he displayed more scoring touch last season. Koivu is pretty much a lock for somewhere around 50 points as long as he is healthy. The factor here is the play of Zucker, can he be the player who scored 20 goals in about half a season two years ago or will he be the healthier, less effective player we saw struggle with 13 goals last year?
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Line 3: This line will likely stay in tact after a strong showing in the playoffs. From left to right it will be Niederreiter, Haula, and Pominville. Another strong offensive line for the Wild, with each player displaying chemistry with one another. If they can duplicate last season’s effort, there is no reason to think each cannot contribute at least 40 points this year.
Line 4: Have to admit, this is a bit of wildcard, has been all offseason. Chris Stewart is the only given at this point, and he brings an element of toughness to the team. However, given the recent PTO given to Tomas Fleischmann, who is still a solid NHL winger, my guess is there is a spot for him if he plays well. The remaining spot is a toss up with Alex Tuch the presumed front runner.
Next: Minnesota Wild: Tuch and Bertschy Making Strong NHL Roster Cases
There you have it, overall a pretty solid forward corps. Pretty much every line and for certain the top 3 lines have players that can be expected to contribute in major ways offensively.