Gone Puck Wild
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Wild Season Buried by Injuries, Inconsistencies, and Inefficiencies, But Hope Remains Part 2

By Lake Martin

ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 02: After scoring a 1st period goal Victor Rask #49 of the Minnesota Wild is congratulated by Ryan Donato #6 of the Minnesota Wild, Brad Hunt #77 of the Minnesota Wild and Jonas Brodin #25 of the Minnesota Wild during a game with the Winnipeg Jets at Xcel Energy Center on April 2, 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 02: After scoring a 1st period goal Victor Rask #49 of the Minnesota Wild is congratulated by Ryan Donato #6 of the Minnesota Wild, Brad Hunt #77 of the Minnesota Wild and Jonas Brodin #25 of the Minnesota Wild during a game with the Winnipeg Jets at Xcel Energy Center on April 2, 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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In part 1 of this series we talked largely about the negative moments and things that contributed to the collapse of the Minnesota Wild this season. This week, in part 2, we’re going positive and talking about hope for next season!

Now to the Positives. The Minnesota Wild seemed to play very good against the high-caliber teams, such as Tampa Bay and the Winnipeg Jets (who they swept this season 5-0). Mikko Koivu, Matt Dumba, and Zach Parise are all expected to be ready for training camp. And through savvy money-saving hockey trades, Fenton has created a lot of cap space to sign a solution to the Wild’s scoring woes.

Changing of the Guard at Forward

This was at the expense of loved members, Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund, and slightly less loved Charlie Coyle. However, after many years of the same core and the same early exits in the playoffs, something had to change. The Minnesota Wild unfortunately might as well of received a bag of pucks for Nino (sorry Victor Rask). Luckily Fenton redeemed himself as Coyle resulted in Ryan Donato and Granlund turned into Kevin Fiala. In 22 games, Donato had 16 points (4G-12A), shot the puck frequently with confidence, something we hadn’t seen Coyle due for many years.

Fiala had less immediate success, but also frequently shot the puck and tried to create opportunities for teammates, despite some questionable passes that frequently turned into turnovers. Fiala had 7 points in 22 games (3G-4A) and is currently outperforming Granlund who only has 5 points with the Preds. Fenton still has high confidence for Kevin, calling him a “game breaker”, and built with the new core of young players Luke Kunin, Jordan Greenway, and Joel Eriksson Ek, they have an incredibly promising future.

Development and the New Core

And with the crowded defensive core, Carson Soucy and Louie Belpedio gained another year of development with the Iowa Wild program, who until recently, was performing very well (with the additions of Donato, Kunin, Greenway, and Fiala, they were able to make the AHL playoffs). This offseason is a critical one for the Minnesota Wild.

Ryan Suter and Zach Parise are entering into the 7th years of their contracts are 34 and two and a half months away from being 35. It’s time to grow corn while the sun is shining. The new core being added to the current aging core of Parise, Suter, Staal, Koivu, Zucker, Spurgeon must step up and produce in order for the wild to succeed. The 25 and under group of Brodin, Dumba, Donato, Kunin, Greenway, Sturm, Eriksson Ek, and Fiala will largely determine how far and how successful the Wild will be in 2019-2020.

Who to Re-sign this Summer

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The Wild have a lot of cap space to work with this offseason to pick up another scorer: The RFAs they should resign are Ryan Donato, JEE, Kevin Fiala, Nico Sturm, Louie Belpedio, and Carson Soucy (allowing Pontus Aberg and Hunter Warner to be Unrestricted.) UFAs include Eric Fehr, Landon Ferraro, Cal O’Reilly, Matt Read, Matt Bartkowski, Anthony Bitetto, Brad Hunt, Nate Prosser, and Andrew Hammond. Out of that list, I would resign Matt Read, Matt Bartkowski, Brad Hunt, and maybe Eric Fehr. Fehr did his job and did it well. Killed penalties, was a big physical body, and could do whatever Bruce needed him to.

There is a slight crowding of centers now. If they believe Nico Sturm will be starting the year with the Minnesota Wild, resigning Eric Fehr is superfluous. Brad Hunt deserved to play every game after he was acquired from Vegas. He’s very Jared Spurgeon-like. Undersized, skates well, has good offensive talent outside of slap shots. If it weren’t for Fenton’s decision to acquire Anthony Bitetto off of waivers, you would have likely seen exactly that.

Dipping into the Free Agent Market

Now that isn’t to say they should resign every UFA I listed. With the amount of money they have available to spend (roughly $19 mil, $12 mil after RFAs), it’s imperative that the Minnesota Wild acquires a scoring threat. Purely based on the fact that they are UFAs this year and therefore could theoretically sign with the Minnesota Wild, players like Anders Lee, Joe Pavelski, Jeff Skinner, Wayne Simmonds, Matt Duchene, Brock Nelson, and Artemi Panarin (likely bound for Coach Q’s Florida Panthers) are all a part of the extensive list of UFA’s available.

I have to imagine UFAs would be drawn to the opportunity playing for The State of Hockey, seeing the vacuum of scoring output and the ability to maximize their potential for the Minnesota Wild.

Wrap-Up

Next season may be the most important in franchise history. Coach Bruce Boudreau and underrated elite defenseman Jared Spurgeon are entering into his last year of their contracts, the vets aren’t getting any younger, and the young guns aren’t getting any cheaper. It’s time for the Minnesota Wild to make moves.

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