Minnesota Wild Roster Set For Opening Night (Almost)

The Minnesota Wild have put a number of changes in place today and we’ve got what should be the opening night roster in place. Or it’s at least damn close. The first of the transactions involved sending forwards Joel Rechlicz and Kurtis Gabriel back to the Iowa Wild of the AHL.

The team also placed forwards Stephane Veilleux and Cody Almond on waivers with the intent of assigning them to Iowa tomorrow if they clear waivers.

Lastly, fan favorite Ilya Bryzgalov has been released from his tryout without a contract. The Star Tribune’s Michael Russo is reporting that general manager Chuck Fletcher and Bryzgalov’s agent are set to talk today, which could mean that there’s a two-way offer set in front of Bryzgalov that would send him to the AHL, but nothing is certain there. That move would involve it’s own set of complications with the team wanting to ensure that goaltending prospect Johan Gustafsson is getting minutes in Iowa and Bryzgalov probably not interested in playing back-up in the minors, but let’s table that discussion for a time when it actually matters — if ever.

So with those changes in place, here’s what lines looked like in Monday’s practice:

Parise-Granlund-Pominville
Cooke-Koivu-Vanek
Haula-Coyle-Niederreiter
Zucker-Brodziak-Bickel

Suter-Brodin
Scandella-Spurgeon
Folin-Dumba
Ballard-Prosser

There are a few interesting adjustments from what we’ve seen in the preseason. Yeo has rookie defensemen Christian Folin and Matt Dumba playing together in the third pairing with Keith Ballard and Nate Prosser on the outside. This is a little surprising. It’s not surprising that Dumba and Folin are here, they earned it, and it’s not surprising that they’re in the top three pairings since the team has said repeatedly that if they make the line-up, they’re playing.

What’s surprising is to see them playing together, but I’m happy to see them both in the roster and being given the opportunity to succeed. Folin looked solid defensively in the preseason and Dumba was adding offense in a big way throughout camp. If Dumba could continue to develop that offensive touch he may wind up making a huge impact for the Wild. It’s been a long time since Minnesota has had a defenseman who can score 10+ goals.

In fact, in the last five seasons the team only had one season with a defenseman who scored over ten goals. That was Brent Burns in the 2010-11 season with 17 goals. The highest scoring defenseman last season was Ryan Suter with eight goals. In 2012-13 it was Jared Spurgeon with five. In 2011-12 it was Spurgeon and Marco Scandella tied with three. The year before Burns’ 17 goal explosion was the 2009-10 season when the Wild had Kim Johnsson and Marek Zidlicky leading all defenders with six goals a piece.

Another noteworthy piece of this puzzle is a bit of shifting on the second and third line. After expressing displeasure with Erik Haula‘s camp, Yeo has moved Charlie Coyle from second line wing to third line center, a move that you’d expect to be accompanied by putting Nino Niederreiter on the second line, but instead they’ve got Matt Cooke slotting into the second line. By all accounts that move is temporary. Once Justin Fontaine is healthy again, he’ll move up to the second line wing, which presumably puts Cooke on the fourth line with Kyle Brodziak and Jason Zucker. (Take a look at my article from this weekend where I look at what Brodziak’s value as a fourth line center is.)

I’m surprised that Cooke is moving up instead of giving Niederreiter a look on the second line, but that does give the team a potentially dangerous third line. The only issue with Coyle at center instead of Haula is that Coyle has not been great at the faceoff dot. Haula had a 46.8% win percentage in faceoffs with 348 total draws taken. Coyle was back at 41.9% after taking 458 draws. Coyle had the worst draw percentage on the team among players who took at least 200 draws. Coyle has the toughness and awareness to make the position work, but he may need support in the circle unless he’s spent a lot of time working on winning draws this summer. He does have a great teacher available in Mikko Koivu who took 1,311 faceoffs last season with a 54.8% win percentage.

There are a few wrinkles here. Coyle’s been getting some time at center in camp and the preseason, but by the end of today’s practice Haula was back at center with Coyle and Niederreiter on the wings. He also had Fontaine slotting in on fourth line wing, changing off with Stu Bickel, who was moved to wing from defense. Yes, that means Fontaine, who has been placed on IR retroactive to September 27, is back in practice and despite earlier reports, may be available for the season opener.

So, we’ve almost got the opening night roster in place, but there are still a few adjustments being made and Fontaine’s availability will have a big impact on that.

Update:
The Wild signed 31-year-old winger Ryan Carter to a one-year, two-way deal on Monday, which will shake up lines a bit. Details on the signing and how Carter may fit into the lineup here.