Minnesota Wild: Fletcher Could Be Next To Go

After an underwhelming 2015-16 season, Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher has his work cut out for him this offseason to get the team ready to win. If he can’t do that, he could be the next to go if the team doesn’t turn it around.

After a season that saw the Minnesota Wild fire their head coach and back into the playoffs only to lose in six games to the Stars, the team needs to rebound. Wild fans are among the most knowledgeable and passionate fans in the sport, they are fed up with waiting, and they want a winner now. Should the team have another disappointing finish then GM Chuck Fletcher’s time in Minnesota may come to an end.

Fletcher has been given time to assemble the roster to his liking, and that includes last off-season when the GM did next to nothing to improve a roster that looked to be on the verge of a breakthrough. The result was another January to forget as the Wild fell into their annual tailspin during the heart of the season.

Last season was the third straight year in which the Wild played downright awful for an extended period (the team went 3-13 -4 from January 2-February 13). So it is not like this was just an issue that sprung up this past year, the problems were there, Fletcher just chose to do nothing about them. While we can debate the role the players played in quitting on their coach during this time, it is ultimately on the GM to assemble a group of players that is mentally tough enough to pull out of a slump and not mail it in.

But that is not to say that there aren’t specific decisions Fletcher has made to allow the team to get to this point. Of all of his miscues there are two that come to mind as particularly bad, signing Thomas Vanek and trading Brent Burns.

Each of these decisions made sense at the time, but they have been detrimental to the current state of the team. Which is unfortunate because if it had not been for these moves, we could very well be talking about Fletcher with much more optimism.

The signing of Thomas Vanek was a mistake from the beginning. The signs were there, from how he handled himself during his time with the Islanders to a nonexistent playoff showing with Montreal. The Wild were looking for another steady veteran scoring presence that could help them go further in the playoffs, yet they chose a player who is way too inconsistent with his effort level. These issues certainly effected Vanek’s game this past season. After a phenomenal first half, Vanek was a nonfactor when he was on the ice in the second half of the season. As a result he is now a candidate to be bought out.

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The other major Fletcher misstep was the Brent Burns deal in which the Wild dealt their star defensemen along with a 2012 second round draft pick to the Sharks in exchange for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and the 28th overall pick in the 2011 draft. At the time this was viewed as a win win because Coyle showed real potential and Setoguchi was already a 30 goal scorer at the age of 24.

To put it politely, the Setoguchi experiment did not work in Minnesota and he was traded a mere two years after he was acquired. Coyle may have become a fixture on the top lines of Minnesota, but Burns has been spectacular for San Jose since he was acquired (the past two seasons he has put up totals of 60 and 75 points). While there is optimism Coyle may eventually get to that level, the fact remains that the 75 points would have made Burns the highest scoring player on the Wild by a large margin. On a team that is supposedly in win now mode, Burns would have been a major asset on the past few Wild teams.

Next: Do Porter, Carter, and Stoll Have a Future With the Wild?

These transactions are just a few examples of where Fletcher has missed, and the Wild have suffered. Suffice to say, another offseason of standing pat followed by a year in which the team underachieves Fletcher’s job could be in jeopardy. If Fletcher doesn’t make moves that result in a consistent winning season, there’s a good chance he could be out of a job this time next year.

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