Minnesota Wild: 2016-17 Will Be Prosser’s Last with the Wild
As the Minnesota Wild prepare to start play this season it is becoming more and more clear that this season might be the last for defenseman Nate Prosser. Prosser a seven-year Wild veteran is facing overwhelming competition for his salary and roster spot in a battle he might not be able to win.
The Minnesota Wild have lots of tough decisions to make before the start of the 2017-18 season. With seven roster players up for free-agency and many of them due a significant bump in pay there will certainly be players who will cannot be retained. Looking ahead now one player who future past this season with the team is in serious jeopardy, is defenseman Nate Prosser. Prosser will be an unrestricted free-agent next season and as it seems now will be expendable when time comes to start building the team for 2017-18.
Prosser’s case is interesting for a bunch of reasons. He’s a gritty and tough worker who has certainly earned his spot on the roster, and is a serviceable 3rd pairing player. But numbers wise offensively he’s never had a season over 12 points, and defensively he’s a -9 on his career with Corsi of 45.5% career wise as well. That’s not very good for a player who looks to be an everyday player in the NHL.
As time has moved on, it seems that his salary and roster spot will need to be used elsewhere. The old saying is every penny counts, and the Wild will need every penny next offseason to include his modest $625,000 cap hit. With so many other free-agents coming up for salary increases like Granlund, Niederreiter, and Haula Prosser’s salary goes a long way to pay for at least one of those players’ pay increase.
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More importantly though is that there are players in the Wild system right now that will need to take his spot on the roster. Mike Reilly is virtually NHL ready as it stands right now. He’s looking to break in to a full-time playing position sometime in the very near future, and could be that as early as next season. Unless another one of the Wild’s current defensemen is moved, you have to expect that Prosser could see his starts dry up as Reilly gets more chances to play at the NHL level.
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Additionally, the Wild will want to use the playing time normally reserved for Prosser to give Christian Folin and Gustav Olofsson more time as well. So that’s three players that are looking to get a significant piece of Prosser’s playing time, and all of them have produced or will have the talent to produce more points that Prosser. Add to that the fact that Bruce Boudreau will be looking to play a higher level of offense, Prosser’s lack of offensive prowess looks superficially not to fit in well with the new coach’s system.
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It seems unfortunate and a tad inevitable that before this season even starts, Prosser will most likely not be with the team the following season. Unless he finds an offensive rebirth the Wild have no choice but to deal him out in favor of other players. That’s the reality of NHL hockey, sometimes good just isn’t good enough.