During this past offseason, no one was more vilified in the State of Hockey than Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher who many wanted sacked for perceived huge mistakes. Now with the Wild on top of the Western Conference, is it fair to say that Fletcher might have been making strong moves all along?
This offseason was full of strong criticism for the Minnesota Wild. There was a heaping helping of blame to go around with underperforming players taking a lot of heat for what was largely considered a lost season despite the Wild making their 4th straight playoff appearance. But perhaps the person in the Wild organization that took more heat than any other player was General Manager Chuck Fletcher.
So many around the State of Hockey called for the head of the Wild GM during this past offseason. He was blamed for not stocking the team with enough quality talent, for signing players to bad contracts that crippled the team, and for mortgaging the future of the team by trading away many of the team’s recent draft picks. It just seemed that Fletcher was blamed for the Wild’s collapse and for their perceived bleak future.
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But here we are now at the All-Star break and the Wild are the best team in the Central Division and the Western Conference, and the hockey club is in the best position it’s been in 16 seasons of existence. The team that was assembled by Fletcher according to NBCSN’s Keith Jones after their 5-1 dismantling of the Blues on Thursday night has “no weaknesses”.
Even in the darkest days of last season and offseason Wild owner Craig Leipold made sure that everyone knew Fletcher had his full confidence and would be the GM for this team in the 2016-17 season. The re-tooled Wild seem to have validated Leipold’s confidence in Fletcher and why not some of his biggest moves this offseason are why the Wild are where they are right now.
Fletcher moved fast to shore up the Wild’s coaching vacancy as he inked Bruce Boudreau to a contract only 8 days after he was fired by the Ducks. Many wondered if it was right move as it was decision that was made very quickly, while others thought the Wild might have made their best move of the offseason by getting Boudreau on board before he could even entertain any other offers.
Boudreau’s hiring has been the single best reason for the Wild’s new found success. He’s made a resilient and confident team out that same group that was underperforming the season before. Fletcher could have easily just hired interim coach John Torchetti, but Fletcher thought bigger and bagged Boudreau quickly.
Player wise Fletcher also made some very shrewd and tough moves this season. Buying out Thomas Vanek from the last season of his contract was a great move, but you can’t call it easy. The cap implications are double-edged with the savings and the penalties of a buyout, but Fletcher deemed it worth it in the end and recapitalized that money well into two difference making free-agents.
When the Wild signed Eric Staal and Chris Stewart on the first day of free-agency, Fletcher was criticized for not bring in any difference makers. Staal was seen as washed up, and Stewart was seen as a minor role player whose previous stint with the Wild was unimpressive and left a bad taste in Wild fans’ mouths. As we know now that’s not how these two have panned out, both have been huge difference makers.
Staal is looking like the Staal of old scoring points and anchoring the team’s top line. Stewart is doing everything he needs to do from fighting to goal scoring, to include a dramatic shootout winner in Dallas on Tuesday. And what’s even more impressive Fletcher brought both of these players in for $3.65 million which fit into the Wild’s very limited salary cap space.
In addition to the strong current success and bright new players, the future of the team is looking very strong. Fletcher may not have had a lot of draft picks over the last couple of seasons, but he has been every smart with the picks he’s had and the Wild are now boast one of the best collection of prospects of any NHL franchise.
The Wild’s last three first round picks look to be outstanding pickups. Alex Tuch is playing well in Iowa and played so well in the preseason that he almost made the opening night roster. Joel Eriksson-Ek played 9 NHL tilts and racked up 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists), and had an excellent World Junior Championship Captaining Sweden to a 4th place finish. Luke Kunin also played strong in the World Juniors for the US squad, and is one of the best players in the NCAA this season captaining the University of Wisconsin.
Also, it’s worth mentioning the smart later round picks that seem to be turning heads right now like Krill Kapriszov, Dmitri Sokolov, and Jordan Greenway. The Wild seem to have made the best out these lean draft pick years. Moreover, the Wild have used free-agent entry level players like Sam Anas and Mike Reilly to bolster the prospect pool without using draft picks.
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Fletcher has obviously been integral to the team that has brought in these talented youngsters. He’s managed to keep the Wild’s pipeline full of great prospects even when people though he didn’t have the resources to do it. Those resources will be better than they’ve been in many years too as the Wild will have a full complement of draft picks, minus a second-round pick in this season’s draft, to take into the near future to further grow the already great prospect pool of the Wild.
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Trust me it was hard to give Fletcher credit, but he deserves it. The Wild being in the position they are in now record-wise and personnel-wise is no coincidence. Their GM has put his signature on the moves that have gotten them here. Sure, some of Fletcher’s moves in the past have been plain horrible, but right now it’s looking like he actually learned from those moves and applied them to make the Wild into what they are now. You can say it’s not Fletcher but the other people in the Wild organization that have built this recent success, but then again who do you think hired them?