The Minnesota Wild are in a constant state of flux. The burden of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter‘s long-term deals makes building a solid core a constant challenge. There’s every chance players have to leave for the team to grow.
Now, of course if the team are outside of playoff contention as we near the Trade Deadline, this all becomes very much the expected course of action.
Typically, any team that knows it’s not making the playoffs will sacrifice some solid depth players, that second-line guy on an expiring deal or the veteran that deserves a chance at the Cup.
You trade away players in return for draft picks or generally B-grade prospects. The sorts of guys that will help you in the future but offer no additional benefit in the short-term. The exact opposite of those professionals you give up on.
For the Minnesota Wild, they meet all of those needs so depending how the season ahead actually pans out, these are the guys I see as most likely not to be hanging around too long.
Then again, we could once again defy the expectations of everyone and make yet another run at the play-offs. Who knows; maybe this year is the year we make it out of the first round and actually inflict some damage on our rivals?
Either way, I figure we look at the obvious candidates to find themselves on the trade block at some point this year for the Minnesota Wild.