The Minnesota Wild are entering training camp, trying to prepare the best roster possible for the coming season. In order to do that, some young players will need to step their game to the next level. Who are the most likely candidates?
Each of us here at Gone Puck Wild have different expectations and different methods for deeming a player’s potential to produce and break-out. The Minnesota Wild are expecting at least one player to breakout this season, and we’re here to give our opinions of who it will be.
Last season saw a couple surprising breakouts among Wild players. We saw Eric Staal‘s resurgent career take it to a new level, we saw Jason Zucker blast through his career bests, and we saw Jordan Greenway show up in a big way to end the year.
A breakout player could be anything from a shutdown defenseman emerging, to a veteran far exceeding their career bests in scoring, or it could be a rookie emerging on the scene and battling for his place on the roster.
We’ve each taken one player that we truly believe will have a breakout year, based on past production, potential, and their position in the predicted depth chart. We decided that Greenway is the obvious choice, given he broke out last spring, and for that made him exempt from our choices.