Minnesota Wild: Nick Seeler should be getting more ice time

The Minnesota Wild have a young star on their blue line that is being buried by the minute munchers in the top 4. If they want to succeed this season, Nick  Seeler needs to start eating into the top players’ minutes.

Through 6 games for the Minnesota Wild this year, Nick Seeler has averaged only 12:48 time on ice per game. Topping out nearly 15 minutes in the shootout loss to Vegas, and bottoming at just over 11 minutes in the overtime loss to Carolina.

Part of this can be written off as Seeler playing limited penalty kill minutes against Carolina, but regardless of that this isn’t a one time event. Nick Seeler is only averaging 12 minutes per game, because he is only playing 12 minutes in more games than not.

Meanwhile, Ryan Suter is chugging away with more than 25 minutes in nearly every game this season, the only exception was his 23:34 in the win against Arizona. With 7 defensemen dressed in that game, this is not hard to figure out why, but it does show that Suter can be more effective with less minutes.

Nick Seeler is only 25 years old and trying to establish himself during his first full NHL season. Suter will be 34 before the season is done, and is still trying to reestablish himself after a major ankle injury. For an aging and injured Suter to be risking his health, while a young and talented Seeler sits on the bench, is completely unnecessary.

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Seeler has only been on the ice for a single even strength goal against through 6 games, he is currently an even plus/minus and has not looked out of place at any point that I have noticed.

His positioning seems to be reliable, he’s a physical player who showed flashed of top tier capability when given the chance last season.

If anything, I feel like his defensive partner Greg Pateryn has shown more signs of defensive liability through 6 games. Often making poor passes resulting in turnovers, or generally being out of position or too slow to stop the league’s elite.

Benching the expensive free agent addition, Pateryn, seems like an unlikely scenario at this point. If Boudreau is seeing it as I am, though, I would like to see Nick Seeler and Nate Prosser play together for a couple games to test that pairing as an alternative.

If that is not an option, and Bruce is convinced to stick with his Top 6 without any outside help, then perhaps some defensive pairing shuffles in practice would provide some creative looks.

Could Seeler make a 1-2 punch with Jared Spurgeon?

Spurgeon as the offensive weapon, Seeler as the stay-at-home defense. Could be an interesting look when put together with a top line.

What about Jonas Brodin? Seeler and Brodin could be the shutdown pairing that everyone hoped Seeler and Pateryn could be. Clearly Seeler and Pateryn haven’t developed into a shutdown pair, since Boudreau continues to rely too heavily on Suter to be his shutdown guy.

For now, I think the answer may be more simple than messing with line chemistry. These 6 are all still getting used to playing with new partners, and it may be too early to mess with the arrangements. So where can we fix it?

The answer is in special teams. Seeler is not an extremely offensive gifted player, so the power play may not be an option. Although he could possibly take Suter’s role as the lone defense on the top PP unit, this would be highly unlikely.

Penalty kill seems like the best place for Seeler to fit. He is not getting a ton of special team ice time, and with the number of penalties the Minnesota Wild have been taking his services could be desperately needed on the kill.

Some practice time killing penalties would obviously be necessary before throwing him in the role, but his skill set and NHL experience to this point suggest he would be a perfect fit alongside Jonas Brodin on the secondary PK unit instead of the liable Pateryn.

Fans like myself have a ton of trust in Nick Seeler, and were excited to see him make the team out of training camp. He was one of the more impressive players in camp while playing often as a top minute pairing along with Pateryn.

I believe giving Seeler closer to 16-17 minutes per game, and reducing Suter to a consistent 24 minutes per game, would be a major boost for the defense twofold. It would allow Seeler a chance to prove he can handle an increased role, and would also give Suter a reduced load to take it easier on his aging body.

As I suggested with Mikko Koivu, this may not be something we see unless the Minnesota Wild fall out of playoff contention, but I would hope Bruce can see what he has in a younger star and allow his veterans a little more rest rather than carrying this team to the point of exhaustion.