Minnesota Wild: How the Toronto Maple Leafs’ blueprint could help

Looking at the Minnesota Wild; their standing this season and the shape of their current roster, you have to believe that the team should be considering who will be available early in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

If the season were to end right now, they’d be picking in the first ten or so places and realistically, they need to. The current make-up of the roster is that of a team that plays it safe and has a bit of a physical edge.

We’ve seen throughout the NHL that neither style has stayed in vogue. The style to play these days is that of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Pittsburgh Penguins or today’s opponent, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Sweet irony has the Toronto Maple Leafs labelling tonight’s game as their ‘Next Generation’ game and the Minnesota Wild would be wise to take some hints from their opponent.

The time is coming for us to be willing to step back, look at the Minnesota Wild and realise that it’s not working. As much as it may have seemed that big-money contracts for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter were the key to future successes, these victories haven’t come to fruition.

Unfortunately for the Wild, the size of those two contracts is probably what has stopped them from making a decision earlier. That and the fact the team was so willing to mortgage draft picks year after year in a push to remain relevant and win a play-off round.

The blueprint that the Toronto Maple Leafs have created to turn their whole organisation around is one that the Minnesota Wild brass would be wise to look at and copy verbatim. Plain and simple.

This is a team that built a solid core, packed in youngsters around them and had minor league successes that have been very useful in terms of being able to push cheap, younger guys into spots previously filled by veterans on bloated contracts.

These successes haven’t yet taken the Stanley Cup to Toronto, but even with only two seasons’ play-off experience, you’d have to say that they look a much stronger team than the Wild one that has found itself, like them, knocked out in the first-round year on year.

If the Minnesota Wild are willing to commit to a bit of short-term pain for long-term gain, there are a few key pillars that you want to prop the future roster upon.

Firstly, which players do you put in place to replace the ageing core of your future contending side?

How do you build a Minnesota Wild core group?

The Toronto Maple Leafs chose a core group including a goaltender in Frederik Andersen, a young defenseman in Morgan Reilly and a very cleverly cap-controlled center in Nazem Kadri. Tying up those three players long-term has allowed them to build around a central pillar of strength.

You’d have to be willing to build any core group with Zach Parise and Ryan Suter’s names still on the roster. It seems highly unlikely that anyone, contender or otherwise, would ever be willing to take on either of their contracts. As such, you’d have to work with it.

Ryan Suter is a perfect fit, provided his game doesn’t drop off too much as he ages. He is able to be a veteran presence; one that is paid a bit too much, but he could easily be named the new captain once Mikko Koivu retires. He provides stability at the back, perfect for helping with the development of future blue-liners and also chips in plenty of offense.

If you’re following the Maple Leafs model; you’re also looking for a defenseman with Norris Trophy credentials, that is young and not on an absurd salary. That is something that the Minnesota Wild also have in Matt Dumba. His goal scoring this season, until his unfortunate injury, was a sight to behold and he still has more time to develop.

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Zach Parise is the challenge in terms of building a core group. Whilst there’s no doubt he still can put up strong production, the fact he plays on the wing makes his cap hit seem rather bloated. If he were a center, even one on the second line, you’d be looking at him as a much more valuable building block.

On the same topic of wingers, you’d hope a place could be found for Mikael Granlund but it’s entirely possible that the salary cap structure would need a ton of re-jigging for this to happen and as a result you’d have to probably lose Jared Spurgeon, among others. Mikko Koivu’s (now) bloated contract is hurting the team in this regard.

Finally, between the pipes, do you trust Devan Dubnyk when he seems to already be on a bit of a decline?

I’m not certain that Dubnyk is the player to fill the role of number one goaltender as you build your future core. The obvious choice here is Kaapo Kahkonen, but it might be a little foolish to rush him into the first team too early. Either way, the net is guarded enough for now just maybe not enough for the future core to be considered a real contender.

Adding to that core, you need to look at your feeder club and ensure the best possible results. Thankfully, this is something already occurring with the Iowa Wild.

Minnesota Wild need to continue to let the Iowa Wild do its’ job

One thing that you notice, not just with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but with teams across the league is a tendency to let prospects spend more time than they might need with the feeder club.

The Toronto Maple Leafs last year saw Calder Cup success with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies and have reaped the rewards as they’ve promoted no less than four players to their NHL roster from that winning cohort.

This part of the blueprint appears to be a case of so far, so good for the Minnesota Wild. Tim Army is doing a great coaching job thus far, so much so that he’s been named one of the AHL All-Star team coaches.

Likewise, the playing squad with the Iowa Wild is playing a slightly more upbeat style of hockey to their parent club and has youth on their side, with an average age of under 25.

If the Minnesota Wild are willing to let their prospects spend a prolonged period with the Iowa Wild in the hopes of a big play-off run in the AHL; they will surely reap the benefits once those prospects graduate to the main roster.

Of course, there is also something to be said for promoting some of these guys to the main roster after hopefully ditching some of the current Minnesota Wild group at the trade deadline.

Basically, they need to look at the way William Nylander was moved into the Toronto Maple Leafs line-up once they’d shipped out a bunch of players, giving him about twenty games to find his feet at the NHL level before giving a full-blown promotion the next year.

Likewise, Kasperi Kapanen and Travis Dermott are examples of players that were given a short glimpse of action in the big time before returning to the Marlies in the AHL. That little taste of action should be enough to whet the appetites of any future Minnesota Wild player even when they return to riding the buses with the Iowa Wild.

Looking across the Iowa Wild roster; there’s at least three or four players that could be given a shot with the Minnesota Wild this season. That cast is led by Luke Kunin, who appears to have done enough to now be a fixture on the big club.

I’m happy to preach that Kaapo Kahkonen should get a shot, but only when the games are a bit less meaningful; you don’t want to damage his confidence. Louie Belpedio has to be highly ranked in terms of defensive prospects knocking on the door, same with Carson Soucy.

The door might’ve shut for Justin Kloos, Sam Anas and Kyle Rau, but that just opens it for guys like Mason Shaw and Dmitri Sokolov. Both, by season’s end, might well be ready for the briefest glimpse of the big time.

Finally, the team need a little bit of drafting luck; some smart trades could really be beneficial too.