The Minnesota Wild’s season came to an end on Wednesday night as they lost 4-3 in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. The loss, where the Wild blew a 3-0 lead, puts a wrap on a season where Minnesota got out of the first round for the first time since 2015 before falling to an Avalanche team that captured the President’s Trophy.
When you look at things that way, it’s easy to say things are looking up for the Wild as they enter an important offseason. But after Wednesday’s collapse, it exposed the unfortunate truth that this season may have been Minnesota’s best chance to win a Stanley Cup.
The Wild may have thrown away their best chance to win the Stanley Cup
The Wild’s championship window isn’t over by any means. Their roster is loaded with foundational pieces including Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber. If Quinn Hughes agrees to a contract extension this summer, it will give Minnesota multiple bites at the apple and the possibility of hoisting the cup someday.
But there were several aspects this team had that may not be replicable heading into next season.
The first is the presence of two 40-goal scorers. Kaprizov (45 goals) and Boldy (42 goals) were both able to reach that milestone this year and both players are in their prime. While Kaprizov has had 40 or more goals in four of his past five seasons, he has also missed significant time due to injury in the three previous seasons, making him a slight risk going forward.
Boldy also broke through with a career-high in goals and was the Wild’s most consistent presence this season. But there is also a possibility that this is his high water mark and teams will focus on stopping him like the Avalanche did throughout the five-game series in the playoffs.
Wild fans would probably take it if Kaprizov and Boldy each netted 35 goals next season, but there’s more pressing issues that could be bubbling over.
Filip Gustavsson paired well with Jesper Wallstedt during the regular season. But Gustavsson wasn’t thrilled about losing the net to Wallstedt during the playoffs. While it would be ideal to bring both goaltenders back, the dynamic has changed and Minnesota already committed long-term to Gustavsson with a five-year, $34 million contract extension signed before the season.
If Gustavsson is unhappy with his role, the Wild could look to trade him – especially as they look to upgrade their top six forwards. But according to Puckpedia, that extension also includes a full no movement clause through the first two years of the deal. With Gustavsson controlling his own future, the Wild may be stuck with him and it could mean having to use Wallstedt to fuel a blockbuster trade.
But that may not be possible after exhausting their prospect pool and assets to acquire Hughes and a trade deadline haul including centers Michael McCarron, defenseman Jeff Petry and winger Bobby Brink. A weak free agent class headlined by Alex Tuch, Anthony Mantha and Evegeni Malkin also doesn’t seem to bring much that could help and Minnesota could be left as a team with limited options in an offseason where they need to improve.
On top of that, Marcus Foligno, Jared Spurgeon and Mats Zuccarello are just some of the supporting cast members that are getting older and Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin have serious questions about their future after missing the entire series against the Avalanche due to injury. More mainstays including Jacob Middleton, Zach Bogosian and Marcus Johansson could be out the door and it doesn’t sound like a team that is ascending as opposed to one that failed after going all-in.
This won’t stop the Wild from making the playoffs next season, but it’s important to remember that half of the NHL’s 32 teams make the field. It’s also notable that good teams get past the first round regularly and unlike the Buffalo Sabres, who went 15 years without a playoff appearance before advancing past the first round in this year’s playoffs, the Wild had been there seven times (eight if you include the NHL’s qualifying round in the 2019-20 season) without a series victory during their 10 year drought.
Four of those series losses came with the current core of players and this year’s teams still showed qualities of those previous teams even with the cards they held in their favor. It makes a tall task to duplicate this year’s success and may have thrown their best chance of winning a cup away with Wednesday’s loss.
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