Joined: Jan. 2019
Posts: 70
Likes: 26
The Minnesota Wild, a team that is good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to go far. Mediocrity, a hellish purgatory for any NHL team. They are locked into the albatrosses of contracts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. There was talk about sending Parise to the Islanders, and that trade will be re-visited this summer, but it will take a lot of finessing with the cap. The recapture penalties on those two are not good either, so the Wild must wait them out, and pray both of them don't retire early. This team should be rebuilding right now, but they are too good to get a top pick in the draft, and not good enough to go far into the postseason. Their position is what no NHL team wants to be in, close, but not close enough. There will be a lot of decisions to make this summer, the biggest being the future of this franchise and its direction. Do they go all in, or do they try to blow everything up? They have been good this season, with great underlying metrics and a fantastic defensive system, but Dubnyk and Stalock haven't been able to stop a beach ball, being the worst tandem in the NHL. Perhaps a good goalie could push them further, or do they lack the talent to do some damage down the road. Dumba is being dangled as possible trade bait, and Brodin has had his name thrown out there a bit. Bill Guerin may be trying to do a retool, not a rebuild, but not an all-in push. This will be interesting to see how he handles the state of the team.