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What is the plan with the Minnesota Wild moving forward?

Mar. 2, 2020 at 1:32 p.m.
#1
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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.
Mar. 2, 2020 at 5:20 p.m.
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They are one of the oldest teams in the league, most of their impact players are past their prime, and they have no elite prospects besides Kaprizov. I think they couldve sold much more at the dealine (Zucker return was great but they couldve also gotten lots for Staal/Brodin/Dumba too). They keep signing old players to long term deals which only puts them in a worse spot for the future. They shouldve traded Spurgeon instead of signing him and they never shouldve signed Zuccarello
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Mar. 3, 2020 at 4:23 a.m.
#3
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They're caught in the middle of no-man's land right now. I'm sure Wings fans can relate. They've really surprised a lot of people this season the way they've competed, but they should never have signed Zuccarello and Spurgeon last summer. All they accomplished was assuring that they're nowhere close to being true contenders and nowhere bad enough to get a realistic shot at Lafreniere in June. Fiala has been a revelation though. What a trade! Why not flip the other vets like moli92 says? These days a really bad team can turn things around faster than ever before. OTT is an example of how to execute a proper rebuild. MTL, not so much.
Mar. 3, 2020 at 4:26 a.m.
#4
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Quoting: Zetna
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.


Re-tools rarely work. As a Devils fan I can relate. This season has been a disaster. The season was a waste. If you're gonna be bad, be bad! Teams gain nothing by finishing 9th or 10th in their conference. COL did it right. Now, EDM seems to be doing it right. Same with OTT.
Mar. 7, 2020 at 6:03 p.m.
#5
Habs
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It seems like Bill Guerin is fully on board to do a rebuild. The Zucker trade, and the possibility of the Parise trade sure seem to imply that. However, the team just happens to be greatly overachieving, so a high pick is unlikely at this point. I do expect Guerin to sell off Parise, Staal, maybe even Brodin and Dumba for futures this summer and really try to bottom out, and restock the cupboards with high-end talent.
 
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