NHL Preview - Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild

2015-16 season: 38-33-11, 87 points Lost in 1st Round of Western Conference Playoffs	Head Coach: Bruce Boudreau (2016)
6th Place Central Division	General Manager: Chuck Fletcher (2009)
8th Place Western Conference	AHL Affiliate: Iowa Wild ECHL Affiliate: Quad City Mallards
Cap Space: $2,168,913

News

• Fired interim Head Coach John Torchetti and hired Bruce Boudreau to replace him

Players Lost in the Offseason

POS.	Player	New Team	Contract
LW	Thomas Vanek	Detroit Red Wings	1 year, $2,600,000
LW	Chris Porter	St. Louis Blues	PTO
RW	Justin Fontaine	Florida Panthers	PTO
C	Jarret Stoll	Columbus Blue Jackets	PTO

Incoming Free Agents

POS.	Player	Old Team	Contract
C	Eric Staal	New York Rangers	3 years, $10,500,000
RW	Chris Stewart	Anaheim Ducks	2 years, $2,300,000
D	Victor Bartley	Montreal Canadiens	1 year, $650,000
G	Alex Stalock	Toronto Maple Leafs	1 year, $650,000

2016 Draft Picks

RD	Pick No.	POS.	Name	Junior/College/Club Team
1	15	C	Luke Kumin	University of Wisconsin (BIG-10)
4	106	F	Brandon Duhaime	Tri-City Storm (USHL)
7	196	RW	Dimitry Sokolev	Sudbury Solves (OHL)
7	204	D	Brayden Chizen	Kelowna Rockets (WHL)

Top Three Prospects

POS	Name	Draft Info	Current Team
G	Stephen Michaelk	2011 6th RD (161)	AHL/ECHL
RW	Alex Tuch	2014 1st RD (18)	AHL/ECHL
LW	Jordan Greenway	2015 2nd RD (50)	Boston University (NCAA)

Projected Lineup

Forwards

POS	Name	Age	Nationality	Free Agent Year
LW	(A) Zach Parise	32	USA	2025
C	Eric Staal	31	Canada	2019
RW	Charlie Coyle	24	USA	2020
LW	Mikael Granlund	24	Finland	2017 (RFA)
C	(C) Mikko Koivu	33	Finland	2018
RW	Jason Zucker	24	USA	2018 (RFA)
LW	Nino Niederreiter	24	Switzerland	2017
C	Erik Haula	25	Finland	2017 (RFA)
RW	Jason Pominville	33	USA	2019
LW	Jordan Schroeder	26	USA	2017 (RFA)
C	Tyler Graovac	23	Canada	2018 (RFA)
RW	Chris Stewart	28	Canada	2018

Defensemen

POS	Name	Age	Nationality	Free Agent Year
D	(A) Ryan Suter	32	USA	2015
D	Jared Spurgeon	26	Canada	2020
D	Marco Scandella	26	Canada	2020
D	Matt Dumba	22	Canada	2018 (RFA)
D	Jonas Brodin	23	Sweden	2021
D	Nate Prosser	30	USA	2017

Goalies

POS	Name	Age	Nationality	Free Agent Year
G	Devan Dubnyk	30	Canada	2021
G	Darcy Kuemper	26	Canada	2017 (RFA)

Extra Skaters

POS	Name	Age	Nationality	Free Agent Year
RW	Kurtis Gabriel	23	Canada	2017 (RFA)
D	Mike Reilly	23	USA	2017
D	Christian Folin	25	Sweden	2017 (RFA)

Season Outlook

• I don't really know what to make of the Minnesota Wild, just that I really want them to succeed. Wild fans and Minnesotans deserve a good hockey team.  Minnesota started last season off great and had a 20-10-6 record through December.  Things went downhill after that, and the team fired Head Coach Mike Yeo on February 13, after losing 13 of 14 games.  In his place, they brought in John Torchetti, coach of their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.  He did enough to right the ship, getting into the playoffs as the second Wild Card team from the Western Conference.  They faced the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs, losing four games to two, giving up too many goals in the process.  Starting goaltender Devan Dubnyk actually had a very good season, winning 32 games with a 2.33 GAA and a .918 save percentage, both better than league average.  On offense, they were led by a variety of players from different positions, including C Mikko Koivu (56 pts), W Zach Parise (53 pts), defenseman Ryan Suter (51 pts), and F Mikael Granlund (44 pts).  Overall, they were not productive enough offensively, ranking in the bottom half of the league in all offensive categories and were below 50% in puck possession.  These are all reasons why the Wild struggled through the season.

CAT.	Goals For	Goals Against	PP %	PK%	PDO	Corsi For	Corsi Against	Corsi For %	oZS%	dZS%
Stat	216	206	18.83	77.94	100.4	4356	4554	48.9	52.3	47.7
Wild  Rank	20th	8th	17th	28th	13th	24th	15th	20th	8th	8th

PDO= Even Strength Shooting Percentage + Even Strength Save Percentage

Corsi For= Shots + Blocks + Misses while in possession of puck

Crosi Against= Shots + Blocks + Misses while not in possession of puck

Corsi For %= Corsi For/(Corsi For+Corsi Against) -> Above 50% means that team controls play

oZS% = Offensive Zone Start Percentage

dZS% = Defensive Zone Start Percentage

• During the offseason, the Wild let Torchetti go and were lucky enough to be able to hire Bruce Boudreau to be their new head coach.  Boudreau is one of the best and winningest coaches in the NHL who, because of a series of game seven losses in games when his teams played poorly, has received much criticism, and has cost him a couple of jobs.  Minnesota will be rewarded greatly for bringing Boudreau in and he should be able to correct some of the Wild's struggles. In Corsi For Percentage, a metric used to measure the percentage of a game a team controlled play, the Wild struggled mightily, ranking 20th last year.  Boudreau's teams (Washington and Anaheim) since the 2007-08 season, his first year as head coach in Washington, have either ranked high in Corsi For Percentage or they have gotten better each full year under his leadership.  In Anaheim, they went from 23rd in 2012-13 to 7th last season.  He is an excellent coach who will be given a good, young team to lead.  On the roster front, the Wild brought in veteran center Eric Staal on a three-year deal to center their first line, which is an interesting signing for the team, as he has struggled quite a bit in recent seasons.  They also brought in Chris Stewart, who remains a supremely talented player but has had his issues contributing in recent seasons.  He comes to Minnesota on a two-year deal that is cost-effective and is an excellent signing.  General Manager Chuck Fletcher will have his work cut out for him following this season as Mikael Granlund, Nino Neiderreiter, Erik Haula, and Jordan Schroeder all need new contracts.  Granlund and Niederreiter should be due long-term contracts after both signing bridge contracts last time.  With only a little over $2 million left in cap space this year, and not much money coming off the books this offseason, Fletcher will either have to let at least one of these impending free agents go, or trade away a contract or two.  The Wild pretty much have to rely on the players at the NHL level because their farm system was ranked 28th by The Hockey Writers after the NHL Draft this summer.  I really like this Wild team and think that Boudreau can do wonders as head coach of this roster.  If he can turn their system around and make the team a more puck possession one, then he could easily lead them to another playoff berth.

Breakout Candidate:

• F Mikael Granlund - Granlund has had several good seasons since his first season in 2012-13. Last year, he had 13 goals and 44 points, which is a solid year, but he should be more productive than he has been so far during his career.  He is an excellent hockey player that has immense talent, as shown at the World Cup of Hockey when he played for Team Finland.  I think he needs to play better for the Wild to take the next step forward as a team.
• Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba - All similar to Granlund in that they've had decent years since being NHLers but need to take the next step in their developments.  The Wild have to be able to rely on their younger players for the team to move into the elite category rather than just the really good category.  

Regression Candidate:

• C Eric Staal - Staal is only 31 years old, which seems crazy since he has been in the league since the 2003-04 season.  He has had some really good years, scoring over 100 points once and scoring 40 goals twice in his career.  He has really begun dropping off recently, however, only having 39 points in a full season last year between the Hurricanes and the Rangers.  I would love for Staal to bounce back and have another good year, but I'm uncertain if he's capable of doing so again.  He has looked quite old in recent seasons and seems to have lost a step.

Bounceback Candidate:

• RW Jason Pominville - I didn't realize it, but Pominville has quietly been one of the most consistent and productive players in the league throughout his career.  He has been nearly a point-per-game player for many of his seasons, and even put up 54 points two years ago, which would have been good enough for the second most points on the team last season.  Last year, however, he only had 36 points, in 75 games, which was quite a disappointment for him.  I think that he will bounceback this season and get back to around the 50 point mark.

*All statistics and information come from: rosterresource.com, thehockeywriters.com, hockeydb.com, hockey-reference.com, and generalfanager.com