Wild off-season review

[JiriHrdina]

The Minnesota Wild entered the offseason with the challenge of trimming a huge amount of payroll.


The Wild ended the 2007/2008 season with a payroll close to 90 million dollars. Management was counting on a playoff run to secure some bonus money for the 2008/2009 season, but a disappointing season ended with a 1st round playoff exit.


Faced with having to trim about 20 million the Wild were forced to shed a number of veterans for below market value, including:
-Markus Naslund
-Miro Satan
-Sergei Federov
-Steve Sullivan
-Alexei Zhitnik


Other core members sent packing were Mike Cammalleri, Keith Ballard, and Mats Sundin, while Mike Rathje has retired. In total, 5 of the 6 top scorers on the Wild are gone now. After managing to shed the necessary coinage the Wild have now started to build back up the club – with a late off-season move to acquire veterans Cory Stillman and Paul Martin.
Overall, the team is younger, but not as talented.


Goaltending
The Wild the league in goals against last year, yielding just over 2.6/game. And the tandem that finished the season is back for the start of this one. Tomas Vokoun is the undisputed #1 and will play a ton. Freddie Noreena provides a veteran back-up.

The Wild inked free agent Yan Danis in the off-season to a 3 year league minimum contract, in hopes he can succeed Noreena as the back-up next season. It is unlikely Danis will see any action this season as he would have to clear waivers to return to the AHL. Cory Schneider or Ben Bishop will likely be call-ed up when needed.
Vokoun (82)
Noreena (75)
Call-ups: Schneider/Bishop


Forwards
Up front the Wild will be counting on big steps from a trio of young players: Evgeni Malkin, Tomas Vanek, and Dustin Brown. Rounding out the top 6 are Scott Gomez (more on him later), Cory Stillman, and Daniel Alfredsson, acquired from Edmonton in the off-season.


Michelle Oullette, Chris Kelly and Rene Bourque, all acquired via deals make up the third line. The fourth line has been pieced together via the UFA market with low-cost veteran: Scott Nichol, Trevor Letowski, Josef Stumpel, Mike York.


Gomez (79)-Malkin (81)-Alfredsson (82)
Vanek (78)-Brown (77)-Stillman (77)
Ouellet (74)-Kelly (73) – Bourque (71)
Stumpel (72)-York (70)-Letowski (72)
Extra: Nichol (70)
Call-up: Downie (65), Jacques (65), Hansen (65)


The big question up front is the future of Scott Gomez. If Mats Sundin retires the playmaker will be returned to the Ducks, creating a massive whole up front on the Wild.

Defense
The Wild’s top two pairing is in tact from last season – with Tomas Kaberle and Jay Bouwmeester expected to play big minutes. Bouwmeester is out to prove he is an elite CPHL dman after signing just a one year deal in the off-season with the Wild. Kaberle is a pending UFA and will be looking to cash-in with a great season.


Paul Martin and Nik Kronvall form the 2nd unit – a pair of young-ish, dmen with still upside to realize. Kronvall in particular will be looked to take another step forward this season.


The third unit will be anchored by youngster Jack Johnson, who after taking a paycut to sign a 1 year, 1 way deal – is assured a spot. Veteran Jaroslav Modry will partner with him, signed as a free agent.


The Wild aren’t carrying a seventh dman but Cam Barker, Andrej Sekera, and Anton Stralman are all waiting on the farm and ready if pressed into duty


Kaberle (82) – Bouwmeester (81)
Martin (77) – Kronvall (76)
Johnson (72) – Modry (72)
Call-ups: Cam Barker (68), Anton Stralman (68), Andrej Sekera (66)

Prospects
The real strength of the Wild organization continues to be the pipeline of youth coming through the system. In addition to a number of players ready for call-up, the Wild boast an impressive group of longer-term prospects.


The top 10, ranked by the GM are:
1.James Van Reimsdyk
2.Alex Pieterangelo
3.Kyle Okposo
4.Patrick Berglund
5.Luke Schenn
6.Derek Brassard
7.Corey Schneider
8.TJ Oshie
9.Nikolai Kulyemin
10.Blake Wheeler


Final Comments
Last year was very frustrating for the Wild. The team was constructed to score a ton of goals – stacked with offensive players up front and on the blueline. On paper, defense was a huge weakness. And yet the Wild ended up being a team that scored very little but also didn’t give up much. And in the post-season once again we couldn’t score and bowed out in the 1st round.


This year we hope to find what we didn’t last year – chemistry. On paper I’m not sure the team is as good, but if the parts fit better, we should improve. If not some of the prospects will be sent packing to acquire veteran, proven help.




No Ravi you may not have Okposo.

[nyrcrisfer]

As Grant said, the Wild are younger and don't look as great on paper as they have in the past. But they did a good job shedding salary and still have a team that can compete this season. And if things start well, they have enough youth to acquire some upgrades as the season moves on.

[Goffie]

Looks like a pretty solid team, going to be hard to beat the Wild thsi seaosn and for a number of years by the looks of things.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Yeah the Wild look good on paper and surely with that youth will be good for years to come. I'd expect Grant to make some moves as the season progresses that bring in some high rated vets, his prospect depth is so strong and he can afford to that and still be fine next year.

[Sylvanfan]

I hope Sundin retires, just to force you to have to fill that hole....mind you, I don't know if I want your team to have 10 million in cap space open up either, you might be able to make your team a lot better if you had that to work with.

[RT14]

Yeah the Wild are still looking very strong. Not as much depth as we're used to seeing there perhaps but the top 6 is still full of talent and very young. To shed that much salary and remain a top team is tough to do so I think you've done some great work there this off-season.

[simmer2]

Yeah, I'll echo the sentiments that have already been mentioned by other GM's. You continue to ice a great mixture of vets and rookies. While the team may not be as strong as it has been in the past, you are still looking quite good. And seriously, could you have any more solid prospects? I barely have one, you have a gajillion....jerk.