The Wild are kind of a mess. Not a bad team but not getting better and the Parise and Suter contracts are going to be major hindrances in the coming years. This would be one of the more difficult jobs to inherit because it's clear ownership believes making the playoffs is not good enough but there's not the talent there to become a true cup contender and those contracts are going to make things very difficult when attempting to improve the team via free agency and trade. They really need to knock some drafts out of the park and find some big contributors on ELC's.
When healthy, seems to me the Wild would have a puncher's chance of being a Final 4 team and they have made the playoffs six straight years. Obviously the 2 big contracts are not helping but with an increasing cap, maybe less of a problem.
I still both love and hate his Dad somehow... for getting us our cup and then pulling the sleaziest move in GM history by picking the pocket of the guy he mentored by leveraging trust in the Gilmour trade.
I could see a big retool happening if not a complete rebuild.
The Wild have never looked like a real contender. A playoff team for years now but the core guys just have never been good enough. And now all of them are in the twilight of their careers.
The real question is whether the Wild try to retool or go on a big rebuild.
Fletcher spent a lot of their picks and prospects in recent years.
Parise and Suter still have 7 years on their contracts.
They have a ton of attractive assets for trade if they decide to go the Nashville route and rebuild.
If they are looking at Fenton I think that makes it doubly as likely.
Top assets for trade IMO:
Staal
Spurgeon
Brodin
Dubnyk
to a lesser extent
Nino
Foligno
Coyle
But I don't think it's possible to do anything substantial with that roster with Parise and Suter there. Parise specifically is owed 32 million in cash over the next 4 years.
A buyout would mean having a 7+ - 8+ million buy cap hit in 5-8 years from now which is basically when one would assume a rebuild would be coming into form.
I still both love and hate his Dad somehow... for getting us our cup and then pulling the sleaziest move in GM history by picking the pocket of the guy he mentored by leveraging trust in the Gilmour trade.
I got no problems with Fletcher in regards to the trade. That trade was all about Doug Risebrough's incompetence as a GM.
Teams retooling don't end to get rid of their younger, cheaper, better players.
New GMs come in and roll over good portions of the roster quite often, trying to find their own winning recipe. Good opposing GMs feast off of that when given the chance.
New GMs come in and roll over good portions of the roster quite often, trying to find their own winning recipe. Good opposing GMs feast off of that when given the chance.
GM's trying to find their own winning recipe by rolling over a good portion of their roster don't tend to get rid of their younger, cheaper, better players.
GM's trying to find their own winning recipe by rolling over a good portion of their roster don't tend to get rid of their younger, cheaper, better players.
Neither of those players are cheap ($3 million +), both are over the age of 25 (by the start of next season) and neither finished in the top 5 in team scoring this year.
They are good support pieces that have value, and if a new GM retools they are easily movable and will get good returns.
Wild won't renew contract of GM Chuck Fletcher
