The calm before the storm for the Wild as the off-season will be in full swinf as soon as the Stanley Cup Final comes to it's conclusion.
There are a lot of questions to be answered as Bill Guerin continues to build this team. We have stated the obvious with Kevin Faila and the goaltending decisions along with Matt Dumba's impending final season of his contract coming up.
The other burning questions are geared toward the RFA status of Jake Middleton, who stepped into the top pair role alongside, Captain, Jared Spurgeon.
The Wild have six defenseman under contract for next season with Spugeon, Dumba, Jonas Brodin, Dmitry Kulikov, Jon Merrill, and Alex Goligoski. Goligoski was extended 2-years late in the season at a club friendly $2M/season, down from the lofty $5M he signed for this past season.
Goligoski had his moments and as a depth defenseman with a rotation among the bottom three defenseman he provides both experience and a more than capable defender. However that writing on the wall all but signals the end of the road for Wild defense prospect, Calen Addison.
Addison has doen everything possible to this point and fully has earned his way to the NHL, or at the very least a very long look. The problem is that how many smallish defenseman can one team? With Spurgeon firmly planted as the captain and leader of the team, he is not going anywhere. That makes Addision a key piece to be moved.
What about Marco Rossi and the plan for his arrival with the big club next season. Rossi needs to make the roster and more importantly have an impact with his ELC offsetting some of the negative cap hit the Wild are going to experience.
We see the cream of the crop battling for the Stanley Cup and their will be 31 teams vying to overthrow the eventual champion, either Colorado or Tampa. We also remember just what we saw with the Wild and another first round exit from the playoffs.
The line between winning and losing is pretty fine, however it is one that has many facets. The Wild can check some of the right boxes yet they have several more that demand attention. So the lineup shuffle cannot just be that a shuffle, it must have bite and substance that ensures that this team moves forward in the Spring of 2023.
Bill GUerin has done a remarkable job in his two years at the helm of the Wild, as their GM. But he also created quite a conundrum for himself moving forward, and as we all know, he sold a plan to Craig Leipold last Summer.
Now we are in the next phase of that plan...
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