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Wild: Biggest Need Is?

December 1, 2020, 1:02 PM ET [6 Comments]
Dan Wallace
Minnesota Wild Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
What is the biggest need for the Wild?

If you ask me the biggest need for the Minnesota Wild is an identity.

They have been in the league for 20 years and have not had a true superstar that they can call their own. The highest Wild profile player in their history is by far Marian Gaborik. Gaborik, however, was hampered during his Wild tenure playing in a defensive structured system that rarely allowed for him to display the outrageous skill he was blessed with.

The Wild have long been a solid team that could show glimpses of being able to compete with some of the top teams in a regular season contest, but then becoming a non-factor very quickly once Spring rolled around and playoff hockey began.

Built around solid defense and decent goaltending the Wild have teased their fan base for far too long that they are a legitimate contender. We all know that has never been the case and new GM Bill Guerin has been tasked with changing that albeit on the fly.

The hope is that the arrival of Karill Kaprizov combined with what we have seen during Kevin Fiala's maturation process, that the Wild will finally have two legitimate offensive weapons to go with that solid defense corps.

That defense is another story in itself though as the core four of Suter, Spurgeon, Brodin, and Dumba are all locked up for at least the next three seasons at 6M or more apiece. Suter, Spurgeon, and Brodin all have no movement clauses and are under contract for the next 5, 7, and 8 years respectively.

The need here of course cannot be solved anytime soon as there is too much money and term tied up in these deals for players that are very good NHLers, however, the track record of team success is nil with this collection of defenseman.

Guerin inherited a mess as far as the roster and cap situation were concerned, and he has made some good moves to get out from under some of it. The issue of course, is that he made two enormous resignings of Spurgeon and Brodin in each of the last two off-seasons, both in term and money.

Everyone likes to bring up the Suter and Parise contracts but both of those players have been very productive throughout the majority of their monster deals. Now both still have five years remaining and we will have to se how that plays out to give a final grade on those signings. By themselves they are not really the problem for the Wild and their cap situation. Combine them with Spurgeon and Brodin's deals and they put some pretty tight handcuffs on the Wild cap situation, especially with the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Guerin has his work cut out for himself and establishing the Wild identity is the biggest need for the team that calls "the State of Hockey" their home.
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