We’ve now made it past Thanksgiving and the holiday season is now upon us. Like the last few years, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for but this year comes with a bit of a change. Normally teams would have an idea of where their season was heading, coming up on the one-quarter mark with mountains of statistics to analyze. Instead, in this unprecedented year, the season hasn’t even begun. We’ll still take a look at what each group is excited about and what they could hope for once the calendar turns to 2021.
What are the Wild most thankful for?
Their talented and deep defense corps.
While Mathew Dumba has been in trade speculation dating back to before the entry draft in large part to the looming expansion draft, he remains with Minnesota. Ryan Suter remains a top-pairing blueliner while Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin round out their top four. With the exception of Dumba, they’re all signed for at least the next five years as well. Carson Soucy established himself as a regular last season as well while Greg Pateryn and Brad Hunt have had successful stints in the NHL in recent years as well.
Of course, having as strong of a back end as they do comes at a price as their $30.98MM combined cap hit is the highest of any defense corps in the league. But it’s high-priced for a reason as very quietly, Minnesota’s blueline group is among the strongest in the league and will be a big factor in whether they make the playoffs in the West Division.
Who are the Wild most thankful for?
Yes, he hasn’t even played a single game for them yet but he’s listed here for two reasons. First, they’re likely thrilled that the courting to lure him to North America (a process that began before this site even launched which was back in the 2016 offseason) is finally done after he signed his entry-level deal just before the playoffs began back in the summer. Second, he has the potential to become one of their top players right away. Kaprizov has been one of the top players in the KHL the last four years and could very well slide onto Minnesota’s top line almost immediately. They’ll only get the one cheap year out of him having burned the first season of his entry-level deal in the bubble but at this point, they’re just thankful that after years of waiting, he’s under contract and will be able to make an immediate impact when the season starts next month.
What would the Wild be even more thankful for?
Cam Talbot retaining his form from last season. After struggling in Edmonton as the starter, he was much better in Calgary as the 1B option behind David Rittich; he remained in that role for most of the year despite outperforming Rittich during the year. But when it mattered most, the Flames turned to him in the playoffs where he continued to play well, helping to land him a three-year deal back in October.
After Devan Dubnyk’s recent struggles, Wild GM Bill Guerin clearly believes that Talbot is the short-term solution to get things back on track between the pipes. Unfortunately, the pressure will be a little higher at the beginning of the year with Alex Stalock (who quietly had a strong season as Minnesota’s backup in 2019-20) out indefinitely due to an upper-body injury. That pushes youngster Kaapo Kahkonen into the backup role but he has a total of five NHL games under his belt. As a result, a lot will be riding on Talbot’s shoulders early and they will need him to play like he did for Calgary last season.
What should be on the Wild’s holiday wish list?
More scoring help. While Minnesota was a middle of the pack team in terms of scoring last season, three of their top-eight scorers aren’t there anymore (Eric Staal, Kevin Fiala, and Jason Zucker) while Ryan Donato, who was tied for sixth in goals, is now in San Jose. In terms of newcomers being added to fold, Marcus Johansson, Nick Bonino, and Nick Bjugstad are all coming off of underwhelming seasons offensively. On paper, even if Kaprizov lives up to the hype, getting consistent goal production could be a challenge.
The good news for Guerin and the Wild is that they’re one of the few teams that still has some cap room to work with. While it may not be enough to make a splash (such as going after Mike Hoffman) right away, if they’re able to bank that space early on, they’ll be well-positioned to afford to add a higher-priced addition midseason. That’s something that can’t be said for many of their divisional counterparts.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
We still have fiala….
Seriously how in the world do you get such basic information wrong. Not that hard to look and see that we still have Fiala.
What cap room?
Thought being pushed up against the cap was why they couldn’t go get some more offensive firepower???
They have $2.7m in cap space.