The Minnesota Wild aren’t mathematically eliminated quite yet. That’s coming very, very soon, especially since the Wild can top out at 93 points and the Los Angeles Kings are a win away from that.
With $14.7 million in dead cap money, the Wild couldn’t afford to not be healthy this season. Instead, they’ve been inundated with injuries from training camp on and the result was a team that lacked any depth whatsoever and any secondary scoring.
What’s concerning is the Wild will have the same $14.7 million cap pain next season … only with a cap ceiling that at least rises from $83.5 million to $87.5 million for a little extra cushion.
The hope is Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Foligno will be back healthy, but if the Wild have similar bad luck with injuries next season, this could be the same repeat problem next year because they’re set to return largely the same exact roster barring unforeseen offseason changes. That’s why the Wild must get massive improvement between the pipes and from players like Johansson, who should at least be motivated during a contract year, Gaudreau and Ryan Hartman, who is a goal away from 20 but just hasn’t been up to snuff since a fast start to the year.
With one game left in Denver, the Wild are an embarrassing 0-9-1 against the top three teams in their division, the Stars, the Avalanche and Jets. Most of the games have been one-sided losses. They have won eight of 28 games against the nine teams ahead of them in the West, losing 10 of their last 11 against those teams. That’s why they are where they are now.
Goalie of the Future Jesper Wallstedt was recalled Saturday and met the team in Chicago to start Sunday’s game there. Hynes said Wallstedt could be the first of a handful of young prospects from Iowa who may get looks in the final six games, although because the team is starting a five-game trip, it’s uncertain who and when. But the goal with Wallstedt is to keep him the rest of the season and not only start him in Chicago but perhaps other games.
The Wild locker room was down Saturday before the players boarded their flight for Chicago. These next six games will be difficult to stomach, but the way they’ve played this season, this is what they deserved and this is what they better fix if they want to rebound next season.
7 comments
It will get worse before it gets better.
I think its a good thing they had a bad year
This team will be in the same position. Ugh.
I am really going to miss the playoffs, even just the first round
Only year I can remember with this many injuries was the first year PMB was out with concussions. Anybody know how this year ranks n terms of man-games lost?
The Maroon and Foligno injuries were the nails in the coffin, IMO. Maroon was brought in to replace Reaves’ “swagger”, and once he went down with the injury, and was later dealt, there wasn’t that physical support for Foligno. Then Foligno got hurt. Argue however you want about his extension and NTC, he played well this year when healthy.
This team has little presence physically, is generally overmatched along the boards, and lineup decisions routinely reinforced that. They got pushed around all season long, especially by their betters in the Central.
There’s a lot of stuff that needs fixing with limited resources. Hopefully options present themselves to move on from some of the players that need fresh starts (Freddy) and some spots open up for the likes of Ohgren (and Yurov, fingers crossed) that will add some size, skill, and energy that was MIA for too long this season.
Just fade me. Which bandwagon are we jumping on for the playoffs?