Article: How Strong Is the Wild's Core?

[Mikki Tuohy]

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[Rohn]

Headline needs fixing.  "How Weak is the Wild's Core."  Start there.  The Wild's rock-solid tradition of disappearing in post-season play proves the team is two levels down from contention.  Wild get drubbed in the first round by teams that then get drubbed in the second round by the teams that win the Cup.  The Cup winners have guys like Tkachuk and Stone.  Their blue line crews are  BIG and skilled.  These guys should wear capes and shine Bat Signals onto the clouds.  The Wild have a long, long, long way to go.  Add another "long" to that.  Not even close.  Fold-a-matic.  

[mnfaninnc]

In a word, NO, the core is not good enough. 

I think what we 1st have to do is define what the core is: the foundational pieces of the team. It looks like Mikki's definition of this core is Boldy, Ek, Gaudreau, Brodin, Spurgeon and of course Kaprizov. For 2023, I think you can consider this pretty accurate, though, I wouldn't put Gaudreau in the core and I think Spurgeon is the most likely to drop off. But, should we agree on 6 players, or should it be more?

As a group, these guys have overachieved. I'd say last season, we found out just how important Eriksson Ek is to this group. If there was an irreplaceable guy, he was it. There were no answers when he got hurt. 

But, what will this "core" look like in '25-26? I think this is the more important question. I'd have to say that Boldy, Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, and Brodin are definitely in that group. I think there is a center missing. Faber might be a candidate. And I would include a goalie that looks like either Goose2 or The Wall, or maybe even both? That missing center might be drafted this year. Or, that missing center could be a big free agent signing of, say, a Leon Draisaitl?

Are there other candidates? I'd say Carson Lambos is a candidate. Marco Rossi could be a candidate, much depends on this offseason. But, my bet is that Danila Yurov will also be on this list. 

After the core, we've got a bunch of glue guys who could be nominated, but those guys are our main performers in our prospect pool. Could we turn 2 or 3 of those guys into 1 core guy? I think that is the challenge for Guerin this offseason. 

We've seen that CBJ, Philly, LA, and NJ are not sitting around waiting for the draft. I think Shooter's got to shoot and start swinging some changes. I think this was a real important year for internal evaluations, and I'm fully on board with an "In With The New, Out With The Old" approach to reconstructing this roster. 

One thing's for sure, if Eriksson Ek goes down again, we've got to have an answer!

[MNCountryLife]

I think this article points out an important aspect of why the Wild have been successful in the regular season... and most likely why players enjoy their time in Minny as well as the reason why we probably won't have to do a complete roster makeover.  Historically speaking I would include Dumba.  Hopefully BG finds a way to sign Dumba.  

[Imyourhuckleberry]

I would like to see the Wild enter the postseason healthy one of these years. We'd have a much better look at the core then.

Multiple people indicating the core is weak, but had Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek been 100% going into the playoffs, everything would likely have a different feel to it. The team was without it's #1 defensive center and 3rd highest goal scorer. Eriksson Ek has been one of their best playoff performers in the past.

And Kaprizov was on the ice, but clearly wasn't near close to his best form. Boldy is young and should be improving. If they can finish top 8, I'd really like to see this team healthy next year when the playoffs begin.

Missing $14M in cap space, you would expect the Wild to lag behind some other teams. These core guys are solid, but the Wild should be adding better players around them in 2 years to help during the playoff push.