Article: What Is the Wild's Best-Case Scenario At the Draft?

[Tony Abbott]

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[Up North Guy]

Any of these scenarios would make a successful draft. It appears that one common factor is that Beckett has to not get cute and overly creative. Of course, luck will have a huge amount to play. Nice article Tony! Really enjoyed it.

[Pewterschmidt]

Obviously I’m hoping for the Oliver Moore scenario.  That said, if we can get a player named Musty…well that’d be special.  

[Imyourhuckleberry]

We'll know for sure, in 2 days, eh!

[Protec]

I think the scenarios are weighted with extra optimism. 
 

I say there’s zero chance Moore or Danielson are still around at 21st. My guess is the Wild will be looking at Edstrom, maybe Stenberg, Musty, Ritchie, Yager, Heidt, But, Gauthier, Cristall, Nadeau, Nelson, Stramel, and maybe Eduard Sale or Gabe Perreault. All of these forwards aren’t little guys except Cristall, Brindley, and Nadeau who are North American players. The one Finn in that range is Halttunen who wouldn’t be my pick. But has sort of a Tage Thompson vibe. Sale could be pretty good. It’s nice to see how Euro prospects do in Euro top leagues as underage players. I have an okay feeling on the elite Swedes. Ritchie, Yager, Musty, Nelson, and Stramel are the guys who also best fit the Wild’s need for bigger skilled guys specifically centers.

This is the chunk of players I think the Wild will be looking at.

[Beast]

Best case is teams get gun shy on Michkov or Simashev and they fall to a place we can climb up and grab one.

Just target all the Russians and run out the Red Machine in a few years.

You have to think it would go a long way in getting Kaprisov to resign if he’s playing with a few guys that speak the same language.

But, really, I would be pretty happy with any of scenarios above.  

[mnfaninnc]

Best case scenario for me is we figure out a way to into the mid 1st round twice without losing #21. With these picks, we pick up Moore, Danielson and Ritchie. We also take Matteo Mann at #64 and some other large bodied defender at #53. At that point, I declare the rebuild over, and we just have to develop the talent we have. 

I'm not sure how you do it, but there are a few teams in the teens that are in win now mode, or make the playoffs mode. Hopefully they are willing to sacrifice future for now and take some of our players/future draft picks for compensation. 

Some of this may be trading the good in the prospect pool for better, incrementally improving the team and specifically improving the Center position. 

It's not that I don't like the wings in this draft, but I think we can get some good quality Cs in the pool and if they bust out at C, they can be converted to W.  We have guys who can help teams quicker than this draft class will give them. For some GMs, especially ones feeling their seat a bit toasty, the now matters. Lucky for us, Guerin has bought time for himself and he can improve our prospect pool even more than it is now.

We've got Yurov, Ohgren, Khus#$%^& coming over next season. Let's see what the other youngsters can do!