Article: Can the Minnesota Wild Trust Their Blue Line Depth?

[Luke Sims]

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[FredJohnson]

I’d keep riding with the hot pair in Chisholm and Jiricek. However, the Wild will probably use Bogo and Merrill as the third pair.

Booo! 👎🏼

[Citizen Strife]

The team lives and dies on its defensive structure and goaltending.  If everyone buys in, the team has played well above what they "should" be considering last season and even the injured stretch this season.

Middleton has stepped up tremendously as Faber's partner, and that means you can use them, Brodin-Faber, Bridin-Spurgeon, or even Chisholm-Spurgeon and be mostly successful.  The issues crept up when it was all out of whack.  

Let's just hope the Wild are out of the worst of it.  Other teams in the Central lose too, but don't make a habit of relying on that to keep afloat.  Still a little under three months left.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Citizen Strife

[IllicitFive]

Can the wild trust their blue line depth? I think they can, when they play the right way. As said CS, when everyone buys in it shows. Merril and Bogo have been serviceable, but the fact we are disappointed about Jiricek going back to the AHL shows the depth is there and is more than serviceable. Of course when you lose 2 of your top 3 it will hurt and scores/results of games will reflect that. All players have warts, its finding a way to cover each other and accentuate the things the other partner does well, see Brodin and Dumba.

Midds has upped his game, Faber has been steady, you know what you get with Brodin and Spurge when healthy, as well as Merril and Bogo for better or worse. Now with potential that is looking promising in guys like Jiricek, Lambos, and Chisholm. 9 players who can potentially step in to different roles when needed is a pretty good problem to have, they may not all be all stars but they just need to keep buying in and playing within the system that seems to be working well.

[mnfaninnc]

I think we can trust them. I liked what I saw from Lambos and Spacek when watching the baby Wild live. I liked what Jiricek brought and thought he improved almost every game. Chisholm is a great compliment piece to have and he worked well with Jiricek.

I thought Jiricek and Chisholm played 2nd pairing though and Bogosian and Merrill played 3rd pairing? Perhaps the TOI didn't really come out that way due to the PK? 

[Up North Guy]

Brodin has not started skating yet and Jiricek has been sent to Iowa.

[Burnt Toast]

4 hours ago, IllicitFive said:

9 players who can potentially step in to different roles when needed is a pretty good problem to have,

Which will probably lead to some big decisions into the TD and next year’s roster. Depth this year has been really fantastic defensively, now we will see if the Wild find ways to keep it or trade off pieces to address other needs. It’s safe to say by next year one of these guys will retire or move on for sure. Will there be more? Probably