By Thomas Williams -
It's the finale!
The Minnesota Wild are visiting the Nashville Predators for the regular season finale before they start the first round of the playoffs next week. And because they have third place in the Central Division locked-up, with nowhere to go, they are treating this final game as a chance to rest a whole lot of good players and make it like an exhibition game.
For the lineup, they have the clear potential third line (with Frederick Gaudreau going up to the second and either Marco Rossi or Sam Steel replacing him) in the playoffs, and the established fourth line there. Then, it's a whole lot of Iowa players and Calen Addison trying out his luck on the right wing.
Even on the blue line, Brock Faber getting top-pairing minutes either means that he will be considered to have a spot in the playoffs, or he is just keeping the seat warm for Jared Spurgeon and it makes Dean Evason's job easier to swap out Faber and Jon Merrill for Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin for the final lineup.
Projected Wild lineup
Gustav Nyquist -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Marcus Foligno
Brandon Duhaime -- Connor Dewar -- Ryan Reaves
Nic Petan -- Marco Rossi -- Sammy Walker
Nick Swaney -- Damien Giroux -- Calen Addison
Jake Middleton -- Brock Faber
Jon Merrill -- Matt Dumba
Alex Goligoski -- John Klingberg
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Projected Predators lineup
Zach Sanford -- Cody Glass -- Philip Tomasino
Kiefer Sherwood -- Thomas Novak -- Luke Evangelista
Juuso Parssinen -- Colton Sissons -- Yakov Trenin
Egor Afanasyev -- Mark Jankowski -- Michael McCarron
Ryan McDonagh -- Dante Fabbro
Tyson Barrie -- Jake Livingstone
Spencer Stastney -- Cal Foote
Juuse Saros
Kevin Lankinen
Join us in the comments down below!
Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we'll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form.
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.