What Are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Wild's Prospect Pool?

That's Wild

• The Minnesota Wild have been heralded as a well-drafting team that has quickly, through the last few years, gathered up some key prospects who should hit the NHL starting this upcoming season. But, what are the distinct strengths and weaknesses to their current prospect pool? Steven Ellis at Daily Faceoff answered that question.

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Biggest Strengths

I love how many scoring options are on the wing. Danila Yurov, Ryder Ritchie and Hunter Haight highlight the right side, while Liam Ohgren, Rasmus Kumpulainen and Rieger Lorenz occupy the left side. And that doesn’t include players who are capable of switching between center and the wing, such as Marat Khusnutdinov or Charlie Stramel. They’ve got much more depth on the wing than down the middle, which isn’t always the case for quality pipelines.

Biggest Weakness

If I had to be picky, it’s not having much in terms of right-handed blueliners. David Spacek is fine, and Sebastian Soini is a project option, but neither will factor into a long-term support role. I feel like quality on the right side is becoming less of a premium than it once was seen to be – 2026 and 2027 are filled with them – but they’re lacking it in their system right now.

 

Well, yeah that's basically it. Positionally, the Wild are pretty deep at forward, while specifically on the right side of their blue line, they are a little shallow. But, to be fair to Ellis's criticism, this doesn't take into account Brock Faber who will more than make up for any shortcomings in the pipeline for the next decade.

If you want to read more about his impression of the Wild's prospect pool: [Daily Faceoff]

• The Wild are heading into the season with a three-headed goaltending connundrum. Marc-Andre Fleury is the veteran, Filip Gustavsson is the still-somewhat-young goaltender that needs to prove he can hang, and Jesper Wallstedt is knocking on the door very hard. Can this team balance the present and the future? [Hockey Wilderness]

Off the trail...

• The Philadelphia Flyers locked up winger Travis Konecny to an eight-year, $70-million deal on Thursday, as the team is technically rebuilding but not completely tearing everything down. [NHL.com]
• Primary hockey analyst and good podcaster, Jeff Marek, is no longer with Sportsnet and therefore no longer part of the 32 Thoughts podcast. Things are still unclear what exactly happened. [Awful Announcing]
• Stan Bowman is the new Edmonton Oilers general manager. [NHL.com]