Turning Point
New faces of the franchise emerge as Wild continue transformation
By: Michael Russo
Will the Wild be better? We don’t know yet, but they’ll certainly be different. In a stunning bit of news in mid-July, the end of not only the Zach Parise era, but also the Ryan Suter era arrived when general manager Bill Guerin decided to make a clean break from the twin 13-year signings from nine years earlier.
Parise and Suter helped lead the Wild to the playoffs in eight of their nine seasons in Minnesota, but the Wild could never quite get over the hump and won a grand total of two playoff games beyond the first round.
The Parise buyout was expected after Minnesota’s all-time leading NHL goal scorer played fourth-line minutes in the second half of last season and began the playoffs as a healthy scratch. Parise was relieved to get a fresh start and he’ll get to suit up for a team that he’d been destined to end up on for a few years—the New York Islanders, where his late father, J.P., used to play. The Suter buyout not only blindsided the fan base and the media but Suter himself. Still a capable topfour defenseman, Suter never envisioned he, too, would be sent packing. But he sure landed on his feet courtesy of a four-year deal with the rival Dallas Stars.
Guerin felt in his heart of hearts that if he was going to start anew without Parise, then Suter, Parise’s sidekick, should also depart so the locker room could fully transition to a bunch of new leaders, starting with second-year captain Jared Spurgeon.
But that was just the beginning of a roster overhaul as Guerin continues his attempt to turn this proud franchise into a true Stanley Cup contender.
Besides Parise and Suter, defenseman Carson Soucy was lost in the expansion draft and veteran Ian Cole signed with the Carolina Hurricanes.
That means the strength of the Wild—their blue line—has gone from a quality top-six into a quality, well, top-three (Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba) with three new faces they’ll try to infuse into the lineup without hopefully missing a beat.
Veteran Alex Goligoski, the hometown gent from Grand Rapids who played at the University of Minnesota once upon a time, was signed to replace Suter. Then, after losing out on Cole and not being able to sign Marcus Foligno’s older brother, Nick, up front to replace Parise, the Wild turned their attention to their third defense pair by signing veterans Dmitry Kulikov and Jon Merrill to short-term contracts.
The Wild also let forwards Nick Bonino (San Jose) and Marcus Johansson (Seattle) leave as free agents but signed versatile, fast forward Freddy Gaudreau, who came out of nowhere to help the Nashville Predators in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gaudreau played for and adored Wild coach Dean Evason when Evason coached him on the Predators’ AHLaffiliate Milwaukee Admirals.
“I heard nothing but great things about the organization, about the city,” Gaudreau said of why he chose the Wild. “And then, of course, I played for Deano back in the days in Milwaukee, and I love him. I love the way he thinks, the ways he sees hockey and life, and just was a great fit with him in the past.”
Goligoski, 36, will be entering his 15th NHL season and is coming off a good year in Arizona.
“Man, Goosey’s the best,” Goligoski’s young defense partner for much of the past five seasons, Jakob Chychrun, said. “We really had a special relationship. He’s a guy that I’m going to miss like crazy. Our whole team’s going to miss him. He brings so much value to any roster. He’s a guy that taught me a lot. He’s a guy that’s won. He’s a guy that just takes such good care of himself.
“Me personally, he was a big part of my growth in this league.”
Up front, the Wild should still be dynamic despite a tough offseason in which they needed to re-sign three of their best forwards—Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala and Joel Eriksson Ek.
Eriksson Ek signed the first max eight-year contract in team history (the NHL changed the max term limits after the Parise and Suter signings in 2012). Fiala, the Wild’s leading scorer over the past two seasons, had to settle for a one-year deal. And the Wild were still working hard in their attempt to sign Kaprizov to a long-term deal in the middle of September.
They were focusing on signing him to a contract between four and six years after he turned down seven- and eight-year contracts worth $9 million annually.
It took 5 ½ years from being drafted in the fifth round in 2015 for Kaprizov to arrive after winning a KHL title, leading the league in goals twice and scoring the overtime winner for the gold medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
It’s safe to say Kaprizov delivered as he led the Wild with 27 goals and won the Calder Trophy as the best rookie in the NHL.
Kaprizov is already one of the best goal scorers and dynamic players in Wild history and if the Wild could just get him a competent center to play between him and Mats Zuccarello, the sky could be the limit for his production. He’s a true star in the making.
Guerin continues his pursuit in trying to land a center and had trade talks with the Buffalo Sabres all summer for disgruntled star Jack Eichel.
If Guerin can’t acquire a center, perhaps Eriksson Ek will get a chance to play between the two skilled wingers after scoring a careerhigh 19 goals last season. Or, after 18 months away from the game for the most part after complications from COVID-19, could 19-yearold Marco Rossi earn a roster spot out of training camp and tag-team himself between Kaprizov and Zuccarello?
It may be worth a shot as Rossi was as good as it gets in the Ontario Hockey League before the Wild drafted him in the first round in 2020. Other roster hopefuls include 2019 first-round pick Matt Boldy and Iowa Wild forwards Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime and young defenseman Calen Addison.
“I think we can be better than we were last year,” Guerin said. “We’re going to have to be. Our division’s improved quite a bit. It’s a very tough division. There really aren’t any weak links, so to a man, we’re going to have to be better.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
KAPRIZOV – Kaprizov scored a team-leading 27 goals and 51 points in 55 games and now will finally get to play a full 82-game season against 31 other teams. We’ll really get to see if he’s the real deal now.
FIALA – The lightning-fast winger, who played with a revolving door of linemates last season, has the most goals (43) and points (94) of any Wild player over the past two seasons in only 114 games. There’s no denying Fiala’s talent. Yet, for some reason, the Wild avoided signing him long-term this summer. So, expect Fiala to be a pretty motivated player this season.
The Wild want him to improve defensively, stop turning pucks over and avoid bad penalties.
“If Kevin truly wants to establish himself as an elite player, then you know what? He’s gonna have to keep improving,” Guerin said. “He’s had two good years for us and he’s going to have to continue to get better. Kevin’s still young, too. He’s still a young man and there’s lots of room for improvement in his game on a lot of different areas. But there are some things that he does extremely well that other people in the league can’t do.
“It’s a big year for him.”
GOLIGOSKI – At age 36, “Goose” is expected to slide right into Suter’s old spot to the left of Spurgeon, one of the best Wild defensemen in franchise history. Goligoski is coming off a strong season with Arizona where he scored 20 points in his final 24 games.
TALBOT – After going 15-4-4 with a 2.53 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in his last 23 starts of last season and going 12-2-2 at home last season, Talbot will be looking for a repeat. The savvy, cool as a cucumber veteran will have to play behind a new-look blue line.
ROOKIES TO WATCH:
ROSSI – With 39 goals and 120 points in 56 games in 2019-20 for the Ottawa 67s, Rossi became the first European in history to lead the OHL in scoring and the first European to lead the entire Canadian Hockey League in scoring since Alex Radulov (152 points) in 2005-06.
BOLDY – In 56 career games with Boston College, Boldy scored 20 goals and 37 assists. He led the Eagles in goals, assists, points, power-play points, shots and shorthanded goals this past season. The Hobey Baker finalist also tied for first on Team USA with five goals last winter at the World Juniors.
ADDISON – Undersized yet fun to watch, offensive defenseman got a three-game look in the regular season, then played three playoff games after Soucy broke his ribs. The 21-year-old looked poised and confident and it wouldn’t be shocking at all if he not only made the team this upcoming season, but ultimately finds himself inside the starting six blue liners.
WHAT MUST HAPPEN FOR THE WILD TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS:
Don’t take a step back defensively. The Wild’s bread and butter continues to be on the back end, but it’ll be hard to make up for the losses of Suter, Soucy and Cole. But if Goligoski, Kulikov and Merrill can step in and fill those skates, Talbot continues to provide solid goaltending and Boldy and/or Rossi can step in and be impactful next to talents like Kaprizov, Fiala, Eriksson Ek and Zuccarello, the Wild should still wind up finishing in the topfour in the Central Division