The Minnesota Wild enter the 2023-24 season with as good of an excuse to not do well as they can get with $14.7 million in cap space unusable due to the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyout penalties. The reality is, fans’ expectations for the team shouldn’t change. The Wild knew what they were doing when they bought out the contracts and they have had plenty of time to prepare, which they have done wonderfully. Here are my expectations for the Wild for the 2023-24 season.
Prediction: 49 Wins and 107 Points
The Wild have broken the 100-point mark for two seasons in a row and they are a better team starting this season than they were last season; any expectation that they will take a step back is just incorrect, barring any catastrophic injuries.
Offensively, the addition of Marcus Johansson combined with the emergence of Matt Boldy as an elite winger gives them a one-two punch of scoring lines that they struggled to find for 90 percent of last season. The biggest loss points-wise of the offseason was Sam Steel with 10 goals and 18 assists, a number easily obtainable by a confident Marco Rossi. Sometimes players have to struggle before they put in the work to break through to that next level. Rossi’s determination and work ethic increased dramatically when he was sent down last season and he should come back a different player.
Despite losing a major veteran presence in Matt Dumba with 598 NHL games with the Wild, their defensive core is mostly intact. The emergence of Brock Faber as a legit top-four defender and a (hopefully) rejuvenated and eager Calen Addison could easily bring a significant improvement over the unpredictability that Dumba brought. Faber will likely be thrown into the fire and fans can expect some mistakes, but everything he has shown so far gives me confidence in his ability to be an absolute minute-munching defenseman. Addison needs to take just a little bit of constructive criticism to heart and he could easily become a massive offensive threat for them on the first power-play unit.
2nd Round Appearance Required
The Wild have made the playoffs four seasons in a row, and have lost in the first round every single time. This season should be no different, especially when the Central Division is likely the weakest out of the four. The Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars will be at the top, but the Wild easily slot into third above the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators who are both retooling their rosters. The three remaining teams shouldn’t be much of a threat, but the Arizona Coyotes are suddenly looking like they might not be dead last.
Related: 10 Minnesota Wild Prospects You Need to Watch in 2023-24
If we are not lowering the expectations, then they need to take another step forward to consider this season a success. It’s great to be a consistent playoff-caliber team, but if the result is always dropping out in the first round, something needs to change. The Florida Panthers showed us last season that all you need to do is make the postseason and then anything can happen, if the Wild can catch at the right time of year there is no reason to think they can’t make it past the first round.
Contingency Plan: Sell Hard at the Trade Deadline
There are always teams that are going to outperform expectations and teams that are going to underperform, it’s just part of hockey. If I am completely wrong and the Wild, for one reason or another, fall into the underperforming category this season, they have some extremely valuable players that they can use at the trade deadline to make some massive waves. Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman, Patrick Maroon, and Brandon Duhaime are all set to become unrestricted free agents (UFA) at the end of the season.
There is a very good chance not all of them are going to be offered contract extensions anyway in order to create some space for the wave of young prospects knocking on the door. If the Wild are not in a position to compete for a playoff spot they could receive some massive value for most of those players and add to an already top-notch prospect pool. Unfortunately in the NHL, if you’re going to be bad, you might as well be really bad.
Wild in Strong Position Despite Buyouts
Even with the best excuse going, the Wild are in a very strong position where they have a good enough team to make a run in the playoffs. A strong core of players with some veteran presence and a few rookies hoping to breakout sprinkled into the mix is an excellent recipe for success. A few key players will have to step up after having a down season in 2022-23, but they have demonstrated what they are capable of time and time again. No one should underestimate the Wild, although they are still probably one of the most underestimated teams in the league.