Big offseason coming for the Wild

Following a up and down season where the Minnesota Wild managed to clinch a playoff spot by the skin of their teeth after selling their top goal scorer and number 1 goalie at the trade deadline, most hockey insiders thought they were going to take the rebuild route, and finally move away from their long time core of captain and assistant captain Sidney Crosby and Erik Karlsson. Those insiders must certainly not be familiar with SouCHe's modus operandi in his long 10 years tenure as the Wild general manager. A full blown rebuild has never been part of his vocabulary. 

According to reliable sources from within the organization, the Wild have a deal in place that would bring elite talent to the State of hockey without sacrificing much of the core. If this thrustworthy rumor proves to be true, it would mean that the Wild are pretty much all in one last time before blowing it all up. Crosby is not getting any younger, Karlsson is physically falling apart, and while there's plenty of great young players around them (the Tkachuk brother, McAvoy, Podkolzin, Romanov, just to name a few), the pipeline will be pretty much empty if the rumored transaction go though. 

One last dance for the core that was assembled 10 years ago, still looking for their first championship after falling short in 2017 (soul-breaking loss to Boston in 7 games in the Stanley Cup Finals). 

There's also the expansion draft coming into play. The Wild currently have some tough decisions to make regarding that. Between Erik Karlsson, Charlie McAvoy, Mikhail Sergachev, Ben Chiarot and Cal Foote, they'll for sure lose a valuable asset. Will they also choose to leave enigmatic forward Jonathan Drouin unprotected? The young man certainly didn't come as advertised, and let's not forget that the Wild payed a massive price to draft him at the 2013 draft, when they traded then prospect Filip Forsberg as well as the 14th overall pick (which the Colorado Avalanche used to select Bo Horvat) to move up to the 2nd overall pick and select Drouin. He's been nothing short of a dissapointement since then. And while there's still a glimmer of hope that he might find his game back, there's no indication that he might grow into more than a 50 pts player. His 5.5M cap hit is not the end of the world, but it's still holding SouCHe back in his attempt to get the team to the next level. We'll see what happens with him in the offseason.

There's also the entry draft. The Wild got 2 first round picks (their own and Buffalo's), but according to rumors, at least one of those, maybe even both might be included in the big trade. If that's the case, then the Wild will not draft until the 4th round. Bummer. 

It's all speculations for now, but we should witness a very significant offseason that will shape the present and the future for the franchise, and show us the direction Souche is taking. Stay tuned!