Post by Minnesota Wild on Nov 19, 2023 18:07:32 GMT -6
Welcome to the ninth edition of Wild Times
Sixteen games into the new season, and the Wild see themselves with a respectable 8-5-3 record. Currently sitting 2nd in the Central Division, however 7th in the Western Conference. Still, just being in the playoff hunt early is a ton of improvement from the Wild's last season in which the entire organization would like to forget.
After the Wild's horrid season last year, finishing in 31st place, and then losing the lottery and missing out on a top 2 selection, the Wild decided to go on the offensive. "However the lottery balls fell, they were going to determine our direction as a franchise. We were in this weird in-between place where we had the assets to sell for a rebuild, but on the other hand we knew we had a strong core and if we wanted to compete we just needed to saturate our line-up with more depth. So it all came down to the lottery... if we had the #1 or #2 overall selections, we felt we were going to rebuild this team. But we lost the lottery, and that blow just reignited a passion to continue working on our current team and make aggressive changes to get us back into the conversation of the playoffs." Wolf said.
Aggressive they were, despite owning the 3rd overall selection, the Wild did not want to wait to develop that prospect, and instead shipped the pick to the Florida Panthers to add all-star William Nylander. Adding Nylander to the teams top 6 was an immediate upgrade for the teams offense. Minnesota wasn't done there, they still had an additional 1st rounder at their arsenal, originally acquired from LA. 1st rounders being the hottest commodity during the draft, the Wild took advantage and traded it to St. Louis for Nils Hoglander.
After more wheeling and dealing, and free agent signings. The Wild added Nylander, Hoglander, Van Riemsdyk, Letang, Arvidsson, Xhekaj, and much improved rated players such as Teravainen and Namestnikov, the Wild added a total of 7 players with an OV rating of 73 or better without subtracting any current players to the team.
That alone goes to show that management did well on their promise in adding the necessary depth needed to be a successful team over the course of an 82 season.
"It's progress." Wolf said. "But the job isn't done, in fact it's only just begun. We have 66 more games to play this season, but early showings look promising. However we don't want to stumble our way into a playoff spot like we did in Year 1... hoping for other teams to lose and what not. We'd like to be in the driver seat this year. Our goal is the playoffs, and we'd like to clinch a spot earlier than on the last day of the regular season. If we start to slip again, I am going to address those issues immediately instead of waiting like I did last year. That's what burned us early and I take responsibility for that." Wolf admitted. Time will tell, will the moves Minnesota made this year propel them back to respectable status in the league? Stay tuned...
"It's progress." Wolf said. "But the job isn't done, in fact it's only just begun. We have 66 more games to play this season, but early showings look promising. However we don't want to stumble our way into a playoff spot like we did in Year 1... hoping for other teams to lose and what not. We'd like to be in the driver seat this year. Our goal is the playoffs, and we'd like to clinch a spot earlier than on the last day of the regular season. If we start to slip again, I am going to address those issues immediately instead of waiting like I did last year. That's what burned us early and I take responsibility for that." Wolf admitted. Time will tell, will the moves Minnesota made this year propel them back to respectable status in the league? Stay tuned...
