Well, hey!!! The two best seasons in Minnesota are here – fall and hockey season!!! After losing four games to two in last season’s playoffs to the Dallas Stars, the Wild will get a fresh start on Thursday night as they will face the Florida Panthers in the season opener at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
The Wild complied a 5-1 record in the preseason, beating Colorado and Chicago twice and splitting two games with Dallas. Outscoring their opponents 24-10 in the six games, Marc-Andre Fleury had a 2-1 record in his starts, Filip Gustavsson was perfect at 2-0, while Tendy of the Future for the Wild, Jesper Wallstedt opened the preseason with a victory in his only Wild start.
Wild GM, Bill Guerin has been busy of late, signing Ryan Hartman (3 yrs/$12M), Mats Zuccarello (2 yrs/$8.25M) and Marcus Foligno (4 yrs/$16M) to extensions. Those three guys, along with Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jonas Brodin will give the Wild a solid core through the next two seasons when they are facing the severe cap penalties from the Zach Parise/ Ryan Suter buyouts.
Regardless of how the Wild season turns out – you have to give Bill Guerin huge props for putting together a playoff-caliber team while having to eat over $14.7M in dead money. The same penalty will be in place for next season as well. Brandon Duhaime, Alex Goligoski, Patrick Maroon and Fleury are the only pending UFA’s on the squad after this season, while Calen Addison and Connor Dewar will be RFA’s. Certainly, it will be an easier summer next year for Guerin. It is very possible that this will be Fleury’s last hurrah, but crazier things have happened (e.g., Jaromir Jagr still playing pro pucks at the age of 51).
So Wild fans, have yer Tater Tot or Wild Rice hotdish ready for Thursday night as the Wild kick off their 23rd NHL season. Like, share and subscribe to The Morning Skate for all of your NHL and collegiate hockey news and info. Don’t’ forget to follow me for more Wild coverage this season. Everybody say it with me…. LET’S PLAY HOCKEY!!!!!! Go Wild!!!!!
The Morning Skate 