The Minnesota Wild are our next team to get under the lens in our Central Division offseason series. We’re getting closer to the NHL’s draft combine, which then turns our attention to the draft, so getting a look at what other teams in the Blackhawks’ division have to work with is good to do now before things get hot.
The Wild didn’t have a lot of offense this season, but have some young players emerging as legit NHL stars. Their defense was sound, but free agency will test their ability to retain some of their key players now and into the following summer with limited cap space. The Wild will carry $14,743,588 in dead cap space the next two seasons because of the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.
Wild 2022-23 By the Numbers
2022-23 Record: 46-25-11 – 103 points (3rd in the Central Division)
2023 Playoffs: Lost in first round
2023-24 Projected Cap Space: $8.2 million
Head Coach: Dean Evason
General Manager: Bill Guerin
2022-23 Stats
Goals For/Game: 2.91 (23rd in the NHL)
Goals Against/Game: 2.67 (6)
Power Play Pct: 21.4 (15)
Penalty Kill Pct: 82.0 (10)
Wild Offseason Outlook
Notable 2023 UFAs: Ryan Reaves, Gustav Nyquist, Oskar Sundqvist, Matt Dumba, John Klingberg
Notable 2023 RFAs: Filip Gustavsson, Sam Steel, Brandon Duhaime, Mason Shaw, Calen Addison
2023 Draft Capital:
First Round (No. overall): 21
Second Round: MIN, VGK
Third Round: none
Fourth Round: none
Fifth Round: MIN
Sixth Round: MIN
Seventh Round: MIN
Wild Offseason Headlines
This isn’t going to be an easy offseason for Minnesota after a first round playoff loss. With only three picks in the first four rounds of the draft, they have limited options to add strength to their system.
The good news for Wild fans — and bad news for the rest of the division — is that Minnesota had a prospect pool that Scott Wheeler at The Athletic ranked first in the NHL in his mid-season update. That group is headlined by Jesper Wallstedt, Marco Rossi and Liam Öhgren. Brock Faber, who was ranked their No. 5 prospect by Wheeler, already made the jump to the NHL and looked good in the playoffs.
As the Wild look to improve their offense, it’s worth noting that Kirill Kaprizov led the team with 40 goals despite being limited to 67 games because of injury. Matthew Boldy, one of their other young emerging stars, scored 31.