Minnesota Wild: What should fans expect from Marco Rossi in 2021?

What should Minnesota Wild fans expect from Marco Rossi in 2021?

When luck broke their way, and the Minnesota Wild landed Marco Rossi with the ninth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, it felt almost too good to be true.

While the 19-year-old Feldkirch, Austria native was widely slated in the six-eight range on many a mock draft board, he was arguably the second-best player in the entire draft to fill GM Bill Guerin’s mandate to land a legit number one center moving forward – trailing only behind premier prospect Quinton Byfield, who went second overall to the Los Angeles Kings. Measuring in at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds with an active stick and high hockey-IQ, the NHL Network comped Rossi to Claude Giroux a few years down the line. If that holds up, Guerin’s dream of landing a top-line center of the future could be mission accomplished.

But what about the Wild right now? With a pair of 20-plus goal scorers in Jared Spurgeon and Kevin Fiala, a few intriguing defensemen, and a roster with an average age of almost 29-years-old, the Wild made it to the NHL bubble and should be considered at least playoff spot contenders in 2021 thanks to the addition of veteran goaltender Cam Talbot.

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Assuming the Wild really try to push for the playoffs over shipping out veteran pieces like Matt Dumba and focusing on playing youngsters, could the 19-year-old center actually help Minnesota win now and a few years down the line?

… yes, but also no.

In an ideal world, Rossi would come in and start right away, initially on maybe the third or four-line before working his way up the depth chart depending on how he initially fairs against NHL defenses, but in 2020-21, with an unusual offseason, potentially abbreviated preseason, and seriously shrunk slate of games, that may not be the case.

Even if Rossi ends up spending the entire 2020-21 season in North America, an outcome that seems like a toss-up based on how things are shaking out, it’s still a relatively tough ask for any sub-20-year-old player to make the jump from the CHL to the NHL, even with a stop at the World Juniors on the books for later this month.

Would the Wild really be willing to use the first year of Rossi’s three-year rookie contract on a 56 game season if he’s only going to appear in a handful of games? Why not give him another year to dominate on the ZSC Lions before throwing him to the wolves in a weird, weird season? It’s not like the Wild are a 19-year-old fourth-line center away from representing the Central Division in the Stanley Cup finals this season.

See what I mean? Guerin certainly has some decisions to make moving forward.

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For better or worse, the Minnesota Wild are in kind of a weird spot as a franchise in 2020-21. They’re certainly better than teams like the Anaheim Ducks, the Los Angeles Kings, and the San Jose Sharks but how much does that really matter if a realignment limits the number of out of division games a team can play or upends the traditional stylings of the NHL’s playoff format? With that in mind, what really are the benefits of burning a year of Marco Rossi’s contract if he isn’t going to play? Short answer? Nothing. Needless to say, how the 19-year-old performs when he eventually makes his way to Minnesota for a tryout will be must-watch television.

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