It’s Now Or Never For A Contending Minnesota Wild Team
By Jim Lynch
The Minnesota Wild have long been a middle-of-the-pack team. The Wild have missed the playoffs only once since 2013 but have failed to make it out of the first round the majority of those years. In fact, they have only made it as far as the second round twice and those were in 2014 and 2015.
The Minnesota Wild have had a hard time getting over the hump and being a top team in the league and chances are this season is going to be their best chance at winning for a few seasons.
Ryan Suter and Zach Parise
Ryan Suter and Zach Parise played a big part of the Minnesota Wild’s playoff years in the past, but the pair were bought out this past offseason to help make room for Kirill Kaprizov‘s contract extension.
Buying out those two deals is saving them some money this season, but over the course of the next four years, it is going to be hard to contend with the buyout salary on the books.
This year the Wild are only spending a combined 4.7 million against their cap for Suter and Parise, that number is going to be up there though during the next four years.
From 2022 through 2025 the Wild will have over ten million in cap space being used on the dead salaries of Parise and Suter.
Every player on the roster outside of Kirill Kaprizov, Janos Brodin, Jon Merrill, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jared Spurgeon are going to need contracts before the 2024-25 season ends.
A large percentage of this team is going to need contract extensions to say nothing of players added or trades over the next few years. Having some 12 or 14 million being buried in buyouts is not going to be helpful to a winning team. That means that this is the best chance for the Wild to win.
This is the year for the Minnesota Wild to win.
This might not be the best Wild roster ever seen, and maybe the potential in the future is brighter once young players develop further, but with the salary cap being an issue over the next few years the Wild are in the best position to succeed now.
Having a team contend for the Stanley Cup with ten million plus not on the roster just seems like an unimaginable feat. The Wild might have the worst salary cap situation in the entire NHL right now.