Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I'm your host, Travis Yost.

Much ado has been made in hockey-proud state of Minnesota after two high-profile additions via free agency. Both Zach Parise -- formerly of the New Jersey Devils -- and Ryan Suter -- formerly of the Nashville Predators -- signed thirteen year, $98M contracts, and both spoke candidly about a paradigm shift within the Wild organization.

The additions of Parise(31G/38A) and Suter(7G/39A) unquestionably improve the Wild lineup -- that much is certain. Still, there's rightfully a bit of doubt with respect to how much of an immediate impact they can have for the club, especially in the loaded Western Conference.

After all, as good as both Parise and Suter are, the Wild still finished a disappointing 35-36-11 (81 PTS) last season -- fourteen points, or seven wins shy of eight-seed Los Angeles. To reach the post-season this year, Minnesota will have to close out some of those elusive games from last year that ended up in the loss column, and jump over a number of respectable Western Conference clubs in the process.

While many would buy into the Wild as a better team next year, one wonders who -- if any -- they can displace from the top-eight. Below, the eleven Western Conference teams that finished above Minnesota last year:

Vancouver
St. Louis
Phoenix
Nashville
Detroit
Chicago
San Jose
Los Angeles
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Calgary
Dallas
Colorado

Any improvement -- and subsequent playoff berth -- will almost certainly correlate directly with an improvement in the offense, where the Wild finished near dead-last in every relevant category, including GPG(30th, 2.0) and PP% (27th, 15.1%). Make headway there, and Minnesota might return to the playoff for the first time in a long time. Falter, though, and the Wild could have an inflated salary without the end-goal that the rabid fan base truly desires.

The Q: In your estimation, has Minnesota done enough to return to the playoffs this off-season, or is the quality of the Western Conference still too much of a hurdle for this team?

Leave it in the comments below.

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