The Minnesota Wild are now 5 days into their pre-season training camp and, following their first inter-squad scrimmage that was open to the public, it’s time to begin speculating about what the lines and defensive pairings will look like come October 3rd for Opening Night of the 2013-2014 NHL season.

While others may analyze/over-analyze the public scrimmage, let’s take a look at where the battles for positions for the big club are. But first, it probably goes without saying that the Wild’s first line is pretty much set in stone with Parise-Koviu-Pominville. Likewise, Suter and Brodin will be the first defensive pairing with the goaltenders being Backstrom as the starter and Harding as his back up. Also, surprisingly, the third line appears to also be set with Cooke-Brodziak-T. Mitchell, unless Brodziak is called up as the second line center. However, their chemistry, by all accounts, looks to be fabulous and they will be exactly the type of high energy you want on your third line. And, yes, much to everyone’s surprise, Matt Cooke can actually play and has a lot of game in him.

On to the battles for jobs:

On the second line, the Wild are pitting Coyle against Granlund at center while both are more than serviceable at wing and, in my opinion, are better wingers than centers. Also on the second line, it appears the Wild have Nederreiter and Zucker challenging one another for the other winger position. Heatley appears to have his spot locked down at the present time.

On the fourth line, it looks like Konopka, Dowell and Steckel are in competition with one another for the center position. Konopka centered the Wild’s fourth line last season and Dowell would be a natural fit on one of the wings, but will have Stephane Veilleux nipping at his heels all season for that spot with Rupp seemingly having no competition for his spot on the other wing on the fourth line.

At defense, I think everyone assumes that Ballard was brought in to be on the second defensive pairing. Lately, all of the ink had been flowing Scandella’s way to be his partner, but don’t count out Spurgeon who always seems to impress and overachieve despite his diminutive stature. Whoever loses out on the second pairing battle between Spurgeon and Scandella will, most likely, join Stoner on the third defensive pairing, but don’t count out Prosser or even Dumba, for that matter. Blum is also a name that has come up recently and he could be vying with Prosser and Dumba for the seventh defenseman spot.

So, who wins out at each position and why? Who knows, but here’s my shot at it:

I have Coyle at second line center and Zucker and Heatley as his wingers to start this season;

I have Konopka centering the fourth line with Rupp and Dowell as his wings, provided Rupp is cleared to play by opening night;

I see Spurgeon playing alongside Ballard with Stoner and Scandella as the third defensive pairing;

Granlund and Nederreiter will be the extra forwards and Prosser and Dumba are the extra defensemen until they have to send Dumba back so they don’t risk burning a year of his contract.

Thoughts?

Also, as a last note, were it not for the salary cap implications, I would much rather see two-thirds of the fourth line, as noted above, snuffed out, thereby pushing the third line down to fourth line duties and giving the kids a shot on the third line duties. Granted that often doesn’t work (playing projected top six forwards at a lower line), but when you have guys like Granlund and Nederreiter competing with guys like Coyle and Zucker, I think they deserve a shot to develop at the NHL level. I would have Cooke play wing with Granlund and Nederreiter or mix up the 2nd and 3rd line combinations into an effective 2nd line A and 2nd line B. Meanwhile, I would have Rupp playing wing in Cooke’s place with Brodziak and either Konopka or Dowell on the other wing. Ultimately, that idea probably doesn’t work, but it’s an interesting scenario at the very least.

That said, the Iowa Wild, Minnesota’s new AHL affiliate transplanted from Houston, will have a lot of nice players including Fontaine, McMillan, Bussieres, Haula, Veilleux, Graovac, Phillips, Sandlak (whom I wrote about in my last blog), Gabriel (another nice prospect I wrote about in my last blog), Steckel, Rau, Blum, Cuma, McIntyre, Kampfer, Palmer, Foucault, Connelly, Medvec, Fredheim, Kuemper and Gustafsson.

That’s it for me. Ready, set, rip away!

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