Now that we have successfully freed Jason Zucker from the grips of the Iowa Wild (albeit at the expense of a one month injury time out for Charlie Coyle), it’s time we take a look at the Wild defense and attempt to see if Nate Prosser is getting a bum deal or not.

Ask any plugged in Wild fan and they will tell you that before Matt Dumba enters the blue line conversation, Nate Prosser is the 7th defenseman on the Wild’s depth chart. However, if you ask them why, many of them will be just like me and say that’s just where the Wild have him at. But why?

Clearly, Ryan Suter is the best D-man the Wild currently have, hands down. Many would say that Jonas Brodin is the 2nd best defenseman. However, I personally think that Spurgeon is based on last years’ stats showing a similar amount of games played and similar ice time, Spurgeon had more shots, more hits and more goals (67 shots, 46 hits and 5 goals vs. 51 shots, 17 hits and 2 goals). Next on my list at number 4 is Clayton Stoner who played in every game last season, had no goals but 10 assists, was even on plus/minus, had 42 penalty minutes, 40 shots, 87 hits and 18:13 of average time on ice. Next I have Keith Ballard who, when comparing him to Stoner, comes up short (both in size and stats) in every category but goals where they both had none last season. Ballard played in 36 games, had 2 assists, finished minus-2, had 29 penalty minutes, had 35 shots, 45 hits and averaged 15:28 of ice time per game. With it boiled down to the last 2 spots on defense, I put Prosser ahead of Scandella when comparing stats: 17 games played for Prosser vs 6 for Scandella; no goals for Prosser and 1 goal for Scandella last year; no assists for either; Prosser was plus-4 whereas Scandella was minus-1; Prosser averaged 11:15 in time on ice per game whereas Scandella registered 14:26 of ice time each game. Granted, it’s difficult to compare stats between these two players given the disparity in the number of games played (17 vs 6 in Prosser’s favor). Nonetheless, the case can be made that Prosser deserves an equal shot to that of Scandella, especially after Scandella was minus-3 against the Ducks and was a factor in all 4 goals against last game. Last season, Prosser was only on the ice for 2 goals against with one coming at the end of a powerplay such that he was only on the ice for 1 even strength goal against. He is also a big body (6-2 and 203 lbs) and is one of two Wild defensemen who are right shots (Spurgeon is the other). The rest are all lefties (except Dumba who has yet to enter this analysis).

Hindsight being 20-20, it was a mistake to give Scandella the nod over Stoner who played very well in his first game against L.A. I get wanting to see what you have in Dumba, but why sit Stoner who was very solid against the Kings and all of last season. However, if the Wild are in the mode of “giving guys a look”, why not give Prosser some minutes? Then it’s up to him. I get it. He was awful during his first full season in the NHL with the Wild. In 51 games, he had 1 goal and 11 assists, but was a jaw dropping minus-17 while averaging 19:14 of ice time per game. But if Scandella is being pushed by the Wild to take the next step and he fails to do so, why not sit Marco and give Nate a shot? Doing so could assist the Wild in determining which player to keep and which to send back to the AHL or trade in the event that Dumba stays past the free 10 games played given to players his age by the NHL’s CBA.

The Wild card of whether to keep Dumba or not makes this decision especially problematic as Dumba tore things up in Red Deer last season. In 62 games for Red Deer last season, he had 16 goals, 26 assists and 80 penalty minutes. Wow! The only question is will that translate to his NHL game? With those kind of numbers, Dumba should probably stay and play this year in the NHL. But, at that point, the Wild then have what should be a difficult decision to make between Prosser and Scandella. As such, let’s see what Prosser brings this season and compare it back and forth between the two players before making a decision on keeping Dumba or sending him back. If Dumba is sent back to Red Deer (the Wild’s only option if he doesn’t make the NHL team given the fact that he is too young to play in the AHL still), then there is no dilemma besides who should play and who should sit. But, should Dumba stay the entire season, the Wild will have Jason Zucker-like decision on their hands, minus the overwhelming popularity that Zucker showed among the Wild fan base. Neither Prosser nor Scandella can hold a candle to that show of emotion when Zucker was sent packing.

So there you go. That’s my pitch to play Prosser early on instead of just pushing him out the door as the odd man out. It’s a new season. Give the guy a shot, especially when Scandella crapped the bed like he did against the Ducks. One of the main problems with the Wild is that they really don’t have a reward/consequences system for rotating D-men in and out of the line up. If a guy like Scandella has a bad game, get him out of there. However, to be fair, Scandella should not just be judged by that last game either. So give him another shot after sitting out a game or two. Nonetheless, I would like to see a fair analysis of what each player brings to the NHL this season before the Wild make a final decision on Dumba.

Thoughts? (and lets not over focus on me putting Spurgeon ahead of Brodin or ranking Stoner so high; this is a debate of Prosser vs. Scandella).

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