The offseason has officially begun for the Minnesota Wild. Once again they are dealing with a first round exit for the third season in a row and fourth in the last five seasons.

More troubling this time around is that for a good majority of the past six seasons the Wild have been chasing their division rivals from Chicago primarily and to a lesser degree St. Louis. But while the Wild were busy trying to overtake those two division foes, the rest of the division was building up around them and now Nashville, Winnipeg, and yes, Colorado have all surpassed the Wild.

Oh yes, the Wild finished the season with more points than did the Avalanche, but let's not kid ourselves. In their head to head matches, it was no contest, Colorado owned the Wild on the ice.

Six straight playoff appearances for the Minnesota Wild, not bad one might say. Not so quickly though, as the Wild have just two series wins over that span and just four postseason wins in the last three seasons.

The problem is that the Wild are just good enough to make the playoffs, and certainly not good enough to do any kind of damage once the post season begins. Generally the thought is just qualify for the playoffs, because once you're in, anything can happen.

Well that may be true, but not for the Minnesota Wild. They have been an easy out, each of the last three seasons, putting up little to no fight at all along the way.

So what's next for the State of Hockey's NHL team?

Wild owner, Craig Leipold, pulled the plug on the Chuck Fletcher era after 9 seasons and six straight playoff berths. It is what happened in those six playoff years, or should I say what didn't happen for the Wild, that ultimately cost Fletcher the opportunity to stay on as Wild GM moving forward.

So who gets the call to take the helm and move the Wild in a new direction?

And does the new GM bring in his own coach, relieving Bruce Boudreau of his duties behind the Wild bench?

First off let's talk about Chuck Fletcher and his track record with the Wild. Fletcher did some very good things here and made some very good deals along the way through his nine years as Wild GM.

The Devan Dubnyk trade has worked out tremendously for the Wild, as Dubnyk is at or near the top of the league in almost every goaltending statistic since his arrival in Minnesota.

Nino Niederreiter for Cal Clutterbuck has been a steal for Fletcher and the Wild.

Unfortunately that is where the quality player acquisition deals end for Fletcher.

The mortgaging of the future through draft pick deals have not worked out in Chuck's favor very often, with the exception of the Dubnyk deal which sent a 3rd round pick to Arizona.

Last season's trade deadline deal that saw Fletcher send the Coyotes a 1st round pick last year, a 2nd round pick this season, and a 4th round selection in 2019 for rentals Martin Hanzal and Ryan White, along with a 2017 4th round pick (Mason Shaw). Nothing more needs to be said other than pure bust.

Jason Pominville acquired for two 1st round picks, Matt Hacket and Johan Larsson delivered some return for the Wild but nowhere near the value that was placed on the deal with the shear number of assets surrendered by Fletcher at the 2013 trade deadline.

Of course the Brent Burns deal is the one that most people will point to almost immediately when the topic of Chuck Fletcher and trades comes up. And rightfully so Fletcher has to take the heat on this one seven years later, as Burns is one of the league's top defensemen and Charlie Coyle has not become anything more than a third line player with the occasional streak of brilliance that has never been sustained.

The Summer of 2017 brought some extraordinary challenges for Fletcher as he worked to navigate the Wild through the expansion draft. He chose to wait to make any deals until he was basically forced to deal with Vegas themselves in order to keep his stable of defensemen in place.

Electing to protect Granlund, Coyle, Zucker, and Niederreiter along with Koivu, Parise, and Pominville who all had no movement clauses and by rule had to be protected. At defense he had to protect Suter with his no movement clause, and chose Spurgeon and Brodin, leaving Dumba and Scandella exposed.

So Fletcher worked a deal with Vegas to send Erik Haula to the Golden Knights and Vegas would select Alex Tuch, rather than take Dumba or Eric Staal.

Once the expansion draft was complete, Fletcher moved Pominville and Scandella to Buffalo for Marcus Foligno and Tyler Ennis. Ennis has been a total bust and most likely has played his final game for the Wild, with a buyout looking to be the best solution. Foligno was fairly non-existant for most of the season, but really stepped up his game down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Now to be fair to Chuck some of the deals he made had some other components that were salary cap related, so to judge each deal as stand alone is completely unfair. That said the assessment of assets coming back in return, or the value of ones already under Wild control have been grossly overvalued by Fletcher.

The twin deals to Suter and Parise have yielded six straight playoff appearances for the Wild. Yet today, unfortunately, they are no closer to making a long run than they were in 2012 when those deals were signed.

Yes, the majority of the Fletcher deals have not returned the value that was anticipated, but to me the final nail in Fletcher's Wild coffin, was the deal he gave Mikko Koivu on the eve of the 2017-18 season. Inking the Wild captain to a two year extension before the puck had even dropped on the new season.

If Koivu had been playing without a contract for next year there would have been greater leverage for the Wild and Fletcher as the season wore on. And if Koivu were an RFA on July 1st, and hit the open market, that would be fine as well. Yes, he would have gotten a similar offer to what Fletcher ultimately awarded him, or maybe he would have accepted less to stay here, who knows. Or here's a thought, he may have even been coveted at the trade dealine and Fletcher could have recouped some assets if he was able to convince Koivu to waive his no trade.

So the new GM, whoever that may be, inherits the task of having to rid the team of some big contracts. That seems very difficult for sure, but other teams have used creative measures in which to do it, most notably Toronto. Yes, there will be some eating of dollars for the Wild, but in order to get better, they need to stop trying to wedge pieces in because they fit the cap, and actually build a competitive team.

As far as Boudreau is concerned,he is a very good NHL coach, and his future with the Wild, I believe hinges solely on the new General Manager.

Matt Dumba an RFA this Summer, has earned himself a new deal for sure. Yes, there are those that fall on the anti-Dumba side of the fence, but at 23 he has barely scratched the surface of the player he can become. Dealing Dumba would be a huge mistake, much like the Brent Burns deal seven years ago.

Jason Zucker another RFA this Summer, coming off his career year which saw him score 33 goals and 64 points. A steal for a guy making $2 million this past season and yes he too is do a significant raise. But Zucker is a totally different case than is Dumba. Zucker has been a streaky scorer throughout his career and was almost non-existent in the playoffs. A sign and trade may be a better option with Zucker.

Nick Seeler another RFA will get a new bridge deal after earning his way into the Wild top four on the blueline, due in large part the ineffective play of both Mike Reilly and Gustav Olofsson. Seeler brings a strong physical presence that has been sorely lacking from the Wild defense for years.

What would you do if you were GM of the Wild:
Trade Eric Staal, who is under contract for a very cap friendly $3.5 million for next season and coming off two excellent seasons with 42 goals this year?

Trade one of the defensemen ie. Jared Spurgeon who is under contract at $5.2 million/yr for the next two seasons, and resign Ryan Murphy for significantly less?

Sign and trade either Dumba or Zucker or both?

Cut the cord on Charlie Coyle and deal the forward. This tome would be the least likely scenario after the season Coyle had and his disappointing playoff performance.

Make a smaller deal to pry loose a prospect that has upside but just may be caught in a numbers game or wrong organization for the skillset?

An offseason of change is on the way, now which way does the team go, is another question altogether. Will they take steps backward to leap forward or will they just stick to the current plan and hope that they find the right complements for the enormous Suter and Parise contracts?

Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17

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