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Leipold Not Over Early Playoff Exit

May 18, 2017, 3:22 PM ET [9 Comments]
Dan Wallace
Minnesota Wild Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Some interesting words and thoughts from Wild owner Craig Leipold. He felt the team took a step backward with the opening round playoff loss in five games to Mike Yeo's St. Louis Blues.

Despite the Wild's record setting regular season in which they established new franchise marks, 49 wins and 106 points, the late season swoon and subsequent early playoff exit is not sitting well with the Boss.

That should make the Minnesota faithful feel good that they have an owner that is A, passionate about bringing a winner to the State of Hockey, and B, that he is not happy with what took place with his club this season.

Leipold made the statement, in hindsight of course, that he wished the team had never made the Hanzal deal. At the time of the trade, he did say that he was in favor of the move though.

Chuck Fletcher's job is safe according to the Boss, but for how long remains to be seen. This is a critical window coming up for the Fletcher regime. The impending draft and expansion draft, as well as pending RFAs Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund need to be resigned and will be due significant raises. Erik Haula, Jordan Schroeder, and CHristian Folin are also RFA as well.

Fletcher has made it clear that he is listening to any and all offers, to make his team better going into next season. That is all well and good, but listening to offers doesn't get me excited. Being proactive and doing what is right to give Bruce Boudreau the best team is all that matters.

The impending roster protection list is of growing concern. All reports have the Wild protecting Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon as two of the three defenseman, leaving one of Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba, and Marco Scandella to be the third.

If this is indeed the case, to me it will be more of the same old same old. Spurgeon needs to be the player exposed, period end of story! His contract alone with three more years at better than 5 million per, should be the major determining factor combined with his age (28 next year) versus Brodin 24 and Dumba 23.

Brodin and Dumba are still just scratching the surface of their potential, Spurgeon hit his ceiling this season. That is the best the Wild will see. My feeling is to trade Spurgeon today, sell high to protect Brodin and Dumba, and ultimately make the Wild a better team.

Wild fans get ready for some interesting times over the next month and a half. The organization was put on alert, Craig Leipold will not settle for anything short of a winning product on the ice.

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