Now that we have settled into the off-season and much of the fanfare has died down with the expansion draft, the NHL entry draft, and the opening of Free Agnecy all behind us, what to make of the moves that Bill Guerin and his staff have made and what comes next?

Let's begin with the dual buyout of Parise and Suter:

Positive: of course is the better than $10M in cap space cleared for this season upcoming season.

Positive: that the locker room has officially been turned over to captain, Jared Spurgeon and the next generation of Wild players. Gone now is the "so called" old guard of Mikko Koivu, Eric Staal, Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter. They all now have joined Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, and Mikael Granlund as former Minnesota Wild players.

Negative: the next three seasons following this upcoming year where the Wild will have over $10M each year of dead cap space. That can and most likely will be far worse than have either Parise and Suter or one of the two in the actual lineup, where there would at least be production.

Negative: with both players gone the trade potential of either is also gone and along with that the ability to off load some of their contracts without the lengthy buyout penalties. Now that is something a bit more complex as both Suter and Parise had no trade clauses and in the case of Suter there is an extreme doubt he would have ever waived his.

Next the expansion draft: Wild lose Carson Soucy to Seattle Krakan

Negative: the Wild lose their left side third pair defenseman, who had played his way through the organization to become a regular on the Wild blueline after being drafted in the 5th round of the 2013 NHL entry draft, 137th overall.

Positive: The Wild freed up $2.75M in cap space in each of the next two seasons.

Positive: The door opens for one of the Wild's prospects to secure and NHL job and push the veterans ahead of them.

The NHL entry draft was next: Wild entered the draft with five picks in the first three rounds of the draft.

Positve: They parlayed one of those extra early round picks along with the first of their first round picks to jump up a couple of places to select the top rated goalie prospect in the draft in Jesper Wallstedt. Wallstedt isba projected starting NHL goalie who is honing his skills in his home country of Sweden.

Positive: the first round pick from Pittsburgh, acquired in the Jason Zucker trade, was used to select Carson Lambos, the 6' 01" defenseman from Winnipeg Ice of the WHL. Lambos is projected as a top pair defenseman once he is ready to compete at the NHL level.

Positive: Grand Rapids defenseman and reigning Mr Hockey award winner, Jack Peart was selected in the second round and many feel he may be even better than Lambos. Time will tell but either way the Wild have both in their prospect stable.

Positive: Caedan Bankier was the first forward selected by the Wild, with their third round pick. Bankier is a slick center that is known for his playmaking ability and quick decision making ability with the puck. Also added in the fourth round was Bankier's Kamloops Blazer teammate, RW Josh Pillar who led the Blazers in scoring with 11 goals and 29 points in 22 games.

Free Agency: Wild need to fill holes in the defense and still need legit NHL center help

Negative: Did not make a significant add to the Center position either thru trade or via free agency.

Negative: overpaid ($5M for this season) to sign Alex Goligoski and ($2.25 AAV for 2 years) for Dmitri Kulikov. Goligoski has had a very strong NHL career and brings a lot of experience to the Wild blueline, but the price even for one season is on the high side. Kulikov, the former 1st round pick 14th overall in 2009 of Florida has never been the offensive player many thought else would become when he was originally drafted. He has bounced around since the end of the 2016 season, his final season with the Panthers. Kulikov has played a season in Buffalo followed by three in Winnipeg and then last season was split between New Jersey and Edmonton.


Negative: Brennan Menell was dealt to Toronto for a conditional 3rd round pick, essentially giving away an asset that by all appearances has the ability to play at the NHL level.

Positive: Frederick Gaudreau was signed to a 2-yr $2.4M contract to compete for one of the open positions down the middle for the Wild.

More decisions are coming as the Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala contract situations still need to be sorted out. That also brings up the possibility of Guerin dealing Fiala in his effort to land a top six center. Fiala is reported to be asking for $8M per season and the Wild are not there from their standpoint.

Overall the Wild roster is different than the one that we saw leave the ice in Las Vegas following game 7, but is it any better? We can hope it is, but time will certainly tell. We know the Blackhawks and Stars got better, along with the Blues, while Colorado is still the leader in the Central, so how do the Wild as they are today stack up?

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