Dan Wallace: Wild Position Analysis: The Forwards

Where to start?... Yes, the Wild have some promising young talent seemingly on the rise, but they've HAD promising young talent on the rise since the arrival of Parise and Suter. Yet the progression has been relatively slow. Yes, it looks as though Zucker has finally found his game in a consistent fashion, but once again he disappeared in the post season.

I know the injury bug was once again a major factor with this offense, but injuries aside, Coyle and Nino have got to have break out seasons. It's a must, because as intriguing as the likes of JEE, Kunin and Greenway appear to be, they still cannot be counted on this early in their NHL careers. Coyle and Nino were once 2 of those "promising" up and comers that have been woefully inconsistent and it's time to poop or get off the pot with them.

Overall, this squad has got to find a way to remain healthy, Parise especially. As good as he is when he's on the ice, his kings ransom of a cap hit for the next several years is really starting to rear it's ugly head. SHould he spend the bulk of the season injured again, Fenton will be nothing more than a poor mans Chuck Fletcher trying to figure out a way to make a winner out of this club for the foreseeable future.

As it is now, he is likely already set up for failure with the current cap ceiling.

Heard Bruce on with Russo at the fair. Sounds like Bruce likes Kunin at wing. So I ask wtf is our center depth in the future?...just not sold on Ek to be a 1st, can see 2nd line center but after that you have Staal and Koivu pushing 34+ years old. I know, I hear Coyle, but he is slated to start wing and probably rotate center again...At least one thing on Fenton's to do list I am sure.

Parise needs to be used wisely. Relegate him to to third line minutes 5on5, use him on PP1. At least early in the year, save him for down the stretch, if they're lucky enough to get into the playoffs this year.

The lack of a young C to eventually move to the #1 spot is a large hole in the Wild roster. I am guessing that Staal will be offered an extension a month into the season. While Staal has been an excellent signing for the Wild, I'm not really sure on how much longer he can be the #1. I hope at least 3 more years.

The way I see the roster as it is now, I see these lineups.

Zucker - Staal - Granlund (pretty obvious, but more O then D)
Parise - Ericksson Ek - Niederreiter (slightly lesser 1A with more D)
Greenway - Koivu - Coyle (all fairly big players, so D and some offense)
Foligno - Fehr - Brown (Energy line that hopefully can chip in some O)

* the caveat here is with the Matts (Hendricks and Read). They are probably only here to keep pushing the players on the 4th line. You don't play hard, you get bumped by a Matt. The bad thing is there is only 1 player in Kunin that is available to push the Top 9. I do see the wings on the 2nd and 3rd lines being interchangeable, as long as EE stays at #2 (provided he does more offensively while playing with better players) and Koivu stays in the #3 spot. I know mnMild would like to see Parise playing 3rd line as well, if for anything else, just to rest him and keep him fresh(er) for the playoffs. I can go along with that as long as Greenway plays outstanding. My only fear there is we have already seen that Parise-Koivu doesn't seem to work very well.

If BB likes Kunin at RW, the I would say Fenton is going to be looking at Nino and Coyle as his trade chip to get his #1 C for the future. Signing Staal to a 2yr extension (assuming his play doesn't drop off too much) and then a trade somewhere in the near future to get that #1 C is what I envision as the strategy going forward. I know that it would take more than just Nino or Coyle, but I think either one of them would be the starting point. Unless they both start to play like we fans have always wanted, then I honestly would start looking to deal Granlund for that #1 C.

Another thought that I have had is making sure the right D pairing is on the ice with the right forward groups. When the top 2 lines are out there, I would want the defensively better D pairing. In my eyes, that should be Suter-Spurgeon. When Koivu's line is on the ice, I would prefer Brodin-Dumba, as Dumba should pick up the offensive slack from Koivu being more defensive-minded. I should say that I actually prefer the idea of Suter-Dumba and Brodin-Spurgeon, but we all know Suter will not allow that.

Agree with most of that Gus, but i don't know if you can opt to trade Granlund. While he's not the super star we were led to believe he would be, he 's by far the best offensive playmaker on the squad and i just don't know if you can get enough in return to recoup that kind of loss. Plus there's no one to replace him unless you are getting back a bonafide first line C that can score 70+ points.