ST. PAUL, Minn. -- One by one, they were beginning to be checked off the list: Nino Niederreiter and Darcy Kuemper, then Jonas Brodin, Charlie Coyle and, most recently, Marco Scandella.
The Minnesota signed Niederreiter and Kuemper to modest extensions before the season started. In-season, Brodin, Coyle and Scandella agreed to long-term extensions. The young core of Minnesota's future wanted to grow together and the organization was happy to secure its foundation.
When general manager Chuck Fletcher and assistant general manager Brent Flahr went about rebuilding the Wild's talent base, the inevitability was the young building blocks would reach free agency together.
The task would be getting the group to stay together. Niederreiter and Kuemper were restricted free agents this summer. Brodin, Coyle and Scandella were set to be restricted free agents next offseason.
"The players have to want to commit, too, and that's what I like," Fletcher said Saturday after Scandella signed a five-year extension. "They're all very close, they're all good friends. They all have prominent roles on the team. They're very important parts of our present, but I think we're seeing a lot of them take a big step this year. Again, I think a few of them are just scratching the surface of where they'll get to and Marco is certainly one of those guys."
The steps taken by Minnesota have been vital, but keeping the young talent was just as crucial as the Wild signing stars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to landmark deals. To assure sustained success, Fletcher and Flahr needed the prospects to both develop and stay.
With many of the prospects reaching Minnesota together, their second contracts were going to prove tricky in timing. Fletcher and Flahr had to lock up the future while continuing to address the present. The Wild have added Jason Pominville, Matt Cooke and Thomas Vanek in recent seasons, as well.
The future includes a core of nine players that are 25 or younger.
Niederreiter, Coyle, Brodin and Scandella are all under 25 and signed through at least the 2016-17 season. Kuemper, Jared Spurgeon (25 years old) and Jason Zucker (22) will be restricted free agents in two years.
"These guys are a huge part of our team right now and our future going forward," head coach Mike Yeo said. "These guys have become part of the core. I said this a couple weeks ago in Dallas: 'They're not just young guys anymore. They're just big parts of our team.' So, anytime you can lock up your core guys, I think it's great."
Mikael Granlund, 22, and Erik Haula, 23, will be restricted free agents next season and are perhaps next up for extensions as Fletcher and Flahr go down their list.
Developing together has been a big piece of the puzzle. They are friends on and off the ice.
"We like our team now," Coyle said. "We don't want to change anything up going forward. It would be nice to keep this team. Everyone's comfortable. Just knowing that we have the pieces that we think we need -- a good, young group to go with some older vets and guys who have experience. That's a pretty good mix. There's definitely comfort there and definitely moving forward it's only going to gain more."
Coyle said it's exciting knowing the future is "set in stone."
Parise, Suter, Brodin, Coyle and Scandella are signed through at least the 2019-20 season. Parise knows the players that will complement him for years to come.
"The best part about the guys that they are locking up is they work hard," Parise said. "They're committed to getting better and developing. They're not the type of guys that are going to sign a deal and take it easy. They're the type of guys that are going to sign a deal and prove why they got it. That's the best part about these guys. They're humble and they work."
Fletcher echoed Coyle's excitement.
"Clearly this year we've shown that we're up and down at this point, but I think clearly our best days are ahead of us," Fletcher said. "We've got a good mix of vets and young players. The young players are all maturing before our eyes and they're all committing to the team and that's pretty exciting."
Yeo's thoughts on the season: Minnesota had four days off before Wednesday's home game against Montreal, finally getting the chance to rest after playing eight of 12 games on the road.
Yeo was asked for his thoughts on the season, which has included six wins in the past nine games.
"I would say that we have room for improvement, there's no question," Yeo said. "I look at kind of the stretch that we just went through and there was an awful lot of travel, and I felt that during that time our game started to slip a little bit. I felt the St. Louis game (a shootout loss on Saturday), we moved in the right direction, no question."
With three straight home games and seven of the next 10 at home, Yeo feels the Wild have a chance to build on their current fifth-place standing in the Central Division and ninth-place in the Western Conference.
"I think that we have an opportunity now schedule-wise to get practice in, to make sure we're playing games the right way, where I would like to see our team really move forward here," Yeo said. "I would say that we've been OK. We could argue that we might have a few more wins or should have a few more wins, but we don't. And I think that maybe you can say that's because of chance, but I think once we get our game going in the right direction then chance won't come into play."
Suter misses practice, Cooke skates: Suter missed practice on Tuesday as he deals with an illness, but Yeo said he feels Suter should be ready for Wednesday's game.
"He's not too bad," Yeo said. "He's feeling better today than he was yesterday. We're expecting (that) he says he should be OK for tomorrow."
Yeo was jokingly asked if Suter has a swollen jaw, after a case of mumps hit the team earlier.
"Yeah, no swollen jaw," Yeo joked. "He is a defenseman though, so we should be careful."
Yeo said Matt Cooke (lower body injury) skated yesterday and could possibly skate again Wednesday. Yeo admitted to concern with Cooke's injury.
"For sure there is," Yeo said. "This has gone on longer than we hoped. There's been signs it's been improving but I would say that it hasn't improved as quickly as we'd like. We'll see where it goes. He's starting to step it up a little bit. We'll see where this goes. I think we'll have a little better idea in the next couple days as far as how much he pushes and how much it responds."
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