Wild's offseason improvement likely to come from its own young roster
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Losing to the same opponent in the playoffs three straight seasons forces the Minnesota Wild to examine why they continue to fall short against the Chicago Blackhawks, while offering a unique challenge for general manager Chuck Fletcher and head coach Mike Yeo.
Fletcher and Yeo have already begun talking about what is needed to defeat Chicago. The evaluation will continue this offseason with a hard look at the roster and some tough decisions on players. Therein lays the difficulty in assessing a roster to beat one team.
Minnesota can't be consumed with just trying to beat the Blackhawks.
"There's a danger in that," Fletcher said of tweaking the roster to compete with Chicago. "I think we've been trying to build our roster to compete with the Blackhawks, but St. Louis is obviously a very good team, and Dallas and Colorado are coming. Winnipeg's a great team, Nashville; it's a tough division."
While the Blackhawks have ultimately ended the Wild's playoffs with Yeo and Fletcher, getting to the playoffs is equally as difficult. Minnesota has needed two dramatic second-half drives just to make the playoffs as a wild card the past two seasons.
Fletcher and Yeo are tasked with altering a team that has improved the past four seasons but ultimately fallen short in losses to the Blackhawks.
"We just have to find a way to get better," Fletcher said. "I know we lost in four, but we're not that far away. It's incumbent on me. Really, this is on me to find a way to make the team better."
The growth will need to come internally, particularly from the Wild's 25-and-under nucleus. Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba are all signed for next season. Mikael Granlund, Erik Haula and Christian Folin are restricted free agents.
With many of them having two or three playoff appearances under their belt, youth should be a plus going forward instead of a possible excuse.
"They haven't hit their peak, they're only going to get better," Fletcher said of the group. "You can't keep going to market and buying guys all the time. This summer I don't think you really want to, anyway. But some of them will get better. There's room for all of them to grow, and as they grow, they'll take minutes away from the older players. But you have to earn it."
The disappointment of another loss to Chicago lingers with the players as it does the coaches and management. Fletcher said improvement for the team is in his hands, but the players acknowledge their part.
"We need to take a look in the mirror in the offseason and really get better as a team and individuals," said Zucker, who scored a career-high 21 goals in just 51 games. "I know I can be a lot better next year and get better in a lot of things and I'm looking forward to that."
Besides trades, there might not be many options for altering the roster.
The Wild have much of their core already signed through next season. Limited salary cap space will likely be used to re-sign goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who helped make the second-half run possible. Meanwhile, the free-agent market looks less appealing than in recent years, when Fletcher has added Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Matt Cooke and Thomas Vanek.
Looking to improve, Fletcher might be more interested in signing some of the team's own free agents. Dubnyk, Kyle Brodziak, Chris Stewart, Ryan Carter, Sean Bergenheim, Jordan Leopold and Nate Prosser are unrestricted free agents.
"With the exception of dealing with our own free agents, and we'll try to deal with as many of those guys as we can, we're not really looking at this point to be a big player," Fletcher said. "It's not a great market. Certainly the depth of the market isn't what it often is. I think we'll deal with our own players and talk to them and see who we can bring back before we look at the outside market."
Minnesota, with much of the same group likely returning, will have to figure out how to get past Chicago by pulling more out of itself.
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