Dissecting the Minnesota Wild’s offseason

Cory Wright
July 13, 2011

Since bringing the beloved sport of puck back to the State of Hockey, the Minnesota Wild have consistently been labeled a conservative team – and for good reason. They played the trap under Jacques Lemaire, rarely made blockbuster trades and had, or so it seemed, settled into a routine of making predictable offseason moves.

In an effort to shimmy their way up the Western Conference standings in 2011-12, however, the Wild hooked up with the San Jose Sharks to complete arguably the biggest trade of the offseason.

The Wild landed former 50-goal scorer Dany Heatley in exchange for scoring leader Martin Havlat — a move that has the local media abuzz.

Initially, the trade was viewed as two teams swapping problems, with San Jose dumping Heatley’s big contract – three years at a combined $19 million – and Minnesota getting rid of a potential All-Star who has had issues reaching his potential through nagging injuries.

At $5 million, Havlat was an expensive problem, and while Heatley’s contract is higher, his down year still produced 26 goals, four more than Havlat’s 22.

Heatley immediately gives the Wild a top-line winger who can put the puck in the net just as frequently as the elite snipers of the world. For too long, the trio of Mikko Koivu, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Havlat was tic-tic-tic, instead of tic-tac-toe.

In San Jose, Havlat won’t be responsible for carrying the offensive burden, a situation that should provide the Slovak with comfort as he’ll be slotted as the No. 3 scorer behind Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.

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The Sharks hope Havlat will mesh with the big line, but at least there are more options than in Minnesota. He didn’t click with Koivu and there was never a viable Plan B.

This offseason, Minnesota also gave their second line some added scoring with the acquisition of Devin Setoguchi in exchange for Brent Burns.

Setoguchi, a Taber, Alberta boy, scored 31 goals in his rookie year and has reached the 20-goal plateau the last two seasons. His 22 tallies in 2010-11 would have tied Havlat for top spot on the Wild and makes the second line formidable. For the first time, the Wild have two scoring lines that can actually threaten other teams.

The flip side of this deal is that the Wild are parting with their best defenseman. Burns was fourth in team scoring (17 goals, 29 assists), didn’t take an abnormal amount of penalties (98 penalty minutes), and found some energy to throw his frame around (133 hits).

The 26-year-old is still a young stud in today’s NHL. He may not have been the most defensively responsible player but his stickhandling and vision will be missed by the Wild. The team has decided to open the door to Nate Prosser, Justin Falk and Marco Scandella for the remaining spots on the team.

Marek Zidlicky becomes the Wild’s top guy on the blue line, which signals a call for emphasis on developing the younger players and playing more fundamentally sound defence. The d-staff won’t have anyone put up Burns-like production, but Heatley and Setoguchi should make up for it.

This season will be a decisive one for Minnesota’s netminder Nicklas Backstrom. He’ll be playing behind a weaker and much younger defensive corps and, thus, will need to play big to keep the Wild in games if the offense doesn’t gel as planned.

His .916 save percentage was up from 2009-10, but he played below .500 hockey for the first time in his NHL career.

With Josh Harding returning as Minnesota’s back-up, their goaltending has the potential to turn a few heads. And, perhaps more notably, will have to if this team wants to make the playoffs this season.

This is a different Wild team from the last couple of seasons and it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the Twin Cities. On paper, they have three pieces of the puzzle with two offensive lines, a solid checking line and an All-Star goalie.

Their rearguard corps will be the big question mark, but even if 2011-12 proves to be a transition year, they’ve freed up cap room to spend next summer.

Minnesota, who made noise via trades, stayed out of the wild free agency waters this season. That decision may very well end up being the best one of all.

Only time will tell if their strategy panned out, especially with Heatley and Setoguchi, who need to prove second chances do indeed exist.

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The Author:

Cory Wright