ST. PAUL… Like the frozen forest awakening each spring, we have another NHL season upon us. I can recall the first spring I lived on the North Shore. It was early April and the temp hit 50 degrees for the first time. I went into the forest and there was still plenty of snow around, but parts of the trail were starting to show through. It was both cool from the un-melted snow and ice and warm from the air temp, and I will never forget the overwhelming fragrance of fresh pine being released from the abundant beautiful pines.

It was a tremendous sensory experience.

We have a new season beginning, and this year, unlike the last one, will have a full 82-game schedule and the promise of hope and renewal. For our Minnesota Wild, we can walk into the “forest” of the new season, a springtime of sorts with us once again, and you can breathe in the fresh air that comes with that if you are so moved. To say I am looking forward to it would be a vast understatement. In assessing this year’s potential edition of the club, I am going to have to be part optimist and part realist.

There are several factors to consider before analyzing the team and players. For starters, realignment has changed up things considerably for the Wild. They will now compete in the new Central division. This has good and challenging attached to it. For the good, the team will no longer be in the same division as Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton, and that will enhance the Wild’s road trip schedule with less travel. On the challenging side, the club is now in the same division as two teams that are clearly in their Cup window, Chicago and St. Louis, and an emerging club, the Avalanche. Also in the new division are the Dallas Northstars, the Nashville Predators, and the Winnipeg Jets.  

On the business side, the team will have to do more with less as the salary cap has been reduced this year as a result of the new CBA between the NHL and NHLPA. Most insiders say it will begin to go back upward next season, but several teams have had to make roster adjustments this off-season to become cap compliant, as the the cap has dropped from $70.2mil (pro rated for 2013 season) to $64.3mil, or about $6mil. The Wild made some roster moves to accommodate this, while some of their other roster moves were simply situations where it was time for team and player to part ways.

Gone from the Wild roster for this season are Matt Cullen, Tom Gilbert, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Cal Clutterbuck, Justin Falk, and Devon Setoguchi. Cully was a free agent and I am not sure why the club wouldn’t resign him unless they thought his contract would have been for more than they could put out. I would have tried hard to keep Cully. The tangibles and intangibles he brings to a club are huge. Gilbert’s numbers were just no longer worth having him on the team and was bought out. PMB: while I like this guy, and his post-concussion struggles were well chronicled, his own production couldn’t warrant another contract from the Wild. Clutterbuck was traded to the Islanders, and in my view was more of a “busy” player than a productive one. The fans loved seeing him buzz around the rink and hit anything that moved, but in the end his offensive production wasn’t there on a consistent basis. Seto, while possessing a wicked wrist shot, was another guy with inconsistent offense and got dealt to the Jets, and Falk, he was basically a 5-8 D-man and expendable. These moves helped to move the club toward cap compliance.

One cap move that couldn’t be made was the possible “cap recapture” buyout of the remaining year of forward Dany Heatley’s contract. The Heater has a $6mil cap hit and has clearly lost a step in the aging process. The club could not buy him out and let him go due to a season-ending injury he suffered during a scuffle in a game versus San Jose last winter. This certainly skewered the board for Wild GM Chuck Fletcher as he tried to decide what to do in the off-season to help strengthen the club. In defense of the Heater, he has come into camp in very good condition and appears ready to put in a solid season. Whatever he has lost in foot speed, he still possesses a very strong shot and good hands.

The Wild entry draft this year brought no immediate help to the team. They didn’t even have a first-round choice courtesy of the Jason Pominville deal, which my jury is still out on. He is going to have to have a huge season to get me to re-assess, but he is in a contract year so you have to believe the push will be there from him. At any rate, unless you are a team that is drafting in one of the top five positions, you are unlikely to get a player who can contribute right away. The Wild DID get some nice players for the future, just as some guys they got recently are ready to step up to the plate. It is a process.

The club is returning the 2013 season coaching staff intact with head coach Mike Yeo leading Rick Wilson, Darryl Sydor, Darby Hendrickson, and Bob Mason. I can’t say that Yeo is at the top end of the NHL coaching fraternity, but I think he is steadily moving toward the upper level of the second tier of current coaches. He is beginning his third season. The biggest coaching move of the off-season was the club’s hire of Kurt Kleinendorst to coach their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. He is an excellent choice to help groom the next generation of Wild players for the team. And after many years in Houston as the Aeros, the club could not get a new lease in the facility there and has relocated to Des Moines, bringing the club closer to the parent team.

NEXT WEEK: The players and the final roster after the final cut! Over & Out! PEACE