Newcomer with questions about the organization

[cdub94]

So I've been trying to get into hockey more and more the past couple years and have been trying to land on a favorite team. Still trying to decide but have been leaning more and more heavily to the Wild. My hometown is about 15 minutes from the Minnesota border (Iowa), so they're kind of my "hometown" team. I've also looked into the Hawks, Blues, Jackets, and Avs (location, as I'd like to follow a team that's close/city I like and wouldn't mind living in after college).

Anyways, that's sort of the background, but I would like to really dive in here and learn about the organization/team/players as a whole. What type of team are we? Who are the key cogs on the roster (I know the main guys like Zucker, Dub, Granlund, Koivu, Dumba, Suter, Parise, Staal, etc. but more so an in depth view/scouting report that a newcomer to hockey could understand)? Is ownership/management good? Feelings on Brodreau? etc.

Appreciate the help in advance.

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[Lapa]

We're a team that relies on depth. We don't have a McDavid or a Crosby to carry our offense, so we need our core (pretty much the players you mentioned + Coyle and Niederreiter) to carry their weight. It's also nice that we have a lineup that has four lines capable of scoring! Boudreau is an excellent coach in the regular season and contrary to popular the belief the Wild play pretty exciting hockey these days. We were 2nd in goals scored last regular season.

Our defense is still deep and IMO one of the best in the league. Our top 4 (Suter, Spurgeon, Brodin, Dumba) has a nice mix of defense and guys who can contribute offensively.

I don't know much about ownership, but our GM Chuck Fletcher is okay. He sometimes makes questionable trades, but he has been good at signing free agents. Staal, Parise and Suter were signed as free agents, and the guys he has re-signed have usually had very fair contracts.

To summarize, we're an exciting team with good depth in the lineup that has been a playoff team for the past five years. Also, HFWild is the best board on this site.

 

[Jugitsu]

If you don't know too much about the ownership, that's usually a good thing IMO.

My feeling about Leipold is that he basically doesn't meddle. He trusts his GM and the team's coaches and basically just opens up his wallet. Wild is a Cap team, which means no internal salary cap ceilings.

That's really all I personally need to know about the owner(s?).

Lapa pretty much said it how it is: we rely on our depth since we don't have any superstars of our own. This team always relies on good work ethics. The Wild used to be frustratingly small and soft team to watch, but that is one area which Fletcher has really addressed these past couple of years, by adding size. And not just dead weight but decent hockey players who can be mean if need to.

I personally have mixed feelings about our GM Fletcher. He's been IMO too generous in the past handing out fat contracts to declining wingers and he has definitely made some questionable moves. To counter that he has also done good, like this past off-season with the expansion draft.

Our prospect pool is somewhere between depleted and mediocre, nothing fancy and definitely nothing to address our diminishing center depth (I don't really consider Eriksson Ek a prospect anymore). That is definitely on Fletcher for being too generous handing out draft picks for players that were never going to be the final piece of the puzzle for a deep playoffs push.

That's my 2 cents. Objectively the Wild should easily make the playoffs this year. As hopeful Wild fan's point of view: they'll make their way all the way to conference finals. Beyond that, I don't dare to hope or predict the future.