Granlund
Coyle
Nino
Zucker
Haula
Tuch
Eriksson Ek
Kunin
Kaprizov
Greenway
Sokolov
Our Cup window depends on what all of these players turn out to be. Obviously it'll be tweaked some with expansion and salary cap issues and such, but it seems like our 24/25 year old forwards have made a leap this year, are they done? What will our non-NHL players become? Is Tuch a 25+25 player, Kaprizov a Kucherov clone, Eriksson Ek a slightly poorer man's Koivu, etc...? Do we continue to hit on our draft picks or do we go on a drought when we are (hopefully) picking later in the rounds?
Specifically looking at center, which is where we'd suffer if Staal was lost to Vegas... The only potential top-6 center we have is Eriksson-Ek (Looked great, but can't bank on him playing top-6 C minutes next season), and Kunin (probably 2+ years away from the NHL).
Nobody can immediately fill Staal's shoes next season - Granlund & Coyle are much better wingers. Zucker, Niederreiter, Tuch, Kaprizov, Greenway are all wingers.
I'm not saying our cup window's closing... Yes, it just opened. However, if Vegas picks Staal we're all of a sudden short 1 top-6 center. I think he makes the Wild a cup contender; losing him would take us out of that category in my eyes. I think Staal is a huge piece of what makes our forward group so successful this year. Losing him and having nobody immediately ready to slot-in as our #1 Center would (IMO) break our balanced scoring line approach.
Staal + Koivu in our top-6 essentially gives us two competent "first line" centers. Losing him would force Koivu into a primarily shut-down role, like he's been playing the past couple years. That loss of depth trickles down the lineup.