Yeah. I don't think it was just the skating that is the problem. Phillips is really dependent on his line to produce (he is, after all, a center). Two of his assists appear to be secondary assists.
Knight fits Minnesota's MO; gritty and more defensively sound, which shows that Minnesota should shy away from pure offense and draft two-way guys. We find more success in that and defensemen. The Gabriel over Bjorkstrand pick makes more sense when you realize that a) Minnesota doesn't develop offense extremely well. They hit on one or two guys but long term projects like Phillips or guys that have their flaws like Foucault just don't work with the Wild and b) Our team looks for more defensive and defensive minded prospects. We have a lot of success drafting and developing defensemen.
I really think that even in the off-season they need a real big shake up in their scouting department. Houston/Iowa has been tremendously bad for years.
I'd wholeheartedly agree with you about Minnesota drafting and developing two-way, gritty, defensively sound forwards. However, I don't think our organization is well-known for drafting and developing defensemen. Sure, there are outliers such as Burns and Scandella, but I think the notion of Minnesota creating quality d-men would be a relatively new persona for our team.
I think we're known for system, structure, grinding, and being hard to play against - but that hasn't always been the MO of our defensemen. Skilled forwards have typically been "held back" from their true potential - Gaborik, Bouchard - whereas Koivu becomes a franchise keystone player.
