Rebuilding the Wild: The Not Paul Fenton Way
In case you haven’t been paying attention this year the Minnesota Wild are nearing a major turning point in their franchise. The team is middling right around .500 and is in need of an overhaul. But what would that look like? Scoop contributor Jake Jensen laid out one scenario of what a rebuild could look like. Each part below corresponds to a chapter in the above audio so you can listen and follow along as things unfold!
Part 1: Core or non-core
The first part of the process was to separate out the current Wild roster into players that fit into Jake’s long term plans and those who didn’t. Jake wasted no time in making some surprise decisions, putting Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Devan Dubnyk on his list of non-core players. The full break down is:
Core
- Joel Eriksson Ek
- Kevin Fiala
- Marcus Foligno
- Ryan Hartman
- Luke Kunin
- Eric Staal
- Mats Zuccarello
- Jonas Brodin
- Matt Dumba
- Carson Soucy
- Jared Spurgeon
- Kril Kaprizov
- Kappo Kahkonen
Non-Core
- Ryan Donato
- Jordan Greenway
- Mikko Koivu
- Zach Parise
- Victor Rask
- Jason Zucker
- Brad Hunt
- Greg Pateryn
- Nick Seeler
- Ryan Suter
- Devan Dubnyk
- Alex Stalock
Part 2: Moving on from the Non-Core
The next step was to figure out what to do with those players who didn’t fit into Jake’s core going forward. This gets to be a little more tricky because trades just take so much time, especially with prospects and draft picks. So for this part we simply decided as to who got traded or claimed on waivers and here is what we ended up with:
- Ryan Donato – Trade
- Jordan Greenway – Trade
- Mikko Koivu – Leave as Free Agent
- Zach Parise – Eat Salary and Trade
- Victor Rask – Trade
- Jason Zucker – Trade
- Brad Hunt – Trade
- Greg Pateryn – Trade
- Nick Seeler – Trade
- Ryan Suter – Eat Salary and Trade
- Devan Dubnyk – Stay
- Alex Stalock – Trade
Part 3: Add Free Agents
The Wild now have some money to spend in addition to their core that Scoop GM Jake Jensen has already put together. By setting the Salary Cap at $82 million and factoring in salary the Wild will be paying in the Parise and Suter trades we have a full break down of where the Wild are at and what they have available to spend on free agents (NOTE: 2020 Salary Cap figure is an estimate and some player salaries are approximations and not actual figures):
| Player | Position | 2020 Salary | |
| Offense | Joel Eriksson Ek | C | $1,487,500 |
| Kevin Fiala | LW | $3,000,000 | |
| Marcus Foligno | LW | $2,875,000 | |
| Ryan Hartman | RW | $1,900,000 | |
| Luke Kunin | RW | $925,00 | |
| Eric Staal | C | $3,250,000 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | RW | $6,000,000 | |
| Kirill Kaprizov | LW | $925,000 | |
| Defense | Jonas Brodin | D | $4,166,666 |
| Matt Dumba | D | $6,000,000 | |
| Carson Soucy | D | $1,000,000 | |
| Jared Spurgeon | D | $7,575,000 | |
| Goalies | Kappo Kahkonen | G | $925,000 |
| Devan Dubnyk | G | $4,333,333 | |
| Buyouts | Parise/Suter | $7,538,462 | |
| Total Salary | $51,900,961 | ||
| 2020 Cap | $82,000,000 | ||
| Remaining Cap | $30,099,039 |
Using the list of impending unrestricted free agents Jake added some players into his core (including a few familiar faces) Here are the free agents that were added to Jake’s roster:
| Name | Position | 2020 Salary |
| Mikael Granlund | RW | $6,000,000 |
| Alex Galchenyuk | C | $3,000,000 |
| Chris Kreider | LW | $7,000,000 |
| J-G Pageau | C | $5,000,000 |
| Jesper Fast | RW | $1,000,000 |
| Marco Scandella | D | $5,000,000 |
| Justin Braun | D | $2,000,000 |
| Tim Heed | D | $900,000 |
| Hunter Miska | G | Entry Level |
AND SO! Adding those players to the roster leaves us with this:
| Player | Position | 2020 Salary | |
| Offense | Joel Eriksson Ek | C | $1,487,500 |
| Kevin Fiala | LW | $3,000,000 | |
| Marcus Foligno | LW | $2,875,000 | |
| Ryan Hartman | RW | $1,900,000 | |
| Luke Kunin | RW | $925,000 | |
| Eric Staal | C | $3,250,000 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | RW | $6,000,000 | |
| Kirill Kaprizov | LW | $925,000 | |
| Mikael Granlund | RW | $6,000,000 | |
| Alex Galchenyuk | C | $3,000,000 | |
| Chris Kreider | LW | $7,000,000 | |
| J-G Pageau | C | $5,000,000 | |
| Jesper Fast | RW | $1,000,000 | |
| Defense | Jonas Brodin | D | $4,166,666 |
| Matt Dumba | D | $6,000,000 | |
| Carson Soucy | D | $1,000,000 | |
| Jared Spurgeon | D | $7,575,000 | |
| Marco Scandella | D | $5,000,000 | |
| Justin Braun | D | $2,000,000 | |
| Tim Heed | D | $900,000 | |
| Goalies | Kappo Kahkonen | G | $925,000 |
| Devan Dubnyk | G | $4,333,333 | |
| Hunter Miska | G | 2 Way Deal | |
| Buyouts | Parise/Suter | $7,538,462 | |
| Total Salary | $81,800,961 | ||
| 2020 Cap | $82,000,000 | ||
| Remaining Salary | $199,039 |
Part 4: Finishing Touches and Line Combos
Now that the roster is finished the remaining question is what do the lines look like? Jake is an expect on this so it didn’t take long to get things put together. Presenting the 2020-21 Minnesota Wild Line Combinations!
Offense (LW-C-RW)
Kril Kaprizov – Eric Staal – Mikael Granlund
Kevin Fiala – Alex Galchenyuk – Luke Kunin
Marcus Foligno – Joel Eriksson Ek – Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider – J-G Pageau – Ryan Hartman
Defense
Jonas Brodin – Matt Dumba
Jared Spurgeon – Marco Scandella
Carson Soucy – Justin Braun
Goalies
Kappo Kahkonen
Devan Dubnyk
Hunter Miska
So there you have it. Jake Jensen’s 2020-21 Minnesota Wild! Maybe not necessarily what Bill Guerin will actually do, but if Gersson Rosas can blow up a roster in as little as 36 hours, Bill Guerin should be able to make plenty of moves in the coming weeks.
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