The Minnesota Wild did not bring in the haul they did last year when the signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to matching 13-year contracts on July 4. They did, however, make some dramatic moves that will place young players in prominent positions next season.
Devin Setoguchi, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Matt Cullen and Cal Clutterbuck were moved out, leaving plenty of ice time available for four 20-somethings: Jason Zucker, Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund and newly acquired Nino Niederreiter.
The Wild did acquire some veteran players in the offseason, namely Matt Cooke and Keith Ballard, but did not make any major moves regarding goaltending and still will lean heavily on 20-year-old Jonas Brodin on the blueline.
Minnesota’s offseasons can be summarized in three categories: the excitement of having a young team built for a long stretch of losing, the pain of seeing some fan favorites move on and the question as to who will be the goaltender while Niklas Backstrom is on the bench.
Promising youth
Let’s start with a positive here: the Wild are built for the long ...
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Article written by Tom Schreier
Biggest Ups and Downs of Minnesota Wild’s 2013 Offseason
August 19th, 2013 by Tom Schreier Leave a reply »
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