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CARLTON PEAK… The NHL season is off and running and the Minnesota Wild have had 2 tilts so far and have endured an OT and a Shootout loss, losing to Anaheim Saturday eve with 5 seconds left in OT. They stand at 0-0-2. Is this indicative of where the club fortunes may be headed this year? Perhaps. In the previous 2 editions of the World Wide Duluth Reader I mapped out personnel changes, experience levels and so on. I didn’t do an in depth statistical view because what we have now would be predicated on last years edition of the team, not this one, and it is too early in to get a grip on that yet.  

But to come to some sort of conclusion on this years team I will look at some career stats to develop trends and I will simply boil it down to a plus/minus or question mark situation if appropriate. Lets go by depth chart; the Parise-Koivu-Pominville line looks like this, Parise will be close to a point per game performer, Koivu is a career .74 point per game player and Poms comes into the year at close to a ppg pace as well.  In games where this line plays to their trends they will be amongst the better lines in the league, but this club is going to highly dependent on this line to carry the water. If they don’t get offensive support from other lines and players the team will struggle.

The 2nd line features Heatley-Coyle-Fontaine. As of Saturday eve’s game Coyle suffered a knee sprain and will be out 3-4 weeks. The team has called up Jason Zucker from the Iowa Wild to take his spot. The only NHL known commodity here is the Heater and he is on the downside. In fact, if not for a late season injury status last year I believe the team would have bought out his final year. So, what do we have here? Coyle, Fontaine and Zucker are all 3 in the infancy of their NHL careers. In my book we have a veteran player on the downside, and his lack of speed concerns me that he may be a defensive liability at times and then 3 question marks with tons of possible upside.  

The 3rd line has Cooke-Brodziak-Mitchell. Cooke is a strong defensive and special teams player and can occasionally contribute points. Brodziak was a major disappointment last year after getting a contract extension with 12 points in 48 games and Mitchell is a career ¼ ppg player who also has a respectable -1 career stat. Brodziak is just south of being a half ppg player. I see a line that is going to have to contribute a strong defensive game and get some points when they can. Cooke will be good, and then I have a couple of more question mark guys on my list.

The 4th line features Granlund-Konopka-Niederrieter. Knopka is really the only known here, but offers nothing offensively except a real prowess at the faceoff dot and the fact that he is one tough son of a biscuit. He is not a great plus/minus player. Granny and Nino are both fairly green and early on in their careers. The upside on both is huge. I can remember the 2010 World Junior tourney and double ‘N’ may have been the best player there. He made a huge impression on the Isles who then selected him 5th overall in that years entry draft. It is hard to say if Granny is going to be a goal scorer, playmaker or both, but the line on him is that he “see’s” the game at an elite level. To me, at this point, this line might be 3 question marks.

For the ‘D’ pairs; Suter and Brodin will be amongst the best in the NHL. I don’t care about Brodin’s short experience, this is the best Wild player drafted in some time. Two definite asset’s here. Scandella and Spurgeon are early into their careers with Scandella having less then 100 games experience and is a -34 player, the “Spurg” gives up a lot in size but can move the puck and is just shy of being a 1/3rd of a ppg player. I say 1 question mark here and 1 asset. Ballard and Stoner bring experience into the mix with Bally having 547 tilts with 4 clubs and Stoney having 165, all with the Wild. Bally brings some offense, Stoney doesn’t. Stoney is a career “plus” player and Bally is about plus/minus neutral. I’ll say 2 asset’s. Matt Dumba isn’t officially a 1-6 chart player yet but will be, perhaps sooner then later. He is an asset. Prosser and Cuma may be outside looking in.

Between the pipes, Backstrom and Harding. Both are capable, but I don’t view either as having the type of game that can win when you’re team isn’t playing well in front of them. I think both are the type of players that can give you excellent performances when the system is playing to their strength’s and are kind of average when the club is too. Backs has had some injury issues over the years and Hards battle with MS is well chronicled. I still look at both as assets though. In the periphery are a handful of fill-in players that can give you solid minutes but aren’t stars. Rupp, Bulmer, Veillux’, Rau, Dowell, Phillips and MacMillan.

My crystal ball says that this roster has too many question marks to say they are going to have a strong campaign in the 2013-14 season. The future is bright but the here and now is murky. They will have to have a lot of things go right to do well and might struggle to get a repeat playoff entry. In assessing the new NHL Central division I believe the team will finish in the 6th spot, ahead of the offensively challenged Nashville Predators, but out of a playoff spot. Hope I am wrong, but…. PEACE

MFAN EXTRA; THE NHL has had a solid 1st week of competition with a couple of glitches which I will cover next week. ALEX RODRIGUEZ has decided to sue MLB and the Yankees in 2 separate lawsuits in a blatant maneuver to soften the suspension he is facing. Anyone thoroughly tired of this guy yet? I am… OVER & OUT!

Marc Elliott is a free lance sports opinion writer who splits time between his hometown in Illinois and Minnesota. Elliott grew up in the Twin Cities with many of his childhood neighbors working or playing for the Vikings and Twins. He participated in baseball,