Five weeks ago in my Power Poll I had the Minnesota Wild ranked as the best team in the NHL.
That was greeted with a good amount of skepticism. One reader even went as far to ask me how confident I would be in the Wild if they played in a seven game series against one of the teams ranked directly below them.
While that is a fair question my rankings are mostly based on what a team has done so far on the ice not how much talent they have on their roster or what is expected of them.
My response was to just enjoy the success the Wild is having and to just have fun with it.
Well the fun has ended.
Since being ranked number one in my power poll Minnesota has gone 2-11-4 and have fallen from 1st in the Western Conference to ninth and is currently one point out of the final playoff spot.
There are many reasons for the decline. The Wild blueline has only one goal and 13 assists during this skid and the team has scored three or more goals in a game twice in that span. Naturally that happened in the two games they have won during this slump.
Forwards Guillaume Latendresse and Pierre-Marc Bouchard have missed games due to concussion like symptoms. Now All-Star forward Mikko Koivu is out four to six weeks with an upper body injury. The goaltending which was spectacular at the start of the season has been above average in the past month.
In all everything that could have gone wrong for Minnesota has gone wrong. At first Wild fans were hoping that the team could play their way out of this slump. Now they are hoping a trade can be made to shake things up and get this team playing as they were over a month ago.
To that I say now is not the time to panic. However this time I'm not saying that to the fans of the Minnesota Wild.
I'm saying it to General Manager Chuck Fletcher.
When he took over three seasons ago he was left with a cupboard that was virtually bare of NHL talent due to poor drafts by previous GM Doug Risebrough.
Since that time Fletcher has had the difficult task of trying to rebuild the farm system while keeping the Wild competitive at the NHL level. They look to have a couple future stars in their system in forwards Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Zack Phillips, & Jason Zucker.
I bring these names up because what the Wild need right now is quality depth at forward. The problem is to get a top six forward during the season it would probably cost Fletcher one of these young players.
Trading a young prospect for a veteran scorer is a deal you make if you think you are one player away from being a Stanley Cup Contender. For as good as the Wild were playing at the start of the season they aren't close to being a Stanley Cup contender.
That's not to say a deal can't be made. Minnesota has a surplus of defenseman in their system which should be able to get them a forward. With Marco Scandella and Nate Prosser skating down in Houston I could see Greg Zanon being traded before the deadline. Zanon is the type of player the Wild should be able to trade to get a quality forward in return.
Minnesota is also high on goaltender Matt Hackett. Their confidence in him could lead to Josh Harding being traded before the deadline. Goaltending is always at a premium in the NHL and Harding's name keeps being mentioned in trade scenarios. With Harding set to become a free agent at the end of the season I think it's a matter of when not if it happens.
While things are bad right now I still believe Minnesota can turn things around. Their next five games are against teams they are battling for a playoff spot (Colorado, Dallas & Nashville) while 19 of their 33 games after the all-star break will take place at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
If you ask any Wild fan where the team would be around the all star break most would have said behind Vancouver in the Northwest Division and fighting for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference. Well right now that is where Minnesota is at.
I have confidence in Fletcher as GM. He has done a good job rebuilding this roster and I think he will be able to make a deal before the trade deadline that will help this club without having to give up any of the future stars in the system.
It's your move Chuck, let's see what you can do.
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