Ideal TDL

Best way to acquire a franchise centre is through the draft. This draft looks like there might be one or two. This might be the best year to fall out of it. I suggested the idea of doing a 2-3 year retool/ rebuild and was met with alot of backlash from a wild fan. But I feel selling a couple key pieces to try and compete when the buyouts are done in 2025 wouldn't be the worst idea. It would give Wallstedt a chance to develop properly and not possibly be rushed, not say he will be but I don't think Minnesota has the best goaltending right now. If some veteran players were traded for prospects that are a little closer to NHL ready rather than picks the turn around time could be good.

I rather NYR keep their first that could end up being a mid first. I really don't feel Hartman one fills that need, and two is worth that.

Horvat is nothing like Koivu other than FO%.

The idea of just one down year isn't realistic (for me) with the NMCs and dead cap MN has. The prospect pool looks good on paper, but it's still a couple of years away for those players to come close to making an impact in the NHL.

I'd counter your team doesn't need a full rebuild statement with take Kaprizov (the only reason it's not a full rebuild) out of the lineup and see what you have. You'll have a decent 2nd line (Boldy/JEE/Zucc), an okay 3rd line (Foligno/Freddy G/Greenway), and 2 meh 4th lines (Hartman+fringe NHLers) on quality teams.

I agree that w/o Kaprizov, this would easily be a bottom 5 team in the league. That being said, we seem to have this knack for finding wins and I'd prefer to retain the propensity to out-kick our coverage rather than develop a losing culture. I believe the fact that we are able to get so many players to play above their skill level speaks to our healthy culture. This isn't a problem unless you lack sufficient high-end talent to propel you from mediocrity to champions -- something the Wild are all too familiar with. However, I'd argue that the Wild have their best chance in franchise history to turn this around with Kaprizov, Boldy, Wallstedt (albeit years down the road), and a franchise center. I don't believe Horvat is that franchise center. I believe Bedard, Fantilli, Carlsson, and possibly Yager are. However, I have a feeling that we will take ourselves out of the race like we always do. Which is why I posed the question cuz honestly it's depressing to have one side of the fanbase pretend (like all other MN sports teams) like we have all of the pieces to be contenders every year and another side of the fanbase wanting to tear everything down when we (a) really aren't that far off and (b) all know this organization is incapable of obtaining a high draft pick (see draft history -> in the past 15 years, our highest pick was #7 in 2012).

@RazWild - in your opinion,

1. how should the Wild treat this season?
2. how can the Wild realistically acquire a long-term legitimate 1C?