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?

I feel tor might accept with a 2nd or 3rd or a late 1st but not 2023's

I'll answer question 2 first.

Through the draft.

Simply put. It would be an utter waste of assets and resources to try and acquire one through trade, which probably would only hurt us in the long run. And we cannot afford to sign one through UFA.

Looking at the available options out there right now, the only one I'd be comfortable trading for is Horvat. But that's a double-edged sword. While I love Horvat and would be ecstatic if we got him. There are three reasons why he doesn't work for us.

1) He's not a legitimate 1C, as he's more or less a middle-rung 2C like Mikko Koivu was.

2) He's strictly a rental. As we cannot afford to resign him after this season. That already puts us at a disadvantage by virtue of not wanting to pay what other teams may be willing to give up, as they would probably be looking to do just that, resign him.

As a rental, and a rental 2C at that, I'm very firm on the notion that his value is a B-level prospect, a 1st, and something there for cap purposes.

However, Canucks fans have been bullish on the idea that he somehow warrants a mid-1st and a top prospect. Which is insane, if you ask me.

3) I've seen multiple people post that they think he's going to be worth somewhere between $7-8M per on a new contract.

Which boggles my mind, and is also likewise insane. I would be incredibly leary of paying him anything over $6.5M a year. Which is the absolute max I'd go with him.

Again, this is a 2nd line center we're talking about here.

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Now, the answer to the first question you asked is even trickier.

I'll preface this with the explanation and caveat that I'm a pretty flexible individual when it comes to my viewpoints on most things. As I'm pretty laid-back mental wise most days and just go with the flow.

With that said.

I'm pretty much down with whatever happens this year. If we get our sh*t together and look to be a playoff team by the deadline, we may as well go for it. But if we're sucking badly. Sell off a piece here and there and enjoy the potential top ten pick we get this year.

If ever there was a year to suck, this is it.

To put this in perspective, all that the Wild need do to get that top ten pick at this point is more or less play .500 hockey the rest of the way. Include a slump or two in there at this point and it wouldn't take much for us to drop out of it.