Minnesota Wild: 5 burning questions for 2018-19 season

Is this year the Minnesota Wild finally exorcise their playoffs demons? Probably not, but lets talk about them anyway.

You can set your calendar to the Minnesota Wild. A first-round exit in the playoffs? It must be April.

Being a Wild fan is like having a reliable vehicle that is only reliable in its ability to break down 20-30 miles before you reach your destination. At some point, you would think you would be smart to get a new vehicle. But you can’t do that. You’ve invested too much time and money into your high performance vehicle even though it’s never performed at a high level. It’s kind of like calling Minnesota the State of Hockey.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not a Wild fan. Quite the opposite. I’m a fan of the Colorado Avalanche. No, I’m not bitter about the Game 7 losses. And even if I were, I have two Cups — as a fan, obviously — to catch my tears. How come they let an Avalanche fan write about the Wild? Because no one else wanted to write about the Wild.

With that established, lets answer five burning questions pertaining to the Wild.

5. Will Paul Fenton shake things up?

I admire Minnesota for making a change at the top, firing Chuck Fletcher and bringing in former Predators assistant general manager Paul Fenton. They could have rested on their first round laurels, but they went out and got Dwight Schrute to Dave Poile’s Michael Scott.

Poile’s track record speaks for itself. He built a championship ready roster by not being afraid to pull the trigger on big trades. He dealt Shea Weber and Seth Jones when very few would have had the power of mind to do so.

Does Fenton have the same quality? We’ll find out soon enough.

Unfortunately for him, he’s inheriting a mess. The Wild have a first-round roster that is up against the cap. No one wants Ryan Suter or Zach Parise, much less the contracts attached to both men. Their older players aren’t attractive and dealing their younger guys would be a mistake.

But if Fenton wants to shake things up, fielding offers for Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund would be a start. Niederreiter’s return will likely be disappointing given his contract and the fact that he’s coming off his worst season as a Wild. Granlund could fetch a big name, but why trade a 26-year-old who happens to be your best player? Unless the return is too good to pass up, it feels like a short-sighted move.

Maybe he can trick Arizona into taking Parise and Suter. They love bad contracts of retired players.