The 5th & Final (?) Episode of the Minnesota Wild’s YouTube series Beyond Our Ice came out earlier today.
This one is called “The Future Starts Now” and it covers Game 4 & the very quick end to the Minnesota Wild‘s season in Overtime and then moves to The Arrival of Kirill Kaprizov to Minnesota on Tuesday and then moves on to the questions surrounding the offseason & the 2020-21 NHL Season…
—When will the season start?
It’s tentatively scheduled to begin on December 1st. An NHL season usually goes about 6 1/2 months so next season would likely end sometime in the middle of June meaning the Stanley Cup would probably be awarded sometime in August unless the league is planning on trying to somehow compact 82 games into a shorter span of time. Would they then start the 2021-22 season on time in October or maybe gradually get back to October by starting in November then get back to starting in October in the 2022-23 season.
—Have we seen Mikko Koivu’s last game in the NHL? or with the Wild?
He’s going to take some time to think about it and talk to his brother who’s gone through it already to figure out what he wants to do. He’s not under contract so he would have to be signed. If they did that, would he still be Captain?
Obviously, it seems unlikely that Mikko would come back because he was their 4th line center to end the season. We wonder if he’d be someone that would join the organization in some other capacity.
—If Mikko retires? Who takes over the Captaincy?
There are some obvious options in Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon and Luke Kunin. A note on Spurgeon & Kunin from the video below, they contacted Kirill Kaprizov to start to get acquainted with him and so he could get acquainted with them, too. That’s pretty awesome leadership right there.
—Who’s #1 in goal next season?
Devan Dubnyk has 1 year left on his contract. Alex Stalock had a very good season & started all 4 games in the playoffs. Then, you also have Iowa Wild G Kaapo Kahkonen, the American Hockey League‘s Outstanding Goaltender for the 2019-20 season who looks ready to make the jump to being in the NHL at least as a backup if not the #1 goaltender.
—How does the Minnesota Wild get better?
That’s been General Manager Bill Guerin’s quote since the season ended. They have to get better. How do they do that?
They have the Draft coming up and prospects from the last couple drafts have looked good but they probably aren’t ready and you for sure can’t count on them to be ready. Kaprizov should be a nice piece but even that’s not a guarantee.
Do they trade a goalie? Do they trade somebody like F Ryan Donato? Do they trade a defenseman to get a nice top 6 forward from another team?
So many questions but that’s what always makes the offseason fun and I believe Bill Guerin is meant for this job. He knows how teams win so he knows what they need. He just has to go get it and that’s the hardest thing to do. Teams don’t want to give up what the Wild need but this is has been such a strange season, who knows how strange the offseason will be.
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