The Wild kick off their season against Los Angeles tomorrow night, and I thought maybe a look at the upcoming season was in order. Minnesota is coming off their first playoff appearance in a few seasons, albeit an appearance of the “blink and you missed it” variety as the #8 seed. What follows is a quick look at some of the factors that may determine whether they can improve on that result.

ROSTER

The Wild lost Matt Cullen (free agent), Devin Setoguchi (trade), and Cal Clutterbuck (trade) in the offseason, and picked up Matt Cooke and Nino Niederreitter. I liked the guys that are gone, but I don’t know that the loss of any of them is a huge impact. The Wild in the past have always struggled to find centermen, so the loss of Cullen could be a touch more concerning, but Coyle and Granlund (maybe Parise?) should be able to fill that role without too much of a dropoff.

The Wild moved their AHL affiliate to Iowa in the offseason, which, when combined with the fact that they are still a very young team, could have a big impact on the roster makeup. It will be a lot easier to pick up a skater from the minors on short notice, and I expect Mike Yeo to have a pretty fluid roster, especially at the start of the season.

I remember Nino Niederreiter from when he almost singlehandedly pulled off the upset of Russia in the 2010 Under-20 World Championships. It seems he hasn’t really established himself yet in the NHL (2 goals in 64 games), but he certainly seems eager to prove himself (rumor had it that he requested his trade from the Islanders after not getting a chance to make the team after the lockout last season).

Matt Cooke…. *sigh*. I hope he keeps his nose clean. That’s really my only hope for him. I really don’t want the Wild to have to deal with any multi-game suspensions.

Parise, Suter, Koivu, Heatley, Backstrom, Brodin are all back. The Wild are going to rely on young players again this season, but they probably have a solid enough core that, if they can avoid catastrophic injuries, they could be right in the playoff hunt again.

REALINGMENT

The NHL went from 6 divisions to 4 and moved the Red Wings and Blue Jackets to the Eastern Conference, while moving the Jets to the West. I feel like the new divisions really set up the Wild nicely. First of all, Minnesota has gone from 10th to 8th in alphabetical order in the conference, so if playoff spots end up being decided based on that, they’re in!
Perhaps more importantly, the Wild ended up in the division containing the fewest 2012-13 playoff teams.

The Central Division consists of: (* denotes 2012-13 playoff team)

Chicago*
Colorado
Dallas
Minnesota*
Nashville
St. Louis*
Winnipeg

Given that the NHL plays an unbalanced schedule (4 or 5 games against teams in your division, 3 against teams in your conference, 2 against teams not in your conference), that means that the Wild have only 40 of 82 games this season against teams that made the playoffs last year. That’s the lowest number (tied with Chicago and St. Louis) of any team in the NHL.

SCHEDULE

Minnesota opens with four of their first five at home (LA on Thursday, Anaheim on Saturday, then hosting the Jets and the Stars at the end of next week) before an east coast road trip (4 games).
Looking ahead, there are a couple of road trips that look like a bit of a trek (8 of 10 on the road at the end of March, 7 of 8 on the road in December), but they finish the season with 4 of 5 at home, which could be helpful if a playoff push is needed.

With that road trip at the end of March, I’d like to see the Wild in a comfortable playoff position going into the Olympic Break (Feb. 6-Feb. 27) in order to feel good about their chances of making another appearance in the post-season.

THIS WEEK

Los Angeles (7:00, Thursday)
Anaheim (7:00, Saturday)
@Nashville (7:00, Tuesday)

OTHER STUFF

NHL.com Wild Season Preview
Russo on Opening Night Lineups
Parise on the Season