The Minnesota Wild are a pretty good hockey team. In order to be a great team, they need one more top-end player.
The Wild are in third place in the difficult Central Division and sport the best goal differential (plus-15) in the Western Conference. Those results are nice and new head coach Bruce Boudreau has added a needed boost to their play, but questions still linger over whether Minnesota has enough talent to get past the first or second round, something that has plagued them since signing Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to mega deals. In the past four seasons, the Wild have been eliminated from the first round twice, and the second round twice.
With a roster that is similar to the quickly eliminated teams of the past, the Wild have still struggled to be offensively threatening. They have won on the back of great goaltending so far this season. Netminder Devan Dubnyk has an insane (and unsustainable) .946 save percentage. Minnesota's group of skaters has not done much that statistically reflects a Cup-caliber team. While Boudreau's teams have often won despite lacking an impressive shot differential, a rank of 22nd in Corsi for percentage is not a great sign. The Wild are ninth in goals for per 60 minutes at even strength, 16th on the power play and 13th in penalty kill. All decent stats, but nothing eye-popping.
As the Wild race against the fading primes of Parise and Suter, they should be willing to take risks to win now. In this case, the risk should be dealing one of their defenseman for more scoring talent. But who should they target, and who should they give up to make it happen?