The Minnesota Wild will have a lot of core players returning to their lineup in 2022-23 and with a new season, there are new expectations. Of course, the Wild’s leaders of Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba, and Marcus Foligno will be expected to carry their roles and be mentors to the new players. Kirill Kaprizov and his linemates Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello will also be expected to put up even more points than last season.
While those players have known expectations, there are several others who will be expected to fill bigger roles this upcoming season. Some of them may be more obvious than others but it’s clear things will have to change for the Wild to make it further in the playoffs.
Fleury Becomes Starter
After Marc-André Fleury was re-signed to a two-year contract, things looked pretty good for the Wild’s goaltending situation. They still had veteran Cam Talbot for one more season and it appeared they’d be able to do a 50/50 split for ice time between Talbot and Fleury. However, things didn’t work out as Talbot was unhappy with the signing and was traded.
That still left the Wild with a veteran in Fleury, but instead of Talbot, they now have a young and unproven goaltender in Filip Gustavsson. That means they’ll have to rely almost solely on Fleury for the starting spot. It’ll most likely be a 60/40 split but at the beginning of the season they may play around with a 50/50 to see how Gustavsson handles things early on before getting too deep into the season.
Thankfully for the Wild, Fleury has been in this situation plenty of times throughout his career. As most know, the majority of it was spent being a very successful starter for the Pittsburgh Penguins and in the later years the Vegas Golden Knights. The last couple of seasons, his starts have been a bit less but it’ll jump back up this upcoming season and hopefully, he can step up and lead the team.
Fiala’s Replacement Under Pressure
Whether it be someone they go after in free agency or someone they bring up from Iowa, whoever takes Kevin Fiala’s place will feel the pressure. It appears that player will be someone from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League, as general manager Bill Guerin has stated they’re still looking for a bottom-six forward and not a top-six in free agency.
Related: Wild Fans Should Trust in Bill Guerin’s Slow Approach
The top candidate is Adam Beckman, who got to show…
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