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New York Rangers rivals: Minnesota Wild season preview

By Steve Paulus

ST. PAUL, MN - MARCH 16: Jared Spurgeon #46 of the Minnesota Wild beats Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers for a 3rd period power play goal during a game at Xcel Energy Center on March 16, 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - MARCH 16: Jared Spurgeon #46 of the Minnesota Wild beats Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers for a 3rd period power play goal during a game at Xcel Energy Center on March 16, 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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ST. PAUL, MN – MARCH 16: Jordan Greenway #18 of the Minnesota Wild bumps Neal Pionk #44 of the New York Rangers off of the puck during a game at Xcel Energy Center on March 16, 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN – MARCH 16: Jordan Greenway #18 of the Minnesota Wild bumps Neal Pionk #44 of the New York Rangers off of the puck during a game at Xcel Energy Center on March 16, 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Fans of the New York Rangers should be thankful that the team has had front office stability for many years.  The same cannot be said of the Minnesota Wild.

In 19 years, the New York Rangers have had two general managers, Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton.  The Minnesota Wild are on their third general manager in 18 months. This is mostly due to the disastrous tenure of Paul Fenton who lasted less than one year on the job.

The Wild finished seventh in the Central Division last season with a record of 37-36-9 and 83 points.  While 83 points was good for last place in the Central, it would have put them Wild in sixth place in the Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions and fifth in the Pacific.  Better, but still 15 points out of a wild card slot.

The Wild had an awful home record of 16-18-7.  Only Los Angeles had fewer points at home than the Wild’s 39.   They were offensively challenged, scoring 211 goals, the fourth lowest total in the NHL.  They gave up 2.84 goals per game, 12th best in the league.

Their power play was average, but they had the seventh best penalty kill in the NHL.   There was nothing to note when it came to shots for or against or faceoff winning percentage.  The Wild were strictly middle of the NHL road.

The Wild are going into this season with a decent amount of cap space.  Their big move in the off-season was signing Ex-Ranger Mats Zuccarello to a five year $30 million contract.  They are still locked into big money deals to Zach Parise, Gary Suter, Matt Dumba, Jared Spurgeon and Jason Zucker.

The team is in some turmoil after the their failed attempt to acquire Phil Kessel in a trade for Zucker.  Kessel turned down the deal leaving Zucker disgruntled.  That was the latest of a series of bad trades by Fenton.  In the last year he traded away Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund. Nino Niederreiter, getting Ryan Donato, Kevin Fiala and Victor Rask in exchange.  None of those deals have worked out so far.

New General Manager Bill Guerin has gotten busy, recently signing Spurgeon to a multi-year deal. He still has a lot of work to do.

Against the Rangers

The Rangers lost both of their games last season to the Wild, badly.  On February 21 the Wild came to Madison Square Garden and halted a five game losing streak by beating the Blueshirts 4-1.  Zach Parise put the game away with an unassisted third period goal after the refs blew a penalty on Eric Staal who tripped Brady Skjei, leading to the Parise breakaway.

Less than a month later the Rangers traveled to the Twin Cities and were manhandled 5-2.  Ryan Donato led the way with two goals for Minnesota.

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