Wild GM Chuck Fletcher: The Reason the Wild Returns to the Playoffs

While many might look at last season as one of the worst in recent memory for the Wild, I looked at it as a step in the right direction.

It is all because of one man: Wild GM Chuck Fletcher.

For the first time in Wild history, Minnesota has depth throughout all four forward lines. If you take a look at the Wild's Depth Chart, you'll notice exactly what I am talking about.

All of this of course depends on Pierre-Marc Bouchard staying healthy, but according to recent reports, he is joining the team in training camp and is expecting to hit the ice for the first time in over a year in hopes of starting the season with the team. Bouchard puts himself at 90 percent.

Even if that is our best case scenario, I'll take it. There were times last year when I was worried that the Wild would forever lose an important player when Bouchard missed the entire season with no positive news coming from the Bouchard camp.

Here's to hoping he is healthy. Even if he comes back towards the end of 2010, he's still a great addition to the team; even at his high cap hit of over $4 million.

Although I'd like to see Chuck Kobasew (who has a shoot-first mentality, a lot like new fan favorite Guillaume Latendresse) on the top line with Andrew Brunette and Mikko Koivu, one must assume that you cannot take Antti Miettinen away from Koivu and Brunette, as they've had great chemistry over the past couple of seasons.

On the second forward line, Minnesota native Matt Cullen is just who the Wild have been searching for the past few seasons. He will be centering perhaps Minnesota's two best offensive wingers in Martin Havlat and Latendresse.

All of a sudden the Wild have two capable scoring lines. But the fun doesn't stop there.

Move to the third forward line and this is where the Bouchard health factor comes into play. If and when he is fully recovered from his concussion, the Wild might have three above average scoring lines. On the left wing will be last seasons' trade acquisition Kobasew, with Brodziak centering him and Bouchard.

If Wild fans can think back to when Bouchard was at his best,  he was always setting up Brian Rolston, a shoot-first type player.

In no way am I saying that Chuck Kobasew is the next Brian Rolston, but on paper it is literally the same type of situation. Considering that during Rolston's entire career here he was always on the opposite wing of Bouchard, it's not unrealistic to think the same type of chemistry can develop here.

The centermen that Rolston had between him and Bouchard during his tenure here? Todd White and Eric Belanger. Hardly offensive juggernauts or much of an upgrade (if any) over Kyle Brodziak.

Now, for the most interesting line this season: the fourth line. On left wing, newly acquired and hardworking Eric Nystrom who will be the perfect opposite winger of fan favorite and agitator Cal Clutterbuck. Centering them will be Selke-winner, veteran John Madden.

Looking at this line it's tough to argue another in the NHL that will be tougher to play against. You have two wingers who will never take a shift off and will always be right on top of the action, and centering them is one of the best two-way forwards.

So my argument is that for the first time in Wild history, they will have not two, but three capable scoring lines which their opponent must worry about, and an excellent shutdown line which the opposing team will have a frustrating time matching up against.

Think about when the Wild were in the playoffs just a couple seasons ago. Most of the time you had Rolston, Koivu, and Bouchard (this line was especially together during the playoffs) on one forward line, and Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, and Todd Fedoruk on the other top scoring line.

While these were two really good scoring lines, the Wild had zero depth behind them. Back then you had Eric Belanger, Derek Boogaard, Branko Radivojevic, James Sheppard, Stephane Veilleux, and Aaron Voros; quite possibly the worst combination of bottom two forward lines in the NHL. Especially for a playoff team.

If a team knew how to counter Minnesota's top two forward lines, it was very difficult for Minnesota to score unless the had a power play.

Not anymore.

One thing that I think a lot of critics of the Wild misunderstand: they don't have any offense or can't score goals. They couldn't be any further off-base. Take a look at the chart below.

Season	Goals For	Goals Against	Margin
2006-2007	234	191	+43
2007-2008	223	218	+5
2008-2009	219	200	+19
2009-2010	219	246	-27

Yes, over the past four seasons the Wild's goal totals have started to decline. Notice how the change is quite minimal. In my opinion, it's not such a drastic change as one might expect, losing players like Gaborik, Demitra, Rolston, and even Bouchard (all of last season because of a concussion).

By looking at the above chart, I don't think there is any question that the Wild can get back to the offense and score goals like they did during the 06-07 and 07-08 seasons when they made the playoffs. Surely, scoring 15 or more goals isn't out of the question when looking at a team that has three legitimate scoring lines.

What's more alarming is the amount of goals that they gave up last year. As quoted from Chuck Fletcher:

"“I’d say conservatively we’ll have to reduce our goals against by 20 or 25 goals this year. If we execute properly and work hard, I don’t see why we can’t achieve that. We have to give up fewer goals. We need to be a better team defensively, more consistently. Some of it's defense, some of it’s systems, some of it’s execution and some of it’s just hard work.""

With additions like John Madden and Matt Cullen, the Wild fill a void that they've forever had since their short existence: depth at center. Not only does it help fill out the lineup, but it also provides two players who are great two-way players and are excellent faceoff men (something that will help the Wild stay towards the top of the league—they were fourth last season).

Not only should Cullen, Havlat, and other free agent signing Eric Nystrom help in that department, but so should another year with having head coach Todd Richards at the helm. Playing this new system will only get better with more experience.

The Wild are a team that is tough to play against every game. They want to be an up-tempo, forechecking team that works hard on every shift and can roll out four lines.

I can never express enough how great it is to see the Wild move away from players like John Scott and Derek Boogaard, as they are the type of players who have no place in the type of hockey that the Wild are now playing.

It is really amazing to see the Wild GM transform this team in just one short year. I have long believed that the Wild would take years to recover the disaster that former GM Doug Risebrough built during his tenure here.

All of a sudden, the Wild look to be a team that can actually surprise a lot of doubters by becoming a team that Richards has preached about wanting to build since his arrival last summer.

It's refreshing to me, a diehard Wild fan, to see a GM actually follow through on what he says he wants to do. Since Fletcher has been in charge of the team, there hasn't been one thing he has done to contradict what he says he wants to do as the Wild GM.

Last summer he promised Wild fans that one day the state of Hockey will be home to the Stanley Cup.

While I'm sure we are still a few years away from actually seeing that come into fruition, any hockey fan does know that if you can just get into the playoffs, anything can happen (see Montreal and Philadelphia last year).

I believe that this team is built for a playoff run this upcoming season.

In Fletcher I trust, and so should you.