2023-24 Fantasy Hockey Preview: Minnesota Wild

The Wild are sneaky good and offer more fantasy options than just Kirill Kaprizov. Don't miss out.

Last season:
46-25-11, 3rd Central, 11th overall. Eliminated Round 1 by Dallas, 4-2.
2.91 GF/GP (23rd), 2.67 GA/GP (6th), 21.4 PP% (15th), 82.0 PK% (10th)
49.47 5v5 CF% (20th), 50.88 5v5 GF% (17th), 49.86 5v5 xGF% (18th)

On paper, the Wild just never look that impressive, but by the end of the season, they’re right in the thick of the playoff race in a tough division. Their offense runs through Kirill Kaprizov, of course, but his reputation overshadows a strong supporting cast.

Mats Zuccarello is an ageless wonder and, in his age-36 season, just averaged the most ice time ever in his career. Joel Eriksson Ek is emerging into a bona fide, two-way center. Matt Boldy is on the verge of scoring 40 goals. Ryan Hartman and Frédérick Gaudreau have proven for two consecutive seasons now that they’re excellent role players with second-line offensive upside.

The Wild have more fantasy options than you’d think with four players ranked in the top 150 – Hartman just misses the cut at No. 162 – and that’s not including: top prospect Marco Rossi, who’s back on track after missing an entire year due to complications with COVID-19; Calen Addison, who’s blossoming into one of the league’s premier power-play specialists; and Brock Faber, the prized prospect acquired from the Kings for Kevin Fiala.

It’s actually impressive that GM Bill Guerin has managed to cobble such a competitive team despite being hampered by $14 million in dead cap – the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyouts – and still have some money to play with. We can look at the Wild’s advanced metrics and predict a slight regression, but they’re still right in the middle of the pack, and Kaprizov is the player who pushes them over the edge.

Defensively, they’re an excellent group, and only the Canes were better at limiting high-danger chances at 5-on-5, according to naturalstattrick.com. They’re excellent at blocking shots, led by Jared Spurgeon and Jacob Middleton, and the loss of Matt Dumba should be offset with a full season from Faber. That bodes well for their fantasy value in banger leagues and their goaltending (more below), which features one of the best tandems in the league.

The Wild, other than Kaprizov, aren’t usually sexy picks in fantasy, but there’s plenty of high-upside options at nearly every position, offering great value in the middle rounds.

Kirill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello
Matt Boldy – Joel Eriksson Ek – Marcus Johansson
Patrick Maroon – Frédérick Gaudreau – Marcus Foligno
Connor Dewar – Marco Rossi – Brandon Duhaime

Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Brock Faber
Jon Merrill – Calen Addison

Filip Gustavsson – Marc-André Fleury

PP1
Kaprizov – Eriksson Ek – Zuccarello – Boldy – Addison
PP2
Foligno – Hartman – Johansson – Gaudreau – Spurgeon

The Hockey News Fantasy Guide Top 3 Point Projections:
Kirill Kaprizov, 100 points
Mats Zuccarello, 78 points
Matt Boldy, 69 points

(The NHL Fantasy Guide 2023-24 is free if you subscribe today! Click the image below and click 'Add to Cart')

Top 300 Ranked Wild (Full List, including individual player write-ups):
9. Kirill Kaprizov, LW
57. Matt Boldy, LW
106. Joel Eriksson Ek, C
115. Mats Zuccarello, RW
129. Filip Gustavsson, G
162. Ryan Hartman, C
234. Marc-André Fleury, G
235. Marcus Johansson, LW
284. Jared Spurgeon, D

Top 300 Ranked Wild (Banger League) (Full List):
11. Kirill Kaprizov, LW
62. Matt Boldy, LW
84. Joel Eriksson Ek, C
126. Ryan Hartman, C
128. Mats Zuccarello, RW
211. Filip Gustavsson, G
213. Jared Spurgeon, D
215. Marcus Foligno, LW
297. Marcus Johansson, LW

All positions courtesy Yahoo Fantasy.

If Calen Addison can earn Dean Evason’s trust and play regularly, he’s in line for a big season. Among defensemen with at least 200 minutes played on the power play last season, Addison ranked eighth out of 26 defensemen in shot attempts per 60 minutes and third in goals for per 60 minutes. It helps that Kaprizov and Hartman are two of the league’s best players in drawing penalties, and if we’re being bold here, Addison could come close to 30 power-play assists next season, putting him around the top five among defensemen.

Marco Rossi is a tempting pick, but he's facing an upward battle for minutes and it's unlikely he'll get much notice in dynasty leagues after scoring just one assist and a minus-7 rating in 19 games last season. It's better to take a wait-and-see approach with Rossi and see if he can win a spot in the top six in camp; otherwise, he's not fantasy-relevant at this point of his career. 

I’ll go for the low-hanging fruit here – there’s no way Marcus Johansson scores at a 70-point pace next season. After being acquired (again) by the Wild, Johansson scored 18 points in 20 games playing second-line minutes. He’s an underrated playmaker who’s averaged around 0.50 P/GP every season, and his numbers were  boosted playing alongside Boldy and Eriksson Ek. That’s not to say Johansson has no fantasy value, however, as he’s ranked within the top 250 in both the standard and banger league fantasy rankings, but expect something closer to a 50-point pace.

This is arguably the Wild’s greatest strength, especially if Filip Gustavsson can continue where he left off. He was brilliant with a .931 SP and 2.10 GAA, which ranked second in the league in both categories, trailing only Vezina winner Linus Ullmark. The only reason we didn’t hear much about Gustavsson is because he started only 37 games, which ranked 27th in the league thanks to a timeshare with Marc-André Fleury.

Perhaps out of a misplaced sense of loyalty, or a preference for Fleury’s experience over Gustavsson’s upside, the Wild elected to split the starts evenly throughout the course of the season, even when it was clear by the end of the season that Gustavsson was superior. He was the right choice to start Game 1 against the Stars in the playoffs, and Gustavsson responded making a franchise-record 51 saves, but the Wild’s stubborn refusal to give him the reins led to a 7-3 defeat in Game 2 with Fleury in net.

Going into 2023-24, the Wild will operate a timeshare but Gustavsson should be the 1A to Fleury’s 1B. Fleury’s too good to be a backup, but too old and unreliable to be the starter, and it’s up to the Wild to find that balance. It’s worth noting that Fleury is eight wins (544) shy of passing Patrick Roy (551) on the all-time list; it might be prudent for the Wild to give Fleury the majority of the starts early in the season and give him a chance to pass Roy lest it become a distraction later in the season when they should be relying more on Gustavsson for the playoff race.

With the expectation that Gustavsson will start 50-something games and experience only a slight regression from an unsustainable .931 SP – it’s just too high, and the same rule will apply to Ullmark – Gustavsson is a sneaky pick in the middle rounds. He offers 30-win upside with potentially excellent peripherals on a frequently overlooked team. In the worst-case scenario with a 50-50 timeshare and less-than-stellar stats, Gustavsson’s still worth a roster stash.