The Minnesota Wild have six picks in this year's NHL Entry Draft — a first-round pick (No. 21), two second-round picks (No. 53 and 64) and a fifth (No. 149), sixth (No. 181) and seventh-round pick (No. 213).
The Wild traded away their third-round pick for Marcus Johansson and fourth-round pick for Oskar Sundqvist at the NHL Trade Deadline. The Wild acquired pick No. 64 in the second round from the Buffalo Sabres in the Jordan Greenway trade.
Before we look at a few questions regarding this year's draft, let's take a look down memory lane at the Wild's draft history around pick No. 21.
Who have the Wild selected in the past around pick No. 21?
The Wild have never had the 21st overall pick in franchise history until now. In fact, the organization hasn't drafted all that much around pick No. 21. The Wild have drafted just eight players within picks No. 18 and No. 24 in their first 23 drafts. That includes three in the past two drafts.
Those players are Brent Burns (20th) in 2003, Tyler Cuma (23rd) in 2008, Alex Tuch (18th) in 2014, Joel Eriksson Ek (20th) in 2015, Filip Johansson (24th) in 2018, Jesper Wallstedt (20th) in 2021 and Liam Ohgren (19th) and Danila Yurov (24th) in 2022.
It's quite a good list and shows that the Wild have historically drafted well within this range — with the exception of Tyler Cuma, who played just one NHL game in 2011-12. Brent Burns has 838 points and 1,333 games to his name so far, while 27-year-old Alex Tuch broke out with the Buffalo Sabres last season with 36 goals and 79 points. Joel Eriksson Ek has developed into a top-six, two-way center who continues to improve his game — adding more of an offensive punch to his game in recent years.
Filip Johansson is an outlier in this group because he wasn't worthy of his draft selection by many accounts. Former Wild GM Paul Fenton took Johansson, who a lot of scouts had rated as a second-round pick, off the board in 2018 at pick No. 24. Meanwhile the trio of Wallstedt, Ohgren and Yurov are three of the Wild's top six prospects. So it's fair to assume the Wild are going to draft a really good player in their current slot.
What do the Wild need? What position should be targeted?
The Wild enter the draft next week with one of the league's top prospect pools. It's the best in the league by some accounts. That pipeline includes talent, potential and depth at every position. Because of that, the Wild's approach next week needs to be at getting more high-end prospects with upside — something Nashville Predators GM Barry Trotz is telling his scouts prior to the draft.
"Take some swings — take some high end swings on some guys," Trotz told them.
That's what the Wild need to do because their cupboard is full of solid mid-tier prospects already. As Trotz later said, it's easier to find third and fourth liners, whether that be through free agency or via trade. You could argue that even applies for second liners, too. But it's way more difficult to acquire high-end, top-line talent outside of the draft.
With that said, let's take a look at the Wild's top 15 prospects. For reference, here's part one, two and three of our prospect rankings here at The Hockey News. (This excludes Calen Addison who already has 80 games under his belt at the NHL level):
C — Marco Rossi, Marat Khusnutdinov, Caedan Bankier, Hunter Haight and Servac Petrovsky: The major question surrounding the Wild's center crop hinges on what Rossi becomes. Khusnutdinov is an underrated prospect and could develop into a No. 2 center. The latter three are good prospects, but they're likely not going to become top-six centers.
W — Danila Yurov, Liam Ohgren and Adam Beckman: This is the Wild's thinest position in terms of quantity, but it's arguably the position with the most potential. Both Yurov and Ohgren have the potential to be top-six wingers, while Beckman projects to be a solid middle-sixer.
D — Brock Faber, Carson Lambos, David Spacek, Jack Peart, Daemon Hunt and Ryan O' Rourke: The Wild got a glimpse of Faber in the playoffs last season, and he already looks like he's capable of replacing Matt Dumba on the second pair alongside Jonas Brodin. Behind Faber and Addison is a solid crop of defensive prospects. The only thing missing from this crop is a future No. 1, maybe even top-pair, defenseman.
G — Jesper Wallstedt: The Wild have their No. 1 goalie of the future in Wallstedt. There's no reason for them to draft a goalie in the first two rounds. Recent history has shown that it doesn't take a top goalie in the league to win the Stanley Cup anyways, namely Darcy Kuemper and Adin Hill. So the lack of goalie depth in the system behind Wallstedt should be the least of the Wild's concerns.
So, here's what I think are the three biggest areas of need in no particular area: a No. 1 center, a winger with high-end, top-line potential and a No. 1 defenseman.
In other words, I don't think the Wild should target a certain position. You can't go wrong with drafting either of the three. The target should be the best player available with the most upside. Although I'd still lean toward drafting a center — not off the board, though — more so than a winger or defender since elite centers are the hardest to get.
Should the Wild trade up?
The Wild have numerous options when it comes to drafting in the first two rounds and the possibility of trading up. This draft is projected to be one of the best in recent history, which means two different things: teams should trade up and it will be more expensive to move up than in this year's draft compared to the past. Nonetheless, this is the draft you want to move up in if you can.
That's something Wild GM Bill Guerin acknowledged to The Athletic: "You might want to move up, but I think this year a lot of people won't because teams are going to hold onto their picks. You're going to have to pay a real premium to move up with how good this draft class is."
The Wild's first option is to simply just draft in their current slots in the first two rounds — picks No. 21, 53 and 64. Or they could try to package their two second-round picks to get another pick late in the first round. Although, in that case, the Wild should aim for pick No. 28 or higher because that's the end of a tier, according to Scott Wheeler of The Athletic.
If a player the Wild are eyeing falls, but likely won't get to them at pick No. 21, another option is to trade their current first and another asset to move up. However, that is likely going to be expensive and difficult with the talent-studded crop of players at the top of the draft.
Regardless of what happens, the Wild are adding another good prospect from the first round to their pipeline.
All Data Via Hockey-Reference