Welcome back to The Journey, where we follow hockey prospects and their paths to the NHL, providing fantasy predictions and analysis along the way.

Even if a player has all the skill in the world, they still need the right opportunity to succeed at a level that is rosterable in fantasy. This week, we'll take a closer look at how two of the Minnesota Wild's mega-prospects—Marco Rossi and Calen Addison—might fit into their lineup next year. We'll look at their career trajectories, account for expiring contracts, and consider potential line combinations for the 2022-23 season in order to project what we can expect from these prospects moving forward.

Is there a different prospect or young player you'd like to see me cover on The Journey? Let me know @beegare on Twitter.

As we approach the final weeks of the regular season, the Minnesota Wild find themselves in a scrum with several teams for second place in the Western Conference behind the high-flying Avalanche. Matt Boldy (23 points in 25 games) has been dynamite since being called up in January but another of the Wild’s young stars, Rossi, who was called up at the same time, was sent down after two games and hasn't returned to the big club since. He's recently fallen just shy of a point-per-game pace with the Iowa Wild (42 points in 44 games) in the AHL but not only is that still incredible production for a rookie, this is a rookie whose life was in serious jeopardy not even a year ago from Covid complications.

Marco Rossi's 82-game AHL pace, as a 20-year-old rookie coming off of a life-threatening heart condition which cost him a year:

32 goals, 50 assists, 82 points

— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) March 5, 2022

Maybe Rossi has a croissant and a snifter with Minnesota down the stretch or is brought up as a hidden-knife-in-the-boot in the playoffs (we need more expressions than "cup of coffee" and "black ace"), but assuming he cracks the lineup full time out of training camp in 2022-23, where might he fit into the Wild's lineup next year?

Many projections ahead of this current season had Rossi confidently pencilled in as the Wild's number one centre. After all, who else was there? It's not like journeyman Frederick Gaudreau and right winger Ryan Hartman could pull their weight down the middle (spoiler: they did). But in the end Rossi spent the season getting his feet back under him in the AHL, which was probably very wise of management.

Looking ahead to next year, the Wild have Kevin Fiala as a restricted free agent and Nick Bjugstad, Nico Sturm, and Victor Rask as unrestricted free agents up front. That's essentially their entire fourth line, so they have some options. Rask has been healthy scratched more and more lately, and though he's been doing okay in a sheltered role in terms of play-driving, it would be a surprise to see the Wild re-sign him after thoroughly losing the Rask-Nino Niederreiter trade with Carolina.

Here are their lines from a recent game for reference:

The Wild are definitely rolling with a top nine as the top three lines all saw 13 minutes and change. Adding in the data from the somewhat jumbled deployment chart below, the Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov lines are taking the hardest minutes in terms of quality of competition (bubbles near the top), and Kaprizov & Co are seeing the most offensive zone starts, which makes sense. They're dominating play and are the engine on the team this year. That leaves Fiala – Gaudreau – Boldy somewhat more sheltered. Fiala's light blue bubble is hidden directly behind Spurgeon's dark blue one. Fiala seems to be carrying that line as Gaudreau is more of a passenger and Boldy is still figuring things out at the NHL level.

Bjugstad and Sturm (both UFA) have been used defensively and are not thriving. Interestingly, however, they are the only two centres on the team who are above 50% at the faceoff dot. Hartman (45%), Eriksson Ek (47%), and Gaudreau (49%) are all losing more than they're winning. So center remains an area of weakness for the Wild. It's rare for rookies to come in and excel at the dot, so it's unwise to expect Rossi to come in and change that right away. But it's a situation to keep an eye on because faceoffs matter.

Chemistry is a fickle thing. Although Hartman is clearly still adjusting to playing down the middle, it would be surprising to see Minnesota break up the Kaprizov line if they continue to perform as they have been. The real duo there though is Kaprizov – Mats Zuccarello. Their chemistry is noticeable every game; their quick passes on cycles and through crowded seams is reminiscent of the Sedins at times. The 34-year-old Norwegian is currently on a cool 99-point pace, which would surpass his career best by 30+ points. Insane what linking up with a superstar can do for a player like Zuccarello, who has always been a solid complementary player but rarely a star. If Hartman can't keep up with those two, that line could be a potential landing spot for Rossi next year.

I doubt that Rossi joins the Eriksson Ek line, given their grinder role and the fact that Eriksson Ek remains the team's most complete centre. And he isn't going to play down on the fourth line, so that leaves him the intriguing spot between Fiala and Boldy. The 28-year-old Gauthier has not been driving play or cementing his usefulness at the faceoff dot, so it's easy to imagine him being sent down to the fourth line to replace either Bjugstad or Sturm if one or both are not re-signed.

In the 25 games since Boldy was recalled from the AHL and put on Fiala's line, he's scored 23 points and Fiala has scored 31. What's going to happen next year when they put a play-driving burgeoning superstar like Rossi in the middle of those two instead of a 28-year-old anchor? Rossi owners better start getting excited. Hopefully you didn't sell low when he was dropping out of last year WJC with major fatigue on the verge of heart failure. This kid is going to be incredible.

Top OHL draft-eligible seasons (per-game) over the last 10 years:

• Connor McDavid 2.55
• Marco Rossi 2.14
• Mitch Marner 2.00
• Dylan Strome 1.90
• Matthew Tkachuk 1.88
• Taylor Hall 1.86
• Quinton Byfield 1.82
• Cole Perfetti 1.82 pic.twitter.com/bZrS7ew2cE

— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) June 22, 2020

If Rossi is this team's future number one C (he is), Addison has seemed prime for a couple years now to eventually become this team's power-play quarterback and offensive dynamo on the blueline. The question for fantasy owners is how soon can the 21-year-old realistically take on that role for the Wild?

After putting up 17 points in only 23 AHL games this year as a rookie, Addison was recalled by Minnesota and has played in 15 games now for the big club. He's recently been healthy scratched for a string of games but one can assume that this has still been a useful pro audition for the young defender. If you scroll back up to that deployment chart for a second, you'll see that Addison has been easily the most sheltered player on the team but hasn't been seeing those sweet, sweet offensive zone faceoffs yet, as they're still mostly going to Jared Spurgeon. He's been doing well in terms of play-driving and seems primed to take on a larger, full-time role with the team next year.

The way Minnesota has paired up their offensive and defensive-minded blueliners reminds me of setting lines on NHL computer games growing up: put a playmaker with a sniper and a grinder up front and pair offensive and defensive defencemen on the back end and you're golden. Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin are sent out to shut down the other team's best players while Jared Spurgeon, paired up last game with the stay-at-home Jon Merrill, gets the most offensive zone starts and over 61% of the available power play time.

Spurgeon, Brodin, and Alex Goligoski stick out as the most effective pieces on the Wild's back end, while Merrill and Dmitry Kulikov have struggled despite being somewhat sheltered. Although Dumba's bubble is firmly orange, he's playing tough minutes and doing okay. Spurgeon has actually played most of the time with the veteran Goligoski, while playing with Brodin has allowed Dumba to re-enter 40-point territory for the first time since 2018-19.

Before getting back to Addison's potential role next year, check out the 27-year-old Dumba's career progression:

See a pattern in that points-per-game column? Offensively speaking, Dumba improved every year for six straight years between 2013 – 2019. At that point he was a 24-year-old multi-category beast in the making. His year-over-year progression was incredible, and he was adding almost three shots and two hits per game on top of scoring at nearly a 60-point pace. Then he hurt his shoulder, missed most of a season and came back to score at a disappointing 30-point pace for the next two years. His fantasy stocks took a nosedive that they still have not recovered from. I traded peak Taylor Hall for Dumba and change in one league right before that injury and of course immediately regretted it.

The interesting thing here is that since the injury, Dumba has been doing the same thing he did to start his career: improve from 0.35 to 0.41 to 0.51 points per game. Does he move back into 0.6+ territory again in '22-23 and return to his near-elite status from several years ago? I'm not saying no. After next year, he's a UFA. You can assume the guy's going to be motivated to have a big season and big pay day. With the Wild needing to re-sign Fiala and still dealing with Ryan Suter and Zach Parise's huge contracts ($12-15 million until the end of the '24-25 season), it seems likely that Dumba will be traded or sign elsewhere.

Enter Addison. While Dumba looks like a threat to the rookie for ice time and deployment in the near term (he’s eating up 35% of available PP time), Addison’s real competition moving forward will be the team captain Spurgeon. The 5-9 32-year-old has averaged 45% of the team's power play time since 2010 and is signed until 2027 at a fairly hefty price tag. Follow the money, as they say. Addison will not only have to outplay Spurgeon to get a sniff at PP1, he'll also have to outplay Spurgeon's contract. The veteran is seeing the exact deployment fantasy owners are hoping that Addison will get in the near future. But it unfortunately looks like Addison may be facing a Ty Smith – Dougie Hamilton situation: a dynamic young offensive defender on a star trajectory blocked by an incumbent veteran.

I'd bet on talent winning out in the end for both Smith and Addison. There aren't too many prospect defenders I'd draft or trade for over either of them. Here's Addison's profile from Hockey Prospecting:

Consistent improvement at each level since being drafted, promising comparables, excellent star potential. Just imagine Addison scoring and dishing like he did when he burst onto everyone's radar manning the point for Team Canada at the 2020 WJC (nine points in seven games) but with Fiala, Boldy, Rossi, and Kaprizov with him on the power play. That's a murderer's row.

Check out this blast:

Calen Addison (@Penguins // @WHLHurricanes) blasts home a beauty to push the Canada lead to 3!#WJC2020 pic.twitter.com/vk7dM437J3

— Hockey Daily 365 (@HockeyDaily365) December 30, 2019

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @beegare for more prospect content and fantasy hockey analysis.