For the last 19 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 20th annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer/fall. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Gone: Kevin Fiala, Nick Bjugstad, Nicolas Deslauriers, Alexander Khovanov, Nolan Stevens, Jordie Benn, Fedor Gordeev, Cam Talbot, Dereck Baribeau

Incoming: Steven Fogarty, Nic Petan, Brandon Baddock, Andrej Sustr, Brock Faber, Filip Gustavsson

Impact of Changes: The Wild shipped out Kevin Fiala, a point-per-game player, Nick Bjugstad, Nicolas Deslauriers and replaced them with depth players on two-way contracts. Such is the penalty for buying out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

The Wild also traded away Cam Talbot for Filip Gustavsson, a solid backup option who had solid numbers in limited action with Ottawa. He may now get more starts as a backup than he has had in his whole young career, close to 30 if they attempt to alleviate some of the workload that Marc-André Fleury will have.

Ready for Full Time: Marco Rossi is the top prospect and is expected to make the team this season. He may have arrived sooner were it not for losing an entire season to COVID and experiencing life-threatening complications. Luckily he returned and had a strong AHL season. If he lines up with Kirill Kaprizov, he will immediately become a number one centre.

Mason Shaw is another prospect that will most likely make the leap this year, he has been delayed by injuries but this year will be the final year of his contract and means he is no longer waiver exempt. So if he does not join the team this year he will likely be lost to the Wild.

Adam Beckman is not as certain to join the team and he will need to have an excellent camp to beat out competition for a roster spot this year. He has had brief stints with the AHL but collected a Player of the Year award during his time in the WHL.

If Rossi is not the top prospect in the organization, Calen Addison is. He is expected to make the transition this year as he has already playing 15 games through four separate call-ups. He has the potential to quickly become the Wild's power-play quarterback, which when you join a unit with Kaprizov running it, is extremely enticing.

Ryan O'Rourke is the other defensive prospect in the organization that may receive a look this year, he is projected to be more of a defense-first player who can log big minutes.

Fantasy Outlook: In 2021 the Wild were a top 5 team in scoring at 5-on-5 due to a high shooting percentage, regression was expected and the avenue to offset a steep decline was to improve their 26th ranked power-play. Well they did that and continued being a top five team in GF last season, with a power-play in the top half of the league. However they did ship out significant pieces in Fiala and depth in Bjugstad, the hope is that new arrivals Rossi, Shaw and Addison will replace the contributions made by Fiala but it could be tough this year unless Rossi lines up with Kaprizov.

Despite still having the big contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter on the books, this team is able to continue scoring by having an absolute stud in Kirill Kaprizov who was a top 5 scorer in the league with 108 points. He brought along Mats Zuccarello with him and he should also be a point-per-game player once again.

Otherwise the defense remains solid with Jared Spurgeon, Alex Goligoski, Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba as the top four and Addison making his debut. Fleury should be a solid option in net as he will receive 50+ starts behind a defensively sound team.

Fantasy Grade: A- (last year was B)