For the last 21 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber and the team have reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 22^nd annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer. 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 and 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 we take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

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Gone – Vinni Lettieri, Patrick Maroon, Dakota Mermis, Jake Lucchini, Mason Shaw, Adam Beckman, Nic Petan

Incoming – Graeme Clarke, Yakov Trenin, Jakub Lauko, Travis Boyd, Reese Johnson

Impact of Changes – There's not a lot of player movement surrounding the Wild so far this offseason, but let's take a step back here and look at this club as a whole. We can't talk about the Wild without mentioning their dead cap money from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter money which combines to a staggering $14.5M this season. This club could look a whole lot different with that money available, but there's optimism here around a club that is a sneaky good pick for points pools and one that has a good amount of talent for fantasy.

We talk about the two buyout contracts, but what's never brought up is how many good contracts this club also has. Joel Eriksson Ek ($5.25M until 2029), Mats Zuccarello ($4.12M until 2025), Ryan Hartman ($4M until 2026), and Matt Boldy ($7M until 2030), are all excellent contracts to have on your books. If this club doesn't have the start that they had last season before ultimately parting ways with Dean Evason, along with a tough January and March, then this team right in the middle of things down the stretch. 

Ready For Full Time – Liam Ohgren is ready for full time because given this club's injury history, he's going to have to be. Ohgren himself has battled through injuries the past two seasons, but he was healthy enough this past year to compete in World Juniors. There's a chance here too that Ohgren makes the Wild right out of training camp, where he'll likely slot in on the Wild bottom six.

Another name to look for is goaltender Jesper Wallstedt, who will odds are will be up with the NHL club at different points this season. The extremely small sample size for Wallstedt in the NHL might not jump off the page, but he has been very at times in the AHL. Given Minnesota's uncertainty in net with mixed starts coming from Filip Gustavsson and an aging Marc-Andre Fleury, there's reason to believe that Wallstedt will see more starts for the Wild this season.

Fantasy Outlook – Kirill Kaprizov. That shouldn't be much of a surprise here as the 27-year-old winger will likely go in the first or early second round in most drafts coming off a 97-point season. Kaprizov is the play-driver in this offense and if healthy, should finish the year above the 90-point mark once again.

Two players to keep an eye on potentially though would be Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi. There's a chance here that one or both of them will be on a line with Kaprizov and if that were the case, then either will be the fantasy beneficiary of Kaprizov if he can once again get close to the 50-goal, 100-point mark.

On the blueline, it's newly-extended Brock Faber, but there is some buyer beware here. Faber appeared in all 82 games last season and got a significant boost in ice time once he became the Wild's top power play defensemen, but for a long time in that role didn't have much to show offensively. He ended up turning it on a bit finishing with 16 power-play points, but this is a player in salary leagues that will next season be making Roman Josi/Alex Pietrangelo type of money and that comes with the expectation of 25-30 points on the power play. The upside is there for sure, and he will only get better as time goes on, but this is a player that you might need to make a choice on going up a round early to grab as opposed to waiting one round too late.

For a fantasy grade…the Wild are a club that you can buy high on forwards like Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, and Boldy. And that goes along with others who may go undrafted and if healthy could help your fantasy team like Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman. This club will be good up the middle and might end up a bit higher in goals for than they did last year coming in at 21^st overall.

Fantasy Grade – B (last year was a B)