Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher's to-do list is vast and a bit worrying.
The team needed to be saved from a third consecutive midseason collapse, took a 13-point step back and couldn't advance past the first round of the NHL playoffs. It enters the offseason with salary-cap concerns, no second-, third-, fifth- or sixth-round draft picks and no full-time coach.
The Iowa Wild, which will get an infusion of prospects next season, was the worst team in the American Hockey League for the second year in a row.
On the big club, both coaches — Mike Yeo and John Torchetti — either pointedly or subtly indicated there were locker-room chemistry issues. The roster was full of players who had up-and-down or disappointing seasons, and there are five aging veterans — Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Mikko Koivu, Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville — making up almost half the Wild's salary cap. Parise, who missed the playoffs because of a serious back injury, and Suter are signed until 2025.
Barring trades or buyouts, the Wild has $62 million committed to 14 players next season. There are 23 players on a roster and next season's salary cap is projected to be around $74 million. That only leaves about $12 million to sign unrestricted free agents, promote from within and re-sign some of its own, including restricted free agents Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba and maybe Darcy Kuemper.
So Fletcher will have lots of questions to answer when he talks to the media this week.
The concern is that this year's streaky 87-point season, one that included Yeo's firing, is the start of a regression if Fletcher doesn't proceed correctly.
He will first need to ascertain if Parise needs back surgery and how much this injury will set him back heading to next season.
He will have to decide whether to buy out Vanek, who is due $7.5 million next season. Making that move would create more salary-cap breathing room by turning his $6.5 million cap hit next season into $1.5 million next season and $2.5 million the following year.
Vanek ended the season with broken ribs, but as long as he's medically cleared by June 15 or 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final — whichever is later — a buyout is permissible.
A buyout could enable the Wild to sign a Kyle Okposo or a David Backes in free agency, although Backes is 31 and signing vets to long-term deals has backfired on Fletcher in the past.
He will have to investigate trades. Kuemper is a likely candidate to be dealt. The moment Devan Dubnyk re-signed for six years last summer, Kuemper's fate was sealed. Zucker, who finished the season with two goals and four assists in his final 37 games (including the playoffs) and was minus-3 in the Wild's Game 6 loss to Dallas; and Dumba, who struggled dramatically down the stretch and in the playoffs, are trade candidates, too.
Will Fletcher dangle defensemen Jonas Brodin or Marco Scandella in the hope of acquiring a scorer or a top center? He also will soon need to decide whether to commit to Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter long-term or potentially use them as trade bait. They each have a year left on their contracts before they become restricted free agents.
Coaching decision
And the most important question of the summer is: Who will become the fourth coach Fletcher, the Wild's GM since 2009, puts at the helm?
There have been recent offseasons where there were several no-doubters on the open market, guys such as Alain Vigneault, Lindy Ruff and Peter Laviolette. This is not one of those offseasons.
Does Fletcher go with a retread such as Stanley Cup winners Randy Carlyle or Marc Crawford? Fletcher worked with Carlyle in Anaheim, and both may have strong enough personalities to infiltrate a locker room with strong egos that Fletcher needs to deal with.
Does he go the middle tier route by looking at coaches that have held one job previously? Names available include 2013 Coach of the Year Paul MacLean, Guy Boucher, Kevin Dineen and Kirk Muller.
Does he go with a newbie? Travis Green is considered the big up-and-comer in the AHL. There's also Phil Housley and Luke Richardson.
Does he go with, dare we say, Adam Oates, whose influence on Parise bothered Yeo and clearly Fletcher? That would seem unlikely, especially since Oates has said has no aspirations to coach again.
And, of course, there's Torchetti, who did a quality job getting the Wild into the postseason. Several players publicly endorsed Torchetti after Sunday's game, although one notable, Suter, conspicuously talked around the topic.
Does Fletcher overhaul the assistant coaches, who are all in the last year of his deal? Does he tweak his scouting staff?
All is up in the air and will make for a fascinating offseason.
An unsolved mystery
There are no easy-to-see answers right now. But one thing's for certain: This season the Wild vowed to take the next step by avoiding a wild card spot and attempting to advance past the second round. Instead, the Wild eked into the playoffs yet again with the fewest points (87) of any playoff team during an 82-game season in the shootout era. The leading scorer had 56 points. The power play was predictable. The penalty kill leaked all year.
Fletcher must diagnose what's in this team's DNA that causes it to be so erratic and so flat at times, both in-season and in games. That maddening inconsistency was encapsulated by Sunday's loss.
Remember three years ago, Fletcher traded for a goalie to save the season. Same thing two years ago. This past year, he couldn't make a trade, so he had to fire the coach.
Next season, he won't be able to trade for a goalie or fire a coach if another midseason swoon submerges the franchise.
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Michael Russo can be heard on 100.3-FM and seen on FSN • Blog: startribune.com/russo • Twitter: @russostrib • E-mail: mrusso@startribune.com
