posted: March 20, 2006
There are quite a few pissed off souls over on the MN Wild message boards these days. People are disappointed with the team's performance and angry with management that they haven't been very aggressive in obtaining better players through trades and free agency. I think the fans that are angry are out of their minds.
For the most part, the team is made up of low-skilled grinders and a few young, high-potential draft picks. The team has had barely any time to develop the small amount of talent that they've drafted. It will take about another five seasons to have established a good base of drafted talent. The Wild have participated in five drafts, and only one of the picks from those drafts is a solid, high-performing player every game (Gaborik). Others are showing potential (Bouchard, Koivu, and Burns), but they can't carry a lot of the team's load. They need more time to develop and become more experienced, and the Wild need more time to draft and develop more prospects.
A lot of people really disagree with the philosophy of building through the draft, but it is the best way to achieve sustained success. Teams like Ottawa and Detroit have done the same, and they've been at the top of the league for years. Sure, a lot of people think Detroit doesn't draft and instead likes to sign big-name free agents. True, they do sign a few expensive free agents, but they only do so to compliment the very solid core of draft picks they've developed over the years. The Wild will do the same - they just don't have the base of talent yet to build from.
Everyone knows that building through trades and free agency doesn't work. Just look at Lemeiux and his sorry Penguins. You can always use those one or two extra free agents to push you to the next level, but you can't get pushed to the next level if you're not already on solid ground. Building through the draft provides that solid foundation.