Stat Hockey’s Minnesota Wild 2023-24 Line Projections

This is a look at the Minnesota Wild 2023-24 line projections. It will cover all forward lines, defense pairings, goaltenders, and scratches.

Projected Lineup

F

Kirill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matthew Boldy

Marcus Foligno – Frederick Gaudreau – Brandon Duhaime

Pat Maroon – Marco Rossi – Connor Dewar

S- Nic Petan, Jacob Lucchini

D

Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin – Calen Addison

John Merrill – Brock Faber

S- Alex Gologiski

G

Filip Gustavsson

Marc-Andre Fleury

Forwards

The Wild’s top line was very good two seasons ago, but an early Hartman injury and struggles threw that off in 2022-23. He improved over the season and solidified his spot as the number one center. Hartman, a former 34 goal scorer, should be able to climb close to that again in between Kaprizov and Zuccarello. Kaprizov is one of the NHL elites while Zuccarello is constantly underrated. This line leads this team as the depth isn’t great.

Eriksson Ek and Boldy are the other two forwards to watch and I believe should play together on the second line. There’s not much helping the bottom-six and it will only hurt Boldy to play on the third line. These two can put up 70-plus points each and Eriksson Ek can lead with great two-way play. Johansson was a trade deadline addition last season, but performed very well for the Wild in their time of need. He proved he can still produce despite limited opportunity at times. He should be a great glue piece on the second line.

The third line is where things get interesting for the Wild. They don’t have a ton of money to work with, so they are hoping for breakouts and resurgences. Gaudreau is a strong third line center piece. He scored 19 goals and 38 points last season. He might not get a ton of help offensively though. Foligno is coming off a down season, but in the big picture, it was just a normal season for him. 2021-22 raised expectations and he couldn’t match. He has to find a middle ground and contribute all over the ice. The other winger slot could be realistically filled by two players, Duhaime or Dewar. Both are relatively young, but neither showed much offensive capabilities last season. I think Duhaime earns the third line role to start because of his nine goals in 51 games and his age.

This means Dewar will have to play more of the energy role and hope to move up. He and Rossi create an exciting young duo on this fourth line. They need to step up and give the Wild depth help and hope for the future. Maroon will play beside them, adding grit and veteran leadership. It’s not the best fourth line in the league by a long shot.

Defense

From the end of last season, the defense of the Wild did get worse. They lost Matt Dumba and John Klingberg, despite how each of their seasons went. Minnesota is putting trust in their younger RDs, Addison and Faber. One is offensive and the other is strong defensively. Spurgeon and Middleton will once again take on the biggest duties on the top pairing and match up against the other teams’ best. They can handle it and have to continue to since the Wild’s game will revolve around keeping the puck out of their own net.

Brodin will be mentoring whichever of Addison or Faber line up beside him on the second pairing. It makes sense for Addison to get the support of someone so talented defensively, and because he is a little further along than Faber. I do see both young defenders seeing time in the top-four though.

Related: Stat Hockey’s Los Angeles Kings 2023-24 Line Projections

As for the third pairing, that means Faber will start here and play alongside either of the two veteran options, Merrill or Goligoski. The latter really lost a step last season and only played half of the games. This is what makes me believe that Merrill will have the upper hand and slot in on the left side for the majority of the season.

Goaltending

Goaltending is another area of strength for the Wild. Gustavsson broke out in a major way, surpassing Fleury. This is much more than the team could have hoped for and gives them a very good and cheap tandem. I think the two will mostly split starts, but the team will do what they can to win. This will likely entail Gustavsson assuming the starting role by the end of the season again.