The Wild are off to a great start – but can they sustain it?

Following a disappointing 2023-24 season, the Minnesota Wild are off to a hot start, going 2-0-2 through their first four games, capped off by a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night.

We’re just a week into the season, but with points in each of their first four games and a more complete effort in each contest, it’s not too early to wonder if the Wild are a legitimate contender in the Western Conference.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss the Wild’s hot start and if they’re a legitimate playoff team in 2024-25.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I think the Wild are a team that missed the playoffs last year and a lot of people aren’t so high on them going into 2024-25. But I’ve seen the analytics models and projects are high on them, and have Minnesota as a 100-point team. I don’t see 100-point potential, do you?

Frank Seravalli: They’re off to a pretty darn good start, I’ll say that. I think what’s been amazing about this start for them is that they’ve done it without some really key players, like Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson. I think there’s this thought process that existed before with the $14.7 million in dead cap space where they think there’s no reason for this team to compete. Then last year came up, and they realized that it is really difficult.

I guess in someone ways, that cap money coming back to you will go to Kirill Kaprizov. They’ve got some work to do to continue to improve this team. What I’ll say about the Wild is it feels like, more than any other team, they seem to be highly dependent on one player in Kaprizov. I don’t want to over simplify that, but when he’s a top-five player in the league and going on all cylinders, that team looks really good. When he looks average for a stretch of time, the team looks average.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the video here…