Chicago Blackhawks: Central Division preview for 2019-20
Minnesota Wild
The only team that might not be good this year is the Minnesota Wild and with that said, they also might be good enough to make the playoffs. They are hard to read because they have an aging roster and after firing their GM after one year, things seem to be headed downwards for the organization. They were a really good team for most of the 2010s but kept losing to teams that were ever so slightly better than them in the playoffs.
They are led up front by Zach Parise. He is now 35 years old but has shown that he can still play at a really high level as he led them in scoring last year. They are going to need him to stay healthy and have a big year if they are going to be good. Parise’s time to win the Stanley Cup is running out as he is on the back nine of his career.
On the blue-line, they have lots of great players like Ryan Suter, Mathew Dumba, Jared Spurgeon, and Jonas Brodin. That is one of the better defenses in the league and with goaltender Devan Dubnyk in the net that will give them a chance. They are either going to be awesome or terrible and a lot of it depends on how the rest of the division does.
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They added Mats Zuccarello over the offseason in free agency and he brings some offense and leadership to the group. The Blackhawks and Wild always play really good games and have developed a nice little rivalry over the years after having a playoff series in three straight years. This year should be no different. They went 3-0-1 against them for seven points which are really good. The Wild had a record of 37-36-9 for 83 points which was good for the last place in the Division, one point behind the Blackhawks.