\n\tThere was a time, not so long ago, when the Minnesota Wild beat lousy hockey teams.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the halcyon days of mid-December, the Wild traded for<\/a> Quinn Hughes<\/a> and looked like they could compete with the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche in a seven-game series. They crushed the Boston Bruins 6-2, the Washington Capitals 5-0, and the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2. They exposed the Edmonton Oilers\u2019 porous goaltending<\/a> in a 5-2 win.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThen, the Avalanche beat them 5-1, and reality set in<\/a>. Minnesota\u2019s desperate (and exciting!) trade for Hughes can only do so much. Bill Guerin<\/a> was papering over the flawed roster<\/a> he had built. Still, remove a piece or two from his Jenga tower, and it starts to sway. The Wild are a month removed from trading for Hughes, and they\u2019re losing to bad teams again.\n<\/p>\n \n\tOn Thursday, the Winnipeg Jets routed them<\/a> 6-2. The New Jersey Devils beat them 5-2. The New York Islanders beat them in overtime; the Seattle Kraken took them there. The Los Angeles Kings beat them in a shootout, then beat them again two days later. The San Jose Sharks beat them in a shootout earlier on that trip.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWinnipeg has the second-worst record in the West. New Jersey has a -19 goal differential and is out of the playoff picture in the East. The Islanders\u2019 +9 goal differential is worse than Boston (+9) and the Buffalo Sabres (+10), the East\u2019s wild-card teams, and the Capitals (+17). Seattle is a 2021 expansion team with a -8 goal differential. The Kings are Western Conference bubble teams.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA month removed from dominating the NHL during the Hughes sugar rush, the Wild have crashed. They\u2019ve resorted to blaming bad bounces again.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLook at the goals,\u201d Mats Zuccarello<\/a> said<\/a> after losing to Winnipeg. \u201cAll top, top corners, bouncing off the wall, and that. So, it\u2019s one of those days where it\u2019s really hard to lose like that, but you just have to brush it away.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tZuccarello is a 38-year-old, 16-year veteran. He knows that\u2019s nonsense. The Wild played undisciplined hockey and left Jesper Wallstedt<\/a> to fend for himself. John Hynes\u2019 decision to leave him in throughout the second period risks killing<\/a> his confidence again. Ultimately, the Jets outclassed Minnesota on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n \n\tJoel Eriksson Ek<\/a> and Jonas Brodin<\/a> are recovering from injuries<\/a>. Still, the Wild shouldn\u2019t topple over after losing a middle-six center and a second-pair defenseman. Eriksson Ek\u2019s absence has highlighted<\/a> Minnesota\u2019s lack of center depth. They don\u2019t have a 1C, which may prevent them from contending altogether, and they had to give up Rossi in the Hughes trade.\n<\/p>\n \n\tMore pertinently, the Wild previously had<\/a> the league\u2019s No. 2 prospect pool. However, their player development staff wasn\u2019t able to translate enough of that talent into productive NHL players. Therefore, they used most of<\/a> those resources on David Jiricek<\/a>, who is toiling away<\/a> in Iowa and has dropped down in their prospect hierarchy below<\/a> David Spacek<\/a>. They used the rest on Hughes, who is on an expiring contract.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\tTurning prospects into NHL assets is a tried-and-true strategy for bona fide contenders. Stanley Cup windows are small, and teams must capitalize on their best players\u2019 prime years. Still, even contenders must rely on their minor leagues to produce depth when impact players suffer injuries. There\u2019s no Eriksson Ek or Brodin in Iowa, but the Wild should be able to create a facsimile of each player. However, they haven\u2019t been able to do that, and as a result, they\u2019ve become a lousy team.\n<\/p>\n \n\tTrading for Hughes wasn\u2019t supposed to get the Wild into the playoffs. They\u2019ve been there before. It was supposed to turn Minnesota into a contender. If it didn\u2019t, Hughes is as good as gone. He\u2019s not going to sit around and hope a team with +2000 odds<\/a> to win the Stanley Cup, and +4500<\/a> before they traded for him, miraculously figures it out.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn trading for Hughes, Guerin removed three bricks from the bottom of Minnesota\u2019s Jenga tower to place a star player on top. Zeev Buium<\/a>, Marco Rossi<\/a>, and Liam Ohgren<\/a> are foundational pieces if developed correctly, which is why the Vancouver Canucks coveted them. But Hughes is good right now [italics], and the Wild need to contend immediately after signing<\/a> Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> to a $136 million extension.\n<\/p>\n \n\tAny general manager with good sense trades for Hughes and inherits the risk associated with trading for him. Still, there are consequences to this blockbuster trade. Hughes is only under contract for one more season. If he leaves, the Wild lose him, three players they took with first-round picks, and their first-round selection in the upcoming draft.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn that case, the Wild are back to being the mediocre, backwater team they\u2019ve always been in a hockey-obsessed state. Kaprizov can count his millions backward and forward, toiling away on a one-and-done playoff team until he gets bored with that and demands a trade. Minnesota will probably blame bad bounces. That\u2019s every lousy team\u2019s last resort.\n<\/p>\n