Minnesota Wild: 3 storylines to watch this season

Suter's minutes

Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter bore a historically large minutes burden last season. The sturdy, two-way defender and U.S. Olympian logged an average of 29 minutes and change per game, the most by an NHLer in more than a decade.

The Wild outscored their opponents when Suter was on the ice at five-on-five, but his overuse caused his underlying numbers - and his relative shot attempt differential in particular - to crater. 

As good as Suter is, he's going to be that much more effective playing closer to 26 minutes per game than he was playing nearly 30. The problem, though, is that Wild coach Mike Yeo doesn't appear to trust his depth defenders to log the type of major minutes required to give Suter a more regular and extended breather.

Minnesota's third-pairing defenders, players like Clayton Stoner (now with the Anaheim Ducks), Keith Ballard and Nate Prosser (in training camp with the St. Louis Blues this fall) played between 13 and 15 minutes per game last season. As a group, they played the fewest minutes on average of any third-pairing/depth defensemen in the league.

Keeping Suter fresh and finding some credible defensive depth is a major issue for a club that advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and has high expectations going into the 2014-15 campaign. The club didn't do much to strengthen its defense corps this offseason though, besides bringing Justin Falk back on a two-way deal - a move that doesn't exactly move the needle.

The hope is that young defenders like Matt Dumba and Christian Folin can take a major step forward and contribute at a greater level this season. If those players aren't ready to pull more of the rope, then Suter is going to be dog-tired when the time comes to chase top competition around the ice during the playoffs.

Baby steps

Young players like Jared Spurgeon, Mikael Granlund, Justin Fontaine, Marco Scandella, Charlie Coyle, Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter all took major steps forward in their development last season, which provided the Wild with a surprising level of quality depth. By the time the Wild were legitimately hanging around with the Blackhawks in the second round, it was clear that this team could be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

Though Minnesota's young assets are coming into their own, development has to continue at steady pace if this side hopes to evolve into a serious Stanley Cup contender. It would also help if players like Jason Zucker could start to put it all together. 

Having an embarrassment of young assets is helpful to a club in a salary cap era and, maybe more importantly, gives Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher chips to play with on the trade market. That latter point is key, since this Wild club still appears to be a major piece away from competing with the Blackhawks and Blues for Central Division supremacy.

The ex-Sabres

The Wild signed forward and former Minnesota Golden Gopher Thomas Vanek this summer, giving them another elite offensive winger. Vanek is usually a left wing, but may play on the right flank of Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise this season. That combination could give the Wild one of the most dominant top lines in the entire league.

Behind that star-studded first line, the Wild will rely on another former Buffalo Sabres forward in Jason Pominville to provide secondary scoring. Pominville is expected to slot in on the wall, with Granlund at pivot, and one of Niederreiter or Coyle on the left wing - although Coyle has played at center in the preseason so far. 

Can Pominville and Vanek, both of whom played for those stacked Sabres teams of the mid-aughts, help lead the Wild to something significant this season?