Minnesota Wild: NHL 16 simulation not kind to Minnesota Wild
It seems like there are two schools of thought when it comes to the Minnesota Wild for this upcoming season. Some think the Wild will be very competitive and some others think the Wild will struggle and will miss the playoffs entirely. I wish I came with some better news that wasn’t entangled with the second school of thought.
Our friends at Gamesided simulated the upcoming 2015-16 NHL season using EA Sports’ NHL 16, which a great game series, and it didn’t turn out great for the Wild.
The good news is that the simulation gives the Wild a winning record and that’s about where the good news stops. The simulation predicts a record of 37-33-12 for the Wild and a seventh place finish in the Central Division. Yep, dead last. The division prediction goes as follows:
- Nashville Predators (48-21-13)
- Chicago Blackhawks (51-25-6)
- Dallas Stars (50-30-2)
- St. Louis Blues (43-29-10)
- Colorado Avalanche (42-34-6)
- Winnipeg Jets (42-34-6)
- Minnesota Wild (37-33-12)
The record gives the Wild an 11th place finish in the West and a 20th place finish overall across the NHL.
Here’s Gamesided’s write up on the Wild’s simulated season:
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"What happened to the Wild?Minnesota finished bottom of the Central Division, failing to compete. There were some gems in the rough, including Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek, who finished on 72 and 62 points respectively, but veterans Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville had poor seasons. Too much pressure was built upon the shoulders of young talents such as Mikael Granlund, who were unable to contribute much to the team.Minnesota was poor in defense too, although Jonas Brodin managed to notch up 30 assists for the season despite a plus-minus of -12.Devan Dubnyk was unable to capitalize on his Bill Masterton Trophy winning performance of last year, although he wasn’t offered much assistance from his teammates."
Check out the whole article on Gamesided to read about the whole league. I’ll give you a couple quick spoilers: neither the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues or Nashville Predators are predicted to win the Stanley Cup. That honor goes to the Detroit Red Wings.
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