Lockout Perks

 

ok, the lockout is a bummer and anybody who follows the NHL is getting a little stir-crazy right now. To try to take the high road, I've been racking my brain about the few advantages to the lockout.  As a Wild fan I originally thought we were one of the teams that got the worst of it.  We all want to see Parise and Suter on the ice in Wild jerseys and most of us are sick of waiting.  However, there are a few reasons the lockout may not be the end of the world for the Wild.

 

1) The Wild have one of the most anticipated prospects this season in Mikael Granlund.  Some are looking for him to be a Franchise savior (not as many now that Z-Par is here) and some think he will be one of the biggest busts since A.J. Thelen.  Chances are he will fall in the middle of that somewhere.  For all the naysayers that thought the smaller North American ice sheet was going to hurt Granlund, it appears he is adjusting quite well in the AHL.  He's finding his groove along with the rest of the Minnesota prospect pool and was just named AHL Rookie of the Month.  Granlund getting to adjust to the North American game while not being in the spotlight of the NHL may not be the worst thing for the Finnish superstar.

 

2) Granlund isn't the only player benefitting from extra time in the AHL.  The Wild are still one solid defenseman short of being a legitimate playoff team (Maybe more, but I like Suter, Gilbert, and Scandella as top four guys.)  While NHL veteran defensemen are not playing right now, Jonas Brodin is in Houston developing himself.  Brodin is projected to be a steady, Lidstrom-type defenseman.  The problem is he was still probably a year from being NHL ready.  Well at this rate, it looks like by the time the Parise/Suter led Wild team reveals itself to the fans of the State of Hockey Jonas Brodin will be NHL ready.  Can't complain about that!

 

3) The last perk to the lockout is one more top 10 draft pick.  I don't think Parise and Suter transform the Wild to a Stanley Cup contender as early as next season, but I do think it brings them up to a playoff team.  They were bound to be stuck in that middle spot that teams like Buffalo find themselves every year.  They aren't good enough to win it all but they aren't bad enough to get a top 10 draft pick.  Well, the Wild may have one more top 10 choice to stock the cupboards before entering the Parise/Suter era of Wild hockey!

 

All in all, the lockout is terrible and I'm as antsy as any hockey fan for it to get started.  But I will say I would be a lot more upset about it if I was a fan of an older team.  The veteran players that are nearing the end of their careers aren't going to get this year back.  That is the sad and painful realization.  Matt Cullen fits that mold, but the most anticipated Wild players are all young (in fact, most of the excitement revolves around the prospects like Granlund, Brodin, Coyle, Zucker, and Larsson to name a few.)  So until Bettman and Fehr figure this out, Go Aeros!