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Who's in: Kyle Brodziak, Martin Havlat, Shane Hnidy, Petr Sykora, Greg Zanon
Who's out: Marc-Andre Bergeron, Kurtis Foster, Dan Fritsche, Marian Gaborik, Martin Skoula, Stephane Veilleux

Outlook: The fallout from the playoff miss wasn't pretty, and it started only a few days after the season ended with Jacques "Trap" Lemaire stepping down and GM Doug Risebrough walking the plank. Coming into the fold are two relatively lesser knowns, Chuck Fletcher as GM and Todd Richards as coach, and both will be charged with ridding the Wild of their boring ways.

The only question is: Do they have the cast to pull it off?

The biggest change in terms of personnel will see brittle sniper Marty Havlat take over for Marian Gaborik, and a healthy season from him would go a long way toward improving the Wild's goal-scoring abilities. Other than Gaborik, who was a relative non-factor for much of the season, the personnel changes were limited to losing a trio of depth defencemen, with the replacements coming in the form of Greg Zanon and Shane Hnidy.

Even with such a solid defensive cast and Niklas Backstrom in goal, however, it's highly likely Richards opts for a far more aggressive style than we've seen out of Minnesota previously, so expect the goals for and against totals to rise. That's good news for the likes of Mikko Koivu, a rising two-way star, and bounce back seasons should be expected for Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Brent Burns, too, given their previous performance and potential.

That could very well all add up to a playoff reappearance, although this remains a team light on goal scorers, and the Wild could be on the outside looking in should Havlat, Koivu or a key blueliner go down.

X-factor: Petr Sykora

For a more in-depth Wild preview, visit Hockey Wilderness
For more NHL analysis, check out the McKeen's Hockey Yearbook