#mnwild 2nd line could struggle mightily tonight. Johansson, Bonino and Kaprizov are 3 of only 4 Wild forwards who have an xGF% below 50% on the season. The ability to drive offense and suppress defense has been non-existent for 90 and 13, especially the last 3 games.

I also think moving Kaprizov onto this line hurts him individually and is worse than having Fiala there. Parise and Bjugstad aren’t elite defenders by any means, but they are responsible and allowed Kaprizov to be creative and make plays. Johansson and Bonino don’t

Really provide that safety as evident by some poor games over the last week. Now I have a theory as to why there’s insistence on keeping Marcus Johansson in the Top 6 - the Wild want to trade him and for a good haul.

Even when it happened, the Eric Staal for Marcus Johansson was an incredibly strange trade. Staal was a true Top 6 center and had been on of the Wild’s best forwards over the past few seasons. He had made it clear he loved Minnesota and wanted to stay in the State of Hockey.

So much so, he and former GM agreed to a modified 10-team NTC that allowed him to manipulate his trade destinations in a way he felt he couldn’t be traded - he simply listed 10 contenders who had the cap space that he figured would be interested in a #2 or #3 C at the deadline

Enter Buffalo - a team no one had pinned as a playoff team. Coming into his what’s likely going to be his last NHL season, the #mnwild knew they wouldn’t be able to move Staal at the deadline and that having him in the lineup probably wasn’t moving the teams needle all that much

So they decided to trade him to a team that wanted him and for Johansson, a player that has a pretty impressive track record in the playoffs - often a hot commodity at the deadline, who they could flip for assets - something they couldn’t do with Staal.

In my opinion, they should’ve gotten more off the hop than just Johansson. A player who’s had a WAR of no higher than 0.6 over that last three seasons, compared to Staal’s who averaged a WAR of 1.93.

I think the Wild are realizing now their trade isn’t going to plan and they’re

Trying to get Johansson going by playing him with guys like Kevin Fiala and Kaprizov in hopes to increase his production and trade value. So as bad as he’s been, I wouldn’t expect to see him demoted out of the top 6 - even when Zuccarello comes back.

In fact, things could potentially get worse when 36 returns as this could start the Johansson at Center experiment because there seems to be insistence on not breaking up the 3rd line and a 4th line role for Johansson (where he belongs IMO) isn’t ideal in the eyes of #mnwild

management.

TLDR; I don’t foresee the 2nd line getting better or changing all that much anytime soon because it would ruin Johansson’s trade value and #mnwild are trying to make it work because they realize trading Staal for him didn’t work and are trying to salvage that trade