Minnesota embraced its nickname and went wild in free agency this summer, signing the top two free agents on the market in Zach Parise and Ryan Suter on July 4. The team has been taking huge strides towards improving its annual scoring issues the past two summers, as it acquired Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley from the Sharks last offseason and now Parise and Suter this offseason. Other than adding Parise and Suter, young sensation Mikael Granlund will likely join the team.

Minnesota has always been known for holding its opponents without many goals, but always having trouble scoring themselves. This same trend continued last season, as the Wild rode their defense and goaltending to the NHL’s best record in the first two months of the season.

Then, everything fell apart as the Wild came back to Earth and finished 14 points out of the playoffs.

If we end up with a shortened season, it could end up being either really good or really bad for Minnesota. They could play like they did in October-December 2011 and enter the playoffs as a top seed, or they could finish with one of hockey’s worst records if they have a bad streak like January-April.

The additions in the offseason, most notably Parise, should pay huge dividends. He will undoubtedly provide the offense with the star power they have always needed, and if both he and Granlund can click either on the same line or separate lines, watch out.

On the other hand, expect Ryan Suter to underachieve since he is playing without Shea Weber as his defense partner. The weakness of the team this year could very well be the young and inexperienced defense corps which, beyond Suter, is not very deep at all.

The Wild will be an interesting team to watch. While two big offseason additions don’t automatically mean success (see Jeff Carter and James Wisniewski signings by Columbus), the Wild have improved as a whole and should be able to compete for one of the lower playoff spots this season.