What’s driving the Minnesota Wild's success this season?

It’s no great shock that the Central Division boasts the two best teams by record in the NHL. The Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, who have 49 and 47 points respectively, have been powerhouses for a few years now. What is a bit surprising, though, is that the Minnesota Wild, and not last season’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets, are sitting as the clear-cut third-placed team in the Central.

With 37 points through 30 games, the Wild are on pace for their seventh 100-point season in franchise history. Minnesota’s success has been largely driven by tremendous goaltending, as Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt have formed arguably the NHL’s best goalie tandem. The Wild’s 2.67 goals allowed per game ranks seventh in the league. Offensively, they’re led by the one-two punch of Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, who are both running at over a point-per-game pace.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Steve Peters from "Inside The Coaches’ Room" to discuss the causes and sustainability of Minnesota’s success.

Carter Hutton: The Minnesota Wild, who are a big tier down (from Colorado and Dallas) when you look at the points. You look at the teams chasing them, they have 37 and the next placed team has 30 with the ‘Hawks. They feel like that third-placed team. But are they a big tier down when you compare them? I know they’ve had great goaltending both of their guys.

Steve Peters: We talk about this team a lot. I think the Minnesota Wild, once losing the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, I really expected them to spread the wealth and try to pick up role players to fill up and down their lineup. They didn’t do that. They put all of their money into one bank with Kaprizov, and this team is top-heavy. Zaprizov and Boldy are the guys that drive this bus.

Right now it is that goaltending, and Jesper Wallstedt, that has been above average, much above what his numbers show what Wallstedt is over his career. He is way overshooting his skis right now, and last start he gave up four goals on 20 shots. I don’t think he’s that, but I also don’t think he’s a guy that gets four shutouts in 10 games. I think you’re going to see him come back down to Earth a little bit, and that’s going to have Minnesota in a little bit of disarray.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…