Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn/USA Today |
Stats
Minnesota (NHL): Regular Season-67 GP, 5 G, 21 A, 26 P, 16 PIM, 91 SOG
Playoffs-13 GP, 3 G, 3 A, 6 P, 2 PIM, 22 SOG
Review
If you are looking at just points, Ryan Suter comes across as the best defenseman on the Wild. If you dig a little deeper, you find that the Wild's top d-man would be Jared Spurgeon. Yes, he is small and lacks the physical play in front of the net that some of you seem to often point out. But beyond that, he turned in a solid 2013-14 season, and more importantly looked like he was the Wild's best defenseman while doing so in 15 less games than Suter (Spurgeon missed nearly all of January with a foot injury). Spurgeon was a tank for the Wild in the postseason, averaging over 24 minutes a night, and had a crucial goal for the Wild in Game 7 against Colorado.
Highlights
Status for 2014-15
Last summer, Spurgeon signed a three year, eight million dollar contract. He has two years now remaining, which comes to a cap hit of $2,666,667 for the remaining two years. Pretty decent price for the guy who was arguably the Wild's best defenseman this past year.
Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell
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