The Wild was a consistent playoff team regularly tripped up by the first round, and a solution to the staleness began last summer.
Paul Fenton was hired to replace Chuck Fletcher as general manager amid the expectation there would be tweaks.
Subtle at first, the revisions became more substantial as the Wild played more games — to the point that, after the exodus of former pillars in Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund, the team's lineup at season's end after it was officially eliminated from contention barely looked familiar.
And a longer-than-normal offseason could continue that shake-up since the Wild now isn't just striving to clinch a series. It first needs to get back to the playoffs after ending its six-year run.
"We have to change something," defenseman Ryan Suter said, "because what we have is not working."
Unlike recent years in which the Wild has had little room to maneuver under the salary-cap ceiling, it's primed to have much more flexibility this summer. With the cap projected to rise to $83 million, the Wild could have more than $18 million in space to utilize, according to capfriendly.com.
Some of that will likely be used to re-sign restricted free agents, a class that includes forwards Pontus Aberg, Ryan Donato, Joel Eriksson Ek, Kevin Fiala and Nico Sturm.
Once the Wild gets a feel for what those deals could cost, realistic targets should emerge in free agency — a pool that is set to feature Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene, Jeff Skinner, Anders Lee and Brock Nelson.