Neal: Just how good can this Wild team be?

The 25th season of Wild hockey is set to begin on Thursday in St. Louis. While there is relief that Kirill Kaprizov’s record eight-year, $136 million contract extension is completed, there’s now expectations that the franchise can move forward and develop into a contender.

As opening faceoffs take place across the league this week, I’m here with three predictions/expectations for the coming season.

It was about 30 minutes following Wild practice on Monday, but there were two players still on the ice at Tria Rink in St. Paul.

Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.

They were firing pucks at each other, deflecting shots and making a game out of it.

But a couple things jumped out.

Kaprizov was on a 50-goal pace last season before a lower body injury cut his season in half. He’s healthy to start the year and is in the prime of his career. He’ll play with either a very good center in Joel Eriksson Ek or the improving Marco Rossi, which could lead to the best season of his six-year career.

The Wild are not getting the version of Vladimir Tarasenko that was the six-time 30-plus goal scorer who twice fired hat tricks at them in the postseason.

But they should have a better version of Tarasenko than the one who scored just 33 points in 80 games with Detroit last season.

Things didn’t go well for Tarasenko with the Red Wings, to the point where he welcomed a change of scenery.

He’s got one, and he’s more comfortable in the Wild locker room, getting along with teammates, mentoring young players and looking sharp during training camp.

Simply put, he’s in a better situation here.

All of this should bring out a better Tarasenko.

He’s not going to turn back the clock to his 30-goal seasons. My call is that he reaches 20 goals this season, which would be a nice jump from the 11 he scored for Detroit last year and a fair return on the $4.75 million he’s earning.

Looking back on last season, it’s amazing the Wild were a 97-point team with a power play and penalty kill that ranked in the bottom half of the league. The penalty kill ranked near the bottom, 30th, for the second consecutive season. And that was with the celebrated Yakov Trenin free agent signing.

Both will improve this season.

Hynes is going to find the right forwards to get the power play going, but the unit will get a boost from 19-year old Zeev Buium.

As for the penalty kill, you can’t fall down when you’re already on the floor.

Trenin reported to camp a little lighter, which should help. But the addition of Nico Sturm, who is good in the faceoff circle, would have been a boost. Unfortunately, he is out for an extended period of time with a back issue.

Winning draws in their own end gets the penalty kill off to a good start. If the Wild can get better on the dot, expect a more effective unit.

Every prediction is predicated on health. That means the Wild are off to a terrible start with Sturm, Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello already sidelined. As a result, there are eight players on the opening night roster younger than 24.

But when healthy, the Wild are at least a 100-point team, postseason-worthy and can win a series. This is not the time to dwell on negatives.