If you had to pick which among the Vikings, Twins, Wolves and Wild will be the next to win a championship — whether it's within one year, 10 years or 50 years — who would you choose? Each is compelling in its own way.
The Vikings? They seem to be the best option to win right now, given their NFC North title a season ago. But they also have their own tortured history.
The Twins? The last 2½ months notwithstanding, they still have a promising young core of prospects and — lest we forget — they're the only one of the four teams in question to have won a championship.
The Wild? Combine a new coach with a team that has made the playoffs four years in a row and a league in which even lower seeds can get hot and you get a recipe for a possible Stanley Cup champ.
The Wolves? A franchise with a long history of missteps might have figured something out with this latest rebuilding effort.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. mrand@startribune.com
