After losing Ian Cole, Ryan Suter and Carson Soucy, Wild found offseason answers on defense

Ian Cole intended to stay with the Wild.

"I really, really enjoyed my time," the veteran defenseman said. "Really enjoyed the team. Really enjoyed the city. Really enjoyed the fans. The goal this summer was to try to re-sign and come back here to Minnesota."

But once NHL free agency opened in July, Cole joined Carolina, leaving the Wild after one season.

His exit contributed to significant turnover on the blue line, but the Wild has established a new depth chart — one that's relied on Nos. 1-7.

"I think things have worked out well for the Minnesota Wild," Cole said.

A trade pickup three games into last season, Cole brought a veteran presence, gritty style and winning pedigree to the Wild after capturing the Stanley Cup twice with Pittsburgh.

General Manager Bill Guerin was in the Penguins' front office during those championship runs and snagged Cole from Colorado, a move that complemented the player and the Wild.

Neither, however, remained with the team.

While Soucy was claimed by Seattle in the expansion draft, Cole landed a one-year, $2.9 million contract with the Hurricanes. Factor in the departure of Ryan Suter, who was bought out along with Zach Parise, and the Wild had three vacancies on its back end.

"After the buyouts, they were a little tight to the [salary] cap," said Cole, who was among the Carolina players who tested positive for COVID-19 before the NHL postponed the Hurricanes' game vs. the Wild on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center. "Why didn't it work out? Tough to say."

The Wild patched the holes on defense through free agency, bringing in Alex Goligoski before Cole signed with Carolina. After Cole was unavailable, the Wild acquired Dmitry Kulikov, Jon Merrill and Jordie Benn.

Now, two months into the season, everyone has helped out — so much so that coach Dean Evason faced a "brutal" decision of sidelining one player after his defense returned to full strength.

"Players don't want to hear it's tough for coaches to sit a guy out, but it is," Evason said. "[Benn's] played extremely well. Did everything obviously on the ice but more importantly did all the right things off the ice, not only when he was in the lineup but when he was out of the lineup, he conducted himself correctly. You hear it's a numbers thing, and it is 100 percent just a numbers thing."

With Brodin healed up, the Wild can reunite him with longtime partner Matt Dumba and reassemble the former No. 1 duo of Goligoski and captain Jared Spurgeon. Merrill and Kulikov would also be back together.

But, based on Benn's steadiness during an 11-game stretch in which the Wild went 8-2-1 while at times being without Brodin, Spurgeon and Dumba, the Wild could continue to utilize all its defensemen.

"You want to have guys obviously playing consistently and get your pairs together," he said. "But when you have a situation like this, he's played well — really well. Yeah, we'll consider a rotation of some sort into our mix."