After it was thoroughly dismantled in three regular season meetings by Phoenix, the Timberwolves returned the favor when it mattered most.

Minnesota sent a major message to open the series en route to a 120-95 Game 1 victory at Target Center.

Suddenly, the series looks a lot more like advantage Wolves than the tossup it was originally viewed to be. Game 2 of the first-round series is Tuesday in Minneapolis.

What a shift in feelings from a week prior, when the Suns nuked Minnesota on the same floor in the regular season finale, forcing the Wolves into a first-round date with one of the hotter teams in the NBA — no pun intended.

A week ago, Minnesota didn’t seem to have an answer for Phoenix’s plethora of perimeter scorers. Conversations centered on ways in which Minnesota could go smaller to better match up with Phoenix.

But that was far from the case Saturday. Size was very much Minnesota’s ally. Rudy Gobert grabbed 16 rebounds on a day where the Wolves out-rebounded Phoenix 52-28 and scored 52 points in the paint to the Suns’ 34.

That was the thing Minnesota could hang its hat on throughout the day, and utilized it to maintain a healthy advantage capable of enduring any mini-Phoenix run. The Wolves led by 10 at the break.

And then the Anthony Edwards show came to life.

The 22-year-old all-star has always been a primetime performer who’s shined in the playoffs. Saturday was no different. Phoenix had trimmed Minnesota’s advantage to four midway through the third frame when Edwards delivered one of his patented third quarter explosions.

This time, he scored 18 in the quarter with a number of big-time hits. After one of the biggest ones at the end of the third, Edwards started talking all kinds of smack to Kevin Durant — who he’s noted on many occasions has always been his favorite NBA player.

All Durant could do was smile and laugh.

Edwards finished with 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

The Wolves truly blew the doors off the contest over a stretch spanning the late in the third quarter and early in the fourth when Edwards, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker put on a 3-point barrage. The trio combined to make 7 of 9 attempts in a span that saw Minnesota’s advantage balloon from 13 to 25.

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Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon has a wish for this election cycle. It is simply spoken but may be challenging to make real, at least in part.

“What I would wish for is high turnout and low drama, that is what I want,” Simon said Wednesday, April 17, at the League of Women Voters of the Willmar Area’s “Hot Topics” conversation held at the Willmar Public Library.

The League of Women Voters invited Simon to speak about elections and voting, causes close to the organization’s heart. During his hour-long talk, Simon spoke on new election laws, voting in Minnesota and the challenges of disinformation and misinformation. He said his office and the League of Women Voters can work together to spread the correct information about voting and elections in Minnesota and advocate for voting.

“We are in the democracy business,” Simon said.

For decades, Minnesota has long been one of the top — if not the top — states in the nation for election turnout. In three of the last four elections, Minnesota has had the best voter turnout of the country.

Simon is optimistic that will hold true in 2024. A big reason for Minnesota’s success is a variety of election bills the Legislature, both Republican- and Democrat-led, has passed over the years, Simon said.

“They’ve done a good job balancing two things … access and security,” Simon said. “You want everyday people to be able to vote pretty easily. Security means you want only eligible voters, and no one else taking advantage of that accessibility.”

Laws that have helped with voting accessibility include same-day voter registration, which has been allowed for 51 years, and the opening of absentee voting to all voters, approved in 2013.

“We couldn’t have known in 2013 that in seven years that would basically save the election,” Simon said, pointing to the large number of absentee voters in 2020 due to the pandemic.

In 2023, state lawmakers passed a variety of new and updated voting laws, covering voting rights, registration and protection for election workers.

“Last year, 2023, in the Legislature, it was a really banner year for the democracy business,” Simon said. “I think they’re going to put us in an even better position, balancing access and security.”

Included in the voting and election laws passed last year was restoring the voting rights of those who have been convicted of a felony but have completed their incarceration sentence.

“That is 50,000-plus Minnesotans who got the right to vote back,” Simon said, adding that a big push for his office is to spread the word about this change to those it impacts.

On the voter registration side, Minnesota will now provide automatic voter registration when eligible Minnesota residents renew or apply for a driver’s license, though they can choose to opt out.

Simon explained that only proven American citizens will be able to register to vote, and that undocumented immigrants applying for a license will be removed from the voter registration pile.

Minnesota teenagers age 16 and 17 are now able to pre-register to vote. They complete the registration paperwork so that when they turn 18, their registration is automatically completed so they can cast their ballot during the first election in which they are eligible. Simon has already visited more than 30 high schools in the state, helping sign students up.

“If someone votes the first time they are eligible, they are far more likely to make it a lifelong habit,” Simon said.

One action Minnesota took that may never actually go into effect is passing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which says that when enough states that total 270 Electoral College votes approve the legislation, those states will give all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.

This means no longer would the presidency be given to a candidate who is second in the popular vote.

“It is no longer tenable for us to be electing the person who got the second-most votes to the most powerful job in not only the country but, practically speaking, the world,” Simon said.

This isn’t a knock on former presidents George W. Bush or Donald Trump, who both won the presidency but lost the popular vote. Simon said they were elected president fair and square.

The law also wouldn’t get rid of the Electoral College, but instead, use it to make sure the candidate with the most citizen votes wins. The U.S. Constitution already gives each state the right to choose how it appoints its members to the Electoral College.

“It could be many, many years, decades whether or if we reach 270,” Simon said.

While the state’s election laws will most likely continue to help with the high voter turnout portion of Simon’s 2024 wish, having an election free of drama — especially in a country so divided — will be a little harder to pull off.

The challenges of disinformation, misinformation and the additional problems that can be caused by deepfakes and artificial intelligence are all things Simon is trying to push back on.

“We can lead with the truth,” Simon said.

Simon said he has no issue with people disagreeing with him, or about the laws or how the voting system works. He wants all eligible voters to have the same opportunities to take part in the election but hopes everyone can express their beliefs and opinions in a controlled, non-violent way during a very intense political year with a lot of strong feelings and harshly expressed opinions.

“We are electing the most powerful person on planet Earth,” Simon said. “I think a little intensity and passion are called for.”

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The Wild would have enormous capacity to improve their team this offseason if it weren’t for that meddling dead cap space.

That will have to wait another year. In the meantime, general manager Bill Guerin believes he still can make his team a contender in 2024-25.

“We want to win now,” Guerin said Friday, a day after the 2023-24 season officially ended with a 4-3 loss to Seattle at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild had been eliminated from the postseason for a little more than a week by then, marking the second time in 12 seasons they had missed the playoffs. Injuries were an issue in 2023-24; captain Jared Spurgeon played only 16 games, and key players such as Kirill Kaprizov, Jonas Brodin, Marcus Foligno, Matt Boldy and Mats Zuccarello all missed stretches. So was a 5-10-4 start that cost Dean Evason his job. And so was a handful of disappointing seasons from veterans.

But the biggest reason was something that isn’t going away this year, the $14.7 million in dead salary cap space the team carried this season, part of the penalty for buying out the identical 13-year, $98 million contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

That cap hit was a big topic of discussion early because the Wild couldn’t afford to call up some of their higher-paid prospects until the team started getting long-term injury relief. The reality is the die already had been cast. Without veteran free-agent acquisitions, Minnesota spent the entire season relying on call-ups from the American League team in Des Moines.

By season’s end, players with little-to-no NHL experience were playing on special teams, including the league’s third-worst penalty kill.

As veteran winger Marcus Foligno said Friday, “You’re not gonna have these guys that come up from the AHL and fill in on the penalty kill and make it miraculously better. It’s not right for them to be put in that position.”

But they were because the Wild had no other choice, and it could happen again next season. Guerin wants to win now, but his capacity is limited to add veterans that might really help a team that finished with a minus-12 goals deficit.

And here it comes again, that $14.7 million dead cap hit. That shrinks to less than $1.6 million next season, but as Guerin said Friday, he wants to win now.

How?

“Obviously, if the cap goes up, we’ll have more money,” Guerin said. “I know everybody else will, too, but we can really use it. Like I said, we’ll do what we can. We’ll look at every possible option that we have, whether that’s free agency, trades, anything we can do to improve the team.”

The NHL salary cap is expected to rise from $83.5 million this season to $87.7 million for 2024-25, despite the fact that a lot of NHL teams are struggling with television contracts.

That extra cap space would really help.

Currently, the Wild have 15 players under one-way, NHL contracts for next season, plus Brock Faber and Marco Rossi, who just finished terrific rookie seasons and have one more year on their entry-level deals. Total cost is $64.13 million, which looks great without the addition of $14.7 million Guerin can’t spend. That brings the total to $78.8 million.

That could give Guerin roughly $9 million, minus a bit of cap cushion, to fill out a 23-man roster. He did a lot of work this season — signing veterans Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Zach Bogosian and Marc-Andre Fleury to extensions — and is hoping some of those spots can be taken by young, inexpensive prospects.

Rookie Declan Chisholm, a restricted free agent acquired from Winnipeg on waivers in December, seems a lock to start on the blue line, and forwards Marat Khusnutdinov and Liam Ohgren finished the season with the NHL club, as did Mason Shaw, Adam Beckman, Jake Luchinni and Vinni Lettieri, all of whom started last season in Des Moines.

“We’re starting to see, I think, some of the patience pay off when you see some of these younger players getting into the mix,” Guerin said. “So, you want to continue that as well. But look, if there’s an opportunity to improve our team right away, we will do it.”

The most obvious potential for that seems to be a trade involving a goalie.

The Wild were counting on replacing Fleury and his $3.5 million contract with rookie Jesper Wallstedt and the last year of his $925,000 entry deal. Instead, they signed Fleury to a one-year, $2.5 million contract and now have Fleury, Wallstedt and incumbent No. 1 Filip Gustavsson as options.

After signing Fleury for the future hall of famer’s final NHL season, Guerin called the Wild’s goaltending situation “a position of strength.”

Wallstedt, 21, played three NHL games this season, and after a rough start — a 7-0 loss at Western Conference power Dallas — went 2-0 with a 1.01 goals-against average and .962 save percentage in starts at Chicago and San Jose. Gustavsson had a down year (3.06 GAA, .899 save %) but was one of the NHL’s best goaltenders in 2022-23, his first full season.

Fleury has a no-move clause, and Guerin didn’t sign him to trade him, anyway. Leaving Wallstedt in Iowa for most of another season makes little sense, as well, and Gustavsson — who turns 26 in July and has two more years on his deal — is an attractive trade target.

In fact, Gustavsson might be the only veteran trade target on the roster without a no-trade clause in his deal, and he’s due to make more than Fleury and Wallstedt combined ($3.75 million) next season.

There is a risk involved in relying on a 39-year-old veteran and a rookie with three NHL games under his belt, but if Guerin wants to win now, he could really use another veteran top six forward. Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy accounted for 42 percent of all goals this season, and only Hartman and Rossi added as many as 20 goals (21 apiece).

“One of our main objectives is to improve the forward group,” Guerin said.

WRAPPED UP

The Wild have 17 players projected to make the 2024-25 roster under contracts worth $64.13 million next season, well under the projected salary cap of $87.7 million. But they’ll also have $14.7 million in dead cap space to contend with.

Forwards                 Signed through      No trade?
Kirill Kaprizov            2025-26                   No
Joel Eriksson Ek       2028-29                   No
Matt Boldy                2029-30                   No
Mats Zuccarello        2025-26                   Yes
Marcus Foligno         2027-28                  Yes
Freddy Gaudreau     2027-28                   Yes
Marcus Johansson   2024-25                   Yes
Ryan Hartman          2026-27                   Yes
Marco Rossi             2024-25*                  No

Defensemen           Signed through     No trade?
Jared Spurgeon       2026-27                  Yes
Jonas Brodin            2027-28                 Yes
Jake Middleton         2024-25                  No
Jon Merrill                2024-25                  No
Zach Bogosian         2025-26                 Yes
Brock Faber             2024-25*                No

Goaltenders           Signed through     No trade?
Filip Gustavsson      2025-26                 No
Marc-Andre Fleury   2024-25                 Yes
*Entry level contract

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