Coach Dean Evason believes Wild winning the Cup now does not come with an asterisk

With COVID-19 having effectively ended the 2019-20 season prematurely, and with the long layoff heading into what was supposed to be the most important time of the year in the hockey world, many have made the argument that there will be an asterisk next to the name of whichever team walks away the 2020 Stanley Cup Champions.

Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason is not one of the people who believes that the integrity of the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be compromised, holding firm to the opinion that regardless of who wins hockey's greatest prize, it will match the glory of winning Lord Stanley's Cup in any other season. He also believes that his Minnesota Wild could be the ones hoisting it.

"There's a Stanley Cup at the end here," said Evason. "… If somebody 20 years down the line says you know, 'Who won the Cup in 2020?' it's not going to be, 'Oh, that was the COVID year.' It's just going to be, 'The Minnesota Wild won the Stanley Cup.'"

Call it what you will, whether it be 'delusions of grandeur' or 'a pipe dream', you can say that this team is dreaming big, but you can't say that they don't have a chance after the St. Louis Blues went on an absolute tear last season, surging from last place to winning the Cup in just a few short months. Granted, the odds are a little more stacked against the Wild this season, what with all of the killers in the West, but as the saying goes, they have a "puncher's chance".

If the Wild do, indeed, find their way to the dance floor, and if they do manage to hoist the Cup, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single guy in that locker room who would view it as an illegitimate victory.

"I think the players are excited about that opportunity. Our goal is always to win the Stanley Cup, but we had to get in, in order to get there. We're there; we're in. ... If you can win that Stanley Cup, I assume, I hope that when you pick it up, it'll feel the exact same way."

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