Koivu with Talent? Ridiculous.

Minnesota Wild Captain Mikko Koivu has never played on a line with any sort of goal-scoring talent, yet he has averaged around 60 points a season over his entire career. Over that six season span he has played with such scoring savants(*) as Antti Miettinen, Stephane Veilleux, Eric Belanger and Andrew Brunette. Ok, Brunette was a good player, but most of his former linemates were stiffs.

Fast-forward to this upcoming season. Most Wild experts project the Wild's first line to be comprised a combination of Koivu, Dany Heatley, Pierre-Marc and Devin Setoguchi. I don't think I'm going out on too skinny a limb here by putting the over/under on 2011-12 Koivu points at 80. He'll score somewhere around 30 and assist near 50. Another All-Star Game appearance, a Selke nomination and maybe even a Finlandia Vodka sponsorship are all in this future.

And don't even get me started on 2012-13 when the Finnish Mario comes over.

(*) I still haven't been able to locate the Sarcasm font.