Twenty-one million dollars.

2002-03 BY THE NUMBERS

Record: 42-29-10-1, 95 pts. (T10th overall, T6th West, 3rd Northwest); Home: 25-13-3-0; Road: 17-16-7-1 Goals for/Avg.: 198/2.41 (24th overall) Goals against/Avg.: 178/2.17 (4th overall) Differential: Plus-20 (10th overall) Power play: 14.2 percent (52-366, 23rd overall) Penalty kill: 86.0 percent (265-308, 4th overall) 20-goal scorers: Marian Gaborik (3), Pascal Dupuis (20) 50-point scorers: Gaborik (65)

That's chump change in the NHL. Heck, Jaromir Jagr made more than that all by himself during the past two years. So did Keith Tkachuk, Nick Lidstrom and Pavel Bure.

But none of them got further in the postseason than the Minnesota Wild. The third-year expansion club jumped from just 26 wins in 2001-02 to 42 last season. They made the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the West. They rallied from 3-1 deficits to stun both the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks before going the way of the Red Wings at the hands of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

All for a league-low $21 million.

"We weren't even supposed to win one game," said coach Jacques Lemaire.

But Lemaire and his hockey club don't care much for popular opinion. They played their system, the one that lets every player do what he does best, a livelier modification of Lemaire's trademark neutral-zone trap with an aggressive forecheck and rapid transitions. No player is more important than another -- even Marian Gaborik; the Wild's leading scorer, first-ever All-Star and only true ace in the hole, is just another card in the deck. As long as they work hard, everyone fits in.

Like Filip Kuba. The Florida Panthers didn't think he was as physical as a 6-foot-3, 205-pound defenseman should be. When they tried to turn him into a bruiser, his game suffered and the Panthers threw in the towel. Lemaire took him in. He never asked Kuba to make a habit of driving people into the boards-instead, he's a master of getting in the way. Kuba is big, strong, and tough to skate around. He's a match-up guy now -- deployed against opponents' top players -- and he leads the team in ice time.

And Wes Walz, who lit it up in junior but was unable to find a scoring touch in the NHL. He spent four seasons in the Swiss league where Lemaire and Wild GM Doug Risebrough found him and lured him back. Ten years ago, "checking" and Wes Walz were rarely found in the same sentence. Last season, he was a finalist for the Selke Trophy.

There's more. Center Sergei Zholtok had a rep for being lazy, right winger Richard Park was a journeyman at best and left winger Matt Johnson couldn't get out of his own way. Now, under Lemaire, Zholtok works his tail off every night on both ends of the ice, Park adds timely goals and Johnson adds a much needed physical presence.

Then, there is that hockey adage that says you can't win with a goaltending tandem. Well, Dwayne Roloson and Manny Fernandez have disproved that theory. Roloson (2.00 GAA, .927 save percentage) played 50 regular-season games and 11 in the playoffs, and Fernandez (2.24, .924) played 35 in the regular season and nine in the playoffs. Their GAA's were both in the top ten, and their save percentages were in the top five.

The Wild far exceeded expectations. Their American Hockey League team, the Houston Aero's, won the Calder Cup. Lemaire won the Jack Adams Award as the league's best coach, and Aeros' coach Todd McLellan was named minor league coach of the year by The Hockey News. The State of Hockey proved worthy of the title by filling the Xcel Center to the brim every night. So, when Wild president Tod Leiweke left to become the CEO of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks in July, Risebrough was promoted to President and General Manager. Why not? He's certainly gotten the job done.

Looking at next season
For the Wild, not much has changed.

The only significant acquisition during the offseason has been Marc Chouinard, a big free-agent center picked up from the Mighty Ducks to add size up the middle and beef up the faceoff percentage. The 6-5, 218-pound Chouinard won 55 percent of his faceoffs last season and finished second in the league at 60.9 percent in 2001, far better than the Wild's team total of 46.8 percent last season.

The only major loss -- so far -- is Cliff Ronning, whom the Wild allowed to become an unrestricted free agent. The diminutive center (5-8, 165) was second on the team in scoring to Gaborik with 48 points and was a regular on the power play. Ronning put his house in Minnesota up for sale, but the Wild would likely still sign him on the cheap if he's willing to take a pay cut.

Gaborik, the team's leading scorer with 65 points and a restricted free agent, has not yet re-signed. He's coming off of his second consecutive 30-goal season and a stellar playoff performance (nine goals and 17 points in 18 games), and should get a sizeable raise from last year's $1.1 million. The Wild would like a multiyear deal; though they don't praise Gaborik much publicly, they're well aware he's the future of the franchise.

When Gaborik draws all the defense the opposition can muster, the Wild have a slew of forwards who fill the scoring void. Andrew Brunette had 18 goals last year, nine on the power play. Emerging sniper Pascal Dupuis had 20. Antti Laaksonen, the only Wild player to appear in all 246 regular-season games in franchise history, had 15. Zholtok had 16. Park and Walz had a timely 14 and 13, respectively. Pierre-Marc Bouchard, just 19 years old, played 50 games for the Wild last season and proved he has the potential to wheel and deal with the best of them. Calder Cup-winning Aeros Rickard Wallin, Stephane Veilleux and Kyle Wanvig will also compete for roster spots.

Lemaire will continue to change his lines far more regularly than he changes socks, and he'll continue to rely on leadership from his monthly rotating captains and assistant captains -- veteran center Jim Dowd is always in the mix-to keep sanity up front.

On defense, depth is an issue. Behind Kuba are veteran Brad Bombardir and Andrei Zyuzin. Willie Mitchell endured a broken cheekbone and a sprained wrist in the playoffs, proving the 26-year-old has the toughness to match his 6-3, 205-pound frame. Nick Schultz, 21, played with poise in 75 regular-season games and all 18 of the Wild's playoff games. The Wild re-signed rugged Brad Brown, rounding out the top six. But if anyone takes a fall, the Wild don't have anyone beyond minor-leaguer Travis Roche to fill the void. When the Maple Leafs decided not to pick up the $2-million option on Phil Housley, rumor had it that the Wild were interested in the 39-year-old St. Paul native.

If they don't, Lemaire and Risebrough should be able to come up with a few more bargain-basement steals ... and pick up right where they left off last season.

Lindsay Berra of ESPN The Magazine can be e-mailed at lindsay.berra@espnmag.com.