The Minnesota Wild have been searching for playoff success since their inception. But aside from a Western Conference Final appearance in 2003, it has continuously eluded them. It has been especially agonizing in recent years, with seven straight series losses including a six-game defeat against the Dallas Stars earlier this year.

As Minnesota tries to break its cold streak in the playoffs, it's getting increasingly harder to do so. The Wild had some notable losses this offseason, such as Gustav Nyquist and Matt Dumba (who's still a free agent but is almost certainly not coming back), and they didn't make many notable signings to shore those losses up. Additionally, the buyout penalties for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are getting even harder to work around, with a combined cap hit of nearly $15 million for the next two seasons.

Clearly, the Wild have some major obstacles to overcome if they want to find postseason success. However, one roster concern stands tall above the rest. Without further ado, here is Minnesota's biggest roster concern ahead of the 2023-24 NHL season.

Wild's biggest roster concern deep into 2023 NHL free agency

Center Depth

It comes as no surprise that center is likely the most important position in hockey. More often than not, centers are the ones who are becoming top draft picks, earning the big bucks and winning major awards.

For the Wild, though, they've been missing that top-flight center for a long time, if not their entire existence. Their current center group is no exception, as there's no true star in the group.

That's not to say these players are bad, though. Joel Eriksson Ek is a great two-way center, while Ryan Hartman and Frederik Gaudreau have been good options considering their cheap cap hits. Marco Rossi, the No. 9 pick in 2020, hasn't had the best start to his NHL career with just one point in 21 games, but it's way too early to write him off.

That said, this center group is not ideal for a team that wants to compete for a cup. Ideally, all those centers could move down while making room for a true No. 1 center on the top line. Barring anything drastic, though, that won't be the case.

To further emphasize this point, every recent Stanley Cup champion had an elite center entering their top line. The Tampa Bay Lightning have Brayden Point, the Colorado Avalanche have Nathan MacKinnon and the Vegas Golden Knights have Jack Eichel. All those centers are top 10 in the league, and all of them had an argument for the Conn Smythe. Right now, Minnesota doesn't have a player even close to this level.

In fairness, there are some other factors at play here. For one, Minnesota has a pretty good group of wingers, highlighted by superstar Kirill Kaprizov and blossoming youngster Matthew Boldy. For two, the Wild's aforementioned cap struggles make it exceedingly difficult to bring in a top-flight center.

Regardless of the reason, though, it doesn't change the fact that this is still a major issue. Without that top-flight center, it's going to be very tough for the Wild to finally get over the postseason hump.