There’s a lot the Minnesota Wild can learn from the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues, especially considering the two franchises aren’t much different in the grand scheme of things.

While the Wild look like a team that has no business being mentioned as a Stanley Cup contender next season, neither did the Blues this time last year.

After six consecutive playoff appearances for St. Louis, a disappointing season then had the Blues watching the NHL playoffs from home last season as the Washington Capitals went on to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Instead of rebuilding, though, the Blues retooled, pulling off an incredible trade to acquire Ryan O’Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres, while signing veterans Tyler Bozak, David Perron and Pat Maroon to reasonable deals in free agency. Then came the surprising midseason addition of Jordan Binnington between the pipes — and the rest is history, as the Blues got hot at the right time and rode the wave all the way to their first-ever Stanley Cup.

That’s not to say the Wild can pull off the same thing next season, though general manager Paul Fenton isn’t necessarily ruling it out.

“Why can’t it be this team?” Fenton said Friday when asked what the Wild can learn from the Blues. “That’s the way we have to look at it.”

In that same breath, Fenton mentioned how the Wild were a top-tier team in the league last season before star defenseman Matt Dumba went down with a season-ending injury.

“We looked really good,” Fenton said. “Our strength (next season) is going to come from our goaltending through our defense and then move up through our forwards.”

It’s unclear what the Wild roster will look like in 2019-20, and with the NHL Draft looming next week, Fenton had no interest in sharing his strategy for this offseason.

“Let’s just see where it goes,” he said. “We don’t know what health we’re going to be in at that time. Mikko (Koivu) continues to show progress and is taking the next step. I want to see where we are in a little bit here.”

That said, Fenton would love for the Wild to figure out a way to follow the model laid out by the Blues.

“Talk about staying the course and believing in the people and believing in the process,” Fenton said. (Blues general manger) Doug Armstrong did a great job of being patient through this. I give the players all the credit in the world. They knew they were under scrutiny and underachieving, and found a way to chip away and become a team. That’s what we’re all trying to get to.”