2014-2015 General Wild Discussion Thread IV

[Dee Oh Cee]

Yeah, all the greater tools he's had this year....that great 89% save percentage really helped him coach up this team!

 

[plock]

Yeah, all the greater tools he's had this year....that great 89% save percentage really helped him coach up this team!

Who decided it would be a good idea to go into the season with an aging and often injured goalie,another goalie with a debilitating disease who was never likely to play the whole season and a 24 year old with limited experience as the #1 goalie?

 

[tomgilbertfan]

Who decided it would be a good idea to go into the season with an aging and often injured goalie,another goalie with a debilitating disease who was never likely to play the whole season and a 24 year old with limited experience as the #1 goalie?

Chuck Fletcher.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

Certainly not the coach if that's what you're insinuating. And in regards to Fletcher, I'm....not sure how to evaluate the decisions this past off-season. It would have been impossible to predict the series of events leading to where we are today. Kuemper was reliable at the end of last season...and played great games in the post-season. Harding was reliable in terms of at least playing a portion of last season and appeared as healthy as he could have been in the off-season until kicking a wall.

Sure, Fletcher was put into that position by signing the Backstrom extension a couple years ago but he was put in a horrible spot with the Harding series of unfortunate events. Plus, sure, Kuemper is young and everything but I don't think anyone foresaw the regression that his play has had this season. So, in the end, I suppose it fell on management more than anything but their hands were tied a little bit too. It was just really really unlucky all around.

 

[BigT2002]

Who decided it would be a good idea to go into the season with an aging and often injured goalie,another goalie with a debilitating disease who was never likely to play the whole season and a 24 year old with limited experience as the #1 goalie?

I still think Yeo kept playing Kemps as much as he did to prove a point to Fletcher that he wasn't going to win with him as the #1 goalie.

Tie in the fact that outside of the Carolina games, most of these have been decided by 1-2 goals and are 2-1, 3-2 type games. The team is playing more defensive minded game again. Think even Zach was quoted to saying they drifted too far away from their defensive game and they are winning now because they got back to it.

 

[plock]

Certainly not the coach if that's what you're insinuating. And in regards to Fletcher, I'm....not sure how to evaluate the decisions this past off-season. It would have been impossible to predict the series of events leading to where we are today. Kuemper was reliable at the end of last season...and played great games in the post-season. Harding was reliable in terms of at least playing a portion of last season and appeared as healthy as he could have been in the off-season until kicking a wall.

Sure, Fletcher was put into that position by signing the Backstrom extension a couple years ago but he was put in a horrible spot with the Harding series of unfortunate events. Plus, sure, Kuemper is young and everything but I don't think anyone foresaw the regression that his play has had this season. So, in the end, I suppose it fell on management more than anything but their hands were tied a little bit too. It was just really really unlucky all around.

I hold Fletcher responsible for poorly assessing the goaltending situation

Harding has MS,can you think of any other athlete who plays at the top level of their sport who has MS?

Kuemper had played in 32 NHL games before this season.Did he play well in some of those games?Yes,but there were several games where he played poorly as well.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

That's fair, and I don't necessarily disagree that much either...goaltending situation has been in flux for far too long. But, I mean the whole MS thing isn't anyone's fault. I'm not sure what other course of action he could have taken re: Harding.

 

[StealthClobber]

Also, nobody could've known Harding would've gotten into a physical dispute with a wall before the season.

 

[DANOZ28]

backs was injured last summer so he couldnt be bought out so CF had his hands tied. CL has spent the money (atleast we dont have a cheapskate owner) and CF has tried to put a talented team on the ice last summer adding a supposed 30G scorer. what else could CF do? goaltending was below avg , some of our top guns have not produced upto their regular past production. our D & a few young guns have done well but we should be a top ten club and we're not.

 

[plock]

That's fair, and I don't necessarily disagree that much either...goaltending situation has been in flux for far too long. But, I mean the whole MS thing isn't anyone's fault. I'm not sure what other course of action he could have taken re: Harding.

It's a difficult situation,he could have use a compliance buyout on Harding but would have run the risk of looking like he was kicking a guy whose down.

 

[Engebretson]

I hold Fletcher responsible for poorly assessing the goaltending situation

Harding has MS,can you think of any other athlete who plays at the top level of their sport who has MS?

Harding signed his current deal in June 2012 and was diagnosed with MS later that year. Not only was he handling MS well after being diagnosed, but was pretty much carrying the team for the first half of last season before missing the rest of the season after his medication changed and affected his ability to play. Not sure how any of Harding's situation is really on Fletcher unless he secretly knew that Harding had MS and didn't release it publicly until months after they signed his deal. Harding with MS wasn't going to be moved, and I'm not sure the Wild wanted to buy him out after he had just won the Masterson. He had his kicking incident last summer and the Wild suspended him so they wouldn't have to pay him. Again, nothing that Fletcher could have forseen.

Backstrom was Fletcher's fault for giving him 3 years when he should have gave him 2, I will give you that. Kuemper was looking like our emerging #1 Goaltender after last season and I'm not sure anyone could have seen the mental issues coming that lead to his sputtering this season. Our only option that would have worked with him would have been to start him in the AHL, but that would have left us with Bryz (assuming we were going to re-sign him) and Backstrom to start the season. I don't think we'd be in any better of a situation. We could have gone after Miller in Free Agency instead of Vanek, but Miller wasn't looking great after being traded last year and Vanek was supposed to bring the goal scoring that everyone was clamoring for. I'm sure it would have been Fletcher's fault for not addressing the goal-scoring last summer if we went after a #1 goaltender instead.

Bottom line, Fletcher had his hands tied this last offseason with what he could do, and really the only part of that I can blame him for is the Backstrom contract because that's really the only part he had any direct control over. The rest is hindsight or out of his control.

 

[tomgilbertfan]

I hold Fletcher responsible for poorly assessing the goaltending situation

Harding has MS,can you think of any other athlete who plays at the top level of their sport who has MS?

Kuemper had played in 32 NHL games before this season.Did he play well in some of those games?Yes,but there were several games where he played poorly as well.

So he played like any goalie has?

What should he have done? Harding was by all measures as healthy as he's been this offseason and was ready to play, only had 1 year left on his deal, probably could've played most of this year and left at season's end, before he broke his foot.

No one expected Kuemper to implode this badly this season.

Backstrom was stuck on this roster thanks to his injury/surgery.

Trading for a goalie that early in the season would've been more costly than just a 3rd round pick, if a team could've been found that was willing to trade an NHL goalie that early in the season. Or I guess we could've signed Bryz/Broduer and seen them suck with us instead of the Ducks/Blues.

Long term we could've not given Backs the contract, most people were worried about the length. But we were looking at Having a goalie with MS and needed a stable goalie on the roster, which Backs had been before and we were hoping would be able to get back to after having that first surgery. I mean there were no UFA goalies signed there that were any good. Could've tried a trade I suppose.

I think going back a few years there are some moves GMCF could've made that would've made the goaltending situation less horrible this season, but that pretty much boils down to not signing Backs and making a trade for a goalie.

Using the Compliance buyout on Harding during the first offseason we could would've left us with 0 goalies if we didn't sign Backs, and during the 2nd buyout period he was still on IR and I'm not exactly sure how that whole thing would've gone down, logistically.

 

[plock]

Harding signed his current deal in June 2012 and was diagnosed with MS later that year. Not only was he handling MS well after being diagnosed, but was pretty much carrying the team for the first half of last season before missing the rest of the season after his medication changed and affected his ability to play. Not sure how any of Harding's situation is really on Fletcher unless he secretly knew that Harding had MS and didn't release it publicly until months after they signed his deal. Harding with MS wasn't going to be moved, and I'm not sure the Wild wanted to buy him out after he had just won the Masterson. He had his kicking incident last summer and the Wild suspended him so they wouldn't have to pay him. Again, nothing that Fletcher could have forseen.

Backstrom was Fletcher's fault for giving him 3 years when he should have gave him 2, I will give you that. Kuemper was looking like our emerging #1 Goaltender after last season and I'm not sure anyone could have seen the mental issues coming that lead to his sputtering this season. Our only option that would have worked with him would have been to start him in the AHL, but that would have left us with Bryz (assuming we were going to re-sign him) and Backstrom to start the season. I don't think we'd be in any better of a situation. We could have gone after Miller in Free Agency instead of Vanek, but Miller wasn't looking great after being traded last year and Vanek was supposed to bring the goal scoring that everyone was clamoring for. I'm sure it would have been Fletcher's fault for not addressing the goal-scoring last summer if we went after a #1 goaltender instead.

Bottom line, Fletcher had his hands tied this last offseason with what he could do, and really the only part of that I can blame him for is the Backstrom contract because that's really the only part he had any direct control over. The rest is hindsight or out of his control.

The moment they found out that Harding had MS they should have started looking into other goaltending options.Most athletes who are diagnosed with MS cannot perform at the same level 1 or 2 years post diagnosis,even without the wall kicking incident thinking Harding would have been able to play 30+ games this year was probably wishful thinking at best.I don't mean to sound harsh to Hardings situation,I have a lot of sympathy for him,I have a close family member with MS and I no how awful it is.

Regarding Kuemper,putting that much stock into him after only 36 games just doesn't seem wise to me.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Hindsight is 20/20.

Both Backstrom and Harding had massive physical problems AFTER they were signed to their current contracts. Not sure how you predict that.

Backstrom had had a few injuries before that, but they were pretty typical for a goalie.

And the flood of quality goalies becoming available also came after both guys were locked down and totally immovable.

 

[nickschultzfan]

If the Wild makes the playoffs, Fletcher re-sign Dubs, buys out Backstrom, and Kuemper settles into a backup role like Harding did for years, all reasonable possibilities, Fletcher would have managed the Backstrom/Harding debacle well.

Of course, if the Wild miss the playoffs, stuff is going to hit the fan.

 

[plock]

If the Wild makes the playoffs, Fletcher re-sign Dubs, buys out Backstrom, and Kuemper settles into a backup role like Harding did for years, all reasonable possibilities, Fletcher would have managed the Backstrom/Harding debacle well.

Of course, if the Wild miss the playoffs, stuff is going to hit the fan.

Nevermind misundertood what you were saying.

 

[gphr513]

If the Wild makes the playoffs, Fletcher re-sign Dubs, buys out Backstrom, and Kuemper settles into a backup role like Harding did for years, all reasonable possibilities, Fletcher would have managed the Backstrom/Harding debacle well.

Of course, if the Wild miss the playoffs, stuff is going to hit the fan.

I don't get why it has to. We could be talking about a difference of two points in those scenarios.

I think the team should be judged with the eye test the rest of the way, rather than a black and white "in the playoffs or not?"

If we play well, but fall one victory short of the playoffs, I don't necessarily think axes should come down.

 

[plock]

I don't get why it has to. We could be talking about a difference of two points in those scenarios.

I think the team should be judged with the eye test the rest of the way, rather than a black and white "in the playoffs or not?"

If we play well, but fall one victory short of the playoffs, I don't necessarily think axes should come down.

Leopold certainly had expectations for what the team would achieve this season and I am pretty sure those expectations were made clear to the management.I do not know what those expectations were but I would be surprised if they were to just make the playoffs.

Also I must add that even if the expectations were to get to the 2nd or 3rd round,while that may seem a tall task,it is still possible.

 

[DANOZ28]

if we miss the playoffs it will be a failure. in a league where over 50% of teams make the playoffs (kind of a joke) you fail if you miss. i wont blame the coach or CF, this year is on the players. like good marines you improvise , overcome , adapt & get it done period!

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Keranen!

 

[Jarick]

Yeo said he wanted to call up someone with pro experience. That's not Gabriel or Graovac.

Keranen I would say is past due for a look. Second on the Iowa Wild in points behind Graovac. He can play hockey. Very smart call-up.

 

[BurnsyMN]

Yeo said he wanted to call up someone with pro experience. That's not Gabriel or Graovac.

Keranen I would say is past due for a look. Second on the Iowa Wild in points behind Graovac. He can play hockey. Very smart call-up.

I'm surprised he didn't bolt back to Europe after not making the team. I'm excited to see him get rewarded. I'm not expecting much but he's had a good year on a very bad Iowa team.

 

[Al Lagoon]

Fun game:

Go to Yahoo sports, click NHL, click teams, choose Wild stats, sort by +/-.

Bottom three are also goal scorers 2,3,4 after Zach.

Hmmmm.

 

[Arturia Pendragon]

Fun game:

Go to Yahoo sports, click NHL, click teams, choose Wild stats, sort by +/-.

Bottom three are also goal scorers 2,3,4 after Zach.

Hmmmm.

If you click on the respective player names you'll notice that all 3 have been plus players the past 10 games (since Dubnyk has been playing), albeit Zucker barely.

Doesn't surprise me frankly.

 

[Al Lagoon]

If you click on the respective player names you'll notice that all 3 have been plus players the past 10 games (since Dubnyk has been playing), albeit Zucker barely.

Doesn't surprise me frankly.

I meant nothing against these guys - they are some of the better "hockey players" on the Wild.

Just thought it intersting, and for sure sets Parise apart.