Management Bill Guerin

[GuerinUp]

The fact that Addison isn't (or wasn't ) on the team has nothing to do with whether he is better than Benn or Merrill, IMO. That's part of my problem with Guerin. His assessment of talent. Pitlick was a guy who was literally handed a job without ever playing in camp, while Beckman, who clearly earned a spot was sent down.

I get it if Guerin wants them to get a ton of prime minutes down in the AHL with the puck on their stick, but at some point there has to be a meritocracy, or players start to question authority.

i mean, i understand why beckman was sent down. as good as he is offensively, itd be nice to get him a little better defensively.

i also am glad he was the 1st to be called up.

 

[AKL]

that is my mistake and i will take 100% responsibility for it, i for some reason had thought he played an entire season in the ahl with wilkes barre

Even if he had, it doesn't matter. Addison was clearly better than Benn and Merrill in camp and pre-season, and he was the best of the four prospects as well. The fact that he didn't make the team is not an indication of what his career holds, in the same way it isn't an indication for the other three not making it over Pitlick.

 

[thestonedkoala]

i also am glad he was the 1st to be called up.

No he wasn't...I mean out of Rossi and Boldy, yes, but only because Rossi was out due to illness and may not be up to game speed and Boldy is injured.

 

[57special]

i mean, i understand why beckman was sent down. as good as he is offensively, itd be nice to get him a little better defensively.

i also am glad he was the 1st to be called up.

TBH, I could give a f*** if he can play Defense, as long as he keeps shooting the puck. We've got guys like JEE, Gaudreau, Sturm, Duhaime, Foligno, etc. to play defense. What is enticing about Beckman is that he might be that rare and valuable commodity...a sniper. You could see even in the last game when he fired a shot from about 35' out that Kuemper had trouble handling it.

 

[Ban Hammered]

The fact that Addison isn't (or wasn't ) on the team has nothing to do with whether he is better than Benn or Merrill, IMO. That's part of my problem with Guerin. His assessment of talent. Pitlick was a guy who was literally handed a job without ever playing in camp, while Beckman, who clearly earned a spot was sent down.

I get it if Guerin wants them to get a ton of prime minutes down in the AHL with the puck on their stick, but at some point there has to be a meritocracy, or players start to question authority.

Part of that is the roles they are being asked to play. I don't think management wants Beckman spending a whole season up here on the 4th line. Injury replacement sure, but they'd rather have him as a top 6 guy in Iowa for most of the year...same with Boldy, Rossi or Addison. So it's not are they better than Benn, Merrill or Pitlick, it's can they stick in the top 4/6.
Does that contradict with what he said? Sure, but then GM speak is a nothing burger for me anyway.

 

[57special]

I don't have a good read on how good or bad Addison is on defense. He basically seems a little disinterested. What he can do is handle the puck like a NHL PMD, and he has very good skating ability to get him out of trouble. That has some value, especially if he can limit turnovers. Basically, if you can keep possession of the puck then you don't have to play D(yes, i know that's a Yeo concept).

Oh and Addison is built thickly, and is a bit feisty. Certainly thicker than Spurgeon was when he came into the league. I would love for Spurgeon to mentor him a bit as a small man in a big man's league.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

are you implying reinhart is as good of a player as malkin?

and youre ignoring the fact that the malkin trade was for near even salary cap, where as the reinhart trade was a -5.2 milion

Malkin trade was for even cap until his contract is over in 6 months? And then what? Guaranteed he is signing for more than $5.2M. Rask is gone either way. Now we're out a top defensive prospect for 6 months of a player who is gonna miss 25-30 games this season and is a rental. Got it.

 

[Bazeek]

No offense, but it's pretty sad when the high points of my Wild fan existence are one of your posts.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Reinhart was also a RFA.

Even minor guys like Wennberg, Suter, and Granlund have signed.

Gaudette was also traded. It's amazing how many trades have happened for centers that Minnesota had zero interest in.

we do not know this. there were rumors and speculations that we were in on guys but didnt like the price or this or that. just because we need a C does not mean we need to be in on EVERY c thats available.

 

[AKL]

we do not know this. there were rumors and speculations that we were in on guys but didnt like the price or this or that. just because we need a C does not mean we need to be in on EVERY c thats available.

Gaudette has also been playing wing because he's not defensively proficient enough to play center.

 

[GuerinUp]

hey, look at that. i make a controversial take and the boards light up momentarily

ill admit, i was a little hard on addison because i thought he had another season under his belt in the ahl.

 

[Bazeek]

we do not know this. there were rumors and speculations that we were in on guys but didnt like the price or this or that. just because we need a C does not mean we need to be in on EVERY c thats available.

Having standards is good, but the argument falls a little flat when the bar ends up being set at Marcus Johansson and Freddy Gaudreau. I don't want to judge Guerin by every acquisition he doesn't make, but jeez...

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Having standards is good, but the argument falls a little flat when the bar ends up being set at Marcus Johansson and Freddy Gaudreau. I don't want to judge Guerin by every acquisition he doesn't make, but jeez...

i dont disagree, im simply stating that his zero interest take is incorrect. there was reports of talks about dvorak, domi even. that alone is not zero. people speculater about gaudette and suter. has what he done at C right? not exactly no but saying he has shown zero interest when it was even rumored he had asked about trocheck and eichel (who apparently may goto vegas) is wrong. i dont love that he is taking chances on poop centers, but i do like that he isnt giving up the farm hoping one of them is it either.

Gaudette has also been playing wing because he's not defensively proficient enough to play center.

not disputing this at all. Gaudette for a lower pick wouldnt of hurt but there was a good reason he was available.

 

[GuerinUp]

Having standards is good, but the argument falls a little flat when the bar ends up being set at Marcus Johansson and Freddy Gaudreau. I don't want to judge Guerin by every acquisition he doesn't make, but jeez...

idk if gaudreau has been a bad signing, its hard to tell if fiala is the reason his line hasnt been producing or his own play. i will say, he is one of the better forecheckers ive seen in a long time. seems to constantly get his stick on pucks.

i will agree his career stats dont look great, but he hasnt necessarily looked lost out there.

might need more time on this one to make a definitive judgement.

 

[AKL]

not disputing this at all. Gaudette for a lower pick wouldnt of hurt but there was a good reason he was available.

I'm not sure who the equivalent of Matthew Highmore is in our organization, but neither of them appear to be any better than Gaudreau, who Guerin got for free in the summer.

So your original point stands. There's no reason Guerin needs to be in on EVERY trade.

 

[thestonedkoala]

we do not know this. there were rumors and speculations that we were in on guys but didnt like the price or this or that. just because we need a C does not mean we need to be in on EVERY c thats available.

Dvorak I think is the only one I can think of - well Eichel as well. Domi isn't even a center at this point. But guys like Bennett, Reinhart, there was zero reports that Minnesota was interested.

 

[Dickie Dunn]

I think I've come around to the idea that Guerin is essentially punting this year and the next 3. I doubt we see a substantial center acquisition until 2024-25. And I'm not even all that bothered by it.....I just hope it works out and they somehow draft a star or two along the way.

 

[Bazeek]

i dont disagree, im simply stating that his zero interest take is incorrect. there was reports of talks about dvorak, domi even. that alone is not zero. people speculater about gaudette and suter. has what he done at C right? not exactly no but saying he has shown zero interest when it was even rumored he had asked about trocheck and eichel (who apparently may goto vegas) is wrong. i dont love that he is taking chances on poop centers, but i do like that he isnt giving up the farm hoping one of them is it either.

I agree that players like Gaudette and even Borgstrom aren't really worth getting hung up on. Nothing wrong with taking flyers on guys like that but there's usually a reason they end up being passed around the way they do. The Hawks have a couple of players that I thought were worth a look at the time they moved, but really haven't looked like much.

The broader range of centers that Guerin's only shown tepid interest in over the last two years... that's more worrying, to me. We've been left with almost all of our chips sitting on Rossi and Khusnutdinov, who are great... but it's real hard to not expect one or both of them to get Granlund'ed over to wing in the NHL.

 

[Sad People]

A bit off topic but Billy G was burned at the stake by a good amount of people for buying out Suter and was just curious If anyone knows how hes been playing in Dallas so far?

 

[DANOZ28]

Yeah. I do that deal ten times out of ten and twice on Sunday. Guerin absolutely fleeced Pittsburgh

btw zucker has 3G in 8 gms , i will always believe he was bummed & depressed he got traded away from minny thats why his production dropped. (see granlund same result)

 

[57special]

hey, look at that. i make a controversial take and the boards light up momentarily

ill admit, i was a little hard on addison because i thought he had another season under his belt in the ahl.

Covid has also messed with our perceptions of what happened when.

idk if gaudreau has been a bad signing, its hard to tell if fiala is the reason his line hasnt been producing or his own play. i will say, he is one of the better forecheckers ive seen in a long time. seems to constantly get his stick on pucks.

i will agree his career stats dont look great, but he hasnt necessarily looked lost out there.

might need more time on this one to make a definitive judgement.

Gaudreau is fine, for what he is. Let's just not pretend a 28 yo, 100gp, 18 pt. C is anything other than a bottom six C.

 

[DANOZ28]

does anybody feel like guerin has built a team with chemistry? im not seeing it.

 

[AKL]

The broader range of centers that Guerin's only shown tepid interest in over the last two years... that's more worrying, to me. We've been left with almost all of our chips sitting on Rossi and Khusnutdinov, who are great... but it's real hard to not expect one or both of them to get Granlund'ed over to wing in the NHL.

Well he's got time. If Rossi and Khusnutdinov end up as the only two centers he acquires in the first two rounds of the draft it's going to be a really bad situation in four years. I'm all for taking BPA at the draft, but if that never ends up being another top six center prospect, he'll need to start trading some of his D and W prospects for C prospects sometime before the four years is over. He can't come out of the dead cap years without centers, and just hope he can trade for an established one then.

Frankly it's already starting to look like he's way too heavy on D for the next half a decade.

 

[Bazeek]

Well he's got time. If Rossi and Khusnutdinov end up as the only two centers he acquires in the first two rounds of the draft it's going to be a really bad situation in four years. I'm all for taking BPA at the draft, but if that never ends up being another top six center prospect, he'll need to start trading some of his D and W prospects for C prospects sometime before the four years is over. He can't come out of the dead cap years without centers, and just hope he can trade for an established one then.

Ye of little faith.

 

[AKL]

Ye of little faith.

Me of zero faith