Prospect Info: Joel Eriksson Ek (C) - 20th Overall, 2015

[Aceofspades]

Isn't the interesting thing really what the guy can do on the ice? If we look further we think we become GM's or whatever corporate guy that doesn't care about the player himself. Some guys here think they can do better than the coach and some guys think they can do better than the GM.

Of course we care about the club, but what is the club? It is money and only money! That's why I sometimes think that we should get off our high horses and think about the players like human beings, and not think like a GM. Because we are the generic people, we are people that like the sport. Why not think like a human being and not think like a corporate mother****er.

It doesn't matter what we think anyway. Can't we just appreciate the sport, the athleticism and the brilliance we see from the players several times a week. Why do we have to be *******s.

I'm sorry, it's just my friday night drunken brain expressed in words after I read some of the posts here.

I am pretty sure GMCF thinks mainly about winning the SC, same goes for the present owner that has wasted money he will have hard time getting back.
Money is an issue regarding keeping the team competitive and not going broke, especially in the salary cap world.
Also looking at how differrent situations have been handled in the past Wild is hardly a sweat shop for anyone working in the organisation in any capacity.

 

[Al Lagoon]

I mean, assuming he plays every remaining game this regular season, he'll be at 15 games. 40-15=25 games remaining.

That takes us to game 4 of the SCF, assuming all other series go 7 games.

If we make it that deep into the playoffs, and he's contributing to that, I guess I'm fine with burning that year.

Can you even call it "burning a year" if he is a contributing member of the team that goes at least to game 4 of the SCF?

 

[Saga of the Elk]

I'll say the kid looks better than I remember, more physically mature for sure. Maybe he will make a huge difference in some way - think of Fabbri in last season's playoffs for the Blues.

But this gives us something new to complain about: why give up so much for Hanzal and White if you were planning to bring JEE back for the playoff run? I've defended that trade because it gave the Wild excellent center depth plus an energy winger. But is the difference between running JEE at 3C and Haula or Graovac at 4C worth those picks? Time will tell I guess.

 

[Hugart]

I am pretty sure GMCF thinks mainly about winning the SC, same goes for the present owner that has wasted money he will have hard time getting back.
Money is an issue regarding keeping the team competitive and not going broke, especially in the salary cap world.
Also looking at how differrent situations have been handled in the past Wild is hardly a sweat shop for anyone working in the organisation in any capacity.

Yeah I know. I guess I'm just trying to get back to the enjoying the show without worrying about things that we can't affect anyway. I don't really know what I mean, but if you think about it from different perspectives it's a kind of wasted energy. It's just normal guys doing their athletic thing and we get all worked up about stuff that's kind of unimportant in the real world. It's basically just guys chasing a rubber puck.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sport. Sometimes I just wonder what the hell is going on. We look at these amazing people doing a hell off a job that's really doesn't matter. I just have to question myself sometimes and what I put my energy in to. This was apparently one of those nights that made me think about my life, existence and everything regarding it. I just happened to have this tab opened when I thought about it and I'm sorry again for my ramble, I had way too many beers tonight.

 

[Aceofspades]

Yeah I know. I guess I'm just trying to get back to the enjoying the show without worrying about things that we can't affect anyway. I don't really know what I mean, but if you think about it from different perspectives it's a kind of wasted energy. It's just normal guys doing their athletic thing and we get all worked up about stuff that's kind of unimportant in the real world. It's basically just guys chasing a rubber puck.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sport. Sometimes I just wonder what the hell is going on. We look at these amazing people doing a hell off a job that's really doesn't matter. I just have to question myself sometimes and what I put my energy in to. This was apparently one of those nights that made me think about my life, existence and everything regarding it. I just happened to have this tab opened when I thought about it and I'm sorry again for my ramble, I had way too many beers tonight.

Are you watching Iowa? This is great, 0-0 and under 10 minutes played but Iowa has hit the goal posts 3 times!

Both Kunin and Kloos involved in those scoring opportunities, Gabriel is also playing so there might be action as the incident he got the 6 games suspension was against Chicago.

Fun hockey night and I have not even drank any beer, Swedes are such drunks, Finns dont understand.

 

[AKL]

Can you even call it "burning a year" if he is a contributing member of the team that goes at least to game 4 of the SCF?

I wouldn't even be upset about burning a year if we made it pass round two and he helped.

 

[PuckInTheNards]

I'll say the kid looks better than I remember, more physically mature for sure. Maybe he will make a huge difference in some way - think of Fabbri in last season's playoffs for the Blues.

But this gives us something new to complain about: why give up so much for Hanzal and White if you were planning to bring JEE back for the playoff run? I've defended that trade because it gave the Wild excellent center depth plus an energy winger. But is the difference between running JEE at 3C and Haula or Graovac at 4C worth those picks? Time will tell I guess.

I think bringing JEE is almost a tacit admission that the trade didn't give Fletch what he wanted. Tough to spin it any other way.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

I think bringing JEE is almost a tacit admission that the trade didn't give Fletch what he wanted. Tough to spin it any other way.

That's kind of what I am afraid of, as well. I mean there are a ton of factors of course, but their record isn't super great since the trade deadline.

 

[Nharris31]

This Hanzal trade stuff is so annoying. It's pretty weird how guy with 10 points in 15 games is at fault for the Wild losing. Unless he somehow told Dubnyk to not stop pucks anymore?.

 

[AKL]

This Hanzal trade stuff is so annoying. It's pretty weird how guy with 10 points in 15 games is at fault for the Wild losing. Unless he somehow told Dubnyk to not stop pucks anymore?.

Yuuuuup

 

[ThatGuy22]

Yep, they count playoff games.

See here.

Playoff games do not count for free agency. it specifically says 40 regular season games for an accrued season in the CBA

 

[BagHead]

I think bringing JEE is almost a tacit admission that the trade didn't give Fletch what he wanted. Tough to spin it any other way.

Which is fine by me. No trade will ever be guaranteed to work out exactly as a GM hopes. When they don't work out, it would be a terrible GM that does nothing to remedy it, in the hopes that nobody would notice. Since it didn't work out (though, I would say having 10 points in 15 games from your new 3rd line center probably means the trade DID work out, but that expectations were unrealistic), I'm glad Fletcher is willing to work around it, and bring in more help.

I think the real issue here isn't that the Hanzal trade didn't work out, it's that Haula (and the rest of the team around Hanzal) took that moment to go to sleep on the job. JEE and Stalock are a wake-up call.

 

[grN1g]

Feel like we got our Logan Couture of that draft.

Couture imo has a little more offensive mindset to his game and I think EK might have more of a defensive mindset, but obviously time to maybe even grow into the better player.

 

[Minnesota]

Playoff games do not count for free agency. it specifically says 40 regular season games for an accrued season in the CBA

They count for ELC slide, but not FA count? Hockey contracts are a mess.

 

[TaLoN]

They count for ELC slide, but not FA count? Hockey contracts are a mess.

I think the contract slide is the only one that matters in this case... the 40 games count just defines if someone is a rookie the following season or not.

Zucker played 6 games at the end of the year coming out of college, that slid his contract and his free agent clock if I recall. Unless I'm wrong that is... lol

 

[BagHead]

Dang, this is a mess. So there are really three things in play

1) ELC slide

2) FA clock start

3) Definition of rookie

The last one isn't very hard to find. It's those first two that I'm confused about. So, ELC slide is 9 games, and the FA clock start is 40? Or are both 9 games, and the rookie definition is 40?

 

[ThatGuy22]

Dang, this is a mess. So there are really three things in play

1) ELC slide

2) FA clock start

3) Definition of rookie

The last one isn't very hard to find. It's those first two that I'm confused about. So, ELC slide is 9 games, and the FA clock start is 40? Or are both 9 games, and the rookie definition is 40?

I'm pretty good about NHL rules regarding contracts, here is the lay of the land on these 3 topics, verified by the CBA/Rule book.

1) ELC slide is less than 10 NHL games played during 18 or 19 year old season. He's played his 10th game, so the ELC is not sliding. The first year of his ELC has started.

2) You need 7 accrued seasons or to be 27 on July 1st to be an unrestricted free agent. The definition of an accrued NHL season in the CBA is on the active roster for 40 regular season games. It specifically says regular season, so it is not possible for JEE to accrue a season towards free agency this year. He'll turn 20 next year, so we have him under team control until he turns 27.

3) I assume this is in regards to his eligibility to win the Calder trophy next year, he will be eligible for that trophy as that cut off is 25+ regular season games in the previous season or 6+ games regular season games in two previous seasons. He won't hit either.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

I'm pretty good about NHL rules regarding contracts, here is the lay of the land on these 3 topics, verified by the CBA/Rule book.

1) ELC slide is less than 10 NHL games played during 18 or 19 year old season. He's played his 10th game, so the ELC is not sliding. The first year of his ELC has started.

2) You need 7 accrued seasons or to be 27 on July 1st to be an unrestricted free agent. The definition of an accrued NHL season in the CBA is on the active roster for 40 regular season games. It specifically says regular season, so it is not possible for JEE to accrue a season towards free agency this year. He'll turn 20 next year, so we have him under team control until he turns 27.

3) I assume this is in regards to his eligibility to win the Calder trophy next year, he will be eligible for that trophy as that cut off is 25+ regular season games in the previous season or 6+ games regular season games in two previous seasons. He won't hit either.

I think this is all right, except he turned 20 in January. The last clause of that sentence is likely to be true regardless.

 

[DANOZ28]

This Hanzal trade stuff is so annoying. It's pretty weird how guy with 10 points in 15 games is at fault for the Wild losing. Unless he somehow told Dubnyk to not stop pucks anymore?.

my issue has to do with hanzal probably wont be here next year and its looking like we wont make a deep playoff run so bottom line we paid a huge price for 20 regular season games plus a few playoff games and we wont have a 1st & 2nd who possibly could have helped the team for 5 or 10 years! CF failed with moulson ; failed with stewart ; and it sure looks like we failed again. when will some of you jump off the gmcf bandwagon? ps burning a year for JEE just priceless.

 

[Minnesota]

Stewart's actually been great, but that's for another thread.

 

[AKL]

my issue has to do with hanzal probably wont be here next year and its looking like we wont make a deep playoff run so bottom line we paid a huge price for 20 regular season games plus a few playoff games and we wont have a 1st & 2nd who possibly could have helped the team for 5 or 10 years! CF failed with moulson ; failed with stewart ; and it sure looks like we failed again. when will some of you jump off the gmcf bandwagon? ps burning a year for JEE just priceless.

If you're acting like Fletcher should have done nothing at the TDL because ultimately we ended up nose diving off a cliff, then there's not a whole lot that can be said to you. He can only make decisions based upon what he knows at the time, and at the time it appeared our only real weaknesses were in the bottom 6. He addressed those.

And again, as you've been told time and time before, the draft picks are not worth much value wise apart from being used as trade chips. We already have one of the deeper forward prospect pools in the league. We also have a few decent defensive prospects left. We don't NEED more prospects. We NEED to shore up our holes to make a playoff run. And it's still not too late to do that.

Hindsight is 20/20 and you can't fault CF for not being able to see the future.

PS burning a year for JEE to help with the playoff run. Not to mention with Kunin, Greenway and Tuch possibly burning their first year NEXT year, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to save JEE until next year so we have all four of those contracts expiring in the same year.

 

[nt3005]

If you're acting like Fletcher should have done nothing at the TDL because ultimately we ended up nose diving off a cliff, then there's not a whole lot that can be said to you. He can only make decisions based upon what he knows at the time, and at the time it appeared our only real weaknesses were in the bottom 6. He addressed those.

And again, as you've been told time and time before, the draft picks are not worth much value wise apart from being used as trade chips. We already have one of the deeper forward prospect pools in the league. We also have a few decent defensive prospects left. We don't NEED more prospects. We NEED to shore up our holes to make a playoff run. And it's still not too late to do that.

Hindsight is 20/20 and you can't fault CF for not being able to see the future.

PS burning a year for JEE to help with the playoff run. Not to mention with Kunin, Greenway and Tuch possibly burning their first year NEXT year, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to save JEE until next year so we have all four of those contracts expiring in the same year.

But lets just be super negative because "Minnesota Sports"
I absolutely hate that saying from people who are fans of Minnesota sports. One team wins every year, its not like some cake walk.

 

[Ban Hammered]

my issue has to do with hanzal probably wont be here next year and its looking like we wont make a deep playoff run so bottom line we paid a huge price for 20 regular season games plus a few playoff games and we wont have a 1st & 2nd who possibly could have helped the team for 5 or 10 years! CF failed with moulson ; failed with stewart ; and it sure looks like we failed again. when will some of you jump off the gmcf bandwagon? ps burning a year for JEE just priceless.

Your issue seems to be that no matter what Fletcher does...you don't like it.
If we do nothing and crater...i'm sure you'd be complaining about that.
He is trying to win...you not liking it or not liking the results doesn't make him a bad GM or make them bad moves.

 

[guitarhunterdude]

Your issue seems to be that no matter what Fletcher does...you don't like it.
If we do nothing and crater...i'm sure you'd be complaining about that.
He is trying to win...you not liking it or not liking the results doesn't make him a bad GM or make them bad moves.

Not quite sure what you're saying with that last sentence. Fletcher trying and failing to win would definitely both make him a bad GM and the moves in question bad moves.

 

[AKL]

Not quite sure what you're saying with that last sentence. Fletcher trying and failing to win would definitely both make him a bad GM and the moves in question bad moves.

So any GM that doesn't win a cup is a bad GM, and any moves they've ever made are bad moves because of it? Where do you draw the line then?

Fletcher recognized the same weaknesses we all did, he went out and fixed them at the trade deadline, and now the team has been absolute trash. Fletcher did what he was supposed to do, it's on the players/coaches now. The GM is just supposed to make the best moves he can at that time with the assets he has.