Player Discussion Marco Rossi

[NHL1674]

Fiala fits our core age and his contract is a massive bargain. He’s exactly what we need in our top 6 and he never should have been traded.

That ship has sailed.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

Fiala fits our core age and his contract is a massive bargain. He’s exactly what we need in our top 6 and he never should have been traded.

Fiala is a 1st line center!?

I don’t think Rossi gets that

Well, we shouldn’t trade him for Red Wings trash.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

Trading rossi for a winger makes us center poor again. I am guessing we sign rossi anyway.

I think it’s interesting that they offered 5 years to start. They are clearly okay with him being around a while at the right price.

 

[DemidovSaveUs]

Fiala is a 1st line center!?

Well, we shouldn’t trade him for Red Wings trash.

Yeah I agree. What we think we should do and what we actually do may be two completely different things though.

 

[NHL1674]

I think it’s interesting that they offered 5 years to start. They are clearly okay with him being around a while at the right price.

Nah. They knew he wouldn't take a lowball offer.

 

[BagHead]

Nah. They knew he wouldn't take a lowball offer.

No, I think he's right. If Rossi had signed for $5 million that would leave them plenty of room to go after size on the wing instead of at center for the top-6. I think they would have been ok with that. I can't remember where I read it, but if he gets past $6 million or so the Wild are going to be in a difficult place to add a top-6 player. I think they threw him that contract in the hopes he'd sign it and make their decisions easy this summer. Now they've got some picking and choosing to do, because they won't have the cap space to do it all.

Plus, putting together contracts costs money. They wouldn't make him an offer they knew for sure that he wouldn't sign.

 

[f7ben]

I think if Rossi would have signed for 5 they would have traded him and had a massive haul coming back

 

[MrRuin]

Russo has some very clear things to say about double standards in regards to Rossi in his latest article that mirror a lot of what has been said here. I am actually surprised he so non chalantly criticizes the way Rossi (and Trenin for that matter) have been handled.

 

[AKL]

Russo has some very clear things to say about double standards in regards to Rossi in his latest article that mirror a lot of what has been said here. I am actually surprised he so non chalantly criticizes the way Rossi (and Trenin for that matter) have been handled.

Six things we’ve learned about the Minnesota Wild during this first-round playoff series

Coach John Hynes is doing some lineup tweaking heading into Game 5 on Tuesday. What will it mean?

www.nytimes.com

Double standard for Rossi?​

It really feels as though the Wild came into the playoffs with a preconceived notion that undersized Marco Rossi wasn’t going to be able to function. This doesn’t feel like it’s about performance. One so-so game, and they decided Rossi couldn’t do it before he ever proved he couldn’t do it.

They started him on the third line, immediately dropped him to the fourth line and have kept the skilled center there ever since despite the fact that he’s outperforming a number of forwards.

Hartman was rightfully rewarded for his play on the fourth line in Game 1. It was a good read and adjustment by the coaches, but there has been no adjustment for Rossi (10:53 average ice time), for Trenin, who has played well yet has logged the second-fewest minutes (9:57 per game), or for Gaudeau and Nyquist, who have been disappointing.

Rossi has scored two goals and an assist, has eight shots and won 46 percent of his draws in 43:30 of ice time. Yet Gaudreau continues to be in the top-nine despite zero goals, zero assists, one shot and winning 41 percent of his draws in 58:39 of ice time (14:40 per game).

Gaudreau has a 26.42 percent Corsi For percentage. For skaters who have played a minimum of 20 minutes, that’s dead last in the NHL among 285 skaters. In the first two games, the Johansson-Gaudreau-Zuccarello line allowed the highest expected goals against out of any line in all eight playoff series, so it’s not like Gaudreau has been getting it done defensively.

Nyquist, by the way, has zero points and one shot in four games and continues to be the least-proficient forward at even strength in the NHL all season.

In Game 4, despite scoring in the first period for the second straight game, Rossi logged 4:40 of ice time through two periods and just over seven minutes through three. Asked why Rossi didn’t play the last 13:05 of the second period, Hynes pinned it on special teams even though there were only two penalties in that span (one by each team).

It’s just nonsensical the way they’re treating the season’s second-leading scorer, and it could signal the beginning of the end in Minnesota for the pending restricted free agent.