Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

[AKL]

Drafted raty.

To be fair, Raty was taken two picks before we took Peart, so barring trading up to take him, there's not much Guerin could do there.

 

[Wabit]

To be fair, Raty was taken two picks before we took Peart, so barring trading up to take him, there's not much Guerin could do there.

Not taken lambos.

 

[AKL]

Not taken lambos.

That's bold but I can't prove you're wrong, so

 

[P10p]

Not taken lambos.

In no world should Raty have been picked before Lambos.

 

[Digitalbooya]

Drafted lundell and raty.
Signed McBain.
No buyouts.
Not traded Kunin.
Not traded kahk.
Not traded fiala.
Not traded Staal.
Given Sturm a real chance and a reason to re-sign.
Signed danault.
Plenty of trade options for center have been available for trade. MN had plenty of assets to make a splash.
Traded Spurgeon as a rental.
I can keep going. There are lots of things that could/should have been differently. MN should be right in the middle of a contention window, not in this meh they are in now.

Half of this list has nothing to do with our center situation, so I'll address the ones that do.

-Most on this board would have picked Rossi over Lundell. It was almost a no brainer pick for a guy that many thought should be a top 5 pick in that draft.
-Raty has 12 total NHL games. How does that help our center situation?
-Kunin isn't a center.
-Staal sucked at the end of his time here. Do people seriously not remember this?
-You would have given Danault $5.5x6 years after he put up 5 goals and 24 points in 53 games?

 

[Wabit]

That's bold but I can't prove you're wrong, so

I didn't like the lambos pick after taking so many LHD that are the same player the previous draft.

Raty had a bad draft year, but he was at the top of the preseason draft charts. Middle-6 center is where I see him ending up.

I wouldn't have taken FJ (strange pick) his draft year either. I would have given him a contact and not the comp pick.

 

[Digitalbooya]

Our best chances to improve our center situation:
-Dylan Strome at $3M
-Trading for Dach
-Sean Monahan (with a 1st)

 

[Wabit]

Half of this list has nothing to do with our center situation, so I'll address the ones that do.

-Most on this board would have picked Rossi over Lundell. It was almost a no brainer pick for a guy that many thought should be a top 5 pick in that draft.
-Raty has 12 total NHL games. How does that help our center situation?
-Kunin isn't a center.
-Staal sucked at the end of his time here. Do people seriously not remember this?
-You would have given Danault $5.5x6 years after he put up 5 goals and 24 points in 53 games?

I don't care what most would have done with Rossi. Nothing about him is a NHL center. I was mad at the pick. If you offered me a late 2nd for him I'd send him packing. I want nothing to do with him
Hartman isn't a center either.
Yep I'd have taken a selki lvl center to replace Koivu at the time.

How do the rest help. Cap space and roster flexibility to make trades. I sure wouldn't have sacrificed the present with prime Kap for the future with maybe Kap on the team.

 

[Digitalbooya]

I don't care what most would have done with Rossi. Nothing about him is a NHL center. I was mad at the pick. If you offered me a late 2nd for him I'd send him packing. I want nothing to do with him

That's just abysmal asset management.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Our best chances to improve our center situation:
-Dylan Strome at $3M
-Trading for Dach
-Sean Monahan (with a 1st)

I don't know quite what our cap situation was on July 14th, but I have to think Strome at 1 x $4M was doable.

Dach got the 13th overall pick. Not sure outbidding that was an option.

 

[Digitalbooya]

I don't know quite what our cap situation was on July 14th, but I have to think Strome at 1 x $4M was doable.

Dach got the 13th overall pick. Not sure outbidding that was an option.

Wonder if they would have taken #19 + one of our 2nds.

If getting a 1C by all means necessary, we could have traded for Horvat, dumped Foligno+Greenway for picks, and traded Goligoski to someone who will play him.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Wonder if they would have taken #19 + one of our 2nds.

If getting a 1C by all means necessary, we could have traded for Horvat, dumped Foligno+Greenway for picks, and traded Goligoski to someone who will play him.

I'd probably just rather have #13 but you never know.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I didn't like the lambos pick after taking so many LHD that are the same player the previous draft.

Raty had a bad draft year, but he was at the top of the preseason draft charts. Middle-6 center is where I see him ending up.

I wouldn't have taken FJ (strange pick) his draft year either. I would have given him a contact and not the comp pick.

Is 2 really "so many"?

I'm not sure that making a 1st round choice decision based on a 3rd round pick the year before is a viable thing, unless that 3rd round pick goes absolutely bonkers in his D+1. It's a better justification for not taking Peart the following round, but that also now includes Lambos in that equation.

 

[AKL]

Is 2 really "so many"?

I'm not sure that making a 1st round choice decision based on a 3rd round pick the year before is a viable thing, unless that 3rd round pick goes absolutely bonkers in his D+1. It's a better justification for not taking Peart the following year, but also includes Lambos in that equation.

Yeah the bigger question mark for me was taking Peart in the second round right after that. I would have taken Knies.

 

[Wabit]

That's just abysmal asset management.

I think Rossi is going to be a complete bust. Too small and too slow for the NHL. Just a terrible top-10 pick.

 

[thestonedkoala]

I'd gotten aggressive in the second round of the 2021 and moved up. Take Stankoven or Raty and not Peart.

 

[Digitalbooya]

I'd gotten aggressive in the second round of the 2021 and moved up. Take Stankoven or Raty and not Peart.

Raty is who I wanted. Could have been a dynamite top 3 picks in Wallstedt, Lambos and Raty. Oh well, apparently Peart is better than both O’Rourke and Hunt

 

[thestonedkoala]

Raty is who I wanted. Could have been a dynamite top 3 picks in Wallstedt, Lambos and Raty. Oh well, apparently Peart is better than both O’Rourke and Hunt

Yeah. I understand Lambos. High potential high risk. Peart made zero sense.

 

[BuiumSaveUs]

Loved Lambos at the time and I still like the pick a lot. Didn’t love Peart at the time but I was alright with it. I’m pretty meh on Peart now. You never know. He has some NHL traits.

 

[57special]

I’m fine with both, given what we know now. It’s easy to say we should’ve taken Knies, but he was a relative nobody at the time. It’s not like we were the only team to pass on him.

Passing on Snuggerud hurts a bit more. I was very curious about him going into the draft… it seems like he was lost amongst all those players on the USNDP team, then Gauthier shot up the rankings, because of his size and talent. I thought I saw some similar things in Snuggerud, but to a lesser extent, and he was underutilized on the team. There is no doubt that he is helped by his line mates on the U, and being good in college doesn’t mean you’ll make it in the NHL, but that shot of his…phew… no one was hyping that that I remember going into the draft. Ohgren has a pretty good one, but Snuggerud’s is NHL quality right now.

 

[MuckOG]

Drafted lundell and raty.
Signed McBain.
No buyouts.
Not traded Kunin.
Not traded kahk.
Not traded fiala.
Not traded Staal.
Given Sturm a real chance and a reason to re-sign.
Signed danault.
Plenty of trade options for center have been available for trade. MN had plenty of assets to make a splash.
Traded Spurgeon as a rental.
I can keep going. There are lots of things that could/should have been differently. MN should be right in the middle of a contention window, not in this meh they are in now.

Nothing wrong with the Rossi selection at the time. And may still turn out to be the better player in the end.

McBain didn't want to sign here. Can't force him, and he wouldn't be the answer anyway.

Even if we didn't do the buyouts, we would still be in the same cap hell.

Kunin is not a center. Khusnutdinov has more upside.

Kahkonen is just not very good. Gustaffson is much better.

Not sure how much of a difference Sturm would make at center. Staal is hot garbage at the moment.

 

[keppel146]

We’re a mess. No team is going to want our hot garbage.

I’m fine with both, given what we know now. It’s easy to say we should’ve taken Knies, but he was a relative nobody at the time. It’s not like we were the only team to pass on him.

Passing on Snuggerud hurts a bit more. I was very curious about him going into the draft… it seems like he was lost amongst all those players on the USNDP team, then Gauthier shot up the rankings, because of his size and talent. I thought I saw some similar things in Snuggerud, but to a lesser extent, and he was underutilized on the team. There is no doubt that he is helped by his line mates on the U, and being good in college doesn’t mean you’ll make it in the NHL, but that shot of his…phew… no one was hyping that that I remember going into the draft. Ohgren has a pretty good one, but Snuggerud’s is NHL quality right now.

I liked his shot pre draft

 

[DANOZ28]

if foligno, hartman & greenway had more production we'd probably all be looking forward to playoffs. what was guerin thinking signing goligoski for 2 years? currently i don't see how this team can do any damage in the playoffs and i think we'd be better off missing and draft as high as possible hoping judd works some magic.

 

[AKL]

Some pieces I find interesting from Russo's latest chat with Guerin:

On whether he plans to wait to see where his team’s at after the homestand to make a trade to add offense: “Yeah, it’s a really good question. I’ve thought of it both ways, to be quite honest with you. And it’s tough because right now asking prices are a lot. We’re still just not in a position where we want to give up first- and second-round picks for somebody we know that will be a rental. ...”

So rest assured the Wild aren't trading 1sts, 2nds, or likely equivalent prospects for rentals.

On how every other game I waver between thinking the Wild’s biggest need is a top-six center or a scoring winger to help spur Matt Boldy: “I’m the same way because our team has been, I don’t want to say inconsistent, but we’ve been consistently inconsistent. One night I feel like, ‘Oh man, we need a center.’ But then the next night, it’s like, ‘God, we’re just not scoring five-on-five. We could really use anybody to help us score.’ ...”

So if they do decide to buy, they're not limiting their scope to top six centers, which I like, because the last thing I think would be helpful to this team if they buy is to find a top six center, stick him between Kaprizov and Zucc, and Boldy is still playing on an island. Boldy is being wasted right now, and a winger would likely be cheaper than a center.

On whether prices could come down the longer he waits: “... Look at the (Kevin Fiala) deal we made with Los Angeles. After years of accumulating picks, they felt they were able to give up Brock (Faber). I think sometime down the line, we’ll be able to do that. I don’t necessarily think it’s right now.”

Kinda makes it sound like there's a special focus on accumulating picks/prospects along the way, if he's trying to emulate what LA has done. He's had two 1sts the last two drafts. Hopefully he's still looking for opportunities to do that.

On why he hasn’t recalled Marco Rossi when the Wild could use an infusion of scoring or a center: “I think Marco was probably a little further away than maybe we wanted to admit. He’s done so well and has handled it so well, and he is playing very well. So it’s worked. I think this really proves when you have young players and things aren’t going well, they need to play. They need to play in the American Hockey League. The matter of fact is we don’t have a place for him to play right now. The day will come, but I think right now it’s good that Marco’s just super focused on being in Iowa and helping that team. I don’t want to bring Marco up and just say, ‘Well, here. Problem solved. We got our guy.’ It’s too much pressure for a young kid. If we ever bring him up and he gets in and he does that, then great, then we’re better off for it. But for me to say we’re going to take this kid who struggled at the beginning of the year and just insert him back into our lineup in the toughest time of year and (say) he’s going do great, I don’t think that’s fair to put that kind of pressure on him right away. Like I said, if we bring him up and he gets in and he does it, then great. But I’m not gonna sit here and say, “This is coming.'”

Don't count on seeing Rossi again any time soon.

 

[AKL]

From the same article, this is just Russo's speculation, but could be a good option.

The math that does work is the front office using that cap space as a third-party conduit or a landing spot for an expensive player without term that another team needs to move to clear cap space ahead of the deadline. This is a loaded draft, so Guerin could add some primo weapons for Judd Brackett and his team from desperate teams that need to move salary.

I like the idea of picking up picks or prospects to take on an overpaid guy or two that could still potentially help us. One example that comes to my mind is a guy like Kerfoot. Maybe the Leafs wanna move his 3.5M out, maybe they pay a 2nd or 3rd to do it, and maybe he's a better option somewhere in the top six than some of the guys we have there now.

Would love to hear other potential pieces like that if anyone has em.