Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

[BuiumSaveUs]

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



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




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.




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.




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

I think the plan has always been to get as many good young players as possible to weaponize when the buyouts end.

 

[AKL]

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



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.

Looking through the teams that are up against the cap but might want space to make some moves, here are a few more intriguing players:

Puljujarvi - 3M expiring, but he is an RFA, could flip his rights at the draft, especially if his stock can rebound next to Boldy?
Eller - Admittedly adding another bottom six center to the rotation probably isn't gonna do anything, but who knows
Compher - Don't know much about him, actually looks to be having a decent season, so maybe he's not available, but Colorado might want to go bigger fish hunting still
Rodrigues - Again, actually having a decent season for his cap hit, so maybe not, but Guerin I think had interest in signing him over the summer
N. Foligno - Yeah this one scares me
Zucker - This one would be hilarious. He's also having a solid season though, so I don't know
Lucic - Well, he would bring more toughness at the very least

Obviously the value in acquiring these guys is if they come with additional picks or prospects. We wouldn't be paying "fair value" for these guys.

 

[keppel146]

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



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.

Heck yeah, let’s get all the picks we can. Stealth tank is on.

 

[57special]

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



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.

I think the idea is that we would act as a pass through 3rd team that would receive something for briefly acquiring, retaining, then moving on a soon to be UFA player to the final destination. Was it ARI who did that quite a few times a couple years back?

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

I think the most telling piece from the Guerin Pod was when he said, "I wasn't worried about 5v5 scoring, because last year we had such good depth scoring."

That's fair in a sense, and aside from being forced to move Fiala's 33:

- Hartman scored 34 goals, he had broken double-digits in goals twice in his entire career. You have to realize that 34 was an outlier, right?
- Foligno scored 23 goals, he has never eclipsed 13 in his career before that season. Again, outlier.

He couldn't feasibly believe this was the norm? The only forward add we have is essentially Steel whose career high is 6 goals.

 

[keppel146]

I think the idea is that we would act as a pass through 3rd team that would receive something for briefly acquiring, retaining, then moving on a soon to be UFA player to the final destination. Was it ARI who did that quite a few times a couple years back?

I think they did it with Datsyuk.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I think the most telling piece from the Guerin Pod was when he said, "I wasn't worried about 5v5 scoring, because last year we had such good depth scoring."

That's fair in a sense, and aside from being forced to move Fiala's 33:

- Hartman scored 34 goals, he had broken double-digits in goals twice in his entire career. You have to realize that 34 was an outlier, right?
- Foligno scored 23 goals, he has never eclipsed 13 in his career before that season. Again, outlier.

He couldn't feasibly believe this was the norm? The only forward add we have is essentially Steel whose career high is 6 goals.

And Fiala quite clearly had an effect on both Boldy’s and Gaudreau’s scoring numbers, beyond his own.

It was an entirely foreseeable problem that many of us schmucks here saw last summer.

 

[Digitalbooya]

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



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.

I viewed it more as third party retention for contenders based on that and his podcasts. So as an example, JVR to a contender. Philly eats $3.5M (50%), sends him to us, we retain another $1.75M (50%) and send him to the contender for a total cap hit of $1.75M for them to fit. Contender sends 2nd to Philly and a 3rd to Minnesota. That’s not terrible.

Kane/Toews are top contenders for that.

For the other side: Kerfoot, Holl, C. Smith, Puljujarvi, Tatar, Wood, Lucic,

A lot of these teams don’t feel super pressed for cap space though.

 

[BagHead]

And Fiala quite clearly had an effect on both Boldy’s and Gaudreau’s scoring numbers, beyond his own.

It was an entirely foreseeable problem that many of us schmucks here saw last summer.

Yep. Some of us saw it and were dismayed. Others of us saw it and said "that sucks, but might be ok in the end, even though we'll suffer for it for the next couple years". Not seeing it at all? I don't imagine many people fit that description.

I viewed it more as third party retention for contenders based on that and his podcasts. So as an example, JVR to a contender. Philly eats $3.5M (50%), sends him to us, we retain another $1.75M (50%) and send him to the contender for a total cap hit of $1.75M for them to fit. Contender sends 2nd to Philly and a 3rd to Minnesota. That’s not terrible.

Kane/Toews are top contenders for that.

For the other side: Kerfoot, Holl, C. Smith, Puljujarvi, Tatar, Wood, Lucic,

A lot of these teams don’t feel super pressed for cap space though.

Is that actually legal to do? If so, I'm on board. Gimme those sweet sweet draft picks!

 

[Minnewildsota]

I viewed it more as third party retention for contenders based on that and his podcasts. So as an example, JVR to a contender. Philly eats $3.5M (50%), sends him to us, we retain another $1.75M (50%) and send him to the contender for a total cap hit of $1.75M for them to fit. Contender sends 2nd to Philly and a 3rd to Minnesota. That’s not terrible.

Kane/Toews are top contenders for that.

For the other side: Kerfoot, Holl, C. Smith, Puljujarvi, Tatar, Wood, Lucic,

A lot of these teams don’t feel super pressed for cap space though.

I would even be ok with eating half of the 7mil to get a better return.

 

[Parax]

Leipold would have to okay paying the bill. I think he would, he's not usually shy about spending to make the team better, but it's easy to say that as a fan who isn't dishing out the money. With guys like Kane, Toews, and JVR their actual salary is a lot lower than the AAV so hopefully he would, and it would be a huge shame to not weaponize so much open cap space the first time they've had this much flexibility in what feels like forever.

 

[Bdub]

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

Worse than the James Shepard pick

 

[Wabit]

Worse than the James Shepard pick

Late 1st compared to a top10 pick in a good draft year. Yep Rossi is worse

 

[AKL]

Late 1st compared to a top10 pick in a good draft year. Yep Rossi is worse

They were both 9th overall

 

[Wabit]

They were both 9th overall

Bah was thinking of Zack Phillips. My bad.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Leipold would have to okay paying the bill. I think he would, he's not usually shy about spending to make the team better, but it's easy to say that as a fan who isn't dishing out the money. With guys like Kane, Toews, and JVR their actual salary is a lot lower than the AAV so hopefully he would, and it would be a huge shame to not weaponize so much open cap space the first time they've had this much flexibility in what feels like forever.

Base salary of $4 million this season. By now it's probably down under $2 million so 50% retention is basically a press box player. I wouldn't think it would be an issue.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

And Fiala quite clearly had an effect on both Boldy’s and Gaudreau’s scoring numbers, beyond his own.

It was an entirely foreseeable problem that many of us schmucks here saw last summer.

I think I mentioned 12+ times that Boldy’s production would be heavily impacted but I was assured that Rossi and friends would pick up the slack.

 

[63firebird]

I think I mentioned 12+ times that Boldy’s production would be heavily impacted but I was assured that Rossi and friends would pick up the slack.

No one has picked up any slack. No more Fluery 6/5 wins. Career years of Hartman/Foligno etc are a memory. Fluery flopping like a seal. Fialas hole left Boldy on an island. If MN prospects are number 1 shouldn’t Iowa be walking away with a championship?

 

[Minnewildsota]

No one has picked up any slack. No more Fluery 6/5 wins. Career years of Hartman/Foligno etc are a memory. Fluery flopping like a seal. Fialas hole left Boldy on an island. If MN prospects are number 1 shouldn’t Iowa be walking away with a championship?

That's not how that works.

Also, Fleury has been playing fine. He's definitely not the reason for a majority of our losses.

 

[Digitalbooya]

No one has picked up any slack. No more Fluery 6/5 wins. Career years of Hartman/Foligno etc are a memory. Fluery flopping like a seal. Fialas hole left Boldy on an island. If MN prospects are number 1 shouldn’t Iowa be walking away with a championship?

Iowa hasn’t lost in regulation in over a month. Wallstedt, our top rated prospect, is 8-0-1 in his last 9 games.

Of our top prospects according to Wheeler, only 3 of the top 10 play for Iowa: Wallstedt, Rossi, and Beckman. Yurov, Ohgren, Faber, Lambos, Khusnutdinov, Peart and Spacek all play elsewhere.

 

[63firebird]

Iowa hasn’t lost in regulation in over a month. Wallstedt, our top rated prospect, is 8-0-1 in his last 9 games.

Of our top prospects according to Wheeler, only 3 of the top 10 play for Iowa: Wallstedt, Rossi, and Beckman. Yurov, Ohgren, Faber, Lambos, Khusnutdinov, Peart and Spacek all play elsewhere.

Well that is encouraging! That’s great to hear.

 

[63firebird]

That's not how that works.

Also, Fleury has been playing fine. He's definitely not the reason for a majority of our losses.

Since the Wild prospects are doing well, shouldn’t GMBG be applauded? Or did he not draft many? Seems like with a little patience good things are on the horizon.

 

[Digitalbooya]

Well that is encouraging! That’s great to hear.

My hope is that we can get Yurov, Ohgren and Lambos playing for Iowa next year. Perhaps Spacek since our RHD depth is pretty bare and Faber will likely be NHL bound right away.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Since the Wild prospects are doing well, shouldn’t GMBG be applauded? Or did he not draft many? Seems like with a little patience good things are on the horizon.

Depends on who you are and your views on our prospects. He and Judd have drafted most of them.

 

[Bazeek]

Since the Wild prospects are doing well, shouldn’t GMBG be applauded? Or did he not draft many? Seems like with a little patience good things are on the horizon.

I applaud Guerin for improving the prospect pool and not being frivolous with draft picks. Right now I'm skeptical that the ingredients are there for a future core that's going to win anything, but you never know.

The things being said about the pool right now remind me of the accolades Philadelphia was getting a few years ago. Doesn't seem like that panned out great for them, though I haven't really dug into the details.