Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

[AKL]

It seems to me like this organizations best transactions during Guerin's tenure have been centered around the draft.

Arguably, Guerin's best move as a GM was hiring Brackett and then keeping his hands out of the cookie jar.

His best trades have been Zucker for Addison+1st and Kunin for 2nd, where those picks turned into Lambos and Marat because of Brackett.

His hockey trades (Kahkonen for Middleton, Sturm for Jost, Staal for Johansson) have all either sucked or just produced nothing of value for this oranization, outside of effectively lucking into Gus.

His trades where he's moved picks for players (2nd for Fleury, 3rd for Deslauriers, 5th for Reaves) have also resulted in nothing of value for this organization.

All that is to say, even though the moves for futures haven't paid much dividends yet, you'd think this guy would relish the opportunity to give Brackett more picks because, by and large, Brackett is the one making Guerin look like a competent GM to this point. Most of his trades suck, most of his signings suck, but his prospect pool is excellent.

 

[Wabit]

Just read Russo’s gamer from last night. He was about as scorching as you can get on the team, and the decisions being made/not made. I thought it was fair, and about time, but I understand that he is in a different position than those of us who can spout off all they want with no real world repercussions.

Tinfoil hat time. He's still spouting the company line and it's all just a cover (soften the blow) for the team when they sell at the TDL. Similar to the bad/skewed coverage he gave Fiala last season.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Ha. In one of them right now and terrified every second. As-Salamu Alaykum

God help you of you're in the left lane and you see a car flashing its lights at you from behind. You have approx .6 seconds to move over or it could be a bad day.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Gotta wonder if Guerin is going to double down on the whole character thing or realize he made a huge error with prioritizing Greenway over Fiala and willing to fix it

 

[BuiumSaveUs]

It's funny, after @KaprizovSaveUs said Greenway trade incoming earlier, I looked at his Twitter to see if there actually was something in the works right now, and I saw he retweeted a tweet about selling off and tanking. I don't think I've ever seen Russo support a tanking message before.

I wasn’t sure if he was supporting it or just trying to be a dick to that fan on twitter. Either way it was an interesting decision. Russo usually pedals the same recycled BS in support of Guerin, so if even he can see the need for a tank you know it’s dire times.

 

[Wabit]

Rob Manfred says MLB will handle team broadcasts if Bally Sports networks miss payments

Interesting article on Bally's sports and how the MLB is looking to handle the pending bankruptcy.

As Manfred explained MLB's backup plan, the league would try to get the games aired on local cable like usual while creating a new option for fans to stream local games, which has long been forbidden under the usual RSN structure.

It would be great if NHL did something similar and I could stream Wild games without blackouts, some work around, etc.

I also wonder what's going to happen with the future cap if they can't find a network or networks to pick up all these local teams for a similar dollar terms.

 

[Sota Popinski]

Just read Russo’s gamer from last night. He was about as scorching as you can get on the team, and the decisions being made/not made. I thought it was fair, and about time, but I understand that he is in a different position than those of us who can spout off all they want with no real world repercussions.

With everyone so tight against the cap, and playoff positions so close, it benefits almost all teams to wait as long as possible to trade. The Wild have the 6th most cap space with 3.7 M. The sharks are in the middle of the pack with 155K. Every day of accrued cap space counts for almost every team.

 

[Spurgeon]

I like Russo, and have seen far worse than him when it comes kissing up to team management. These guys have to maintain relationships on the team, or they simply won’t get info. It’s a challenging line to walk. I think he does it pretty well, but I definitely disagree at times with what he writes, I.e. how Fiala couldn’t have been fit under the financial structure of the team.

I’ve liked Russo in the past, but I feel like he’s shifted quite a bit from the Fletcher days to where he’s at now. He comes off as a really pretentious douchebag on Twitter. I’m sure having to endure some of the idiotic takes on there can be brutal, but he’s a bit of a dick to people.

Also think he wanted to ensure he was on the “ins” with Guerin after being locked out from Fenton. Leads to softer coverage on his end.

Rob Manfred says MLB will handle team broadcasts if Bally Sports networks miss payments

Interesting article on Bally's sports and how the MLB is looking to handle the pending bankruptcy.



It would be great if NHL did something similar and I could stream Wild games without blackouts, some work around, etc.

I also wonder what's going to happen with the future cap if they can't find a network or networks to pick up all these local teams for a similar dollar terms.

NHL should seize this opportunity to make a dedicated premium streaming channel with 4K streams. I’d legitimately pay $40-50/month to get 4K hockey. Not sure if it’s possible with all their TV deals to offer such a service though.

 

[Wabit]

With everyone so tight against the cap, and playoff positions so close, it benefits almost all teams to wait as long as possible to trade. The Wild have the 6th most cap space with 3.7 M. The sharks are in the middle of the pack with 155K. Every day of accrued cap space counts for almost every team.

This is why I think it's better to buy early (if they are going to be buyers) for MN rather than wait. They have around $12m in cap space already banked. Getting the few extra games out of a player could be the difference between the Playoffs and not.

If they are going to sell, then wait until the deadline and use that $16.5m (projected) cap space to pick up some assets for cap dumps from other teams.

 

[Roman Maroni]

The fans just take after the team

There’s 28 games left in the season. They either need to make the playoffs or trade all of Foligno, Greenway, Dumba, (Fleury), etc for draft picks and try really hard for a top 10 pick whilst going through the growing pains with younger players on the roster.

Do you guys remember, I believe it was the 19-20 season, the team started out like absolute crap after we had traded a bunch of vets (Granlund, Coyle, Nino). As the season progressed, the younger players who were struggling early (Fiala, Kunin, Donato, Greenway, Eriksson Ek) started to play better and mix with the vets on the team and right before the pandemic started they were on an absolute tear. That’s what I want this team to try and do now:

Trade: Foligno, Greenway, Hartman, Steel, Merrill, Dumba

Call up: Rossi, Walker, Beckman, O’Rourke
Sign: Faber

Kap-Boldy-Zucc
Rossi-Eriksson Ek-Walker
Beckman-Dewar-Gaudreau
Duhaime-Shaw-Reaves

Middleton-Spurgeon
Brodin-Faber
O’Rourke-Addison
Goligoski

Gus
MAF

If they do well, that’s great! If they have a lot of growing pains… fantastic! We just played our way into a top 10 pick while giving our prospects a shot at growth.

Agree on this, trade those guys for picks or prospects.

But not being a hockey lifer and relatively new to the sport and still learning how things work. Would it not make sense to take on a few bad contracts with the cap available to get a couple more picks as well? You could maybe use some of the added picks to pair with what you have and move up even higher?

Yes, you would add a few players you might not normally go after, but you could still bring up a couple of young guys and see what you have available for next year? Plus the overpaid guys are probably scoring about as many points or more than the guys you are letting go.

Don’t rip on me too hard, I’m still learning….

 

[Parax]

Rob Manfred says MLB will handle team broadcasts if Bally Sports networks miss payments

Interesting article on Bally's sports and how the MLB is looking to handle the pending bankruptcy.



It would be great if NHL did something similar and I could stream Wild games without blackouts, some work around, etc.

I also wonder what's going to happen with the future cap if they can't find a network or networks to pick up all these local teams for a similar dollar terms.

Hopefully the NHL has a similar out clause to the MLB that they can terminate the contract if Bally misses a payment. It seems like it would be standard but they might have a grace period long enough to let them get to chapter 11 bankruptcy. Give Disney the option of airing local games on ESPN+ for this season and next while working on a long term solution.

 

[StateofCelly]

Agree on this, trade those guys for picks or prospects.

But not being a hockey lifer and relatively new to the sport and still learning how things work. Would it not make sense to take on a few bad contracts with the cap available to get a couple more picks as well? You could maybe use some of the added picks to pair with what you have and move up even higher?

Yes, you would add a few players you might not normally go after, but you could still bring up a couple of young guys and see what you have available for next year? Plus the overpaid guys are probably scoring about as many points or more than the guys you are letting go.

Don’t rip on me too hard, I’m still leaning….

This is actually something that has been bounced around a bit. The Wild aren't in a position to take on term on some of those cap dumps since our cap room is gone after this season. But if there are good expiring contracts they can eat, or potential deals for them to be a third party partner and eat some of the cap that would be an interesting route to go. They could add some more ammo for picks like mentioned in some other threads and use those picks to potentially move up and get more of an impact player than depth guys. I think there are a lot of other things that would need to happen first before that is a path that Guerin were to choose though. I still don't think that he fully sees the writing on the wall yet, or wants to pack it in on the season.

 

[Sota Popinski]

This is why I think it's better to buy early (if they are going to be buyers) for MN rather than wait. They have around $12m in cap space already banked. Getting the few extra games out of a player could be the difference between the Playoffs and not.

If they are going to sell, then wait until the deadline and use that $16.5m (projected) cap space to pick up some assets for cap dumps from other teams.

I agree, that works best for us, but every other team is so tight against the cap they don't have that luxury. If we are sending salary out, we have to wait until closer to the deadline to sell Dumba, Greenway, Foligno, etc. If we are buying, right now there are only about 9 teams that are for sure sellers.

 

[Wabit]

Hopefully the NHL has a similar out clause to the MLB that they can terminate the contract if Bally misses a payment. It seems like it would be standard but they might have a grace period long enough to let them get to chapter 11 bankruptcy. Give Disney the option of airing local games on ESPN+ for this season and next while working on a long term solution.

It might be too late in the NHL season to have an impact this season. There are roughly 60 days left in the regular season so a 30 day grace period would eat half of that. If the payment is due (and missed) say the 1st of next month and it's missed it would just leave the local games in the month of April.

Bally's could also write off the MLB completely and pay some/all of NHL teams it has deals with. Basically a big business version of juggle the bills like I had to when I was flat broke.

 

[Roman Maroni]

I agree, that works best for us, but every other team is so tight against the cap they don't have that luxury. If we are sending salary out, we have to wait until closer to the deadline to sell Dumba, Greenway, Foligno, etc. If we are buying, right now there are only about 9 teams that are for sure sellers.

I meant to say expiring contracts….didn’t type what i meant I guess…

 

[ViD]

 

[StateofCelly]

 

[Wabit]

Honestly it seems like that number should be higher.

 

[NHL1674]

Glad to see a callup coming. But scared that he'll get very limited icetime and benched the very second he does something wrong.

 

[AKL]

Honestly, yeah, let's get Beckman up here. It's been a while for him, and Walker, for as good as he's been in the AHL, didn't produce last time he was here. Might as well try something new.

Glad to see a callup coming. But scared that he'll get very limited icetime and benched the very second he does something wrong.

If they don't put him with Boldy/Ek and move Duhaime to Foligno's spot with Gaudreau and Greenway, there's no point to even calling him up. Just get Petan if that's your plan.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Glad to see a callup coming. But scared that he'll get very limited icetime and benched the very second he does something wrong.

The Evason special.

 

[NHL1674]

If they don't put him with Boldy/Ek and move Duhaime to Foligno's spot with Gaudreau and Greenway, there's no point to even calling him up. Just get Petan if that's your plan.

Exactly. They need to put him with some players to succeed....not bury him with the anchors.

 

[Wabit]

Glad to see a callup coming. But scared that he'll get very limited icetime and benched the very second he does something wrong.

If it's one of the kids then they will play. If it's a vet then they are here for the pressbox.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Honestly it seems like that number should be higher.

It is higher.

It's been 328:20

 

[Roman Maroni]

This is actually something that has been bounced around a bit. The Wild aren't in a position to take on term on some of those cap dumps since our cap room is gone after this season. But if there are good expiring contracts they can eat, or potential deals for them to be a third party partner and eat some of the cap that would be an interesting route to go. They could add some more ammo for picks like mentioned in some other threads and use those picks to potentially move up and get more of an impact player than depth guys. I think there are a lot of other things that would need to happen first before that is a path that Guerin were to choose though. I still don't think that he fully sees the writing on the wall yet, or wants to pack it in on the season.

That’s what I meant, the expiring contracts/3rd party broker angle….