Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

[Obvious Fabertism]

I wonder if there are any good trade targets. Someone like Kevin Fiala on the Kings would look real nice next to Boldy on the second line, I bet.

What if we instead went for a play making and defensively responsible center for Kaprizov, maybe someone like Mikael Granlund in Nashville.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I think I’d be in on Garland.

 

[AKL]

I think I’d be in on Garland.

Depends on the cost to acquire, for me. He's like a poor man's Fiala. But his AAV isn't too high and it expires shortly after he turns 30, so he'd be a good stopgap for secondary scoring.

 

[Wabit]

Horvat or Garland would be interesting if Vancouver blows it up.

Not interested in Garland's $5m x 3+ contract.

 

[Spurgeon]

Horvat or Garland would be interesting if Vancouver blows it up.

Don’t think they could afford a Horvat extension. I feel like if this team is gonna use assets, it needs to bring him someone that they’ll have for at least through the dead cap. I like Garland as a target.

Not many 2023 UFAs that interest me that we could afford. Maybe take a flyer on someone like Drouin, but I see that turning out like Galchenyuk.

What if we instead went for a play making and defensively responsible center for Kaprizov, maybe someone like Mikael Granlund in Nashville.

They probably didn’t wanna come back, but I thought either him or Nino would’ve been good affordable targets with high upside. Hate that they both ended up on the Preds.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Not interested in Garland's $5m x 3+ contract.

Doesn't seem too out of line for a 20+ goal, 50-60 point caliber winger.

 

[GordieGallant]

Wish we had a couple more top sixers to force our existing bottom sixers down to the actual bottom six.

I would put Duhaime with Boldy and Rossi.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Depends on the cost to acquire, for me. He's like a poor man's Fiala. But his AAV isn't too high and it expires shortly after he turns 30, so he'd be a good stopgap for secondary scoring.

If 80+ point Fiala gets a 1st + a prospect like Faber, I'd have to say that 50+ point Garland is probably in 2nd + Beckman territory?

 

[GordieGallant]

Pretty good road trip so far. Nice comeback against a very good Bruins team. Wins in Montreal and Quebec. If we split the last two games we will have gotten 7 out of 10 possible points.
9 out of ten if we win out. Last night was easily the most entertaining game of the season.

 

[AKL]

If 80+ point Fiala gets a 1st + a prospect like Faber, I'd have to say that 50+ point Garland is probably in 2nd + Beckman territory?

That seems fair, I guess it just depends on your opinion of Beckman too.

 

[Wabit]

Doesn't seem too out of line for a 20+ goal, 50-60 point caliber winger.

It's not a bad contract. Just adding another non-elite winger for a team that has 1 center worth anything doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Webster]

A little bomb from Russo in his live chat today. He asked Guerin if he'd re-sign Fiala if another $4 million became available next season. Guerin said no.

Why? Well Russo told the true story. Evason and Fiala hated each other, and the Wild were not happy with Fiala's personality. That's why they wanted him gone, and that decision was made during the summer of 21. In other words, not interested in him anymore, even if he scored 100 points a season.

 

[GordieGallant]

Russo is a hack.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

A little bomb from Russo in his live chat today. He asked Guerin if he'd re-sign Fiala if another $4 million became available next season. Guerin said no.

Why? Well Russo told the true story. Evason and Fiala hated each other, and the Wild were not happy with Fiala's personality. That's why they wanted him gone, and that decision was made during the summer of 21. In other words, not interested in him anymore, even if he scored 100 points a season.

Yeah, it was pretty evident when they elected arbitration after hardly any negotiations.

 

[AKL]

Yeah, it was pretty evident when they elected arbitration after hardly any negotiations.

Can't imagine one single person is surprised by that "news"

 

[GordieGallant]

Good luck to Kevin. Can we move on now?

Pretty sure BBB isn’t a huge Russo fan either.

 

[AKL]

Good luck to Kevin. Can we move on now?

You are certainly free to do whatever you'd like.

 

[Webster]

Yeah, it was pretty evident when they elected arbitration after hardly any negotiations.

Agreed. But since then, and after the trade, we've had a million posts about this on why Guerin traded him, why keep Dumba instead and blah blah. It's like a lot of fans didn't understand.

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

Why does nobody rage about Tuch? Imagine we still had him to play with Boldy instead of Dumba.

 

[BagHead]

A little bomb from Russo in his live chat today. He asked Guerin if he'd re-sign Fiala if another $4 million became available next season. Guerin said no.

Why? Well Russo told the true story. Evason and Fiala hated each other, and the Wild were not happy with Fiala's personality. That's why they wanted him gone, and that decision was made during the summer of 21. In other words, not interested in him anymore, even if he scored 100 points a season.

Sort of the Wild's worst kept secret this last year, but good to have confirmation about it, I guess.

I'm of two minds about this exact situation. On the one hand, I think a team needs to take as much skill as they can, and then try to manage egos. That's just part of the job of being a coach, and if you can't do it, you hire an assistant who can. You don't just get rid of the guy because you don't like him.
On the other hand, I think it was the best possible time to trade Fiala, that his value would never be higher, and they took that opportunity and got a really good return for him. Teams don't usually win much of anything after paying out too many big contracts, and Fiala wasn't the Kaprizov level guy that you want to continue to pay big money to until he's geriatric. He seems to be more of a Martin Havlat or Sergei Samsonov level of player.

Why does nobody rage about Tuch? Imagine we still had him to play with Boldy instead of Dumba.

To be fair, people around here did rage about him for a while. Now there's just someone newer to rage about.

 

[57special]

Why does nobody rage about Tuch? Imagine we still had him to play with Boldy instead of Dumba.

Because that was two GM's ago?

These are his point totals in his 5 seasons since leaving here. He has scored 20 goals once.

37
52
17
33
38

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Agreed. But since then, and after the trade, we've had a million posts about this on why Guerin traded him, why keep Dumba instead and blah blah. It's like a lot of fans didn't understand.

Actually, I think it's been a million posts of disagreeing with trading him, or not liking that we traded him, or telling people to move on from the trade.

I think we generally had a pretty good idea about why a PPG forward in their mid-20's might have gotten traded. At least around here. Can't speak for the twitter world or anything.

Why does nobody rage about Tuch? Imagine we still had him to play with Boldy instead of Dumba.

Because it was unfortunate, but somewhat defensible at the time, considering the seasons that our key NHL players had just had.

Also, the idea that Kaprizov was right there for the taking for Vegas if they wanted. That would've definitely been rage worthy.

But yes, Tuch on the right side of a Boldy/Rossi line would be quite something. I blame Leipold (and the other owners) for that situation.

 

[AKL]

Because that was two GM's ago?

These are his point totals in his 5 seasons since leaving here. He has scored 20 goals once.

37
52
17
33
38

Caveat here is that he had some short seasons due to injuries and that one other thing that happened. He's averaged 50 points per 82 in that span. He was also buried on Vegas' third line because of a couple better options ahead of him. And since getting to Buffalo he's been scoring at a 66 point pace. He'd definitely be a huge asset for us if we still had him.

But like Doc said, that one was at least defensible given the circumstances.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Because that was two GM's ago?

These are his point totals in his 5 seasons since leaving here. He has scored 20 goals once.

37
52
17
33
38

And had 18 in 55 games in an artificially shortened season. And is 6'5" right handed and can skate.

He'd absolutely be a very nice piece for us if he was still here.

 

[AKL]

And had 18 in 55 games in an artificially shortened season. And is 6'5" right handed and can skate.

He'd absolutely be a very nice piece for us if he was still here.

Also 18 in 57 games as a Sabre. Including 6 in 7 this season so far.