Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

[BagHead]

Sure feels a bit unfair to blame Fenton for his bad moves but simultaneously give him no credit for the good moves. He had eye for talent and he deserves credit for that, even if he had some obvious shortcomings in other aspects of being a GM.

Yep. Great talent evaluator, terrible at actually being a manager. Not great, since that's in the title of the job.

I was intrigued by his moves, even if a bit flabbergasted at some of the returns. This was also the guy who said he only wanted to do "hockey trades". By his own words he had no interest in anything that wasn't 1 for 1, player for player. Weird, but maybe that made the evaluation easier for him, fewer variables?

Whatever, he acted in a toxic manner and it cost him. Actions have consequences. Being talented may give you a longer rope, but that doesn't mean you can't still hang yourself with it.

 

[Wabit]

wabit the reason all those players had good points was kaprizov, without him bunch of losers.

Fiala and Sturm are doing just fine without Kaprizov. The team is a bunch of losers because GMBG has dumped so much talent in favor of dead cap and his buddies.

Kap makes the team better, forsure. But it could have functioned without him if it had kept its depth/talent. Kap also would have signed here whoever was the GM when his last contract was up in the KHL.

Fenton was building a team that would be right in the middle of it's Cup window. The team he left was better than the one he took over. It's also better than what is on the ice now.

 

[AKL]

i wanted newhook C but i never thought boldy would fall and neither did anyone else! ps smashville would have NEVER traded fiala if they thought he would explode. we got lucky end of story.

Alright well if we got that lucky in one year under Fenton, we haven't even gotten close to that lucky (or good) in 3.5 years under Guerin, so whatever that means.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

I was having a conversation with a friend this weekend and I expressed to him that I believe this team is worse in every area of the ice since Geurin’s arrival, with the only possible exception being goaltending. He thought I was crazy.

Aside from tending and prospects (none of whom have actually panned out yet) I really don’t think what I said was that insane.

 

[Wabit]

Alright well if we got that lucky in one year under Fenton, we haven't even gotten close to that lucky (or good) in 3.5 years under Guerin, so whatever that means.

Rossi was considered lucky, falling into GMBG's lap, at the time.

In fairness to GMBG's drafting only Rossi (top-10 pick in his d+3 year) should be a NHL regular. The rest seem to be on a somewhat normal prospect development cycle of the d+2 years in jrs, d+3 in the AHL with later season injury callup possibility. It's the d+4 season where most picks should start making the push to the NHL.

 

[Wabit]

I was having a conversation with a friend this weekend and I expressed to him that I believe this team is worse in every area of the ice since Geurin’s arrival, with the only possible exception being goaltending. He thought I was crazy.

Aside from tending and prospects (none of whom have actually panned out yet) I really don’t think what I said was that insane.

Well not quite every area. Kaprizov wasn't on the team when GMBG arrived. He was in the system though, so I guess it depends on how you view that.

I do mostly agree with you though. The NHL team is worse overall (except in net Dub/Stalock were terrible). The AHL team is much worse too.

 

[f7ben]

Yeah, no. If he Intentionally turtled in the postseason for those reasons, then he would be a pretty pathetic player who doesn't belong in the league.

But I'm pretty sure he did no such thing and struggled for other reasons.

He struggled a bit , could you blame him if he couldn’t find another gear knowing he got shafted by Guerin and he was moving in a matter of days?

 

[DigitalBoldy]

He struggled a bit , could you blame him if he couldn’t find another gear knowing he got shafted by Guerin and he was moving in a matter of days?

What about the year before that? Do you have an excuse for that one too?

 

[Wild11MN]

I was having a conversation with a friend this weekend and I expressed to him that I believe this team is worse in every area of the ice since Geurin’s arrival, with the only possible exception being goaltending. He thought I was crazy.

Aside from tending and prospects (none of whom have actually panned out yet) I really don’t think what I said was that insane.

Also has $12-15M less cap space to work with. They weren't winning a cup with Parise and Suter on the team, so who cares if he kept them at this point, that's my view.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Also has $12-15M less cap space to work with. They weren't winning a cup with Parise and Suter on the team, so who cares if he kept them at this point, that's my view.

Suter would have been at worse Goligoski, at best a top 4 guy still. The 12-15 million less is on Guerin.

 

[Wild11MN]

Suter would have been at worse Goligoski, at best a top 4 guy still. The 12-15 million less is on Guerin.

So then we'd have Suter instead of Goligoski and barely have been a better team. Makes little difference.

I admittedly have heard little of how Suter is playing outside of knowing he's on the second pair.

 

[57special]

So then we'd have Suter instead of Goligoski and barely have been a better team. Makes little difference.

I admittedly have heard little of how Suter is playing outside of knowing he's on the second pair.

would've saved us some cap space. 2M+/- doesn't sound like a lot over each of the next two years, but it adds up.

 

[57special]

I was having a conversation with a friend this weekend and I expressed to him that I believe this team is worse in every area of the ice since Geurin’s arrival, with the only possible exception being goaltending. He thought I was crazy.

Aside from tending and prospects (none of whom have actually panned out yet) I really don’t think what I said was that insane.

they seem to be the same old thing, to me, albeit with a great player in Kaprizov.

I am finding them to be dull, in general, after trading away Fiala. I understand depth, i understand and treasure defensive play, and goaltending, but f*** it, man, you need a couple/three stars who can rise above the others and score goals, because of their superior skill and talent. You've got the have those guys. After that, you fill in the rest.

 

[Webster]

No GDT yet, but Fleury plays tonight instead of red hot Gus. This must be Guerin's orders.

 

[north21]

Suter would have been at worse Goligoski, at best a top 4 guy still. The 12-15 million less is on Guerin.

I dont anyone can say suter would not have been useful. I think it was more about moving on from the pair of them for a variety of reasons.

Although keeping suter might have allowed us to more easily keep fiala in hind sight.

 

[Wabit]

No GDT yet, but Fleury plays tonight instead of red hot Gus. This must be Guerin's orders.

Fine. I made one.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Minnesota passed up on Tolvanen.

 

[MNNumbers]

they seem to be the same old thing, to me, albeit with a great player in Kaprizov.

I am finding them to be dull, in general, after trading away Fiala. I understand depth, i understand and treasure defensive play, and goaltending, but f*** it, man, you need a couple/three stars who can rise above the others and score goals, because of their superior skill and talent. You've got the have those guys. After that, you fill in the rest.

This, exactly. You don't trade highly skilled offensive players. You just don't.

 

[f7ben]

What about the year before that? Do you have an excuse for that one too?

Yah , the team was trash and he had no Boldy.

 

[AKL]

Yah , the team was trash and he had no Boldy.

I don't think he just simply gave up last year, I think that's just what it looks like when Boldy is in his first ever playoff series and Gaudreau isn't good enough to be in that spot.

The year before he also had no help on his line in the playoffs.

The year before that he was our best player in the play-in against Vancouver, but we don't dare look back that far because it doesn't fit the "Fiala sucks in the playoffs" angle that we want to push.

The other part that doesn't fit through all of this is that Fiala has produced just as much, if not more (considering he has less), than Zuccarello has, but for some reason Zuccarello gets a pass on his playoff performance.

When Fiala makes the playoffs again with LA and doesn't suck, you'll see a bunch of predictable posts brushing it off with some flimsy excuse like "well he didn't do that here" or "he wouldn't have become that player here".

The fact is, no one on the team outside of Kaprizov and Ek had a good playoff last year, but it sure makes for a convenient excuse when the manager already decided three years ago that he didn't wanna keep Fiala.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

Yah , the team was trash and he had no Boldy.

The guy people wanted to pay $8M a year to can’t produce without other good players?

@AKL couple things…

1. Does the Vancouver play-in series really count as “playoffs?”

2. Zuccarello definitely didn’t get a pass. People have been complaining about him endlessly since the playoffs. How have you missed that? I mean, you’ve literally been a participant.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

When Fiala makes the playoffs again with LA and doesn't suck, you'll see a bunch of predictable posts brushing it off with some flimsy excuse like "well he didn't do that here" or "he wouldn't have become that player here".

The fact is, no one on the team outside of Kaprizov and Ek had a good playoff last year, but it sure makes for a convenient excuse when the manager already decided three years ago that he didn't wanna keep Fiala.

Fiala will be getting better opportunities with the Kings, something he wouldn’t have gotten here because those opportunities (correctly) would be going to Kaprizov.

 

[Webster]

Zuccarello played with an injury in the playoffs back in May, still had 4 points in 6 games.

The problem with Fiala in those six playoff games was his defensive play (-5), and his penalty minutes (16).

 

[f7ben]

Zuccarello played with an injury in the playoffs back in May, still had 4 points in 6 games.

The problem with Fiala in those six playoff games was his defensive play (-5), and his penalty minutes (16).

An actual dead horse would have had 4 pts as Kaps passenger in that series. Zucc was awful

 

[Webster]

An actual dead horse would have had 4 pts as Kaps passenger in that series. Zucc was awful

You have been part of a goal when you get a point, you made a good play, others can't do that for you.

If you remember, Zucc was out for a week before the playoffs because of that injury, they tried to get him ready. He still wanted to play, despite the pain...