Steel's hands turning to granite allow Hartman to fail upwards. Can't complain about that, or reuniting Greenway-Ek-Foligno this year as I can't see a successful postseason with those 3 split up, though they do need to find something close to the resemblance of the last 2 seasons.
Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23
- Thread starter TaLoN
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Eriksson Ek has blossomed into a top 6, arguably top line, center. Signed long term at a fantastic rate. Guerin used his best draft pick so far on a center (Rossi). He’s found decent stop gaps for the time being (Gaudreau, Steel, Hartman).
Granlund wasn’t a center here. Koivu was a borderline 4C near the end. Eriksson Ek and Rossi are so similar to Koivu and Granlund it’s almost uncanny. All that needs to happen to complete the prophecy is for Rossi to blossom as a winger.
The end of the Fletcher/Fenton eras we had Staal-Koivu-Eriksson Ek-Rask. That’s one young center that has been a major contributor now, two old declining players, and one just flat out bad player. There was nothing in the cupboards. The one useful player on the team is still here.
The way you get a 1C is through the draft. Guerin’s been here 3 and a half seasons. In his first draft he picked two centers with his first two picks (Rossi and Khusnutdinov). Second draft he picked Bankier in the 3rd. Third draft he picked Haight in the 2nd round. Three of four drafted centers in the first two rounds.
To give you perspective on that, from the 2011-2019 drafts the Wild picked three centers total in the first two rounds (Phillips, Eriksson Ek, Kunin). People complaining about our center situation now should really look at this time frame as the culprit.
BagHead
Registered User
Yeah, that was a continuation of the parenthesis before it. Vegas is the only team of the 6 ahead of the Wild to not win the Cup, but they did make the finals.Wasn't Vegas in the finals in their first year?
They were
View attachment 647119
Vegas Golden Knights Playoff History | 2018 - 2024
Explore and research every single postseason result from all 7 seasons in franchise history.champsorchumps.us
I will also note that the two teams in 8th and 9th have also made it to the Cup finals (Rangers and Predators). 10th place is the Wild of the East, Toronto. 11th and 12th have both made recent Cup finals appearances (Dallas and Colorado).
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Granlund was a center here for several years before moving to wing
He, Parise and Pominville were a thing of beauty for a while
Nope. GREEF is done, Foligno has reverted back to what he actually is (still love the guy and want him on the team) and Greenway has just gotten worse. Sick of seeing Ek dragged down by one or both of of them this year. I, with every fiber of my being, want to see Ek in a top 6 scoring line. I think he'd thrive with Boldy and another semi skilled winger.
Granny was never a good center. We've just been beated down for so long with lack of centers he looked good by comparison.
The lineup didn't fall into place and thrive until Staal came and showed what an actual top line center looks like.
They might have put him at center, but he never excelled there.
His best season at center he put up 41 points in 63 games. His best full season at center was 44 points. That’s the same number of points Freddy put up last year.
Granlund was not great at center. That’s why when he moved to wing he saw a 25 point jump in production.
He was young and showing promise was my point.
I never called him a GREAT center, I said that Fletcher had him and he was showing some skill there for a while, which made it understandable Fletcher wanted to see it play out a bit. Yes, he ended up a much better wing, nobody is denying that, but you can't say he didn't show any promise in his time there.
My point still remains that since Billy G. has arrived, our center situation has only gotten worse, and that's on him.
Has it? I disagree.
In 18-19:
Staal 81GP 52pts
Koivu 48GP 29pts (50pt pace)
Coyle 60GP 28 pts (38pt pace)
Eriksson Ek 58GP 14pts
(Rask)
(Hendricks)
22-23:
Eriksson Ek ~ 69pt pace
Hartman ~ 33pt pace (pro rated to 60 games cause injury, 45 pt 82 game pace)
Gaudreau ~ 37pt pace
Steel ~ 37pt pace
(Rossi)
(Dewar)
Eriksson Ek>Staal
Hartman<Koivu
Gaudreau=Coyle
Steel>young Eriksson Ek
Dewar>Rask
I think the only problem is, that our best centers in order are Eriksson Ek then Hartman then Gaudreau then Steel. We’ve been running almost the opposite for our lines: Steel-Gaudreau/Hartman-Eriksson Ek
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Even if our current center depth was better, it's still only a slight improvement on one of the worst center depths in the league. That's not even close to being enough.
A lot of that center depth improvement is due to Ek improving as a player, and I'm not sure Guerin should get credit for that outside of signing him to a nice longterm contract.
I don’t think it’s better, but I don’t think it’s worse either. It’s right where it’s always been for this franchise. We have a really good 2C and we are looking for a 1C.
Guerin brought in Gaudreau. He re-signed Hartman at a bargain. He signed Eriksson Ek long term right before a huge breakout.
He’s drafted a center in the first two rounds of the draft two of the three drafts he’s been here. He has three center prospects from his first three drafts drafted in the top two rounds. That’s the same total across the previous nine drafts before Guerin.
I think he’s trying to get centers through the draft and I appreciate that approach.
Put Ek with Boldy and we have 2 4th lines. I'm all for moving Foligno but I don't think Guerin is considering that so I don't really bother bringing it up. Makes too much with our hindered cap to not play in the top-9 and he's only looked like a top-9 forward with Ek in the middle, don't see the point with how weak our top-9 is to move away from that, and Greenway is still the logical option to round that line out.
Staal and Koivu were two of the team's best players.
Only Ek can come close to saying the same now. Much different scenarios. Much more wide open league now and the best player in franchise history to carry whomever is on that line, and quite a few have spent time on that line.
Also of note... when Fletcher was here, we were a pretty good face off team, now we're one of the league's worst.
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Staal was hot garbage his last two seasons here. He may have had decent (50ish) point totals, but his play was bad. Fumbling pucks, turnovers, slow, etc. Koivu worked his way down to the 4th line and then out of the league after half a season in CBJ. Their only redeeming quality was that both were good at faceoffs.
Eriksson Ek now is substantially better than either of Koivu/Staal back then. Kaprizov hasn't carried him. Gaudreau hasn't been carried by Kaprizov. Hartman hasn't been carried by Kaprizov this season.
I wouldn't trade our center situation now (Ek, Hartman, Gaudreau, Dewar, Rossi, Khusnutdinov, Haight, potentially Yurov, etc) for the situation back then (Staal, Koivu, Coyle, Kunin, Eriksson Ek, and Cal O'Reilly?). We are in the early stages of developing some 1st and 2nd round center picks.
The only move I can think of that Guerin should have pursued harder was trying to sign Dylan Strome this past offseason.
That's not our center situation now. That's our center situation 2-4 years from now.
Now it's Ek, Steel, Gaudreau, Hartman, Dewar... and that's TERRIBLE.
And like I've been telling you, he's building our center situation through the draft. What are you expecting? Him to just force Rossi to be ready as a 21 year old? We finally have a GM that's trying to select centers in the early parts of the draft. It takes time for them to develop ya know...
If Hartman is a 30+30 guy next to Kap and Eriksson Ek is a 70 point player. That's not terrible for the time being. Especially when both are costing a combined ~ $7M. We could be paying Horvat $8.5M after a career year and will likely regress back to his normal 30+30/60 pt play. Would that make it better for you?
No, I was expecting we'd make a move to improve from guys like Hartman and Gaudreau... and not by getting another in Steel.
Instead? He brings in his old buddies that he played with. Re-ups disappointments like Greenway. This is all re-hashed stuff though. 3 offseasons after he was hired and made no effort to improve the team at center is frustrating.
Dr Jan Itor
Registered User
I'm fine with that if it allows us to have an actual 2nd line.
Greef is a 4th line at this point (albeit probably the best 4th line in the NHL). I'm speaking in hyperbole, of course. But... I'd rather have 2 good lines and 2 4th lines as opposed to 1 1st line and 3 "meh" lines
Gone after someone like Trocheck to play in our top 6.
He's come "available" twice in Billy's tenure already.
You're also committing 7 years. So till he's 36. We are starting to get away from paying 30+ year old free agents. Let's not go back to that.
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.
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