He also mentions all the good reasons for keeping Foligno and Hartman. You just have such a hard-on for Zuccarello that you extrapolate what Russo said into some love fest the Wild have for Zuccarello and their apparent deep desire to keep him at all costs.
I'm with you, re-signing Zucc as if he had a NMC from his line makes no sense. But just from a logistical standpoint, if you have a guy that can produce 40-50pts, not be a liability defensively at ~$4mil vs overpaying on the FA market, thats not a bad choice.
$4.75M is pretty rich for how I view him as a player (2nd-3rd line tweener). I like his versatility and that he is a right shot forward. I also like that when the chips are down, he actually showed up in the playoffs (10pts in 11gp). I just question if he’s really a top 6 player or if he should be more like a 35-40 point 3rd line guy. Do those guys make $4.75M nowadays?
There’s always a chance, but given our cap situation, I’d say it’s very unlikely
Very unlikely he makes the team out of camp but I would expect the Wild to have roster movement around the 10 game mark and at the moment he is very likely the first call up for any injuries or underperformance in the top 9. Our cap space doesn’t allow them to carry him to start plus the Sweden trip likely makes roster decisions more firm for now.
Not straight out of camp, because of MN's cap situation. Rossi would have to really shit the bed, or someone else get traded or LTIR'ed.
I like Duhaime, but the stats show that Foligno was a better offensive producer last year, nvm the year before. Marcus is also far tougher. It got to the point last year where i thought Duhaime needed to be told not to fight... even against semi-tough guys he looked way outmatched.
If Foligno gets injured and they don’t call up Walker, I’m gonna start throwing things. He’s exactly the guy that should be next to Rossi and Gaudreau on the third line. Walker = shooter, Rossi = playmaker, Gaudreau = covers for them defensively
I know next to nothing about Walker, but I know that I don´t like Foligno very much, especially after his playoff performance where he did stupid things galore
Of course he was the better producer, Duhaime was exclusively on checking lines and he is not an offensive player. But he was a more effective player down the stretch and their ages suggest that trend may continue. Foligno may be the better fighter but let’s not forget who acted like a donkey and cost us a game against Dallas. The enforcer stuff is largely useless when it comes to winning, who cares if we can fight. Duhaime is a bowling ball who will create room for our skill players; not sure Foligno has the jump to be that guy anymore.
He’s become supremely overrated. JEE was obviously the engine of the GREEF line (ever wonder how our best line seems always to include him?!?) and Foligno has clearly lost a step. Guys like him almost never age well - see Clarkson, Lucic etc
