Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2023-24
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His PIMs are similar to that of Boldy/Ek/Rossi this past year. What did I miss?
You just do that thing where they call it the 2nd line but everyone knows the 3rd line is the 2nd line.
Dr Jan Itor
Registered User
Games 1-3 against Boston this year. Might not fully represent his game, but he's done some very bonehead things.
- Mar 19, 2023
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About Gus, I don't get why you want to trade him after this year's weaker performance. We lost a lot of games early and fell behind. Spurge was hurt and Dumba was gone. We had Addison and Merrill on the roster, a weaker D overall. Gus had a top 2 year last year and that is unsustainable for a young goalie. He was on his first year of a big pay contract (yes, I think 3.750 is big for a younger goalie) and maybe felt some pressure to perform. I believe he's gonna bounce back next year and be a true #1.
Because he was crap this year?
I am not a big advocate for trading him partly because i do think that he will have a bounceback year, and even a dead cat bounce would be welcome. Also don't think that he would fetch much in the market.
- Mar 19, 2023
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That's the point. Why trade him now, it doesn't make any sense. We're going into the last year of cap hell. Let the kids play, preferably in key positions and let the bricks fall wherever they lands. If we miss the playoffs by 25 points and get a #5 pick, it's a win. If we get into the playoffs, they get valuable experience. The way I see it, we can't lose if we keep Gus another year. If he fails again, Wall is next up and we can get another goalie via trade or free agency.
~$2.8m in cap savings from Gus to Wallstedt. Add that to the cap space MN has and it's enough to go out and get a quality FWD to add to the top-6.
- Mar 19, 2023
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I'm just thinking it may be better to wait another year to trade him. Next season is another year of the same low budget team and a high draft pick coming our way. After that, we can have Gus and Wall or pick up another veteran goalie in free agency. Plus another 20 something in cap space (if the cap goes up as projected or more).
Or his value could drop even more and has even less value is a complete rental cap dump. He only has 2 years of term left and will be a UFA. He ended the season decently, and had a good stretch early in the season. The rest of the time he was a waiver fodder quality goalie.
Maybe he turns it around next year, maybe he doesn't. So what if he's at a low value now? He currently has a positive value. Cap space is king for MN currently, they aren't hurting for future picks and the prospect pool (one of which is a stud goalie prospect) isn't barren. Bolster the team elsewhere and compete that way.
- Mar 19, 2023
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I'm going with the rebound scenario. He just can't get any worse than this season. I'm basing that on Spurge coming back after his rehab and stabilising the defense. And Faber getting stronger and developing his game even further. Many things can get better next year. Hell, what if Freddy scores 6 goals next year? Or MoJo may get back to contract year MoJo and scores 20?
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The defense for MN was top-5 (if not top) in the league last season in almost all categories. The players might not have been sexy names, but statically the results were very good.
If Freddy G and MarJo do positive things and MN used it's cap space for a top-6 FWD then they would have 3 quality FWD lines to go with the "stabilzed" defense with Spurgeon and Faber improving. Then outscoring bad goalie play (liek this year) comes into play for MN as a team.
The bar for Wallstedt to replace one of Gus/MAF (Dub/Stalock levels of bad) seasons last year is very low. It also gets him a year of NHL games under his belt before the cap opens up for MN.
- Mar 19, 2023
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So you agree trading Gus now is a bad idea, right? MAF is gone after next year and Wall is coming into play. The D is getting better and more cap space is on the horizon. One of the Iowa D might be getting closer and Öhgren is surprisingly a second line talent. Middleton takes another step to become a decent #4. I think it is easier to get a good enough 2 way forward than a good goalie. Why give up on Gus after a bad year when he showed such promise the year before?
Nope, dump Gus as soon as possible. If MAF wasn't re-signed for next season I would say keep Gus, but that ship has already sailed. MAF+Wall is a smaller cap hit than Gus is by himself.
It's the same frigging thing if you run Wall/pending UFA MAF this year as it would be to run Wall/ pending UFA Gus a season later. Just kicking the can down the road for a year.
Trading Gus seems like some kind of fake out to motivate him, MAF is near the end and you don't just throw in a 21 year old Wally in and hope it all works out. Sure you can find some kind of stop gap but are they going to be better than Gus who at least shows some elite skills when we aren't running an AHL defense. They should and probably will just stay the course, get the rookie some more starts and see if Gus can look more like he did at the end of the season.
- Mar 19, 2023
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Why does the cap hit matter at all the next season? Do you expect a cup run? They are just gonna let the kids get their feet wet and play for experience. The season after that, when the cap penalties is gone we can talk about getting some good UFA's signed. MoJo is just a placeholder until then. And hopefully Freddy either turns it around or gets buried.
- Mar 19, 2023
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I expect the Playoffs almost every year. I really expect the Playoffs when the team has a legit superstar player. Getting a Cup is just a bonus.
The goalies and lack of scoring outside of the top line cost MN the Playoffs this year. Get rid of part of that problem and address the other part with the cap savings.
The team has a goalie prospect that is done with the AHL and ready for his NHL shot. His chances of success/failure aren't any different that Gus' imo next year. I see no real benefit to keeping Gus (since MAF was resigned).
You don't think injuries played the biggest roll? Kap was barely himself for half the season and our D was half ahl for much of the year. Missing the playoffs was kind of known before new years save for us feasting on bottom feeders.
DANOZ28
Registered User
Injuries play a part for every team. Kap still hovered around a ppg even when he wasn't himself to start the season. The team defense was top-5 in the league even being half AHL.
1 x 90p FWD, 3 other 60p FWDs, 2 more 40p FWDs. a 45g, 30g, and 3 more 20g scorers. So 4 x top line FWDs and 2 more middle-6 FWDs. The FWD depth behind that offered almost nothing for scoring.
5v5 defensive stats:
8th (SA, CA), 7th (FA), 6th (SCA), 1st (HDCA, xGA), 13th (GA), 22nd (sv%), 19th (HDsv%)
PP% (10th): PPGA (30th), PPxga (14th), PPsv% (32nd), PPHDsv% (27th)
PK% (30th): all the stats are trash for everyone.
Gus (5v5, 500 min filter): 59th sv%, 52nd GAA (or ga/60), 5th xga/60, 57th HDsv%. MAF was actually very good 5v5 stats, he just pooped the bed on special teams.
So yes, it was on the goalies and lack of FWD depth. The defensive stats for the "AHL d-corps" are good to excellent. The top-6 of the lineup FWDs are okay to excellent. The lack of a quality bottom-6 was the issue.
We lost spurgeon for 66 games and brodin for 20 and were in the basement pretty much all year, lots of reasons for that other than injuries but it was pretty apparent early on the playoffs were a long shot right out of the gate. Just to expect to make them because you expected it, that didn't really work out did it?
26Mats
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- Jun 23, 2018
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As a Habs fan, we're in a rebuild. Would you say you guys are as well?
Would you have any interest in moving the 14th pick for established good players, or do you want to build for the future more than get and immediate boost?
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