Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2023-24

[Obvious Fabertism]

If Hunt keeps going off in Iowa will he get another shot? He has decent size, can skate, and handle the puck. Not to sure about his defensive positioning and play... it's decent, at least. I think he just needs to build up his confidence, and stay healthy, of course. He has had the worst luck in that regard.

Very few teams have a good 3rd pairing.

I could see him back up, he was very limited in his minutes with lots of pressure on the team but I thought he was mostly fine, at least not a major problem. But I would like to see a more confident version of him too so a good stint to round out the edges seems like it would be the organizations goal. At this point he would be my most likely depth addition if we go internal. I would have also thought a Peart appearance may happen but I have no idea how his season has gone, haven’t watched SCSU and his stats are somewhat pedestrian for the big minutes his coach was saying he would play.

 

[63firebird]

Team knows they are next on the chopping block. Evason was fine. The players are the ones at fault. Just look at the first game when Evason was gone. Hynes had no time to implement anything, yet they dominated play.

I think most of the impact players have NMC? What would they chop? Icetime? I think there’s a lot of pressure on staff to play the big contracts.
That said it’s like night and day lately.good Speed and gaps, good passing, decent PK and goaltending back to normal.

 

[63firebird]

true. Luckily for us we still have the Mojo & Hartman extensions to complain about now that Moose & Zucc are temporarily off the menu

At least MoJo is consistent!
He always builds up great speed in d zone , flies through center and gets poke checked at the blueline. Well , sometimes he does carry it into the zone and THEN gives it away.

 

[63firebird]

Hartman's position is his own doing, with all the nonsense and dirty play. As Russo said, now he has to start on the bottom and impress the new coach if he wants to climb the lineup and play more minutes.

Hartman could contribute if used correctly.he should be attacking with speed and effort since he can be fresher not having to play 1C minutes. Everyone else seems to have picked up the speed/gaps/effort

 

[MuckOG]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but whatever it takes, Merrill and Goligoski have got to go. I can't take it anymore.

 

[57special]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but whatever it takes, Merrill and Goligoski have got to go. I can't take it anymore.

Both are tough to watch, but in different ways. Goli is a formerly good middle pairing dman who has fallen victim to age. He has the brain, but the legs aren't there. No legs= done.

Merrill has always been a bottom pairing Dman at best, bench player the rest of the time. if he was two inches shorter he wouldn't be in the league.

Bogosian is also no prize. His main thing is that he is a RHD.

At some point you have to ask if Daemon Hunt or ROR can be any worse.

 

[Wasted Talent]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but whatever it takes, Merrill and Goligoski have got to go. I can't take it anymore.

Sadly Goligoski isn't going anywhere unless he wants to.

 

[57special]

Sadly Goligoski isn't going anywhere unless he wants to.

yup. Merrill, OTOH...

 

[Parax]

Why is Spacek in the ECHL? He was one of the few enjoyable skaters to watch whenever I happened to sit down for an Iowa game.

 

[BagHead]

Why is Spacek in the ECHL? He was one of the few enjoyable skaters to watch whenever I happened to sit down for an Iowa game.

Numbers game. With him on the Iowa team they've got 9 defensemen they could play. If he's in the ECHL, he can get more time. I'm not sure how much more he's getting, but I know he's got 2 goals in 3 games. In Iowa he's definitely got O'Rourke, Hunt, Lambos, Mermis, and Johansson ahead of him, which leaves him with Miller, Welinski, and Masters competing for the remaining spot. As it is I find myself wondering how Masters is even getting enough minutes, much less both of them.

 

[MNRube]

Excited for Peart to solidly the 3rd pair next year. I think he will have a short career in the AHL and prove a much steadier option than any or Hunt, Spacek, ROR or Lambos

 

[AKL]

 

[63firebird]

Every time 4 touched the puck it was a turnover. 33 and 4’s useless play led to both goals. Doesn’t excuse the lack of scoring. size of the Vancouver defence was just able to box out Wild mostly in the second and third.

 

[AKL]

Every time 4 touched the puck it was a turnover. 33 and 4’s useless play led to both goals.

Well the first goal was a screen shot with Brodin and a Canucks forward blocking Gus' view, Merrill and Goligoski had nothing to do with that. But they were still useless.

 

[63firebird]

Well the first goal was a screen shot with Brodin and a Canucks forward blocking Gus' view, Merrill and Goligoski had nothing to do with that. But they were still useless.

You’re correct. My bad. They were on the bench.
Just before the goal Merrill turned it over on a clear, Van countered, Goli tripped over the blue line and luckily Gus saved the day.

 

[Webster]

Good story by the Star Tribune. I know Zuccarello doesn't like media attention, nothing new there. But Kaprizov's comment about him is interesting...

"His backcheck I think is fastest in the league," Kaprizov said. "I ask him, 'Why you can't go in the offensive zone like this when we have puck?' Backcheck is so fast. Then we go offensive, he's slower than his backcheck."

'A very big engine' keeps Wild from sputtering to a crawl

Despite a rough start, there's one player whose consistent scoring helped the team stay above water.

www.startribune.com

 

[AKL]

Good reminder, Zuccarello was horrid last night too

 

[57special]

Those two together with Middleton, make our defense SO slow. You can't get the puck out of the zone if you don't get back to it quickly, or at least, it makes it a lot harder. Spurgeon is looking more under the gun on breakouts, but that's partially because he has to make up for Middleton.

 

[NHL1674]

Good story by the Star Tribune. I know Zuccarello doesn't like media attention, nothing new there. But Kaprizov's comment about him is interesting...

"His backcheck I think is fastest in the league," Kaprizov said. "I ask him, 'Why you can't go in the offensive zone like this when we have puck?' Backcheck is so fast. Then we go offensive, he's slower than his backcheck."

'A very big engine' keeps Wild from sputtering to a crawl

Despite a rough start, there's one player whose consistent scoring helped the team stay above water.

www.startribune.com

Zucca and Kaprizov blowing sunshine up eachothers' bums....tale as old as time.....

 

[f7ben]

Dumba could be a long term 3rd pair rhd. He could probably be gotten from the totes for a prospect and some cap and we could expend him if he wants to be home for the rest of his career for cheap.

 

[AKL]

Dumba could be a long term 3rd pair rhd. He could probably be gotten from the totes for a prospect and some cap and we could expend him if he wants to be home for the rest of his career for cheap.

Hard pass, this is the country club we're talking about. Sign a guy to long term contract just because he plays good music in the locker room?

 

[f7ben]

Hard pass, this is the country club we're talking about. Sign a guy to long term contract just because he plays good music in the locker room?

I actually didn’t mind his game at all at something like 3.5 million. He was an issue at 6 million. The dude always brought it 100% in the post season as well and he’s only 29. I’d give him 6x3.5 and he can play up and down the pairs as needed.

 

[AKL]

I actually didn’t mind his game at all at something like 3.5 million. He was an issue at 6 million. The dude always brought it 100% in the post season as well and he’s only 29. I’d give him 6x3.5 and he can play up and down the pairs as needed.

That's 3.5 on the bottom pairing until he's 36, and he's a shell of his former self. We need less of those retirement contracts for guys who are simply good in the locker room.

 

[57special]

Dumba will be an improvement over anything we have on the third pairing, but he would be too spendy, given what we face cap wise next year. Now, if we can get him to sign for one year at 2M, with the idea that he can showcase himself to other teams, i'm all in, but wasn't that what this year was supposed to be all about?

Time to move on.

 

[Wasted Talent]

Dumba will be an improvement over anything we have on the third pairing, but he would be too spendy, given what we face cap wise next year. Now, if we can get him to sign for one year at 2M, with the idea that he can showcase himself to other teams, i'm all in, but wasn't that what this year was supposed to be all about?

Time to move on.

I imagine Dumba is not convincing anyone to splurge on a long term contract with his play in Arizona right now. Maybe he'd be willing to come back to a familiar place to play a smaller role on a shorter contract.

But a retirement deal? No way.