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Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2023-24

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Kings fan here coming in peace
Im interested in you folks thoughts about kevin fiala-
Were you happy to get rid of him?
How was his play generally?
Was he a positive team player overall?

Thank you in advance for your r typically educated, measured responses.
 
chris kontos said:
Kings fan here coming in peace
Im interested in you folks thoughts about kevin fiala-
Were you happy to get rid of him?
How was his play generally?
Was he a positive team player overall?

Thank you in advance for your r typically educated, measured responses.
Click to expand...
Yes, everyone here was happy to get rid of him, especially @f7ben @AKL

In his time here, he was an extremely streaky scorer, where he'd go 0.5 points per game for a period, and then shoot off 1.5 points per game and have a good 3 months. Generally, he played a game that was creative offensively, prone to turnovers and angry-penalties when he was "off", but could be a real gamebreaker when he was "on". So, he could be a real bonehead, but was also thrilling. Overall, he was easily a positive. The Wild's offense went from being dynamic with him, to mediocre without him. We're really missing a potent, speedy offensive player on the 2nd line, which is what made that work. He and Boldy were electric together.
 
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chris kontos said:
Any particular reasons you guys were happy to be rid of him?
Wild scored big getting faber...
Click to expand...
He was being sarcastic, the initial feelings towards the trade were negative for the vast majority of Wild fans.

The trade has worked out well for both teams, but it felt like Guerin traded away the most dynamic offense in this team’s history because of some apparent beef with Fiala & Guerin/Evason. There was definitely a salary cap argument behind the trade, but there were clear alternative paths that could have been explored.
 
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Still bitter about the whole thing but faber and yurov are making me feel better. Not that we drafted yurov w that pick but it kind of allowed us to take him. I still wonder what a prime Fiala and a much better boldy would have done.
 
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Always great to getthe back story on players new to the team.
Best of luck to wild against everybody but thekings!
 
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chris kontos said:
Any particular reasons you guys were happy to be rid of him?
Wild scored big getting faber...
Click to expand...
As Spurgeon said, I was being sarcastic. Just poking the bears a bit.

Honestly, I am of the mind, and was of the mind then, that tying up too much money in wingers was a bad idea because most Cup winning teams win Cups BEFORE they pay all their best players, not after. I stand by that. Unfortunately Bill Guerin decided to use that money to pay all his bottom-6 wingers instead, which is an even worse idea. That said, the trade worked out for the best, as Faber is younger and just as fantastic, IMO, just in a different way.
 
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Two things that did bother me a bit with Fiala was how streaky he could be....but more annoying was the turnovers. The defensive errors were bad.

But we lost some major scoring punch with him moving on. That said, I'd take Faber now if forced to make a choice.
 
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Sorry if this is the wrong spot, but out of curiosity what sort of adds to Byram would Colorado need to get remotely close to JEE? Or is he completely untouchable?
 
chris kontos said:
Kings fan here coming in peace
Im interested in you folks thoughts about kevin fiala-
Were you happy to get rid of him?
How was his play generally?
Was he a positive team player overall?

Thank you in advance for your r typically educated, measured responses.
Click to expand...
Loved Fiala once he got going.

No, not at the time. Faber's play since has tempered my disappointment.

Exciting, dynamic, more physical than you'd think. He was better than his stats IMO, as Evason seemed to go out of his way to stick him on lines with zero talent players such as Victor Rask, Tyson Jost, Freddy Gaudreau, and the like. Once he was put with a 20 yo Boldy the result was magic.

Absolutely. Every team needs a gamebreaker. He and kaprizov were ours. Kevin had his faults, but I'll take a player who is guilty of trying too hard(resulting in bad penalties) every day, especially if that player has top tier skills.
 
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Do we actually know that the injuries are long term yet? I haven't seen any updates.
 
Dickie Dunn said:
I’ll never understand why Guerin didn’t try harder to keep Fiala and he got damn lucky Faber got so good so quick.
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I unno ... if BG gets the blame for losing Fiala (which I think there's a legitimate argument for it, or at least Evanson), then he should the praise for deciding Faber was the key returning piece. He could have asked for Turcotte, Pinelli, Grans, and maybe even Bjornfot, the more well-known piece by us layman. At the very least, he should get praise for deciding that Faber was a gamble worth trading for vs. any other offers provided by other teams, and it was a gamble that turned out well.

When you trade for picks/prospects, it is always a gamble to a certain extent, and the calculation on this trade was well made.
 
Circulartheory said:
I unno ... if BG gets the blame for losing Fiala (which I think there's a legitimate argument for it, or at least Evanson), then he should the praise for deciding Faber was the key returning piece. He could have asked for Turcotte, Pinelli, Grans, and maybe even Bjornfot, the more well-known piece by us layman. At the very least, he should get praise for deciding that Faber was a gamble worth trading for vs. any other offers provided by other teams, and it was a gamble that turned out well.

When you trade for picks/prospects, it is always a gamble to a certain extent, and the calculation on this trade was well made.
Click to expand...

Do we know that Faber was the key returning piece and that it was Guerin who wanted him, or did LA have some say in it?

Was Gustavsson key in trading Talbot, or did Ottawa just not want Gustavsson and Guerin was trying to dump Talbot?

We may never actually know those answers. We do know for a fact that Guerin wanted to get rid of Fiala. That's why he gets more blame than credit.
 
AKL said:
Do we know that Faber was the key returning piece and that it was Guerin who wanted him, or did LA have some say in it?

Was Gustavsson key in trading Talbot, or did Ottawa just not want Gustavsson and Guerin was trying to dump Talbot?

We may never actually know those answers. We do know for a fact that Guerin wanted to get rid of Fiala. That's why he gets more blame than credit.
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Nope - but that's why my position is generally never to go to any extreme of assumptions ie: he just got "lucky" (meaning BG gets 0% credit) to "he fleeced the LAKs, he knew just how good Faber was (100% praise). There's a happy middle ground, he traded for prospects/picks, the ones the team felt were good pieces, which are a gamble, and the gamble paid off.

His opinion on Fiala is a seperate issue - he can get blame for that, which is why I said there's a legitimate argument for that. I think also interesting argument is how much blame between BG and Evason (also mentioned in my post). But then following it up with "just lucky" on his evaluation on Faber seems a bit ... unfair. He can get blame making a trade inevitable but also get praise for identifying Faber as the piece to trade for.
 
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