Minnesota Wild General Discussion 2024-25

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I would like to see Leipold think long and hard about selling the team, otherwise he's just going to keep hiring GM's like Fletcher and Guerin who tell him their plan is to somehow build a contender while siultaneously making the playoffs every year, because that's what Leipold wants.

A decade and a half of the same mediocrity as long as Leipold gets those 2-3 games of playoff revenue every year.
 
Not to make excuses, but we currently have nearly 40% of our salary cap on the bench. We should be struggling right now.

Every team is worse without their best player, but we shouldn't be completely inept two-thirds of the time when he's not in. At least, we shouldn't be if we have serious hopes of doing anything of note in the playoffs. I would like a GM to build a team that can still score when its best player is out.
 
Every team is worse without their best player, but we shouldn't be completely inept two-thirds of the time when he's not in. At least, we shouldn't be if we have serious hopes of doing anything of note in the playoffs. I would like a GM to build a team that can still score when its best player is out.
It's not just Kaprizov. It's Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, Brodin and a $14M player (or 2 $7M players, or a $9M player and a $5M player, etc.)

We have a smaller margin for error/greater degree of difficulty. Just the way it currently is.
 
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I think the main issue is that we might've seen the best of Kaprizov already. His lack of durability during his peak years is concerning. If he loses speed/legs due to injury then he will not be nearly as effective, and he seems to be heading down that path. Durability is a feature of great players - so far, he doesn't seem to have it.

I do agree that an elite'ish #1C would be great. I would consider a Rossi + deal for Barzal, but would be excited about it. Rossi has impressed me with his ability to get on the scoresheet and overcome his lack of size and speed.
I am extremely worried about KK97 and his health. I don’t feel at all comfortable giving him the kind of contract he’s going to want if I have concerns about his ability to stay on the ice AND be 100% healthy. We would be better off trading him and signing two high quality players for what it would take to sign him. I can’t believe I’m even typing this, but I’m seriously questioning if we wouldn’t be better off to move him.
 
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It's not just Kaprizov. It's Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, Brodin and a $14M player (or 2 $7M players, or a $9M player and a $5M player, etc.)

We have a smaller margin for error/greater degree of difficulty. Just the way it currently is.

In a vacuum you might be right, but it's not like Brodin or Ek were scoring all that much this season, the lions share is from Kaprizov being out.

And to be frank, we could still have more scoring depth even with those three guys out right now, had we not spent it all on defense first bottom six players who bring very little offense on their own. Lots of money tied up in redundancies like Hartman/Foligno/Trenin/Gaudreau or Zuccarello/Johansson that could have been shaved off to bring in a 5-6M forward instead of Trenin or whoever.

So you mention the dead cap, but I don't have a lot of confidence that that money wouldn't/won't just go to one of the relatively low offense types Guerin likes anyway (Brock Nelson?)

So we're back to me hoping our GM can build a team that can reliably score enough when Kaprizov isn't in the lineup. The moves he's made so far in 6 years don't really indicate that he can. He's had opportunities to, but he's chosen to prioritize other things.
 
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For all the injuries we have had, the decline in play by Faber post-concussion may be the most concerning development in 2025. He’s been “off” for a couple months now.
 
Last 10 games

5v5 points:
Spurgeon 5
Boldy 4
Johansson 4
Gaudreau 4
Trenin 3
Zuccarello 3
Brodin 2
Hartman 1
Bogosian 1
Hinostroza 1
Rossi 1
Chisholm 1
Middleton 1
Foligno, Merrill, Faber, Nyquist 0

Yeah, you read that right. Yakov Trenin is outproducing Rossi at 5v5 over the last 10 games. Rossi has ~153 minutes, Trenin ~ 104 minutes.
 
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Last 10 games

5v5 points:
Spurgeon 5
Boldy 4
Johansson 4
Gaudreau 4
Trenin 3
Zuccarello 3
Brodin 2
Hartman 1
Bogosian 1
Hinostroza 1
Rossi 1
Chisholm 1
Middleton 1
Foligno, Merrill, Faber, Nyquist 0

Yeah, you read that right. Yakov Trenin is outproducing Rossi at 5v5 over the last 10 games. Rossi has ~153 minutes, Trenin ~ 104 minutes.
Yeah but you didn’t do Khus or Lauko. Surely, they were producing at a great clip for all the outage sparked.
 
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I think the main issue is that we might've seen the best of Kaprizov already. His lack of durability during his peak years is concerning. If he loses speed/legs due to injury then he will not be nearly as effective, and he seems to be heading down that path. Durability is a feature of great players - so far, he doesn't seem to have it.
Weird statement. Didn’t Kaprizov have the best ever start to a season in his career ?
 
Yeah but you didn’t do Khus or Lauko. Surely, they were producing at a great clip for all the outage sparked.
Khusnutdinov outproduced Rossi at 5v5 over the last 10 games (2pts). Lauko produced the same as Rossi (1pt).

Should be noted that Rossi has 6 points overall in the last 10 games (3 on the PP, 2 at 4v4, 1 at 5v5).
 
rossi & boldy are both complimentary players just like fiala was. kaprizov is the only leader. imo we need a messier (man i h8te him) or a kirby puckett who say jump on my back, i'll carry the team! very rare.
 
The combination of injured key-players and Special Team issues (PK & PP sucks all year) are making this team hard to watch at the moment.

They did not play bad all those last 10 games, but they didn't have the luck & bounces they've had in oktober/november.

I'm not sure what they practise in training: The Powerplay has been a Problem all year, the PK too. That's a structural thing so the coaches should be responsible. The fact that the coaches couldn't find a solution for that issue so far is alarming.
 
The combination of injured key-players and Special Team issues (PK & PP sucks all year) are making this team hard to watch at the moment.

They did not play bad all those last 10 games, but they didn't have the luck & bounces they've had in oktober/november.

I'm not sure what they practise in training: The Powerplay has been a Problem all year, the PK too. That's a structural thing so the coaches should be responsible. The fact that the coaches couldn't find a solution for that issue so far is alarming.
The PK and PP not only sucked this year, but it goes back a couple of years. That's what is alarming......we have a GM and coach who refuse to address the problem. BG's answer was to throw a horrifying contract at Trenin. Big help. Specials teams has been a big reason for getting knocked out of the first round, and everybody can see that IF....and that is a BIG IF....we make the playoffs this year, we're going in with an even weaker PK and PP than before. Yet they seem to expect different results. It's frustrating. If the fans can see it, why can't they? Or do they just not care?
 

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