Minnesota Wild General Discussion XI

[BuiumSaveUs]

The cap increase should help in our pursuit of Barkov. He’s gonna get like 14 million when he hits FA

 

[BigT2002]

I don't know the exact number, but it is a big one. Russo is under the impression that the Wild would have a good chance at reducing the penalty if they appealed.

That being said, I think it's very unlikely that either would just retire. The two most likely scenarios are that they play out their deals or finish their careers on LTIR if they got hurt.

What would happen if the new CBA shored up that loophole (finally)?

 

[Spurgeon]

The cap increase should help in our pursuit of Barkov. He’s gonna get like 14 million when he hits FA

There's a lot of centers to make moves on after this offseason.

2021-2022: RNH, Danault

2022-2023: Hertl, Zibanejad, Trocheck, Kadri, Couturier, Jenner

Obviously we'll see who's still available, but there's definitely options out there to be looking at for the future.

 

[BuiumSaveUs]

There's a lot of centers to make moves on after this offseason.

2021-2022: RNH, Danault

2022-2023: Hertl, Zibanejad, Trocheck, Kadri, Couturier, Jenner

Obviously we'll see who's still available, but there's definitely options out there to be looking at for the future.

As long as it’s not RNH, I’m fine

 

[AKL]

As long as it’s not RNH, I’m fine

I don't see how Danault or Jenner move the needle at all either, and I'd refuse to go after Kadri.

 

[AKL]

Also, I understand some of those centers in 2022-23 are good (Couturier and Hertl), but there is not a chance in hell we should be waiting three years to overpay a 28-30 year old UFA as the solution to our problems.

Barkov will be 27 when his next contract kicks in, and he's in a different tier than all the others. He makes sense to go hard after. Even if we find a decent solution in the next two years. Kind of like the Leafs signing Tavares.

 

[MuckOG]

I'm expecting that Guerin will sit out the UFA season this summer, unless he thinks we need a goaltender.

 

[Spurgeon]

I don't see how Danault or Jenner move the needle at all either, and I'd refuse to go after Kadri.

Danault has developed into a defensively responsible 55-point center who is strong on faceoffs.

Jenner I could see being a poor man's Ryan O'Reilly.

I hate Kadri, but I hated Cooke too. The 30 goals he scores a year would make up for it.

RNH is a Top 6 center w/ 25-30 goal potential. I'd be ecstatic to bring him on without having to lose a defenseman.

 

[AKL]

I'm expecting that Guerin will sit out the UFA season this summer, unless he thinks we need a goaltender.

I'm hoping he re-signs Galchenyuk to a very team-friendly contract, and offers Lehener 4 years. Other than that, yeah, the free agent class sucks. Lots of defensemen, but we don't need them.

 

[AKL]

Danault has developed into a defensively responsible 55-point center who is strong on faceoffs.

Jenner I could see being a poor man's Ryan O'Reilly.

I hate Kadri, but I hated Cooke too. The 30 goals he scores a year would make up for it.

RNH is a Top 6 center w/ 25-30 goal potential. I'd be ecstatic to bring him on without having to lose a defenseman.

Ah, the ever elusive 55 point center that has never scored 55 points.

Kadri scored 16 last year and won't have 30 this season.

RNH was scoring about 20 goals and 50 points until he found his way onto Draisaitl's wing and on a PP unit with McDavid and Drai.

Would be nice to have players like them on the team, but handing out a bloated UFA contract with trade protection isn't nothing. Kevin Hayes got a 7 year, 7+M contract last summer with a NMC through the expansion draft and a mod-NTC clause every year after. Do you want to give any of those three MORE than that?

 

[Spurgeon]

Ah, the ever elusive 55 point center that has never scored 55 points.

Kadri scored 16 last year and won't have 30 this season.

RNH was scoring about 20 goals and 50 points until he found his way onto Draisaitl's wing and on a PP unit with McDavid and Drai.

Would be nice to have players like them on the team, but handing out a bloated UFA contract with trade protection isn't nothing. Kevin Hayes got a 7 year, 7+M contract last summer with a NMC through the expansion draft and a mod-NTC clause every year after. Do you want to give any of those three MORE than that?

It all depends on what kind of contract they're looking for. Boone and Danault are obviously the lower-tier of that list.

Kadri is on a 31-goal pace, so I'd definitely be willing to pay him $7M if he continues to produce like that over the next couple years.

The rest of the guys are all players that I'd be willing to commit heavily too. Even if we traded Dumba or Brodin for a center, we'd still have to shell out for them too. The only big-name center that this team has ever brought in from FA was Staal and that was a huge success. Obviously, we got a steal on that contract and we continue to do so. All I'm saying is that the next few years have some good options in FA that we can explore.

 

[BigT2002]

It all depends on what kind of contract they're looking for. Boone and Danault are obviously the lower-tier of that list.

Kadri is on a 31-goal pace, so I'd definitely be willing to pay him $7M if he continues to produce like that over the next couple years.

The rest of the guys are all players that I'd be willing to commit heavily too. Even if we traded Dumba or Brodin for a center, we'd still have to shell out for them too. The only big-name center that this team has ever brought in from FA was Staal and that was a huge success. Obviously, we got a steal on that contract and we continue to do so. All I'm saying is that the next few years have some good options in FA that we can explore.

But can he not get suspended lol

 

[AKL]

It all depends on what kind of contract they're looking for. Boone and Danault are obviously the lower-tier of that list.

Kadri is on a 31-goal pace, so I'd definitely be willing to pay him $7M if he continues to produce like that over the next couple years.

The rest of the guys are all players that I'd be willing to commit heavily too. Even if we traded Dumba or Brodin for a center, we'd still have to shell out for them too. The only big-name center that this team has ever brought in from FA was Staal and that was a huge success. Obviously, we got a steal on that contract and we continue to do so. All I'm saying is that the next few years have some good options in FA that we can explore.

Yeah, if they take contracts at or under their value, they might be worth exploring. But UFA centers do not do that. Staal was an extremely rare exception. Duchene was an exception and he STILL got 8/yr.

You can't keep handing out UFA contracts and saying "well we're getting them for nothing, and that's better than giving up a defenseman"

No, it's not. Because that's going to be felt somewhere else. Maybe you have to trade Kaprizov because you can't afford him a la Chicago and Panarin? Maybe you'll still have to trade a defenseman down the line anyway because you can't afford to keep any depth otherwise.

When you trade someone like Dumba for Nylander, as an example, yeah, you're taking on Nylander's 7M still, but you're giving up 6M in return which neutralizes cap, allows you to keep the flexibility you need, and allows for your prospects and young players to step into those roles for cheap.

In a cap world, you cannot just keep signing UFA's and say "whatever it takes to keep our defense intact." Giving UFA's big contracts that we shouldn't get is how we end up where we are now. We've had very little flexibility because of UFA contracts. Zuccarello being the latest example of a guy we'll have to pay a ton of money to for his past performance, not current or future, and protect in the expansion draft.

Why would you want to keep building a team that way? Why would you want to give RNH or Kadri 7-8 for their twilight years because of what they did for other teams?

 

[AKL]

Y'all love the young talent coming up, but you're not going to be able to keep it if you keep giving Parise 7.5M til he's 40, Zuccarello 5x6M with a NMC here, Kadri 6x7.5M there, Spurgeon 7x7.5 with a NMC

Just stop. Stop overpaying old free agents.

 

[MuckOG]

Y'all love the young talent coming up, but you're not going to be able to keep it if you keep giving Parise 7.5M til he's 40, Zuccarello 5x6M with a NMC here, Kadri 6x7.5M there, Spurgeon 7x7.5 with a NMC

Just stop. Stop overpaying old free agents.

I agree with this. We will need the cap space for Fiala and Kaprizov at some point down the road.....also, are we re-signing Brodin or not? He won't be cheap.

 

[Spurgeon]

Yeah, if they take contracts at or under their value, they might be worth exploring. But UFA centers do not do that. Staal was an extremely rare exception. Duchene was an exception and he STILL got 8/yr.

You can't keep handing out UFA contracts and saying "well we're getting them for nothing, and that's better than giving up a defenseman"

No, it's not. Because that's going to be felt somewhere else. Maybe you have to trade Kaprizov because you can't afford him a la Chicago and Panarin? Maybe you'll still have to trade a defenseman down the line anyway because you can't afford to keep any depth otherwise.

When you trade someone like Dumba for Nylander, as an example, yeah, you're taking on Nylander's 7M still, but you're giving up 6M in return which neutralizes cap, allows you to keep the flexibility you need, and allows for your prospects and young players to step into those roles for cheap.

In a cap world, you cannot just keep signing UFA's and say "whatever it takes to keep our defense intact." Giving UFA's big contracts that we shouldn't get is how we end up where we are now. We've had very little flexibility because of UFA contracts. Zuccarello being the latest example of a guy we'll have to pay a ton of money to for his past performance, not current or future, and protect in the expansion draft.

Why would you want to keep building a team that way? Why would you want to give RNH or Kadri 7-8 for their twilight years because of what they did for other teams?

RNH will only be 28. Kadri I can see being hesitant on due to age. I don't think Zuccarello is a good counter-argument, given he's a 32 year old winger.

Dumba for Nylander is the only move that I'd be somewhat okay with because they're already on an established contract. However, the worry I have with Nylander is that he's not going to be able to adjust to the center position.

Domi is about to be due a big raise and he's only 2 years from UFA as well. Who says he commits to us on a long-term deal?

Other than those two guys, what else is there? I don't really understand the refusal to consider the alternative of keeping everybody around, re-sign Galchenyuk on a cheap deal, and then re-evaluate our options next offseason. All of the UFA centers that I'd be interested in are in the 26-28 year old range (other than Kadri), they're not 35 year old Moulsons and Pominvilles.

Overpaying a proven center by $1-2M is better than the alternative of losing Brodin or Dumba. I don't think that "overpayment" is going to be detrimental to re-signing someone like Kaprizov because we're in a good position cap wise. We have a lot of flexibility in what we decide to do.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Remember the good old days where we debated Dumba for Drai?

 

[AKL]

Overpaying a proven center by $1-2M is better than the alternative of losing Brodin or Dumba.

No, it’s not. Especially when the proven centers you’re talking about are 30+ for a vast majority of their contract and are proven to be 2C’s at most.

You overpay a center in free agency and you lose Dumba anyway when you can’t sign him. Or you lose Kaprizov. Or whoever else the next young guy is.

Signing guys in free agency, overpaying them, is not “free” like you seem to think it is. It has a trade off, and it has an opportunity cost, even if that cost is not immediately apparent.

 

[Spurgeon]

No, it’s not. Especially when the proven centers you’re talking about are 30+ for a vast majority of their contract and are proven to be 2C’s at most.

You overpay a center in free agency and you lose Dumba anyway when you can’t sign him. Or you lose Kaprizov. Or whoever else the next young guy is.

Signing guys in free agency, overpaying them, is not “free” like you seem to think it is. It has a trade off, and it has an opportunity cost, even if that cost is not immediately apparent.

It's certainly not free, but the guys that you are suggesting they trade for aren't going to be free either. Neither of them have proven they're 1Cs. With Domi, you don't have the guarantee that he's here longer than 2 years. With Nylander, you're paying him $7M to play first line in a position that he has not played in the NHL yet. There's risks with both of those moves and they come with the negative of losing an asset on top of it.

Nylander is the only one I'd be interested in moving either defenseman for, but I still think it'd cost us more and I think at that point we'd be selling low on Dumba. I realistically see him coming back next year and scoring 20 goals, especially with the addition of Kaprizov on the PP.

With how the cap is increasing, we have more than enough cap space to sign our star players for the foreseeable future. Kunin, Greenway, Ek, Donato, and Kaprizov aren't going to cost us much money at all these next 2 years. We're in a position of strength with our current cap situation and I think we're better off utilizing that and taking time to make the right decision & see what options open up.

 

[nickschultzfan]

If Wild go on a run, Dumba's value will go back up. He is playing decent defense and he has started scoring.

Dumba+ for Nylander is first option. Wild have extra assets to be the + (too many young wingers already, extra 1st this year, etc.)

Re-sign Galchenyuk for cheap is second. He looks good as a center. Production is not there, but its not like his linemates are helping that. He wants to shoot and is a decent playmaker. We could do a lot worse.

 

[StateofCelly]

If Wild go on a run, Dumba's value will go back up. He is playing decent defense and he has started scoring.

Dumba+ for Nylander is first option. Wild have extra assets to be the + (too many young wingers already, extra 1st this year, etc.)

Re-sign Galchenyuk for cheap is second. He looks good as a center. Production is not there, but its not like his linemates are helping that. He wants to shoot and is a decent playmaker. We could do a lot worse.

I also didn't realize Galchenyuk played as physical as he does. Really noticed it these last two "playoff type" games where he was just as much of a pest as anyone.

 

[MuckOG]

I'm not on board with re-signing Gally-n-chuk until he can show us he is more than capable of playing center. I don't know where he would fit as a winger.

 

[Al Lagoon]

Remember the good old days where we debated Dumba for Drai?

I must have been in a coma to miss that.

 

[57special]

I don't see anything at all worth signing in Galchenyuk.

 

[StateofCelly]

I don't see anything at all worth signing in Galchenyuk.

For me it would depend on what the contract would look like. For the flexibility and depending on what the rest of the off season looks like I wouldn't be against it. I think hes playing a more complete game than he has in the past, not to say hes doing any one thing great but he is involved in both zones.