Speculation: Trade and Free Agency Talk - LIV

[Joseph Nathan]

I would trade one of Spurgeon, Dumba, or Ek to keep Fiala.

So you would trade a good young two way C in Ek and good dman in spurgeon for fiala whose turnover prone, team doesn't trust defensively as evidence by dean's refusal to move Frederic G from that line, and goes cold? Besides that both have no trade clause, and dumba has 10 team no trades. Minnesota can get cheaper wing in free agency or trade until Beckman is ready

 

[Wabit]

So you would trade a good young two way C in Ek and good dman in spurgeon for fiala whose turnover prone, team doesn't trust defensively as evidence by dean's refusal to move Frederic G from that line, and goes cold? Besides that both have no trade clause, and dumba has 10 team no trades. Minnesota can get cheaper wing in free agency or trade until Beckman is ready

I'd dump Spurgeon and his contract in a second. Dumba or JEE no.

Not moving Freddy G from that line isn't because of Fiala's play. Lack of other/better center options, the GM signed Freddy G to be Fiala's center, and coach likes him there for whatever reasons.

Fiala's cold streaks have been due to playing with junk linemates. More and more like he's just a slow starter to begin seasons. After the first 5-10 games of the season he's been close to a ppg player the rest of the season. I think a big part of that is just the coaches changing things up after they realize their initial lines for the season don't work as intended and the lines get juggled/fixed.

 

[57special]

I would trade one of Spurgeon, Dumba, or Ek to keep Fiala.

So you think the team should trade away defense instead of offense? What about our team makes you think that we need to score more goals, and that our defense is rock solid?

 

[Nino Noderreiter]

So you think the team should trade away defense instead of offense? What about our team makes you think that we need to score more goals, and that our defense is rock solid?

No, I think we should focus on making sure that position aside we retain our best players that deliver the highest impact and then work downwards from there. If we lose Fiala, I do think we largely become a 1-line team scoring-wise. I think without Fiala, Boldy's impact will take a significant step back as I think Boldy is already really good and will be an incredible player but he's not yet even at Fiala's level as a line driver and will be hurt being stapled by a bottom 6 caliber player instead of a 1st line caliber player like Fiala. Again, I think we need to start with making sure that our best players have the structure and support to be able to be optimized & maximize their impact.

In the near term in our prospect pool, we are much deeper on the defensive side than the offensive side. Addison should be ready to step into an NHL role next year and O'Rourke/Hunt should start next season in the AHL and potentially even be able to make an NHL impact. If not by the middle or end of next season, if you are aggressive with development (and I think the Wild don't have a choice not to be) both players should be ready to go. And then after that you have another wave of high-end D prospects with Lambos/Peart.

Behind Rossi, the Wild really have no forward depth that they could realistically expect to potentially be ready for middle 6 minutes in the next 3 years outside of Beckman let alone a first-line caliber player like Fiala. It's not a choice that I would WANT to make but it's clearly the right decision to make in my opinion especially with the idea that keeping Fiala is the best path to speed up and/or cushion Rossi/Boldy's development path.

If it were me making decisions, I would argue that paying $8m for bottom-6 players (Greenway, Foligno, Jost) is poor cap management. It's not that I don't like having the Ek line (though I would argue $12m for a 3rd line is choosing to prioritize lower ROI boxes) but I think it would be do-able to cobble together a 3rd line (centered by Ek with his defensive skills) that can provide 80% of what the current line does (Example - Hartman - Ek - Duhaime). Instead, I would use that cap to retain Fiala and still be able to keep Spurgeon/Brodin/Dumba (at least through next year or the next 2 years while O'Rourke & Hunt develop).

However, given that BG has made the choice that one of our highest priorities is stacking the Ek/Greenway/Foligno line as an "identity" line & pushed chips in on Jost as a potential cheap upgrade to Hartman or Gaudreau... that means we have to make a choice between Fiala (and also maximizing Boldy/Rossi) and Dumba or Spurgeon. Given age & contract, that likely means Dumba. I think it's much easier to find Carson Soucy & Scandella type players that can do 80% of what Dumba does (I would argue that Addison should be able to do that or at the very least you need to rely on him being able to do that and take a chance to make this work) than it is to develop 1st-line caliber forwards that can drive a line and average a PPG.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2022-23 Lineup
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kaprizov - Rossi - Zuccarello
Fiala - ______ - Boldy
Greenway - ______ - Foligno
Duhaime - Gaudreau - ______

*Find the right combination of spots for Ek, Hartman, and Jost in the blank lineup sections

Extra skate: Dewar

Brodin - Addison
Spurgeon - Goligoski
____ - ____

*Merrill, Kulikov, & Mermis can fill the bottom pairing/7th D
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Offseason Moves
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Trade Dumba or Spurgeon for futures, if you could get a near NHL ready young D that's great as well
-Attempt to resign Goligoski to a 1-year $2-2.5m deal as a stop-gap for O'Rourke/Hunt development
-Bjugstad, Benn, & Rask are UFAs let all of them walk and free up around ~3.5m in space
-Dewar, Kahkonen, & Fiala are RFAs that the Wild should extend if possible

Additional cap space - Free up ~21m in cap space depending on Dumba return & not including a potential Goligoski deal* (this decreases to 13m in cap space with the buyouts taking effect)

- Extend Fiala to a 4-5 year - ~$7m per year contract
- Extend Kahkonen to a 3 year - $2.5m deal
- Resign Goligoski for a 1 year - $2.5-3m deal
- Pick up Dewar's RFA year at league minimum
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Note: In addition, I would potentially explore looking to move Talbot's 3.6m salary and identifying a ~2m replacement given his production or lack-there-of. This set of moves would be a stop-gap solution that would get you to the 23-24 season where Rossi/Boldy will hopefully have established themselves & O'Rourke/Hunt/Wallestadt/Beckman would be ready to step in on rookie deals.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
23-24 season
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kaprizov - Rossi - Zuccarello
Fiala - ______ - Boldy
Greenway - Ek - Foligno
______ - ______ - ______

*Hartman either in 2C or 4th line role depending on ability to internally develop 2nd line C option
***Decisions on retaining Dewar, Gaudreau, Jost, and Duhaime
****Does Beckman fit into this roster?

Brodin - Addison or Hunt
Spurgeon - O'Rourke or Hunt
________ - Addison or Hunt

*Merrill & Mermis in hybrid 3rd pairing/7th D role depending on development during 22-23 season
**Potential opportunity for other prospects to make pushes at a roster spot over Merrill and/or Mermis

Wallestadt
Kahkonen
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Note - Beckman in this scenario would be a potential trade candidate as there aren't really near-term scoring roles open.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I think that this type of direction is the best path forward for the Wild to maximize what they are best at or have the potential to be best at (generating offensive chances & dominating possession as a form of defense while leveraging all of the resources they've spent on the Ek line to shutdown opposing teams top lines using that line to mitigate our weaknesses on D & goal-tending). I think the Wild have defense & goalie issues with or without Dumba in the lineup and I would even make an argument that a lot of the value above replacement that Dumba brings to the table have to do with his mobility & puck-moving skills breaking the puck out & regrouping through the neutral zone & in the offense zone rather than his ability to shut down opposing teams best players (though I would make an argument that the best form of defense is the ability to quickly & cleanly move pucks out of the zone & through the neutral zone to start the attack).

Addison has been consistently solid in the minutes he has gotten during his NHL stints. He will not be as good as Dumba is but he can bring many of the same strengths to the table in terms of skating & puck-moving abilities while even being an improvement on special teams. The Wild, with or without Dumba in the lineup, are going to have inconsistencies and issues with their D & goalie groups until they can start to get the first waves of prospects to the NHL level. The best way, in the interim, for the Wild to maximize their ability to mitigate the lack of talent they have in these areas is to be able to consistently tilt the ice by being able to breakout & regroup efficiently & cleanly as well as have a group of defenseman with the puck skills to be able to active & produce offensively and the patience with the puck to be able to make strong plays that lead to maintaining possession in the offensive zone.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Wild really likely only have to make it through next year until they will have an injection of two-way talent that can help them add more physical defenders that can still move the puck well. In the interim, retaining Gologoski & Kulikov along with promoting Addison and to a lesser extent Mermis into the lineup (over Benn/Merrill) should put the Wild in position to have a really strong skating/puck-moving group of defenders albeit undersized. Given the fact that players like O'Rourke & Hunt should be ready to compete for an NHL spot in ~2 years at most & Lambo & Peart maybe arriving as early as the year after that... the solutions the Wild put in place should be short-term.

This pipeline of defensive talent is important. The Wild should be able to build an above-average defensive group over the next 2-3 seasons through internal development alone. The Wild do not have a lot of options to solve the lack of high-end offensive talent in their top 6, especially if the Wild lose Fiala outside of Beckman/Rossi. This means that the Wild would likely have to go external to find top 6 caliber players in a world in which they don't have the cap space to target anyone meaningful.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

O'Rourke & Hunt both project to be big/physical defenseman that can also move the puck offensively albeit not being pure-offensive defenders. I think both should be able to step into the NHL and be "solid" players even if it takes time for them to get comfortable with their puck skills. Partially depending on Addison's development next year, the Wild will be able to choose to shelter them during their introduction to the NHL either by pairing them with Brodin/Spurgeon or in sheltered 3rd line minutes. The bar here for Day 1 readiness is not greatness, it's improvements over Merrill, Kulikov, Goligoski, and Benn.

The other nice thing about signing Fiala to a 4-5 year deal over Dumba is that you essentially lock up your entire top 9 for the next 3-5 years creating a group of forwards that should rank among the best in the league. This allows you to be targeted with a strategy around how to maximize the development of internal assets but also potentially use internal assets to get NHL assets to improve your D/Goalie situation.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[BuiumSaveUs]

Speculation that we might get more than a 2nd for McBain. Dang, if I would’ve know he was this good of a prospect I would’ve been more excited for him.

 

[Dickie Dunn]

Team short on centers can’t sign center prospect. I seriously don’t get why McBain isn’t going to be with the Wild.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Team short on centers can’t sign center prospect. I seriously don’t get why McBain isn’t going to be with the Wild.

Sounds like a job for our “insider”.

 

[Wabit]

So you think the team should trade away defense instead of offense? What about our team makes you think that we need to score more goals, and that our defense is rock solid?

Yep. The d-corps/team is the same/better without Spurgeon in the lineup. Just getting the money back from his never ending cap hit is a win. I don't think he's part of the solution with the d-corps, he's the main problem.

Just looking at his usage this year it's that of a sheltered, o-zone 6D: highest o-zone FO/start rate, lowest 5v5 minutes, worst PK GA/60, the most PP time, and doesn't play against the other team's top lines.

 

[57special]

Yep. The d-corps/team is the same/better without Spurgeon in the lineup. Just getting the money back from his never ending cap hit is a win. I don't think he's part of the solution with the d-corps, he's the main problem.

Just looking at his usage this year it's that of a sheltered, o-zone 6D: highest o-zone FO/start rate, lowest 5v5 minutes, worst PK GA/60, the most PP time, and doesn't play against the other team's top lines.

You are the worst Spurgeon hater on these boards. As a former Dman, I can tell you that he is very good still, though I can see some signs of him slowing, which is worrying. He and Brodin are by far the best defensive Dmen on the team.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Team short on centers can’t sign center prospect. I seriously don’t get why McBain isn’t going to be with the Wild.

Given Guerin's handling of prospects, I can see why McBain may not want to sign with the Wild. I think there is some grain of truth in McBain not trusting the Wild to at least give him a chance to crack the lineup.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Yep. The d-corps/team is the same/better without Spurgeon in the lineup. Just getting the money back from his never ending cap hit is a win. I don't think he's part of the solution with the d-corps, he's the main problem.

Just looking at his usage this year it's that of a sheltered, o-zone 6D: highest o-zone FO/start rate, lowest 5v5 minutes, worst PK GA/60, the most PP time, and doesn't play against the other team's top lines.

No, it's not the usage of a 6 Dman. The Wild are absolutely putting Brodin out against other team's top lines, and that's shown in the usage. And really, why wouldn't they. That's what he(Brodin) was born to do, keep up and shut down the McDavid's and MacKinnon's of the world. Every coach would take that matchup as often as they can get it.

Spurgeon, has been seeing the lion's share of 2nd/3rd lines. This is from Feb 10th, and at this point Spurgeon had been hurt a decent amount (which would skew usage in favor of Brodin/Dumba pairing. Wonder what it looks like now that Dumba has missed a number of games. And it's not shocking that they give the best offensive defensmen (which Spurgeon is by any metric) offensive minutes. Especially when Goligoski is also a bit more offensive, and Brodin is much more known for his D.

 

[keppel146]

Interesting Guerin told McBain’s advisor, “come to me with multiple offers, otherwise I’m going to make him wait until the summer”. Does that mean BG isn’t talking to other teams?

 

[MuckOG]

Interesting Guerin told McBain’s advisor, “come to me with multiple offers, otherwise I’m going to make him wait until the summer”. Does that mean BG isn’t talking to other teams?

Guerin needs to know which teams that McBain would be willing to sign with. Why would a team give up a 2nd round pick unless they knew for sure that McBain is going to sign?

 

[thestonedkoala]

Guerin needs to know which teams that McBain would be willing to sign with. Why would a team give up a 2nd round pick unless they knew for sure that McBain is going to sign?

Seems kind of strange though; the ball is in McBain's court. Why would an agent give up that information? More so, what if McBain decides he doesn't want to go to the team that they trade him to.

This whole thing is just really, really odd.

 

[AKL]

Seems kind of strange though; the ball is in McBain's court. Why would an agent give up that information? More so, what if McBain decides he doesn't want to go to the team that they trade him to.

This whole thing is just really, really odd.

It's not complicated. Guerin told McBain's advisor that he can talk to other teams. Guerin expects McBain's camp to give him multiple options for teams McBain would sign with/teams he can be traded to.

 

[Nino Noderreiter]

So you think the team should trade away defense instead of offense? What about our team makes you think that we need to score more goals, and that our defense is rock solid?

No, I think we should focus on making sure that position aside we retain our best players that deliver the highest impact and then work downwards from there. If we lose Fiala, I do think we largely become a 1-line team scoring-wise. I think without Fiala, Boldy's impact will take a significant step back as I think Boldy is already really good and will be an incredible player but he's not yet even at Fiala's level as a line driver and will be hurt being stapled by a bottom 6 caliber player instead of a 1st line caliber player like Fiala. Again, I think we need to start with making sure that our best players have the structure and support to be able to be optimized & maximize their impact.

In the near term in our prospect pool, we are much deeper on the defensive side than the offensive side. Addison should be ready to step into an NHL role next year and O'Rourke/Hunt should start next season in the AHL and potentially even be able to make an NHL impact. If not by the middle or end of next season, if you are aggressive with development (and I think the Wild don't have a choice not to be) both players should be ready to go. And then after that you have another wave of high-end D prospects with Lambos/Peart.

Behind Rossi, the Wild really have no forward depth that they could realistically expect to potentially be ready for middle 6 minutes in the next 3 years outside of Beckman let alone a first-line caliber player like Fiala. It's not a choice that I would WANT to make but it's clearly the right decision to make in my opinion especially with the idea that keeping Fiala is the best path to speed up and/or cushion Rossi/Boldy's development path.

If it were me making decisions, I would argue that paying $8m for bottom-6 players (Greenway, Foligno, Jost) is poor cap management. It's not that I don't like having the Ek line (though I would argue $12m for a 3rd line is choosing to prioritize lower ROI boxes) but I think it would be do-able to cobble together a 3rd line (centered by Ek with his defensive skills) that can provide 80% of what the current line does (Example - Hartman - Ek - Duhaime). Instead, I would use that cap to retain Fiala and still be able to keep Spurgeon/Brodin/Dumba (at least through next year or the next 2 years while O'Rourke & Hunt develop).

However, given that BG has made the choice that one of our highest priorities is stacking the Ek/Greenway/Foligno line as an "identity" line & pushed chips in on Jost as a potential cheap upgrade to Hartman or Gaudreau... that means we have to make a choice between Fiala (and also maximizing Boldy/Rossi) and Dumba or Spurgeon. Given age & contract, that likely means Dumba. I think it's much easier to find Carson Soucy & Scandella type players that can do 80% of what Dumba does (I would argue that Addison should be able to do that or at the very least you need to rely on him being able to do that and take a chance to make this work) than it is to develop 1st-line caliber forwards that can drive a line and average a PPG.

So you would trade a good young two way C in Ek and good dman in spurgeon for fiala whose turnover prone, team doesn't trust defensively as evidence by dean's refusal to move Frederic G from that line, and goes cold? Besides that both have no trade clause, and dumba has 10 team no trades. Minnesota can get cheaper wing in free agency or trade until Beckman is ready

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is a flawed way to view & understand hockey and what is valuable. Fiala is not a bad defensive player, there's a reason he gets PK minutes. If anything Fiala/Boldy are better & more responsible defensive wingers than Kaprizov/Zucc. Players who try to make plays with the puck & take pucks to high-danger areas off the rush are going to get out of position at times and/or turn the puck over. Risk-adverse hockey & players who don't have the puck or skating skills to maintain possession and create their own chances might be a strategy that doesn't lose you games but it doesn't win games--especially in the playoffs when playing elite teams with elite talent.

I think the choice you are asking me to make is a false choice because I don't think we'd have to give up both players to retain Fiala. That being said, at an individual level I would give up either player in exchange for Fiala. The rarest & hardest to find skill in hockey is a player that can create high-danger chances at-will for themselves & others. This becomes more true the better the competition and certainly in the post-season. The reason that the Wild has played some of the most winning hockey in their franchise history over the last 2 seasons is because of one reason only. They have high-end offensive talent that's better than most teams they play.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

High-Danger-Chances, Goals, & Maintaining Puck Possession Are Highly Correlated With Higher Levels Of Turnovers
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kaprizov & Fiala are almost impossible to shutdown for a full game and are going to be consistently putting pressure on defenses skating & passing pucks to high-danger areas that have a high correlation with goal outcomes. Sure, attempting to take the puck to the highest defended areas of the ice is a high-degree of difficulty and this means both players will also turn the puck over 3-4-5 times each game. At the same time, Fiala/Kaprizov are always going to break through a couple of times a game as well and most of the time score goals. The downside of a turnover isn't a goal against, especially when many of these happen in the offensive zone. In addition, the alternative to turning the puck over usually involves an outcome that results in scenarios where IF they are maintaining possession it's because they are taking pucks to low-danger areas (almost as bad as a turnover that happened because of the potential upside of a high correlation with a goal) or they are giving up possession and attempting to get it back again by dumping and chasing the puck (a good portion of the time this ends up unsuccessful or essentially the same outcome as a turnover again without anywhere close to the upside of a goal).

This isn't a skill you can replace with depth. This isn't a skill you can replace with strong puck-moving defenders. This isn't a skill you can replace with a strong two-way C who chips in goals around the net. This isn't a skill you replace with a cheap winger in FA and the lack of players with this ability has a compounding effect that not only results in the loss of the individual production but the production of the linemates as well. Spurgeon & Ek can't consistently and directly create chances. They can make the right play or be part of a play or finish a play that if a set of 5 different sequences go right and/or if there is a lucky bounce involved can end in a goal. Foundationally, a team that relies on players like Spurgeon/Ek has much less margin for error, have a much higher degree of difficulty in order to produce high danger scoring chances, and ultimately will consistently lose against elite talent. Spurgeon & Ek can help put you in a position to be in most games even against really strong competition, but they aren't going to win you games.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

High-End Offensive Talent Covers Up Lots Of Holes
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This Wild team (and last years) has worse goal-tending, worse bottom 6 scoring depth, worse center depth, a worse top pairing on D, a worse 2nd pairing on D, and a worse 3rd pairing on D than the previous Wild teams of the previous era did. The sole reason that these teams are among the best in franchise history is because they have top-end offensive talent that consistently generates high-danger chances at a high-rate even if the team doesn't have its A game or if they are being outplayed or outshot or if they are overall less talented than their opponent.

The Wild win-games because of their high-end offensive talent. This is the margin of error that high-end offensive talent can give you. Fiala/Kaprizov & to a lesser extent but still large extent Zucc/Boldy are worth more and provide more value than filling holes in multiple different position groups across the board. The Wild will crumble without Fiala on the team. They may be able to still compete in a lot of close games. Offensively, this will become a 1-line team that opposing teams (especially the more games matter or in the playoffs) stack matchups to shut down Kaprizov's line to play them even (just like the playoffs last year). As long as teams do that, they will win the vast majority of the time if the Wild are forced to win with the Boldy line minus a 1st line talent + the Ek line and their cycle game. Good teams & playoff caliber teams will out talent our secondary scoring without multiple true-play-drivers like the line currently has.

Dumba, Spurgeon, and even Ek are really good players but they are supporting or role players. These are important players to have and they play core roles for the Wild on both sides of the ice. However, their role matters much less without elite offensive talent in place. Letting Fiala walk is choosing to decide to not pay your top 10 QB a big contract because you think you can win with a game manager QB & build a strong defense, running game, skill players, and offensive line instead. It's great that you've got a good defense but if your offense is now turning the ball over all of the time & unable to sustain drives & score... you're not going to win games especially against good teams. Bringing this back to the Wild, to the extent that there are merits to this roster building strategy those merits fall apart with what the Wild are facing over the next 3 years. The Wild do not have the luxury of being to throw money to acquire every position group with almost ~$13m in dead cap space for the next 3 years. The only choice the Wild have is to identify what their strengths are and what players can give them the highest ROI and deliver the highest marginal production value compared to other players & positions.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This strategy allows the Wild to build an identity that puts the Wild in mismatch situations that benefit them on a nightly basis (while also covering the teams weaknesses)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Wild need to focus on maximizing their differentiator that's the biggest determinant of them winning games. They have an opportunity to establish one of the more dominant top 3 line combinations of forwards in the league by keeping Fiala. This puts the Wild in a position to have two true top-scoring lines that teams will be forced to put themselves in a bad matchup against at least one of them. The Wild also have arguably the best shutdown line in the league that they can use against opposing teams best lines to mitigate the impact of defensive/goalie weaknesses. Scoring goals & generating a lot of offensive zone possession will force teams to break their structure and take changes that the Wild can capitalize on and also again shelter their d-zone & goalie weaknesses by making sure the puck isn't there often in the first place. Once this identity is established, the Wild can focus on how they can tweak & shuffle the deck to make as many small improvements to their weaknesses as they can.

I want to reiterate the point of the importance of the Wild doubling down on the path that allows them to establish an identity around their ability to play a certain way that is an outlier in the NHL. The idea that there aren't other teams out there that have two lines that can score at as high of a level as the Wild's lines supported by a shutdown line that, at worst, neutralizes and plays other opposing teams best lines even. Even if the Wild have certain disadvantages, forcing opposing teams 2nd/3rd lines to have to outproduce the Kaprizov & Fiala lines to beat the Wild (with the Ek line playing the opposing teams best line even) builds an identity that should allow the Wild to be in a position to win the majority of their games. This puts teams in a position to have to work really hard to start to dictate the style of the play in the game and avoid the Wild matching up in that way.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Ahead - Defense & Goaltending help is on the way
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lastly and maybe most importantly is that when making this decision we have to think about the next 2-3-4 years. Because of the cap constraints, the only meaningful ways that the Wild can really improve are through trades or internal development. Help is coming in the pipeline to bolster the defense & goalie groups, but it's probably one more season away. In the meantime, the Wild need to focus on prioritizing skating ability & puck skills from their defense to maximize their ability to spend less time in the d-zone by more efficiently starting clean breakouts before the opposing offense gets set up. The Wild will be caught in-between different identities if they try to go in a different direction than retaining Fiala. They will be a significantly less dangerous offensive team. In addition, even at full strength the Wild don't really have a clear way of making moves to build an elite D/Goalie group next season. Ultimately, what this will result in is that the Wild spend more time in their d-zone & less time in the o-zone. This means that even to the marginal degree that Spurgeon or Dumba is better than Addison or whomever, they will spend more time defending and more time giving up chances that have the potential of being goals against and that difference will be offset.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[ThatGuy22]

Seems kind of strange though; the ball is in McBain's court. Why would an agent give up that information? More so, what if McBain decides he doesn't want to go to the team that they trade him to.

This whole thing is just really, really odd.

It's in McBain's best interest to get traded to a team he is willing to sign with, because then he can burn a year of his ELC.

If his rights expire in Minnesota, he can't sign until August 15th. He can't go to dev camps, becomes an RFA later, etc.

 

[thestonedkoala]

It's in McBain's best interest to get traded to a team he is willing to sign with, because then he can burn a year of his ELC.

If his rights expire in Minnesota, he can't sign until August 15th. He can't go to dev camps, becomes an RFA later, etc.

The trade off is that more spots open up. But thanks was trying to figure out why Guerin was trying to move him before the deadline.

It'll be interesting to see what they do.

 

[mouser]

Team short on centers can’t sign center prospect. I seriously don’t get why McBain isn’t going to be with the Wild.

Scratching my head on this one.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Scratching my head on this one.

There really isn't anything more than speculation at this point; for all we know is that McBain accidentally said the Flyers were better than the Penguins.

 

[TaLoN]

Team short on centers can’t sign center prospect. I seriously don’t get why McBain isn’t going to be with the Wild.

Scratching my head on this one.

Our need at center and his being a center is why I believe this is McBain driven more than anything. Sometimes college kids just want to choose where they play.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

We got Reilly, we lost McBain. People can settle down.

 

[Nino Noderreiter]

Our need at center and his being a center is why I believe this is McBain driven more than anything. Sometimes college kids just want to choose where they play.

That probably makes the most sense. I still think it's just confusing though. I'm not sure there is a better opportunity for a C in his position to join that would give him a chance to quickly develop into a top 6 C role on a team that has structure in place to succeed compared to a lot of bad teams. In addition, you would think with the whole Boldy & BC angle Boldy would be talking about how he should come play here with him.

How many times does a college C get to join a playoff-caliber team with basically no resistance now or in the near future to immediate bottom 6 playing time and arguably the easiest path to top 6 minutes in the NHL on a team where he can join one of his good buddies from school to play and transition into the NHL.

On the bright-side, I would begrudgingly accept this scenario if we can swing a 2nd round pick. I was reading today that we will likely get another 2nd round pick for Johannsson as well. Adding 2 second round picks would be nice.

 

[grimmel95]

That probably makes the most sense. I still think it's just confusing though. I'm not sure there is a better opportunity for a C in his position to join that would give him a chance to quickly develop into a top 6 C role on a team that has structure in place to succeed compared to a lot of bad teams. In addition, you would think with the whole Boldy & BC angle Boldy would be talking about how he should come play here with him.

How many times does a college C get to join a playoff-caliber team with basically no resistance now or in the near future to immediate bottom 6 playing time and arguably the easiest path to top 6 minutes in the NHL on a team where he can join one of his good buddies from school to play and transition into the NHL.

On the bright-side, I would begrudgingly accept this scenario if we can swing a 2nd round pick. I was reading today that we will likely get another 2nd round pick for Johannsson as well. Adding 2 second round picks would be nice.

total guess here but my assumption is McBain, his dad and his agent just saw what happened to Sturm over the last couple of years with the Wild. Being scratched multiple times and never getting the chance to move up in the lineup most likely scared him away. I've seen him projected at best as a serviceable 3C but most likely a 4C and he sees things differently.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Does anyone know who McBain's agent is? Also it's the job of the agent to protect their player's own interest. We saw that with the whole Kaprizov saga.