Let me begin this by saying that this is my first thread. I've been reading the board for a few years and have enjoyed reading all of your opinions about the team. I also know this might sound a little crazy given all that went on this offseason, but I just want to see if the board has any interest in bringing Vanek back, and what you think that would cost.
1. Could he be available?
While I haven't heard anything about him being shopped, Minnesota currently sits at the bottom of the Central Division. Vanek, who was brought in to score goals, has not really supplied them. He's 9-20-29 in 47 games, while posting a -12. I feel like it's safe to say that he hasn't fit into the Wild's system. We've already seen how well he fits into ours. He's not one of the players they offered a 13 year contract to; they didn't exactly bring him in for the long haul. At what point do they decide to switch things up? Maybe Fletcher is willing to listen to an offer at this point.
2. Does His Contract Work?
As you're probably aware, he took the 3 year/19.5 mil (6.5 per) deal with the Wild over the long term contract Snow offered him this summer. IMO, with two years left after this one, this is a perfect amount of time to have him on Tavares' line to give Dal Colle some time to develop (another year in BP, a year playing on the second line getting used NHL pace)
3. What would it take to get him?
Just spitballin here; While the Wild are stacked on the wings (Parise, Vanek, Pominville Neidereitter, Zucker) they're not exactly teeming with depth up the middle, and would probably welcome the addition of a top-6 center. We have a lot of those. What we also have a whole lot of depth with our defensive prospects, and with the acquisitions of Leddy and Boychuck(plz sign), not enough places to put them. This is why I could see an offer of something like Grabovski, Mayfield, and a 2016 3rd being something both teams could agree to
This move would (when Okposo comes back) give us one of the top 1st lines in the league (in addition to the best fourth line of all time
) . Grabovski is a solid player - but has not really played on the PP or PK, so this would give us a huge boost on the PP as well without hurting our PK. Does it sure up our backup goaltending? No. Does it give us defensive depth in case Vis goes down in the playoffs? No. Would it be weird to bring him back after he turned down our deal? Maybe - but it didn't seem like we burned any bridges with him. Does it immediately make us a better team in a year where we're hunting for the cup? ABSOLUTELY.
OK - Crazy proposition over. Looking forward to reading your responses, and LGI!!
1. Could he be available?
While I haven't heard anything about him being shopped, Minnesota currently sits at the bottom of the Central Division. Vanek, who was brought in to score goals, has not really supplied them. He's 9-20-29 in 47 games, while posting a -12. I feel like it's safe to say that he hasn't fit into the Wild's system. We've already seen how well he fits into ours. He's not one of the players they offered a 13 year contract to; they didn't exactly bring him in for the long haul. At what point do they decide to switch things up? Maybe Fletcher is willing to listen to an offer at this point.
2. Does His Contract Work?
As you're probably aware, he took the 3 year/19.5 mil (6.5 per) deal with the Wild over the long term contract Snow offered him this summer. IMO, with two years left after this one, this is a perfect amount of time to have him on Tavares' line to give Dal Colle some time to develop (another year in BP, a year playing on the second line getting used NHL pace)
3. What would it take to get him?
Just spitballin here; While the Wild are stacked on the wings (Parise, Vanek, Pominville Neidereitter, Zucker) they're not exactly teeming with depth up the middle, and would probably welcome the addition of a top-6 center. We have a lot of those. What we also have a whole lot of depth with our defensive prospects, and with the acquisitions of Leddy and Boychuck(plz sign), not enough places to put them. This is why I could see an offer of something like Grabovski, Mayfield, and a 2016 3rd being something both teams could agree to
This move would (when Okposo comes back) give us one of the top 1st lines in the league (in addition to the best fourth line of all time
) . Grabovski is a solid player - but has not really played on the PP or PK, so this would give us a huge boost on the PP as well without hurting our PK. Does it sure up our backup goaltending? No. Does it give us defensive depth in case Vis goes down in the playoffs? No. Would it be weird to bring him back after he turned down our deal? Maybe - but it didn't seem like we burned any bridges with him. Does it immediately make us a better team in a year where we're hunting for the cup? ABSOLUTELY.OK - Crazy proposition over. Looking forward to reading your responses, and LGI!!
- well, to be fair, Bailey's stepped it up - maybe not as offensively gifted as Vanek at the NHL level, but his defensive prowess evens that line out. That, plus the price tag makes it an easy decision. 
