2021 MN Wild/NHL Thread

I mean MOJO was making 4 mill. HOF GM Bill better figure some things out real quick but hey they have a great prospect pool.

The $4 million offer means NOTHING, its an arbitration number meant to be the absolute $ floor, Fiala came in with $6.5 so the arbitrator settles at $5.25ish, that’s it, read no more into it than that.

The Wild are most likely offering him a contract in the $6-$7 per depending on term, my guess is that this get wrapped up just before the deadline to submit…

Or

Both sides agree to just postpone long term contract talks until next offseason when he’s given top priority to sign, hence Fiala’s decision on a 1 year term.

Quick reaction hungover. sounds like they have until Tuesday to sign a long term.

Agree with you Joe. It just means it will be somewhere in between those numbers. He’s worth more than 4 but isn’t work 6.5 either.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Agree with you Joe. It just means it will be somewhere in between those numbers. He’s worth more than 4 but isn’t work 6.5 either.

i’d be curious what other GM’s think Fiala’s value is? His agent must have received some feedback that said he’s worthy of $7+ per???

To me he seems like a really good top line winger who’s never had the chance to play with top talent…I’d hate to see him go elsewhere over a small $ difference and turn into a star…

At least we’ll get another years look at him if they stick with the arbitration ruling…

The Cap comparables I have seen all had him in the $5.8M range. Lower than Reinhart whose value is higher because he can play center, but they have similar stats.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

#2054768
CaptainMusky wrote:
Agree with you Joe. It just means it will be somewhere in between those numbers. He’s worth more than 4 but isn’t work 6.5 either.

Not sure he’s worth 4 mill, Glad no long term deal with him he’s not very consistent in his play, plus he is a soft player in big games.

Fiala avoids arbitration! Signs for 1 year, $5.1 mil.

1 year is better than 2 since he will still be rfa next year. I think that’s a steal at 5.1. Fiala is banking on himself to get a big payday next year.

I love this deal. Team friendly rate, and gives Fiala big time motivation to prove he deserves the big bucks. Glad they agreed on a deal too. Hopefully avoided extra animosity.

It virtually bought both sides more time.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I love this deal. Team friendly rate, and gives Fiala big time motivation to prove he deserves the big bucks. Glad they agreed on a deal too. Hopefully avoided extra animosity.

The 1 year deal to me shows he wants to be here. If he had gone a 2 year that would have left the door open to be traded to a potentially crappy team like Buffalo, but they wouldnt trade for him now not having any security in term.
I honestly figured he would get more than that like closer to $6M. I agree this is team friendly. Now sign Kaprizov. Russo thinks 5 years $9M is where they will be.

Ripjiggen wrote:

It virtually bought both sides more time.

I also think they want some clarity with Kaprizov before deciding longterm on Fiala…Plus we’ll finally get a (hopeful) full season to see how everyone looks on the roster…

It also gives the Wild a full year to see what Rossi and Boldy look like as pro’s, if they progress like we hope then maybe we don’t need to trade for a 1C next year and we can afford to sign Fiala linger term…

Did you guys see the stuff coming out about NHL players being advised to not play in Olympic Qualifiers? This may impact whether Rossi plays in the upcoming Austria one. He is scheduled to leave for camp today, but I havent read anything on whether he left yet.

He is still planning on going to camp last I saw. Yeah NHL is in a holding pattern of setting a schedule because of the olympics as well. Like everything else in the business world this is also a mess.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I love this deal. Team friendly rate, and gives Fiala big time motivation to prove he deserves the big bucks. Glad they agreed on a deal too. Hopefully avoided extra animosity.

This. The arbitration process is not exactly amicable between the player and the team. The player gets to tout all his positives he contributes to the team and why he is worth X amount of money. The team then has to air what they feel are all his short comings and why he isn’t worth X amount of money. Can leave some players with lingering hard feelings which I think there is enough of that there already. So I’m glad they avoided that show and Fiala can prove what he can do.

Russo just tweeted BG says things are going well enough with Kaprizov and they are in constant communication. He also added it will be a longer deal than Fiala’s. Well I hope so because I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a contract that was measured in months!

GMBG’s presser after the Fiala signing, in a nutshell he says its upto Fiala to prove him wrong and justify the big bucks and a long term deal from him next offseason.

So yeah, the match has been lit under Kevin, lets see how he responds…

https://www.nhl.com/wild/video/gm-bill-guerin-on-signing-fiala/t-277437412/c-8830605

Lastly, with $13+ million in capspace left, lets say Kaprizov signs for $9aav, that gives the Wild $4 million to utilize before the season starts as team scramble to get cap compliant or at the deadline to either sign players or broker capspace for draft picks, capspace will be like gold this year…

ok, we FINALLY got Mason Shaw signed (Wheew!) the offseason plan is now complete!

Oh wait, now maybe we can finally focus on signing that Kirill kid???

KK has proven one thing. He’s a pain in the ass to deal with. Five years of begging and pleading to get him here and now this contract debacle. BG will do well to get the kid for four years. I think he sees a team he does not want to spend any more time on than what’s required.

Fiala will be gone soon enough. If he has his breakout year like BG is challenging him to do he will price himself right out of here and who can blame him. If you think there’s no animosity between Fiala and this team I think you’re mistaken.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Oh wait, now maybe we can finally focus on signing that Kirill kid???

Who?

Ice Cap wrote:

KK has proven one thing. He’s a pain in the ass to deal with. Five years of begging and pleading to get him here and now this contract debacle. BG will do well to get the kid for four years. I think he sees a team he does not want to spend any more time on than what’s required.

Oh the narrative. Kirill is impossible to deal with and doesnt want to be here yet have we heard ONE WORD from him stating such things? I get it. We are MN professional sports fans and were are used to any sort of rejection or disappointing, but this is getting completely ridiculous at this point. He hasnt said anything about not wanting to be here. The contract negotiations are going exactly as his agent has planned all along. Guerin has admitted as such that these things take time. Kirill said he didnt want to come to the NHL until he had proven himself at the KHL. Which he did and then he signed here. It sucks we burned a year at the behest of the NHL who should have allowed him to play in the playoffs his first year, but here we go, we get screwed again.
I won’t buy that Kirill doesnt want to be here until I hear it from himself. To this point it hasnt happened and all the sensationalizing in the media/social media doesnt help either.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ice Cap wrote:</div>
KK has proven one thing. He’s a pain in the ass to deal with. Five years of begging and pleading to get him here and now this contract debacle. BG will do well to get the kid for four years. I think he sees a team he does not want to spend any more time on than what’s required.

Oh the narrative. Kirill is impossible to deal with and doesnt want to be here yet have we heard ONE WORD from him stating such things? I get it. We are MN professional sports fans and were are used to any sort of rejection or disappointing, but this is getting completely ridiculous at this point. He hasnt said anything about not wanting to be here. The contract negotiations are going exactly as his agent has planned all along. Guerin has admitted as such that these things take time. Kirill said he didnt want to come to the NHL until he had proven himself at the KHL. Which he did and then he signed here. It sucks we burned a year at the behest of the NHL who should have allowed him to play in the playoffs his first year, but here we go, we get screwed again.
I won’t buy that Kirill doesnt want to be here until I hear it from himself. To this point it hasnt happened and all the sensationalizing in the media/social media doesnt help either.

amen!

Quick little interview Marco Rossi did recently talking about the Olympic Qualifying games he’s playing in this weekend… He says he’s feeling better than he ever has right now, he flies to MN on September 4th to get acclimated and ready for Rookie camp and then he Main Wild camp….

https://newsbeezer.com/austriaeng/marco-rossi-before-oehv-debut-im-even-better-than-last-year-winter-sports-ice-hockey/

The fact he and his dad have both said he is stronger than he was before is a real eye opener. He already was the “Quad God”, my Lord his thighs! We have all heard about his intense training so if he is at or beyond where he was before that is amazingly obvious how dedicated he is.

I’m most excited to see him than any other player at camp, he’s one of if not the most important player to this team the next 1-4 years to get us through the cap crunch if he can solidify one of the top 2 center spots… Big if, but this kid has the determination and talent to do it…

Same with me. Khustinidinov will be my #2, but he wont be over here for another year. If they both pan out we could finally be solid down the middle, but that is a big if right now as you say.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Same with me. Khustinidinov will be my #2, but he wont be over here for another year. If they both pan out we could finally be solid down the middle, but that is a big if right now as you say.

I’m waiting to see him again at the WJC to see how much he’s improved, I did see he got to center the 4th line for the KHL SKA team the other day in an exhibition…