2021 MN Wild/NHL Thread

What a play by Montreal to end it in OT.
DT

deertracker wrote:

What a play by Montreal to end it in OT.
DT

Agreed. A sweet goal. Especially after that missed 5 min major

Yeah, that looked like quite the gash on his nose.
DT

Russo was on Sunday Sermons with berriero this morning and said while Week’s tweet was technically accurate, kk is in Russia for a wedding and it’s where he lives in the off-season so that’s a non story. Very interesting that KK’s agent used to represent Weeks. Probably a plant by the agent to stir up noise.

The thing I took away from the interview was that Russo was pretty adamant that KK’s camp is looking for a 2-3 year deal. Said both sides will likely need to compromise to get a deal done.

The sad thing is that Kaprizov likely isn’t too involved in the early on negotiations and all of these PR games the Agent plays ultimately makes Kirill look like the bad guy.

If Kirill was handed a contract for 8 years at $8 million per season he’d sign it in a second, its the agent trying to get every cent he can which ultimately makes his commission check bigger that’s the problem. There’s no way Kirill will ever spend anywhere close to his contract worth, the kid just wants to play hockey.

IF GMBG gets a chance to chat with Kirill i’m sure he put it in those terms but still let him know he’s the face of the franchise and will be paid accordingly, he’s not looking to lowball him…

Exactly right Joe, and Russo let that be known. The kid is doing what his agent tells him. Thing is he only have two options, one being make a lot of money in the NHL with the Wild, or two, make less money and go back to the KHL. I think a deal gets done but it’ll be awhile and if they can get him to bite on. 5 year deal around 7 or 8 mill per year I’d be happy.

The only thing I can think of that Kaprizov would say to GMBG regarding his contract and future with the Wild is that he wants a legit center to play with and who can blame him?!?

It’s a team game, but you know if Kaprizov had a legit 1C to play with all season he likely had 35-40+ goals and another 10-15 assists and his $$ value would be even higher than it already is…

Its an easy question for GMBG to answer (of course he will get him one) but Kaprizov’s agent will reply back that in 20 years the Wild has never had a legit 1C, why is now any different?

GMBG has to do some good convincing he can solve a 20 year franchise problem several other GM’s couldnt

Looks like Kaprizov [Milstein] wants to get to UFA status ASAP, only interested in a short term deal. I don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not he’s happy with the Wild, he just wants to be a UFA with 32 options instead of 1. Can’t blame him for that, but it does suck as a Wild fan.

No matter what happens, they need to go 4 years minimum. Kaprizov [Milstein] wants 3 to walk him straight to UFA… if that happens the Wild have almost no shot at signing him with Suter and Parise still on the books. Getting a 4th year gets them past the Parise/Suter contracts and leaves them plenty of $$$ to sign Kaprizov if he wants to stay here.

tswoboda wrote:

Looks like Kaprizov [Theofanous] wants to get to UFA status ASAP, only interested in a short term deal. I don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not he’s happy with the Wild, he just wants to be a UFA with 32 options instead of 1. Can’t blame him for that, but it does suck as a Wild fan.

No matter what happens, they need to go 4 years minimum. Kaprizov [Theofanous] wants 3 to walk him straight to UFA… if that happens the Wild have almost no shot at signing him with Suter and Parise still on the books. Getting a 4th year gets them past the Parise/Suter contracts and leaves them plenty of $$$ to sign Kaprizov if he wants to stay here.

Fixed it for you. He has switched agents, never was technically signed with Milstein, but since he was heavy into Russian prospects he was helping Kaprizov early on before signing his ELC.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Looks like Kaprizov [Theofanous] wants to get to UFA status ASAP, only interested in a short term deal. I don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not he’s happy with the Wild, he just wants to be a UFA with 32 options instead of 1. Can’t blame him for that, but it does suck as a Wild fan.

No matter what happens, they need to go 4 years minimum. Kaprizov [Theofanous] wants 3 to walk him straight to UFA… if that happens the Wild have almost no shot at signing him with Suter and Parise still on the books. Getting a 4th year gets them past the Parise/Suter contracts and leaves them plenty of $$$ to sign Kaprizov if he wants to stay here.

Fixed it for you. He has switched agents, never was technically signed with Milstein, but since he was heavy into Russian prospects he was helping Kaprizov early on before signing his ELC.

Ha good catch. We all WISH he was with Milstein, Paul Theofanous has a not-so-team-friendly reputation.

tswoboda wrote:

Ha good catch. We all WISH he was with Milstein, Paul Theofanous has a not-so-team-friendly reputation.

Agreed on both accords.
Sad news today. Tom Kurvers has passed away after his battle with Cancer. I have to wonder if his health deteriorating had something to do with the recent hires BG made? Perhaps not, I know Tom had stepped back from his role a bit due to his treatment, but still sad news. He was a hockey icon.

I remember being pumped when Fenton hired Kurvers. I think it was in the middle of that first season when he was diagnosed with the lung cancer. Just really sad, gone way too soon and left behind a young family. I had no idea it had gotten this bad until they mentioned him during the Habs/Knights broadcast last night.

Absolute worst case scenario, we walk him to FA and then trade him for a kings bounty at the trade deadline…

The thing Kaprizov needs to realize is that IF he’s demanding $10+ and then wants to get signed by a perceived “contender” after his time with the Wild would be done, what contending team has $10+ in capspace to spend on him? none! His agent could care less, he’s just looking for the biggest commission paycheck.

You can’t blame Kaprizov to be hesitant to sign a 6-8 year deal when he wants to see how the team continues to build talent around him. I’ll say again, Barzal and Point both signed 3 year bridge deals when they were projected superstar RFA’s, if their team shows progress, they will likely sign longer term deals with their teams. The only thing that could sway him to sign a long term (8 year) deal is that it would be fully guaranteed and who knows what the future holds in a post pandemic world?

This storyline that there’s problems with negotiations is all Agent driven to put pressure on GMBG and stir up interest…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

This storyline that there’s problems with negotiations is all Agent driven to put pressure on GMBG and stir up interest…

100%. That whole Weekes tweet was ridiculous and is borderline tampering. Sure he was in Moscow, but Kaprizov even told the Wild in advance. So dumb.
I have a feeling right now that Kaprizov hasnt been involved at all in the negotiations and is just taking time away, for him buddy’s wedding and some fun after the season. We will see how it plays out.
I am however really interested to see how TB figures out their mess for next year.

The other thing that is really jumped to the forefront these playoffs is how absolutely terrible the officiating has been. Another dumpster fire last night, blown calls both ways its really embarrassing for the league.

The Wild have already offered Kaprizov a 8 year/$8mil+ contract that he obviously didn’t sign. Everything reported is he wants 3 years, AKA wants to be UFA ASAP. Big difference between the Kaprizov situation and Barzal/Point is they both signed “cheap” bridge deals because their teams were capped out and couldn’t afford to offer them a long term deal. The Wild clearly want to sign Kaprizov to max term, but he wants the bridge deal.

I wonder if that offer ever was presented to Kaprizov? One would think that its required, but perhaps not.
Soon enough (hopefully) we will find out, but I am hoping its at least 4 years. There are the “I told ya so” guys flying all over on Twitter saying the Wild are going to be forced to trade him. I dont think its anywhere near that yet, but it perhaps could get to that point unless BG can do something at center.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I wonder if that offer ever was presented to Kaprizov? One would think that its required, but perhaps not.
Soon enough (hopefully) we will find out, but I am hoping its at least 4 years. There are the “I told ya so” guys flying all over on Twitter saying the Wild are going to be forced to trade him. I dont think its anywhere near that yet, but it perhaps could get to that point unless BG can do something at center.

The Weekes tweet is no big deal, just the agent trying to stir up national attention. I’m just speaking to the credible stuff already reported by Russo… they want 3 years.

I think the idea that he wants a better center to play with is overblown. I mean if the agent wants him to be paid like a top wing in the league, then saying he needs a better center to play with is just poking holes in his own argument. The wings that are worth $10m turn bad centers into 1st liners. Examples like Panarin with Strome, Stone with Stephenson, and Kane with whoever his center is that year. They all take middling centers and turn them into studs. If Kaprizov’s agent thinks he deserves top dollar then those players are his benchmark.

tswoboda wrote:

Big difference between the Kaprizov situation and Barzal/Point is they both signed “cheap” bridge deals because their teams were capped out and couldn’t afford to offer them a long term deal.

Both teams could have moved players or deferred salary to later years if they had to in order to keep their young studs (or in the Bolts case, put $10m on LTIR until the playoffs) they just came to an “agreement” that they delay the huge payday and the players play on a shorter term and remain on a good team to likely increase their next few season productivity and thus increase their next contract demands. We’ll see how it works for Barzal and Point if the cap remains flat in 3 years (I read a projection that it could take upto 5 years to get the player revenue sharing back in line with the owners and that will likely put a dent in any cap raises in the next 3-5 years)

again I think this is all smoke with no fire and agent posturing to get his client the best deal, but as they say, time will tell… I would expect some deals start getting signed in the next few weeks, GMBG will want to know where he stands to prepare before the drafts and FA.

In terms of the Bolts cap situation next season, my guess is they pay with draft picks for the Kraken to take a big chunk of salary and term off their books (likely Tyler Johnson) and perhaps make a trade on defense in an effort to cut salary and replace with rookie contract like Foote.
I also think the NHL sends a private email to all 32 GM’s letting them know the LTIR games will no longer be tolerated and the loophole will get closed in the next collective bargaining agreement.
Capfriendly just updated to the 2021 cap numbers, it will be an interesting offseason to see how some teams deal with their numbers to get complaint by the start of the season.
Some other important players to watch what they sign for:
Svechnikov in Carolina
Makar in Colorado
Landeskog in Colorado
Heiskanen in Dallas
Petterson in Vancouver
Dahlen in Buffalo
Tkachuk in Ottawa
Ovi in Washington

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Both teams could have moved players or deferred salary to later years if they had to in order to keep their young studs (or in the Bolts case, put $10m on LTIR until the playoffs)

Headline: “Point signs 8 year $80mil contract extension”
Headline #2: “Point out next 8 regular seasons with yearly hip surgery, will play in all playoff games.”

Ovi and Landeskog won’t sign until after the xpac draft so they can be protected without using a protection slot.

Gotta say I was wrong about the Canadiens. I thought they were gonna get embarrassed by the Knights, especially after game 1. But it’s been a pretty fun series to watch!

I think back to the Foligno Spittin Chickets story about Kaprizov replying to a group text chat that he doesn’t want to skate with the “$hit Players” anymore in practice. Yes, lots of that comment was lost in translation, but you can glimpse Kaprizov’s mindset that he wants to play with the best to be the best. There were several times last season where he would come off the ice and the tv cameras would catch him roll his eyes in disgust as he setup Rask with a golden opportunity and he whiffed on it… My guess is that type of frustration is what Kaprizov would want to discuss with GMBG about for the future and I don’t see anything wrong with that…

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Both teams could have moved players or deferred salary to later years if they had to in order to keep their young studs (or in the Bolts case, put $10m on LTIR until the playoffs)

Headline: “Point signs 8 year $80mil contract extension”
Headline #2: “Point out next 8 regular seasons with yearly hip surgery, will play in all playoff games.”

Ovi and Landeskog won’t sign until after the xpac draft so they can be protected without using a protection slot.

Gotta say I was wrong about the Canadiens. I thought they were gonna get embarrassed by the Knights, especially after game 1. But it’s been a pretty fun series to watch!

Where the heck did Mark Stone go after the 1st round of the playoffs? He owned that Wild series, but he’s been mostly invisible out there the past few rounds…

Vegas forwards are getting the same treatment their opponents forwards typically get, eaten up by Monster defenseman that take all the space away!

Stone has been a non factor for sure. Wonder if he has some injury he is dealing with? I dont recall seeing much out Tuch or Pacioretty this series either, but I havent watched every minute of every game either.
Johnson to Seattle makes a lot of sense since he is from that area.

Looking at the CapFriendly site again its deceivingly bad for TB. They have 12 forwards under contract and 5 D, 2 goalies and are $5M over. They dont have to do as much as I was initially thinking. I was thinking they had a ton of RFAs or UFAs, but not really. It will only take a couple moves to get under, but they will certainly be up against it.

Do you guys think the new ESPN contract will give the NHL an opportunity to increase the salary cap in the positive direction once the money kicks in?

mahtofire14 wrote:

Do you guys think the new ESPN contract will give the NHL an opportunity to increase the salary cap in the positive direction once the money kicks in?

for sure! although it will take awhile to dig out of the hole the last 2 years have brought…

CaptainMusky wrote:

I dont recall seeing much out Tuch or Pacioretty this series either

Tuch hasn’t been the same player since Dumba hit him…likely injured shoulder/arm/back from that hit…

Stone line has been shut down by the Dannault line this series, pretty impressive really. That line might be the best straight shut down line in hockey, has been in the playoffs anyway. Against Colorado the Stone line was used to shut down the Mackinnon line, and they obviously did a good job of that. Against the Wild, the misfit line (Karlsson/Smith/March) was used as the shutdown line against Kaprizov and Zucc. That’s why Stone was all over the stat sheet.

So I just realized who is left on Vegas from their xpac draft. Karlsson, Smith, Marchessault, Tuch, Theodore, and Fleury. Every single one of them were acquired in or as part of a side deal in their draft. I’m guessing the 30 GMs have also noticed the same thing.

$8M? They are probably thinking about the fastest track to $10M+. No way I would let him sign to $8M/yr for a 5+ year term contract.

Russo in for PA on the fan today. BG is going to be on as well. Lots of heavy hockey talk most likely.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Russo in for PA on the fan today. BG is going to be on as well. Lots of heavy hockey talk most likely.

Yep BG at 9:35 plan accordingly folks.

Man is BG such a refreshing change from the prior GM. He is so transparent about everything. Is surrounding himself with bonafide GM talent and talks about he leverages them as a sounding board for “things he hasnt gone through yet”.
He talked about the KK contract talks and said Weekes’ tweet caught him completely by surprise and isnt concerned about the threat of KHL and that he never heard anything as such from KK or his agent.