2022/2023 NHL/Wild Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

CaptainMusky wrote:

Surprisingly the Avs who only a few short years ago had the #1 or 2 prospect pool is dead last. Of course all those guys have elevated, but still seems surprising.

The Avs went from being absolutely terrible, to cup contenders in a very short span, they were selecting top 5 for several years (and pretty much nailed all of those picks with absolute studs) and then started to trade away future 1st round picks to plug lineup holes with veterans for cup runs… so yes, they’ve graduated all of those high picks and now have absolutely bare cupboards and no capspace left due to having to pay all of those high pick superstars…Their future signings are basically limited to College free agents (Ben Meyers) and veteran minimum deals with incentives that can impact the following year’s cap if hit…

Their gamble will be judged on how many cups they can get in this window, I do think they assumed they would have more than 1 by now though before the Mac extension kicks in…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

How much of that is the Kirill & Zuccy effect though?

He didn’t play with them when he first got moved to C during the no-fans season. They had Rask centering them all year until right before the playoffs. And you could still see the huge shift in Hartman’s game, that’s why he got moved to 1C in the first place.

I think it’s tough to reward him right now by tossing him back between KK and Zuccy. That’s why I say put him at 4C or put Freddy at 1C and have Hartman center Boldy. I don’t think getting health bombed will do him any good personally. Might make fans happy but the Wild need Hartman going and the press box won’t help with that.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Scott Wheeler is doing his annual prospect pool rankings and he is up to #16 and has not done the Wild yet.

I’ve been watching this as well, I think the Wild will be 6th, I think the top10 will go:
1 -Buffalo
2 -Columbus
3- Detroit
4 -Arizona
5 -Montreal
6 -Minnesota
7 -Anaheim
8 -New Jersey
9 -Los Angeles
10 -Winnepeg

What’s so impressive about the Wild’s ranking over the years is that it’s been built with mid/late 1st round picks, Rossi being the highest at #9…look at all the high Top5 picks the other teams listed have used to build their pools…

Yeah those other teams have been absolute trash so its pretty impressive what the Wild have done with their picks some of it has been with crafty trades too like Addison.

Columbus is a sleeping giant right now not alot of people are talking about in terms of prospects, everybody is oogling over Buffalo… If Columbus can get some lottery luck and land Bedard look out!

I’d love to see Walker up again. He had much better chemistry with Boldy and Goudreau than Hartman has shown.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Columbus is a sleeping giant right now not alot of people are talking about in terms of prospects, everybody is oogling over Buffalo… If Columbus can get some lottery luck and land Bedard look out!

Yeah and they have Johnny Hockey too long term. He isnt having a very good year but thats less of a reflection on him as it is how bad the entire team is.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Columbus is a sleeping giant right now not alot of people are talking about in terms of prospects, everybody is oogling over Buffalo… If Columbus can get some lottery luck and land Bedard look out!

Yeah and they have Johnny Hockey too long term. He isnt having a very good year but thats less of a reflection on him as it is how bad the entire team is.

I can only imagine the prospect pool was a factor for him signing with Columbus vs his other options…especially with the idea that they’ll likely get a top 3 pick in this years generational draft…

Columbus was hoping to make the playoffs after last summer, not the draft lottery. Whatever team gets Bedard will have the #1 prospect pool for about 4 months.

Lots of love for Sammy Walker and I get that he skated fast and held onto pucks. He definitely popped off the screen and was fun to watch. But he also got 6 games, all with Boldy, and whopping 1 point (ENG) to show for it.

tswoboda wrote:

Lots of love for Sammy Walker and I get that he skated fast and held onto pucks. He definitely popped off the screen and was fun to watch. But he also got 6 games, all with Boldy, and whopping 1 point (ENG) to show for it.

True, but they were his first NHL games ever, so there’s a feel out period for him and his linemates too…He generated a ton of offense that didn’t result in goals, but Grade A scoring chances… and again it gets back to what better options do they have?

On a positive note I thought Dumba had a pretty decent game. He made a few gaffs, but even Brodin did so that was encouraging.

CaptainMusky wrote:

On a positive note I thought Dumba had a pretty decent game. He made a few gaffs, but even Brodin did so that was encouraging.

You kinda hope he does though after a 2 game stint in the pressbox right? I still think there’s something else that led to the scratches, maybe there was a trade in the works or maybe there were some strong words said that led to it…it made zero sense to do it for “Performance Reasons” considering how bad the entire team is playing…why single Dumba out right now when he’s potentially being shopped?

How about Foligno’s lack of effort on the 2nd Perry goal? The blame was put on Dumba for not boxing out Perry, but watch Foligno skate right around Perry to get out to his point responsibility (wtf was he doing all the way down in the far corner anyways?)

Foligno’s bad play seems to have mostly gone under the radar this season, seems like last years goal total has messed with his head and he thinks he can play a skilled game now…how many times have we seen him try saucer passes and other high skill plays? He needs to just get back to the meat & potatoes go hard to the net game he was known for…

Something just smells funny about the whole situation…

Agree Walker looked good, just pointing out if Hartman or someone else had Walker’s (lack of) production in that spot we’d be saying jeez what good is he.

It really doesn’t matter because they’re not going to bring him up unless there’s an injury. He’s a 2-way waivers exempt contract and they already have 13 forwards. They’d have to carry 14 forwards or waive someone and I doubt they’re doing that to make a spot for Sammy Walker. Rossi, maybe.

If they did bring Walker up I’d like to see him with Boldy and centered by Hartman, Freddy to 1C, and Steel to 4C with the Dewies.

it kinda sounds like tomorrow’s Philly game is being looked at as a do or die, either they make some lineup adjustments before (I haven’t seem any reports yet form practice) or they make them afterwards based on the result, either way it sounds like the staff has finally come to the argeement that “something” needs to happen…

we’ll see what that is….

Just read through previous pages and saw a lot of love and longing for Mason Shaw. LOL maybe you goons who were drooling over the Reavo trade can finally comprehend why some of us didn’t.

tswoboda wrote:

If they did bring Walker up I’d like to see him with Boldy and centered by Hartman, Freddy to 1C, and Steel to 4C with the Dewies.

This would be an interesting setup. Still bummed that Shaw keeps getting scratched. Bring him back against Philly and sit Reaves.

tswoboda wrote:

Just read through previous pages and saw a lot of love and longing for Mason Shaw. LOL maybe you goons who were drooling over the Reavo trade can finally comprehend why some of us didn’t.

Weren’t we just asking why he was missing so many games in a row vs some sort of rotation? and why wasn’t he swapped out for Reaves when playing an obviously more skilled team like Carolina?

I’m personally still waiting for Reaves to become that defensive liability we all were told about :), Reaves was a +2 over the past 5 games, not sure we can say that about anybody else on the team?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Weren’t we just asking why he was missing so many games in a row vs some sort of rotation? and why wasn’t he swapped out for Reaves when playing an obviously more skilled team like Carolina?

LOL are you serious? The reason is because they traded for Reavo so they’re going to play him every game. That’s exactly what I said would happen when they made the trade, just like it happened with D-Lo last year, and why I didn’t like the trade. I’ll give him credit that the team absolutely got a boost after the trade, but the luster of feeling 6″ taller seems to have worn off. Reavo is just a waste of space most games.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m personally still waiting for Reaves to become that defensive liability we all were told about

I never said a word about defensive liability, those are your words. He’s very average defensively actually, which is a compliment. He’s an offensive liability, he kills offensive zone possessions. Most times the puck touches his stick – it’s going to the other team and coming out of the zone. Then he has zero puck retrieving skills to actually get the puck back, he just hits the D after they make a pass but never actually gets the puck back. But yes, his defensive play is absolutely fine!

tswoboda wrote:

Just read through previous pages and saw a lot of love and longing for Mason Shaw. LOL maybe you goons who were drooling over the Reavo trade can finally comprehend why some of us didn’t.

I wasnt drooling over the trade, but I did like it and still do. I did however think that it wasnt going to be at the cost of Shaw sitting every night. Of course back then Dewey1 was injured so it didnt, but now I think they should be rotating him in a bit.

But they were never going to put Reavo in the press box. Apparently most fans talked themselves into believing that. I knew he’d eventually take a spot from Shaw or Dewar and that’s why I didn’t like the trade. And to be honest I really don’t care about whether or not he’s in the lineup until playoffs, that’s when I hope they prove me wrong – but I’m not holding my breath.

I didnt really put too much thought into whether Reaves sit at the time since at that particular moment there was an opening. When Dewey got healthy at that moment is when I expected some sort of rotation. I mean, its not like they gave up a ton to get him so sitting him isnt hurting them at all.

tswoboda wrote:

But they were never going to put Reavo in the press box. Apparently most fans talked themselves into believing that. I knew he’d eventually take a spot from Shaw or Dewar and that’s why I didn’t like the trade. And to be honest I really don’t care about whether or not he’s in the lineup until playoffs, that’s when I hope they prove me wrong – but I’m not holding my breath.

They’re going to have to make it for you to worry about it. The Rangers had no problem sitting Reaves, I don’t see why we should. Trade or not. Dean and Billy G are showing that they are pretty stubborn in some of their lineup moves. It cost them in the playoffs against the Blues too. They made changes after game two and it changed the series, the Wild sat on their hands until game 6. It’s one thing I don’t like about BG. If it’s a guy he likes personally it doesn’t matter what the situation. They’re playing.

I don’t think it’s going to change the team, but they need to infuse some actual energy again. Shaw and Walker would do that.

Not sure I buy last years playoff as sitting on their hands.

Why would the wild make moves before game 5 or 6 they were up 2-1 in the series. Blues had to make adjustments they were losing the series when they did.

They wild made their adjustment after they were losing the series just like the blues.

Walker is not getting called up unless their is an injury. For reasons mentioned above.

I said when they traded for Reavo he was going to make the wild have a 13h forward and would block any young blood from the minors getting called up.
I was thinking Rossi at the time.
Everyone was cool with it cuz they didn’t want to see Petan, Fogerty or this person or that person.

Now what? Now you can’t make a move.

And you have a player that basically skates around in circles and throws a body check every once in a while after the puck goes by him.

But hey he makes them all feel taller.
Especially with all the fist he has thrown since being here.

My point is they take too long to switch things up when things are going south.

mahtofire14 wrote:

My point is they take too long to switch things up when things are going south.

Compared to STL who switched up their forward lines, right?

The difference is STL dealt with injuries all year so Chief had different lineups that worked throughout the year. He was like Boudreau and fiddled with lines all the time. Changes during playoffs are easier when you’re just going back to a lineup that had chemistry back in December or February or whatever. The Wild last year stuck with the same lineup from like Jan 14 until the end of the season and it worked. But then fans expect them to make big changes in the middle of playoff series? They were handcuffed, woulda been nuts to go with a random lineup at that point.

If there was an issue it was that they only found one lineup that really worked during the regular season. Makes a good point to mix the lines up more often during the regular season.

Pretty hindsight saying it about the playoffs last year and the goalie situation don’t you think?
They could have changed goalies in game 5 when the series was tied. You lose that game with Cam then what?
Don’t know why you would swap when leading the series.

Do you have any other examples of them taking to long to shake things up?
They are pretty handcuffed currently with shaking things up without putting someone on waivers.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
My point is they take too long to switch things up when things are going south.

Compared to STL who switched up their forward lines, right?

The difference is STL dealt with injuries all year so Chief had different lineups that worked throughout the year. He was like Boudreau and fiddled with lines all the time. Changes during playoffs are easier when you’re just going back to a lineup that had chemistry back in December or February or whatever. The Wild last year stuck with the same lineup from like Jan 14 until the end of the season and it worked. But then fans expect them to make big changes in the middle of playoff series? They were handcuffed, woulda been nuts to go with a random lineup at that point.

If there was an issue it was that they only found one lineup that really worked during the regular season. Makes a good point to mix the lines up more often during the regular season.

I bet if we go back to the Bruce days thread there were comments that he switched things up to much with lines.
“Give a guy a chance there for more than a game or a period.”

I guess my point is it is easy to nitpick changes or lack there of after the fact.

The Bruins (38-5-4) became the fastest team in NHL history to reach the 80 point plateau. They’ve done it in 47 games, besting the previous mark set by the 79-80 Flyers and the 33-34 Canadiens, both who did it in 49 games.

At this point, you could statistically say they are the best team in the history of the NHL.

I don’t get to watch the Bruins much but I’d say they’re doing something special this season.

I’m not saying switch up the lines all the time. I’m talking with the 4th line situation and Hartman.

As if TNT needed to prove again that they are the best NHL telecast…

https://twitter.com/biznasty2point0/status/1618446421346381826?s=46&t=zjN6kVNFb_1E6bVt27zIsQ