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

I saw this mentioned elsewhere online and thought it was a fun exercise as there’s really no perfect answer and yes the era they would play in makes a huge difference… it should at least bump up the post count.

What’s your Greatest starting lineup in NHL history, go!

Mine:

Ovechkin – Lemieux – Howe
Orr – Chara
Brodeur

I can’t believe I left the Great One off my list…but Lemieux is a better overall center imo… Howe brings the power forward aspect and Ovi is the greatest shooter who ever lived… Orr is a no brainer and then Chara was my toughest choice as a more defensive defenseman covering for Orr rushing the puck. I’m not a Patrick Roy fan…

Good list Joe. I could go with that but might opt to swap Brodeur for Hasek. In his prime he was lights out but Brodeur is better overall but also had better teams plus his car rental commercials I find hilarious.

Chara? Are you nuts.
Give me a minute I’ll have to think about this.

Bossy Wayne Richard
Orr Lindstrom
Hasek

Chara would have to just stand in front of the net against my lineup as there is no way he is keeping up. Goalie is tough as I think I would go with a modern day goalie for size like the king or even Vasilevsky.
Hard for me not to put my favorite player Ray Bourque in the lineup but he is my first alternate.

Can you imagine Orr and Daytsuk together?

Daytsuk?

I don’t know how to spell his name LOL and then I was thinking of the wrong guy anyway. LOL

Pavel was a center and very good but not an all time great.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Chara? Are you nuts.
Give me a minute I’ll have to think about this.

I struggled to come up with the best shutdown defender to compliment Orr. I thought of Borque, Potvin, Robinson, Lidstrom, Pronger, but Chara for most of his long career (not his first or last 2 seasons) was one of the best shutdown defenseman in league history, the shot, the long reach, the physicality, the nastiness… he was feared!

I picked Brodeur because I think his game is very similar to todays best goalies (amazingly quick and athletic)

The 3 forwards is just impossible as there are arguments for so many players… I still can’t believe I left Wayne off, can you imagine him passing to Ovi!?!?

Yurov had 2 goals today in his KHL team’s preseason finale.. I really hope his KHL team doesnt mess around with his icetime this year and just let him play….

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Chara? Are you nuts.
Give me a minute I’ll have to think about this.

I struggled to come up with the best shutdown defender to compliment Orr. I thought of Borque, Potvin, Robinson, Lidstrom, Pronger, but Chara for most of his long career (not his first or last 2 seasons) was one of the best shutdown defenseman in league history, the shot, the long reach, the physicality, the nastiness… he was feared!

I picked Brodeur because I think his game is very similar to todays best goalies (amazingly quick and athletic)

The 3 forwards is just impossible as there are arguments for so many players… I still can’t believe I left Wayne off, can you imagine him passing to Ovi!?!?

Yeah forwards are tough especially center. Not saying Chara wasn’t good but Bourke Lindstrom he was not. Not like any of my guys are going to throw down with him..lol

Can’t argue with Ovi…he has been fairly healthy in his career. Many wings back in the day that didn’t play nearly the games.

Roy size wise is probably closest to todays game. Just like Dominator when he played. Probably to small today.

Marat Khusnidhinov officially named an assistant captain of SKA in an “only in Russia” goofball presentation… not bad for a 20 year old…

It was lidstrom I was thinking of.

That saxophone is electric. Someone tell Wild game ops we need this energy at the X. Just imagine Kirill skating a few solo laps to that for the home opener and then going straight into the EDM

Anyone have a collection of Wild memorabilia? I kind of went nuts on Kirill items but it’s fun little hobby for me and my son.

At this point of the offseason, Nice UFA pickup of Sam Steel from the ducks, good faceoff guy with some offensive potential, hoping a change of teams can jumpstart his NHL career.

This could be kind of risky. Hopefully they did their due diligence on him. He is one of the players linked to the scandal at World Juniors. He has said “no comment”, while many others actually vehemently denied involvement, etc.

Billy G really loves these reclamation project centers.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Billy G really loves these reclamation project centers.

Yeah, I didnt even realize they signed Nic Petan. Not that I even knew who he was in the first place. Sounds like Greenway had to have another procedure done recently so he will be delayed even further. This concerns me because if he is unable to train that has warning signs all over it for him to regress.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Billy G really loves these reclamation project centers.

Yeah, I didnt even realize they signed Nic Petan. Not that I even knew who he was in the first place. Sounds like Greenway had to have another procedure done recently so he will be delayed even further. This concerns me because if he is unable to train that has warning signs all over it for him to regress.

Russo said today he won’t be ready for the beginning of the season.

Bye bye Kulikov. It’s been real.

I actually don’t love seeing this one go. I thought overall he was solid for us. Played 80 games last season. Had a plus 23 rating. That’s pretty solid.

I’m sure this was to free up cap space. Not sure how much it frees up.

Kulikov to Anaheim for Freddy Charles. Nice little get out of jail free card – Billy must have some dirt on the ducks GM. Wild all of the sudden have a lot of cap space.

Edit: yeah he had a good regular season but good lord did you see him in the playoffs?!

I figured this had to happen at some point. Hopefully we will see a nice forward coming to MN soon.

GMBG must have something cooking…for a team already eating $13+ million in deadcap, there not going to just sit with $5+ million surplus left…

The much anticipated trade happened. Great regular season but OMG playoffs!!!
Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

GMBG must have something cooking…for a team already eating $13+ million in deadcap, there not going to just sit with $5+ million surplus left…

They only have roughly 4 after Addy and Rossi. Although Kulikov was obviously not part of the future of this team he certainly played well last year. Rough game 1 in playoffs . Tough to put to much into game 6 after sitting 4 games in a row. Frankly they all sucked in that game.

I honestly think Bill has been scrambling a bit from there original plan this off season after he got Flower for probably less than he thought and then moved Talbot which I don’t think he had planned. Not sure he was expecting to have 4 mill in space at this point in the off season.

Since LTIR is a thing can either Merril or Greenway start there and they can spend the money and deal with it when one or both come back?

Not sure how many impact players are still available for trade considering they start camp on the 23rd.

Wild are definitely in a position now to poach a good player some team will need to straight dump to get cap compliant… but at this point it’s likely going to be at the expense of a young guys playing time, not sure I like that…

Ripjiggen wrote:

Not sure how many impact players are still available for trade considering they start camp on the 23rd.

There are a lot of teams that are over the cap right now with Vegas and Tampa being the top ones. They will have LTIR relief however, but many teams will have to do something. Montreal is in terrible shape with a terrible team. I think they still have Shea Weber and Price on LTIR however.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

but at this point it’s likely going to be at the expense of a young guys playing time, not sure I like that…

I agree. The Steel signing was a shot across the bow for Rossi. I really dont like blocking these young guys for growth.

Steel signing I don’t think was necessarily that. If it was more than a year maybe, but they needed another forward and center is always a position of need. They can easily move Jost and or Steel, and yea Rossi can still go back and fourth which is not a bad thing for a 20 year old.
It’s not as if Dewar and Duhaime are proven either. Makes the young guys have to bring it or they may be watching for a game or two.
So not sure who he is blocking.
Beckman? Maybe but it’s not as if he had a stellar year in Iowa.

I for one don’t think waiting for a team to dump a vet to get camp compliant is a great way to try and build this team either.
A. You don’t know who it will be.
B. That person might not be the right fit versus actually targeting a FA.