The other side of the argument is to unload a young player that your scouts/development staff think will fizzle out but perhaps other teams think they can fix him and recover any assets you can get back for him vs nothing…
AJ Thelen – Wild first round pick that we held onto too long and turned into a bust and we got nothing back for him
Listening to alot of Wild internet talkshows lately (SkorNorth, Locked on Wild, etc) there’s alot of discussion about Rossi and will he be a bust or will he finally previal this upcomming season, etc, etc…should they package him in a draft trade, etc, etc..
NONE of these shows discuss the most important factor in determining Rossi’s success….
WHERE WILL HE PLAY ON THE WILD ROSTER?
I think we can permanant marker Ek at Center on the 2nd line and Gaudreau as Center for the 3rd line…So he either plays 1st line or 4th line Center or they move him to Wing (Something the Wild have NEVER done since they drafted him)
Everybody kills me when I suggest trying him at 1C and I think/hope we can all agree playing him on the 4th line doesn’t fit his play style and probably hurts the team overall…
I’m with the group suggesting he needs more time to figure out the NHL while playing in the NHL, but he can’t be put in a spot (4th line checking center) where he’s more likely to fail than succeed…
So where will he play?
Isn’t the new thread supposed to start before the draft? Gives us a better chance to top 241 next year… There’s always next year! Next year is our year!
Go ahead and start a new 2023/2024 Season Thread, I guess a new one should probably start the day after the Cup is awarded…
fyi – Joe Smith is recording a Stright from the Source podcast tomorrow with Judd Brackett talking all things Draft and Wild Prospect pool related…
Rossi on 4th line is not a good place for him. THe only logical place would be 1st line. I say give him extended training camp time there and see what happens. Doesnt mean it will work because we saw last year he tore it up in preseason, but then didnt do a thing when the season started. Much of that is due to where he played I think but still.
Way way to small to be a viable option for the wild with already being small with 3 of their top 4.
Then that’s not an Addison problem or a development problem. That’s (yet another) brain fart in the Wild draft strategy.
You don’t develop a 5’11” 170 pounder into a 6’4″ 220 pound bruiser. You can’t blame Addison for being the wrong size.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Way way to small to be a viable option for the wild with already being small with 3 of their top 4.Then that’s not an Addison problem or a development problem. That’s (yet another) brain fart in the Wild draft strategy.
You don’t develop a 5’11” 170 pounder into a 6’4″ 220 pound bruiser. You can’t blame Addison for being the wrong size.
Pittsburgh drafted Addison, but yeah, our scouts haven’t been selecting big players over the years, this goes against the way the league has been trending the last 10+…the problem is our Top 2 defenseman are small and soft and locked in for 4 & 5 more years, it would need to be approved by them to get traded and that likely isn’t happening…we do have a few 6’+ guys coming through the system, but they are still a few years away…
again, it’s all about getting through the next 2 years before GMBG can truly put “his” team on the ice, why make drastic changes right now when they are so limited by the cap hits anyways…
Rossi on 4th line is not a good place for him. THe only logical place would be 1st line. I say give him extended training camp time there and see what happens. Doesnt mean it will work because we saw last year he tore it up in preseason, but then didnt do a thing when the season started. Much of that is due to where he played I think but still.
I’d say the most logical spot for Rossi would be the 2nd line with Boldy and Jojo but Ek has that spot cemented…likely the same with Freddy on the 3rd…Why are we so hellbent on Hartman playing 1C? He was terrible for a majority of last season and a career bottom 6 guy who got elevated only due to a lack of options 2 years ago…we’ve already tried Ek and Freddy at 1C and they did nothing with Kap and Zuccy… give the kid a legit shot with Kap and Zuccy (allow him to make some mistakes before kicking him to the pressbox) and see if there’s any chemistry and if he can handle it…if he can’t, then at least we know and we either send him to Iowa (to do what? Dominate the AHL? he’s done that the last 2 years…) or trade him while he might still have some value…
Kap – Rossi – Zuccy
Boldy – Ek – Jojo
Hartman – Gaudreau – Foligno
Duhaime? – Dewar – Beckman/Steel/Reaves?
I like that lineup but I think Foligno is gone to make room to sign others. Duhaime slides up and insert Beckman.
Hartman most likely nets 25 last year if healthy. Which would have been third in the team. I don’t disagree with you about Rossi but Hartman plays his best at center.
Frankly I don’t think Ek should be cemented in any one spot.
Just like I don’t think Rossi should either.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Way way to small to be a viable option for the wild with already being small with 3 of their top 4.Then that’s not an Addison problem or a development problem. That’s (yet another) brain fart in the Wild draft strategy.
You don’t develop a 5’11” 170 pounder into a 6’4″ 220 pound bruiser. You can’t blame Addison for being the wrong size.
Addison might be a fine player they traded for,(not drafted) I just don’t see it being in a Wild sweater. More so of who is under contract currently and what is coming up the pipeline possibly.
Hartman most likely nets 25 last year if healthy. Which would have been third in the team. I don’t disagree with you about Rossi but Hartman plays his best at center.
Frankly I don’t think Ek should be cemented in any one spot.
Just like I don’t think Rossi should either.
well, Hartman played his best centering a superstar and his sidekick… and so did Sam Steel…
I like that lineup but I think Foligno is gone to make room to sign others. Duhaime slides up and insert Beckman.
Foligno is the casino chip they can cash in IF NEEDED, i’m thinking now they keep their pending UFA’s and unload them at the deadline… It also sounds like they are worried about Duhaime’s concussion history and dont want to sign him longer term making him another trade possibility…
This lineup could get mostly turned over in 2 years…
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Hartman most likely nets 25 last year if healthy. Which would have been third in the team. I don’t disagree with you about Rossi but Hartman plays his best at center.
Frankly I don’t think Ek should be cemented in any one spot.
Just like I don’t think Rossi should either.well, Hartman played his best centering a superstar and his sidekick… and so did Sam Steel…
Well if that is the case then why can’t Ek play there. He is their best center. If he played between a superstar and his sidekick he might have 40 than if KK and Zucc can turn any old garbage scrub center into a 25-30 goal scorer.
There are other options for Rossi to play center or wing.
Rossi at 1C also makes that line extremely small.
This team is not good enough to cement anybody except KK at wing.
They already tried Ek between Kap and Zuccy for about 25 games 2 seasons ago, it just didn’t work and he was pulled off for Hartman…Ek is just not offensively creative enough and they never were on the same page, he would zig when Kap and Zuccy would zag….Ek played really well with Boldy and Jojo late last season before he got hurt, his net front game worked well with both of them and the creativity drops down a notch on that line so Ek is more effective…
I agreed that Rossi at wing makes sense if 1C isn’t an option as it’s likely the ONLY option other than 4C which makes zero sense, but again, the Wild staff have NEVER had him play wing in his 2 years at Iowa or the 18 games he got in the NHL (They likely would have tried him at wing last season in Iowa to see how it worked out as a possible option, they didn’t)
In terms of Rossi not playing 1C due to the overall size of the line, that’s an assumption of failure, lets give it a shot and see what the reality is…All good players need is opportunity, maybe that line blows up offensively and we have a producing top line? We don’t know, what we don’t know…and the Wild can’t use the BS “he hasn’t earned it yet” excuse… wtf are we waiting for then? We won’t have any other options the next 2 years unless Khusnidihnov is some revelation his first season and he’s even smaller than Rossi…
2 seasons ago. So toss it out the window. Like I said this team isn’t good enough to cement any player anywhere except KK.
2 seasons ago. So toss it out the window. Like I said this team isn’t good enough to cement any player anywhere except KK.
There’s a reason the staff didn’t put Ek with them last year when Hartman got hurt…instead they chose to put a journeyman 4th liner they signed the last week of the offseason because no other teams wanted him after the DUCKS of all teams didn’t tender him a bare minimum contract offer…
They should be able to tell if Rossi at 1C will work during training camp, if so then they need to give him a 20-30 game trial with no repercussions if he has a bad game or two (all young players do) Hopefully after than span they’ll truly know what they have with him, either a career AHLer who can’t apply his game to the NHL level (he certainly wouldn’t be the first high draft pick who couldn’t) or he has success and earns the right to keep playing 1C to see how he handles a full NHL season…
boittom line, at least we’ll have a good idea of what we have with him vs all these “but he missed a year with myocarditis” “but all players develope differently” “but he’s not playing with skilled linemates” excuses…legitimate or not…
I’m sure Judd Brackett will be asked about Rossi today on Joe Smith’s podcast, it will be interesting to hear his answer (since he drafted him)
They already tried Ek between Kap and Zuccy for about 25 games 2 seasons ago, it just didn’t work and he was pulled off for Hartman…Ek is just not offensively creative enough and they never were on the same page, he would zig when Kap and Zuccy would zag….Ek played really well with Boldy and Jojo late last season before he got hurt, his net front game worked well with both of them and the creativity drops down a notch on that line so Ek is more effective…
I agreed that Rossi at wing makes sense if 1C isn’t an option as it’s likely the ONLY option other than 4C which makes zero sense, but again, the Wild staff have NEVER had him play wing in his 2 years at Iowa or the 18 games he got in the NHL (They likely would have tried him at wing last season in Iowa to see how it worked out as a possible option, they didn’t)
Not a great development tool to move a center to wing in just his second year when the team is desperate for centers.
In terms of Rossi not playing 1C due to the overall size of the line, that’s an assumption of failure, lets give it a shot and see what the reality is…All good players need is opportunity, maybe that line blows up offensively and we have a producing top line? We don’t know, what we don’t know…and the Wild can’t use the BS “he hasn’t earned it yet” excuse… wtf are we waiting for then? We won’t have any other options the next 2 years unless Khusnidihnov is some revelation his first season and he’s even smaller than Rossi…
How has he earned 1C because he had a solid year in the AHL point wise? Or because he was drafted as high as he was?
How has he earned 1C because he had a solid year in the AHL point wise? Or because he was drafted as high as he was?
What did Sam Steel do to earn playing there?
Um actually played center in the actual NHL before.
Maybe that should tell us more about what the wild think of Rossi than they do Sam Steel.
Um actually played center in the actual NHL before.
So well that he wasnt even tendered an offer by the terrible Ducks too.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Um actually played center in the actual NHL before.So well that he wasnt even tendered an offer by the terrible Ducks too.
Rossi may be in the same boat in the future. Dunno.
It appears the Kings are offering Byfield & Durzi or Vilardi & Durzi packages to the Jets for Pierre-Luc DuBios…
Not sure if the Wild offering Rossi & Addison is at that level? It at least gives an idea on what value PLD is perceived to have…
Don’t see how it’s even a potential option for the Wild at 9million.
I think a big part of Rossi’s NHL struggles at the start of last season had alot to do with the terrible start the Wild had…starting the season 1-3-1 caused Deano to pull back the reigns and rely heavily on his veterans, they then went on a decent stretch against terrible teams winning very tight games, but again, against bad teams…Rossi was then sent down to Iowa after 17? games (some of which he only had a few minutes of total TOI)
I agree, he didn’t show enough to warrant staying, but what opportunities was he given to succeed in? One game he had like 2 minutes of TOI… The one game he did score an assist was when he played with Kirill and Zuccy for a few shifts…
Don’t see how it’s even a potential option for the Wild at 9million.
We would need to move Foligno and Zuccy to free up $9 million (again that’s PLD’s reported ask, he’ll more likely sign for $8+) not ideal, but its doable…Zuccy could be re-signed as a UFA next season to finish out his career with Kirill…
We’ve seen other teams do it, Vegas was at the max cap the past few years and yet figured out how to add Eichel’s $10 million aav…
There’s always excuses why the Wild can’t do something, yet other teams seem to figure it out…Wild couldn’t buyout Kirill’s KHL contract to get him here sooner, yet that’s exactly what Washington just did with Ivan Miroshishenko, Wild have to eat years of Parise & Suter caphits because they can’t get out of thier contracts, yet Montreal isn’t having any issues with Shae Weber (they eventually traded it away) or Cory Price’s huge contracts…Or the Sharks just allowed to terminate Evander Kane’s contract without significant penalties?
Wild have to eat years of Parise & Suter caphits because they can’t get out of thier contracts, yet Montreal isn’t having any issues with Shae Weber or Cory Price’s huge contracts…
Different scenario but I hear ya.
It’s the path that the great BG chose.
Wild have to eat years of Parise & Suter caphits because they can’t get out of thier contracts, yet Montreal isn’t having any issues with Shae Weber or Cory Price’s huge contracts…
Different scenario but I hear ya.
It’s the path that the great BG chose.
yeah, I know there’s some differences, but there appears to be solutions to get around the issues. I know Russo hates discussing it, but I think it warrants a new story comparing Parise & Suter to Weber, Price and Evander Kane contracts and how those teams don’t seem to have any penalties…
Don’t see how it’s even a potential option for the Wild at 9million.
I have zero interest in PLD at any price let alone that one. I just dont think he would fit in and Ive seen a lot of videos of him where he comes off as a complete douche. Maybe he is just fed up with the situation, but you really dont see guys on the Wild act like him.
Vegas and Tampa are complete outliers because they had so many players on LTIR which allowed them to go over the cap. Wasnt Vegas like $10M OVER the cap during the playoffs because Stone came back?
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