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

wormdunker wrote:

IF Rossi centers 97 and 36, Who is doing the dirty work to retrieve pucks, to prolong possessions? THAT is what a center needs to do on that line and Marco has not proven he can do that yet, not even close. They want Kirill shooting not wasting all his energy winning wall nd puck battles.

No, what you just described is exactly NOT what Goudreau or Steel have in their games…Yes, Hartman does to a degree… and this argument goes out the window with the centers used having a terrible faceoff %, so Kirill and Zuccy are mostly spending the first 1/2 of their shift just trying to get possesion back…

My issue is strickly with them NOT giving Rossi at least a sniff at 1C (not the 1 meaningless preason game he got) just to see what it looks like, who knows perhaps he would take off and we have a 1C solution, we just don’t know… Obviously the team is desparate for anything by having a player the F’ing Ducks didn’t want as our 1C…

I’ve been holding off this post to make sure his play would extend past just a few lucky games, but kudos to Ek for his MUCH IMPROVED faceoff play…The kid figured something out and has been awesome the last stretch of 10 games or so…it’s been especially nice on the powerplay to start off immedately putting pressure by winning the draw.

StoneHands have gotten a little softer lately and I like it! His 8 year deal is looking like a excellent move by GMBG…

The important thing is what’s Rossi’s little voice in his head telling him when he sits alone in his hotel room at night. Is he feeling he didn’t get a fair shake from Evason and sitting in the press box for consecutive games is a confidence killer and puts you in a surly mood. See Gologoski. Or is he feeling he had his chance and now self doubts might be creeping in about his ability. He can and will say all the right things but human nature is human nature.

Tough road for the young kid and he may be all right yet or he may not pan out. He surely wouldn’t be the first highly touted high draft pick that found out his ceiling was in the AHL. As far as KK goes I don’t think a boat, train and truckload of money will be enough to keep him here if the Wild do not show they are on the cusp of winning a Cup. He came here for one thing and that is to raise the Cup over his head. I get the feeling he already has enough money to satisfy him and endorsements haven’t even started yet. If he does it with Zuccarello or with somebody else on another team I don’t think it matters all that much it’s just about raising that Cup.

I agree the Wild have to stay as competitive as possible up to the point of when they have to deal with KK’s agent on a renewal to keep him interested. He’s not going to want to stick around waiting for a prospect pool to catch up to him. There are still lingering questions of the whole deal of him trying to get out of Russia. The whole fake military ID thing was never denied by him as far as I know nor was there any explanation given as to why it was such a stressful ordeal to begin with. Yeah I know Russia is a crazy place especially now but just seems there’s a missing part to the story. Will be interesting to see if he goes back this off season. Has there been any news about that prospect goalie of the Flyers that got shoved in a van and shipped to Siberia or someplace like that?

regarding Kirill’s next deal, as it was mentioned, these are the kind of deals an organization hopes to have to make, you pay a legit superstar, legit superstar money, no questions asked (because any other organization that can, will if you don’t) The Wild will have the advange of starting to negotiate the deal in 2025-2026 and being able to sign him to an 8 year max extension vs everyone else at 7 if he plays out his deal, that will be important as that 8th year aav will be MUCH higher than the .aav he would have by signing a short extension after he’s 37 years old…but I mean we’re talking about him already making over 100+ million dollars so does it really matter? by seeing how frugal he lives, probably not…

Mathews in 2024-2025 then Draisaitl in 2025-2026 will set the market caps for AAV just in time for McDavid and Kaprizov in 2026-2027…Theonufus will use them as leverage (and he should) Kirill will likey be in the $14-$15 aav range with McDavid close to whatever the 20% max will be by then…

Leopold should be smiling when he signs that contract…

lastly, it’s not like there’s a group of teams ready to win the Cup that have anything close to the capspace needed to take on his likely $14-$15 million dollar a year hit…So it will be upto GMBG to prove to Kirill that the Team & prospects we have coming are better than the other teams who’ve been rebuilding…Hopfully Kirill doesn’t like Chicago because they will be HUGE players in the near future trying to sway away a young superstar to fill the void of Kane and Toews…

The 1C position is obvious. The center position in general is an issue. If it wasn’t you would take you best center which is definitely stone hands and put him there for now. Unfortunately it severely hurts any kind of depth lines.

Ripjiggen wrote:

The 1C position is obvious. The center position in general is an issue. If it wasn’t you would take you best center which is definitely stone hands and put him there for now. Unfortunately it severely hurts any kind of depth lines.

We have the 3C (That’s what I consider the Ek line to be) and an abundance of 4C options locked up. The HOPE is Rossi at least locks down the 2C in the years to come and then the Wild joins every other team that doesn’t already have a 1C to try and find one by any means possible (overpay in a trade?)…Without getting a top 3 pick or getting lucky drafting a late bloomer or somehow can get a UFA to sign it will always be an issue…

Vancouver or New Jersey are two teams that each have 3 stud centers and they are all mostly young (JT Miller being the oldest) so there’s a chance you could snag one by overpaying in a trade with top picks and prospect because it will be hard for the to afford all of them under their cap…What sucks for the Wild in that scenario is how cap strapped we are to get a deal done the next 2 years and we have Boldy to extend….

IF, BIG IF, the Wild falters this season and can get into the top 3 of the draft, you will have options of getting about a surething a 1C as the draft can offer…(Bedard/Fantilli) with Leo Carllson or Matvei Mitchkov being damn good wing consolation prizes if they go 1-2…Smith, Dvorsky and Ritchie being other top center options in the top 10…

It’s going to be hard to keep Kaprizov from going where where all the elite UFA wingers go… Columbus

Luckily the Wild are clearly all in… you don’t trade for Ryan Reaves without being all in

Here’s an Iowa Wild stat I read that might hint at the duration of Rossi’s Iowa stay…The Iowa Wild play 9 of 12 games AT HOME in the month of December, this equates to a TON of practice time with so few travel days…so it makes sense to take advantage of all this icetime (practice & games) he’ll get in the next month to work on the things he needs to work on in his game to be successful in the NHL. Tim Army is the perfect coach to take advantage of this…I’d put my money on Rossi returning to the Wild either December 29th at home vs Dallas or January 4th at home vs Tampa Bay…

tswoboda wrote:

Luckily the Wild are clearly all in… you don’t trade for Ryan Reaves without being all in

You’re not thinking long term, Reaves’s $1.75 freed capspace will allow us to re-sign Freddy Hockey for another season next year…Nothing like locking up your 2C on a year-by-year basis…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’d put my money on Rossi returning to the Wild either December 29th at home vs Dallas or January 4th at home vs Tampa Bay…

Oddly specific prediction alert – better save this post!

Rossi = Sam Steel = Tyson Jost. We could just refer to them all as possibly the same player prior to the NHL. Lets hope Rossi’s NHL path Differs from the other 2 because every measurable is nearly identical up to NHL.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I’d put my money on Rossi returning to the Wild either December 29th at home vs Dallas or January 4th at home vs Tampa Bay…

Oddly specific prediction alert – better save this post!

AHL/NHL schedule timing just lines up those dates, only thing that could change it is the Wild plays so many games in December that any type of slide could potentially put the season in jeopardy and then it might not be worth calling him up as much…

wormdunker wrote:

Rossi = Sam Steel = Tyson Jost. We could just refer to them all as possibly the same player prior to the NHL. Lets hope Rossi’s NHL path Differs from the other 2 because every measurable is nearly identical up to NHL.

not a fan of this take, there’s so many other examples of these types of players taking off in the NHL as well that it makes it irrelevant… We also pretty much know Steel and Jost’s NHL fate, Rossi only has like 16 games sofar in his career and about half of those games the entire team was a complete $hit$how…

The NHL is the last level for him to dominate in, he’s done it in Junior, he’s done it in the AHL, he’s done it in the NHL Preseason (Top AHL Players with NHL vets mixed in) obviously the jump from NHL Preason to full time NHL player is the biggest jump, the kid needs time to get used to the pace and reduced decision making time the NHL demands, with his covid break he’s basically a 1 year AHLer directly from his 2nd year of Junior, that’s pretty unheard of and we’re stupid to think he could just jump right in without any problems…he’s also went from top line offensive center to 3rd and 4th line grinding center, that’s an entirely knew game in itself…

The kid will be fine, he just needs more time maturing his game…

wormdunker wrote:

Rossi = Sam Steel = Tyson Jost. We could just refer to them all as possibly the same player prior to the NHL. Lets hope Rossi’s NHL path Differs from the other 2 because every measurable is nearly identical up to NHL.

I am not so sure I see them as comparables. Steel didnt put up near the numbers in the AHL Rossi has, but he had 1 incredible year in the WHL, but I dont think that is as good of a league as the OHL in which Rossi played and he set the scoring record that one year. Rossi was predicted to go top 5 pick in the draft, while Steel was projected as late first round to mid second.

CaptainMusky wrote:

had 1 incredible year in the WHL, but I dont think that is as good of a league as the OHL

Life in prison if you say that in Alberta, and that’s only if they don’t lynch you. Lol they’re pretty equal leagues but the W generally produces more defensemen and O produces more forwards.

Judd and Deano love their WHL kids, the Wild are loaded with them at every level.

tswoboda wrote:

Life in prison if you say that in Alberta, and that’s only if they don’t lynch you. Lol they’re pretty equal leagues but the W generally produces more defensemen and O produces more forwards.

Ha! Not surprised, those Canucks are pretty passionate about their hockey for sure.

wormdunker wrote:

Rossi = Sam Steel = Tyson Jost. We could just refer to them all as possibly the same player prior to the NHL. Lets hope Rossi’s NHL path Differs from the other 2 because every measurable is nearly identical up to NHL.

Yeah may want to let Rossi play a season in the NHL or 5 like the others before we stake that claim.

Hopefully they can improve Rossi’s play against the bigger players, as that is where I see his issues.
I just don’t see him handleing the larger faster players that the NHL has.

Kk and Zucc are blushing.

Tom schmitt wrote:

Hopefully they can improve Rossi’s play against the bigger players, as that is where I see his issues.
I just don’t see him handleing the larger faster players that the NHL has.

last I checked Canadien Junior players are just as big as NHLers, obviously there’s absolutely a gap in strength, but these young kids do way more strength training at 16-17 than previous generations ever did…. Rossi absolutely dominated the OHL his draft year and was on a record scoring pace his rookie AHL season before he hit the same late season wall pretty much every 19 year old does oh and he had myocarditis 6 months earlier…

He can handle playing against size, its the speed of the game and split second decision making that he and every other rookie needs to adapt to before they see success. He’s only played in 20 NHL games, he’ll be fine…

Maybe he needs to play with Reavo when he comes back up so he is not so scared.

wormdunker wrote:

Rossi = Sam Steel = Tyson Jost. We could just refer to them all as possibly the same player prior to the NHL. Lets hope Rossi’s NHL path Differs from the other 2 because every measurable is nearly identical up to NHL.

I would put Steel at the top of that list currently. Rossi HOPEFULLY gets far past Steel’s current outlook but I saw nothing to suggest he is ready for the NHL yet. I thought we’d at least see some sign that he belonged. Got nothing. I think Steel has played fairly well. He has produced more than any one else at the 1C spot so far, not that that’s saying much. I think he can work there until Hartman gets back.

I hope they get Rossi in the weight room for the rest of the season because he couldn’t win a puck battle or stay on the puck to save his life when he was up here.

Mahtofire is dead on imo. Rossi is struggleing with the talent that the big NHLers have.
Canadian junior players are big, but not always ffast and talented.
Im not sure Hartman gets his spot back with KK and Zuc.
Has anyone missed the stupid Hartman penalties?
If he starts potting a few goals Steel will have his spot.

icex wrote:

Does Kaprizov ever talk to the media? I heard his English is much improved. Don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a pre or post game interview. Given he’s the most popular and best player as well as the face of the franchise you’d think he’d put himself out there a little bit at least.

This was just after the Coyotes game – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d3-DRd5qsI

You are starting to see more interviews with KK this season. Maybe not live, but during games or in between periods on air and at the games they have some recorded interviews from him that are pretty fun. Seems like he’s got a great personality.

I like the weird not wild commercial where Darby made Bill and Phil. Those bits are pretty clever.

Another 1C locked up for the long term. Roope Hintz signs a 8 year $67.6M aav at 8.45M. I’m going to say that’s a value contract for Dallas. Hintz is in his prime at 26. Dallas is building something down there.

Hintz is a good player, not sure he’s $8.45 good, he can thank Robertson…Seguin’s contract is going to be an anchor on that team for years…Their young forward core and prospects are very good, but other than Heiskanen and maybe Lundkvist, their D needs alot of work…

at 38 years old! Joe Pavelski still stirs the drink on that team, but how much longer will that last?
but they have the core pieces to build around for sure…

Marat Khusnidinov already has 2 points in the 1st period of his KHL game today, dude has been on fire lately….Danila Yurov scored today as well…

Rossi’s first AHL game is tonight, playing with Sami Walker and Joseph Camorossa…

Marat has been crushing it for sure! I think he had 4 pts the other night. Maybe our 1C we have been waiting for?