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

It’s crazy Freddy doesnt score more with seeing his shootout moves. Dude has some serious puck skills.

You could put anybody on the top line with KK and Zucc and they’d most likely have their career year. Sam Steele has a huge scoring history in lower levels. I still think he’s been better than everyone else they’ve tried with them this season (not that that’s saying much), but I think they stick with him and see what it turns into.

CaptainMusky wrote:

It’s crazy Freddy doesnt score more with seeing his shootout moves. Dude has some serious puck skills.

They all have serious puck skills. Well maybe not Reavo…
But I bet Ek can stick handle in phone booth.

Ripjiggen wrote:

They all have serious puck skills. Well maybe not Reavo…
But I bet Ek can stick handle in phone booth.

Stonehands? I agree however.

mahtofire14 wrote:

You could put anybody on the top line with KK and Zucc and they’d most likely have their career year.

I keep seeing this take like Hartman just had a decent year last year and that’s it. The players with more even strength goals than him were Matthew’s, Connor, Gaudreau (Johnny lol), and McDavid. Insinuating that anyone can do that or a chimp can do that is just ridiculous.

Um then why do we keep cycling our 1C if it is that easy to play with KK and Zucc and have a career year.
Clearly Jost wasn’t going to pot 34. Steel isn’t going to pop 34. Freddy don’t think so.
Didn’t really work out with our best center that is signed for the next 7 years.

My career NHL goals is zero so I may as well take a shot.

I am worried about Hartzy coming back this year. Sounds like he is rehabbing vs having surgery which doesn’t bode well for the most part.

No chimp was ever mentioned. You know what I mean. If you put any center that has some skill with them they will have a better than average and most likely a career year. Jost has proven he can’t score in the NHL. He’s a terrible example and so are you Rip. I stand by my comment. Especially if Steele stays at 1C…..

Ripjiggen wrote:

Um then why do we keep cycling our 1C if it is that easy to play with KK and Zucc and have a career year.
Clearly Jost wasn’t going to pot 34. Steel isn’t going to pop 34. Freddy don’t think so.
Didn’t really work out with our best center that is signed for the next 7 years.

My career NHL goals is zero so I may as well take a shot.

I am worried about Hartzy coming back this year. Sounds like he is rehabbing vs having surgery which doesn’t bode well for the most part.

It’s either a rotator cuff or labrum. If you are choosing to rehab or have surgery that’s typically the choices you get when it’s those two. I’m not counting on having him back.

mahtofire14 wrote:

No chimp was ever mentioned. You know what I mean. If you put any center that has some skill with them they will have a better than average and most likely a career year. Jost has proven he can’t score in the NHL. He’s a terrible example and so are you Rip. I stand by my comment. Especially if Steele stays at 1C…..

The chimp comment was a few pages back from today.
And you don’t know my skill set. I can net. Just ask my 6yo.

Popping 30 plus is not easy. And no not everyone can do it.

mahtofire14 wrote:

No chimp was ever mentioned. You know what I mean. If you put any center that has some skill with them they will have a better than average and most likely a career year.

Yeah the chimp was before you. I know it seems obvious anyone should have a career year with KK but he’s in his 3rd year and the only center to actually do it is Hartman. No one else.

What I was really getting at is Hartman did a lot more than just have a career year. Only 4 players scored more goals than him

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
No chimp was ever mentioned. You know what I mean. If you put any center that has some skill with them they will have a better than average and most likely a career year.

Yeah the chimp was before you. I know it seems obvious anyone should have a career year with KK but he’s in his 3rd year and the only center to actually do it is Hartman. No one else.

What I was really getting at is Hartman did a lot more than just have a career year. Only 4 players scored more goals than him

I wasn’t playing down Hartman’s year last year at all. More the fact that KK and Zucc are good enough to get a lot of guys a career year if they are only serviceable. Hartman was certainly more than that.

Also no one else (other than Hartman) has spent more than a month or more with them other than Goudreau. And If he had, he would’ve had a career year. Because he did score some with them.

tswoboda wrote:

What I was really getting at is Hartman did a lot more than just have a career year. Only 4 players scored more goals than him

This cannot be downplayed anymore than it has. He really doesnt get enough credit. His only lacking thing was faceoffs last year, but otherwise he was fantastic. People like to forget he was a first round pick so he obviously has skill. He did well with Kane and Toews too. I dont expect him to repeat last year again, but he has to be the biggest value contract in the entire league with last year’s performance.

Just look at how perfect last season aligned for Hartman:

1) He played all 82 games
2) His linemates BOTH set career highs in Points and ASSISTS (resulting in his 33 goals)
3) Deano gave up and just played the 2 lines as his PP units for most of the season…so he played PP1
4) Our 2nd line was a scoring threat, so defenses couldn’t stack coverage on the 1st line…
5) The unbeleivable end of game comeback magic the team had resulted in extra points and OT opportunities…

Prior to last season he averaged about 25 points and 70 games played for his NHL career. His 65 point season was the best season in his ENTIRE documented hockey career, better than any Bantam or Junior season he had when typical future NHLers dominate at a young age…

The stars definately aligned and he was put into the 1C position as a desparate move by a team with not enough center options…

Now do Rask or Freddy or Steel or JEEK or anyone else that played center for KK and Zuccy. No one else has been good enough to stick in that spot for more than a month or two.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The stars definately aligned and he was put into the 1C position as a desparate move by a team with not enough center options…

No one is arguing that. He had one incredible season, and you’re massively downplaying it. That’s all I’m saying.

This all started because I said he’ll have a $4m-$5m offer from NHL teams if he has a season somewhere between his previous NHL career and last season. Which somehow triggered you into saying he’s a terrible center and a chimp can set career highs with those 2 (still waiting on anyone else to do it). So what do you think Harmtman would get offered open market? I hope it’s as egregious as your $3.5m Boldy contract.

if the Wild has him penciled in to be a top 6 center after next season then he’ll get that listed aav range just based on comps (if hes out this entire season and has a crappy final season that should adjust that number quite a bit and get back to my stars aligned season argument). If they have him penciled in as a wing, is it top or bottom 6? With the expected jump in the cap ceiling soon, I personally think his aav ceiling should be no more than $3 and they’ll need to make some tough decisions on how Hartman/Foligno/Greenway futures work with guys like Duhaime/Shaw/Dewar/Beckman/Yurov/Ohgren likely needing roster spots in 2-3 years. I personally don’t feel Hartman is worth a top6 spot in 2 years (i’m just not a fan of his style game for top6) and if he’s not with Ek and whomever on our “3rd” line then he’s too expensive for the 4th line. Our top6 2 years from now is likely Kaprizov/Zuccy/Boldy/Rossi/?/? so we currently don’t know the other 2, is Hartman one? Maybe Marat K is ready? Maybe we trade for/sign a top6?

My Boldy bridge number posted was soley based on the online contract guru websites before the season started, I mentioned that…sometimes they are way off, other times they are right on…its not my number, I personally think he deserves more as his numbers are greatly impacted by the crap talent he’s playing with this year…as we’ve seen the past 2 years, the capspace number is a moving target, its silly to use it as a barrier as moves can be made at anytime to adjust it…

In regards to Hartman, I never said what the Wild should give him or what he’s worth to the team. Just what he’ll be worth on the UFA market assuming a decent next season. What other teams are willing to offer him will drive the price of his potential extension. Either he gets a raise or he gets cut loose.

What contract guru site? I only really know of one that does contract projections, evolving-hockey, and they don’t do it until players are pending free agents so they wouldn’t have anything on Boldy until this spring. Would love to see where you pulled that from. Just a note, The Athletic does not do contract projections.

Piere LeBrun’s recent Athletic article regarding pending RFA’s, using Evolving Hockey projections based on last years stats…

They had Boldy projected at 2 x $3.46 after last season…

Boldy’s stats sofar this season are heavily driven by the PP (10 of his 18 points are from the PP) so that’s the missing Fiala effect and the counter point his agent has against a low bridge deal…

I think some of the projections are just silly (Cole Caufied, Dylan Cozens) but others make sense (DeBrincat, K’Andre Miller, Lafreineer, etc)

Think DeBrincat misses playing with Kane? How much of his past production was a product of getting Kane passes? I’d love to hear Agent vs GM perspectives on how linemates factor into production discussions during contract negotiations…

Right on, thanks for sharing – I’ve mostly stopped reading Pierre. For the Athletic to publish some of those projected salaries after 40-50 games is pretty belligerent, grossly misusing the data. The EH projections are actually heavily based on time on ice, so it’s not just about production. Basically what they found is more time on ice = more important to the team = can ask for more money.

DeBrincat is likely a combination of missing Kane and starting on an ice cold shooting drought. He’s a 15% career shooter and been shooting like 5% – the volume is still there, it’s just not going in right now. But it’s also fair to expect his S% to come down since he’s not with Kane. I’m sure he’s not getting as many one-T’s served on a platter in Ottawa.

I’m sure Boldy wants a similar contract to Stutzle, Hintz and others who got 8 year max deals, but I think his agent will be fine with a fair 2 year bridge deal and then sign a bigger 8 year max deal when the cap is up another 8-10 million…Not sure if it comes into the factoring, but the more money that’s available after Boldy signs his bridge deal should be put towards getting him help on the 2nd line which then should up his production and hopefully increases his aav some on his next deal…demanding a large 2 year deal basically keeps him playing with the Nick Petan’s of the world for 2 years…

Unfortunately I don’t think the agent gives two rips about saving the club money to spend on other players.

Brodin back at practice so someone is coming out.

tswoboda wrote:

But it’s also fair to expect his S% to come down since he’s not with Kane. I’m sure he’s not getting as many one-T’s served on a platter in Ottawa.

That’s the point I was trying to make with Hartman…in his previous seasons playing with 3rd & 4th liners, his idea of getting a good pass or scoring opportunity was light years different vs playing with Kaprizov or Zuccy who dangle through 2 defenders and drop him a no-look pass shooting at an empty net, Hartman had tons of those last season…

It’s not an absolute science, but its a big factor non-the-less…again i’d love to hear the point/counter-point arguments agents and GM’s have about it…

If I’m a agent I’m not going to harp to much on how my guy could be more productive if he had better linemates. A GM is just going to respond with well then I can’t pay you what you’re asking for if I have to pay someone else to make him more productive. When it comes to contract time each player pretty much stands on what he’s done for the team. What he could do with hypothetical linemates is just that…hypothetical. I think Boldy is the kind of player who should be making players around him better not waiting for someone to come along to make him better. That guy is gone.

Seems counter productive for a agent to use that line of argument.

It’s all based on comps just like real estate. Agent uses stats that support the player and team uses stats that don’t. TOI plays a big role. Term changes the AAV and it can go both ways, but generally more term = higher AAV. Old players and bottom of the lineup players are the exception to that.

Players and agents want to get the best deal possible because it drives up comps across the board. Players love when other players get big paydays because that means they can ask for a bigger payday. 99% of players aren’t taking a haircut to have better linemates. That just makes them a better trade asset.

Agree. His PP points are just part of being on the first PP which most comps he will be against are as well. Half his points coming off PP is about what I would expect for any top player. KK is no different. Boldy is roughly on the same pace he was last year. Debating on the players you are playing with are irrelevant.

If this argument keeps up we should pass up last years’ Offseason KK thread in no time.

TSN guys said there’s interest in Boesser, but every interested team has demanded Vancouver eats some of the caphit… they’ve been adamant they won’t so its a who will blink first standoff…

No doubt interest, not much interest at 6.5 which kind up wraps up the discussion till something happens.

Ya got something better to discuss Mahto?

Like which D sits tomorrow night.

Ripjiggen wrote:

No doubt interest, not much interest at 6.5 which kind up wraps up the discussion till something happens.

Ya got something better to discuss Mahto?

Like which D sits tomorrow night.

Dumba.

What’s the Wilds record since the Reaves trade? Asking for a friend

Russo & LaPanta’s latest podcast cracks me up, they both shoot down the Boesser trade idea due to the lack of capspace in years 2&3, that’s fine…

But then they go on a rant about how GMBG is calling around looking for a top6 scoring forward at a $3 aav for 1-2 years…

Who the F do they think is an available Top6 scoring forward with a $3 aav? (Dont say Anthony DuClair)