2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Me too, that’s why I don’t think they should push the chips in this season.

Wild are stuck in a weird spot. We could push all-in right now, but that would seem pointless with our insane prospect pool. I think our real window opens immediately after the buyouts are over, which is probably what GMBG planned.

I do agree that we need more mass on the blueline. We need people that can hit besides our GREEF banger line. I want a guy like Luke Schenn over in Vancouver, who has a $850,000 annual cap hit, yet generates an insane amount of both hits and blocks.

brandmoney wrote:

I want a guy like Luke Schenn over in Vancouver, who has a $850,000 annual cap hit, yet generates an insane amount of both hits and blocks.

Have you considered it’s a lot easier to generate hits and blocked shots when he’s always playing in his own end? This thread has taken a weird turn where everyone seems to want Greg Pateryn and Nick Seeler back. You guys can have them. A Wild team with 6 Jared Spurgeons or 6 Jonas Brodin’s wins the Stanley Cup hands down.

Look up the teams with the highest scoring blue lines. Then go check those teams’ place in the standings. Spoiler alert, they are at the top. I’m not saying playing physical doesn’t matter at all, but being able to skate and handle the puck is infinitely more important than being 6’2″. Ideally you have both physicality and skill, but Victor Hedmans don’t exactly grow on trees.

The Wild aren’t losing because they’re getting pushed around, I mean they just set the team record for most hits in a game and lost bad. They’re losing because they can’t make a breakout pass and their goalie can’t stop a puck. Reading this thread lately you’d swear the only thing it takes to win is 55% at faceoffs and defensemen over 6’2″. And the Chychrun talk like he’s going help by being big??? He doesn’t play physical or play any defense! He just rips shots from the point and half of them went in last season so everyone thinks he’s a stud now.

tswoboda wrote:

And the Chychrun talk like he’s going help by being big??? He doesn’t play physical or play any defense! He just rips shots from the point and half of them went in last season so everyone thinks he’s a stud now.

To me he is a more offensive Brodin but less defense. Very good skater and has some size, but certainly not a shutdown or physical guy. It would be fun to see him paired with Brodin though. The breakout king with a D man that has more offensive acumen.

brandmoney wrote:

Wild are stuck in a weird spot. We could push all-in right now, but that would seem pointless with our insane prospect pool. I think our real window opens immediately after the buyouts are over, which is probably what GMBG planned.

You mean right when KK possibly leaves?

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
And the Chychrun talk like he’s going help by being big??? He doesn’t play physical or play any defense! He just rips shots from the point and half of them went in last season so everyone thinks he’s a stud now.

To me he is a more offensive Brodin but less defense. Very good skater and has some size, but certainly not a shutdown or physical guy. It would be fun to see him paired with Brodin though. The breakout king with a D man that has more offensive acumen.

That’s a perfect comparison… he’s the offensive version of Brodin’s defense. I’m not saying Chyrchrun is a bad player, just that some here brought up his height/weight. I do think he’s currently overrated after scoring a million goals last season on a crazy high shooting percentage. But what difference does his size make when Spurgeon plays more physical than him?

Ripjiggen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>brandmoney wrote:</div>

Wild are stuck in a weird spot. We could push all-in right now, but that would seem pointless with our insane prospect pool. I think our real window opens immediately after the buyouts are over, which is probably what GMBG planned.

You mean right when KK possibly leaves?

No no that leaves 1 season. 2025-2026 is our time!

Wont they have to move him at the deadline then?
Or we will have 42 prospects to fill right in I guess. 😂
Hopefully they are all huge D men and centers that can win 85 percent of face offs.

They’re trading Dumba and Fiala at the deadline this season for a 2nd and a 4th which will be used to select the next Luke Glendenning and Ben Chariot and they will lead us to the promised land with KK in 25-26. That’s only if they don’t swing a 3-team trade with KK going for Tyler Myers and Logan Stanley. Only real question is if Chara will be retired by then… if not they could really use him for the playoff run.

Maybe we will be ranked number 1 next year for our prospect ranking then.

That would be epic.

tswoboda wrote:

They’re trading Dumba and Fiala at the deadline this season for a 2nd and a 4th which will be used to select the next Luke Glendenning and Ben Chariot and they will lead us to the promised land with KK in 25-26. That’s only if they don’t swing a 3-team trade with KK going for Tyler Myers and Logan Stanley. Only real question is if Chara will be retired by then… if not they could really use him for the playoff run.

The Wild better get back on the winning side of things this losing skid is bringing out the looniness on IDO. They have to be worried about that! LOL

On a side note I would really like to see Chara in a Wild sweater come playoff time. I mentioned it earlier, but the Isles are going nowhere and it would be cool to have that big galoot on our backend if only for a few months.

It’s hard to judge Chycrun’s play style being stuck on a very poor Coyotes team his entire career. It’s a pretty good bet he would excel on a better team like the Wild. He has pretty good numbers with the exception of this year on a dumpster fire of a team. We don’t need an entire D corp built out of lumberjacks but we need a balance of Spurgeon, Brodin and someone with some size and skating ability that can eat sizeable minutes and we need to get younger.

Chycrun fits the bill perfectly. He’s at 4.5M and 23 years old and his term gets us through our cap hell which I would think we could work that in by moving some people (Dumba I’m looking at you.) But no sense in debating it the Wild have shown not even the slightest interest in him and it sounds like the Kings may have the inside track on him anyhow.

That being said Russo has a very good article up on the Athletic about Spurgeon’s journey to the NHL and to eventually wearing the C for the Wild. Excellent and fun read.

tswoboda wrote:

They’re trading Dumba and Fiala at the deadline this season for a 2nd and a 4th which will be used to select the next Luke Glendenning and Ben Chariot and they will lead us to the promised land with KK in 25-26. That’s only if they don’t swing a 3-team trade with KK going for Tyler Myers and Logan Stanley. Only real question is if Chara will be retired by then… if not they could really use him for the playoff run.

Shhhh…no one’s supposed to know!

I’ve said this before… The Coyotes haven’t been a terrible team until this season. They finished either in the playoffs or 1 spot out since the 2018 season. Stuck on a bad team is not a valid excuse for any of their players until this season.

Last year was a big outlier season for Chychrun in a positive way… everything was going in the net. This season is a big outlier for him in a negative way. The real Jakob Chychrun is likely somewhere in between. Smells a lot like 24 year old Matt Dumba to me. Oh wait Dumba isn’t 6’3″ – nevermind that he actually plays physical.

CaptainMusky wrote:

On a side note I would really like to see Chara in a Wild sweater come playoff time. I mentioned it earlier, but the Isles are going nowhere and it would be cool to have that big galoot on our backend if only for a few months.

Pair him with Spurgeon just to make it more comical.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Pair him with Spurgeon just to make it more comical.

I agree that would be the odd couple for sure!

I’m not saying the Wild can’t win with Spurgeon and Brodin, I’m saying longterm the Wild needs to compliment the smaller frame/less physical guys with much bigger frame/sand paper guys. Spurgeon paired with Goligoski will get physically beaten up in the playoffs. We can’t add other small frame guys like Addison or other non physical/slim frame guys like Merrel and expect to survive multiple playoff series…we need to add some serous beef…I’ll keep honking the Niclaus Hague horn as he would be a perfect fit and Vegas is screwed capwise the next few years so he’ll likely get moved this offseason…

Just look at the overall defense size of the better playoff teams the past 3-4 years…they’re all monsters…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Just look at the overall defense size of the better playoff teams the past 3-4 years…they’re all monsters…

Fully aware of the last 4 cup winners having big defensemen. Those big defensemen are also guys like Victor Hedman, Sergachev, and Pietrangelo. Not just big, but they can play!

So look at the cup winners before that time. Pittsburgh, LA, and the Blackhawks had much smaller defenseman. Seabrooke for the Hawks but that was about it. It’s a copy cat league but constantly trying to change the team based on what happened last season is a losing battle.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Just look at the overall defense size of the better playoff teams the past 3-4 years…they’re all monsters…

Fully aware of the last 4 cup winners having big defensemen. Those big defensemen are also guys like Victor Hedman, Sergachev, and Pietrangelo. Not just big, but they can play!

So look at the cup winners before that time. Pittsburgh, LA, and the Blackhawks had much smaller defenseman. Seabrooke for the Hawks but that was about it. It’s a copy cat league but constantly trying to change the team based on what happened last season is a losing battle.

Those skilled guys you mentioned are in addition to other monsters in both height and weight that fill out their D corps, (most typically have 1 smaller frame offensively focused guy too) the lucky teams have the rare Unicorns that are the complete package (Hedman & Peiterangleo being the perfect examples)..those older teams you mentioned were all part of a different NHL, it’s all about Speed and Size the last 4-5 years and shows no signs of changing anytime soon…Merrill skewes our overall D size numbers and he’s nothing more than a Giraffe on skates…

The Wild are just way too skewed towards the smaller skilled guys on Defense, that would have been great 10 years ago playing against the Penguins and Blackhawks, but not in today’s NHL…
The good news is that it’s actually an easy problem to fix as the Skilled D guys are harder to find vs size, so we should be able to make a trade or 2 and fix the problem and not dent the cap…GMBG & Judd obviously noticed this was an issue in the Org and has started to draft more beefier D prospects (the Peart pick was more towards skill than size, but hopefully he hits a growth spurt)

Colorado will be a good case study this playoff year as they are as tilted on the smaller frame skilled defense corp as the Wild are (McDermid & Johnson skewing their overall size numbers alot)

Saying the NHL is more geared towards size now than 10 years ago is certainly a hot take. League wide, the average player size is getting smaller every single year. The league, aside from goalies, is getting smaller – not bigger.

Every one of the big 5 D prospects are shorter than Brodin. O’Rourke and Hunt both play physical and that’s great, but they’re not big.

tswoboda wrote:

Every one of the big 5 D prospects are shorter than Brodin. O’Rourke and Hunt both play physical and that’s great, but they’re not big.

Isnt Simon Johansson a bigger guy? Not sure if you had him in your top 5 or not, but I thought he was at least 6’2″. Hunt has been having a fantastic season and you’re right, he’s not overly big, but he doesnt shy away from contact.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Isnt Simon Johansson a bigger guy? Not sure if you had him in your top 5 or not, but I thought he was at least 6’2″. Hunt has been having a fantastic season and you’re right, he’s not overly big, but he doesnt shy away from contact.

I have no idea about the Johansson twins… I don’t think they’ll ever make it to NA so I don’t follow them.

Big 5 D are the guys that I consider future NHLers in some fashion: Addison, Lambos, Peart, Hunt, O’Rourke. Hunt and O’Rourke are both known for their physical play. But they are not big, and that’s my point. At the end of the day, I think I was just triggered by the “we need Chychrun because he’s 6’3″” line.

You dont think Simon will make it to NA? The other one I agree 100% with you, but I think Simon has a shot.

Well Simon will have to leap 5 prospects to have a chance here. Plus guys already here playing. Going to be tough. Hell out of the Big 5 TSW mentioned not all are going to make to the show for the wild.

I don’t think this has been brought up yet. Everyone wants Dumba gone, but since he’s been out, our “defensive physicality” and wins have been missing. Maybe he is the leader/locker room guy that we can’t get rid of. Aaand he brings a bit of sand paper to our defense. I know he’s not big, but he does throw his weight around a bit (he even generates some offense too).
Adding Dumba and Greenway back might calm some nerves and change these attitudes.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Well Simon will have to leap 5 prospects to have a chance here. Plus guys already here playing. Going to be tough. Hell out of the Big 5 TSW mentioned not all are going to make to the show for the wild.

I agree he will have a tough road here, but I think he would land on someone else’s team. Our D depth is rather impressive. I am not so sure Addison is going to be around here long. He hasnt impressed me much the last few games, but the whole team has played like garbage.

NA = North America. I don’t think the Wild offer either of Jo’s an ELC. No chance either of them ever plays and NHL game.

As far as the big 5… My prediction is their ceiling will be 1 top pair, 1 middle pair, 1 bottom pair, and the other 2 fringe NHLers. They are all good prospects, but a lot of good prospects never make the NHL.

You don’t say that about Addison! LOL but for real I thought he was really good against Calgary at the X.

Charlie W wrote:

I don’t think this has been brought up yet. Everyone wants Dumba gone, but since he’s been out, our physicality and wins have been missing. Maybe he is the leader/locker room guy that we can’t get rid of. Aaand he brings a bit of sand paper to our defense. I know he’s not big, but he does throw his weight around a bit (he even generates some offense too).
Adding Dumba and Greenway back might calm some nerves and change these attitudes.

That’s definitely a valid theory, but didn’t they go on long winning streaks with Brodin and/or Spurgeon out of the lineup. Does that logic work both ways?

tswoboda wrote:

You don’t say that about Addison! LOL but for real I thought he was really good against Calgary at the X.

I know! I hated even typing it out. I will try and pay more attention to him tonight to see if my eyes have been deceiving me. I think he has a lot of nice tools.