2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

mahtofire14 wrote:

This is all just speculation obviously but why trade for a bottom pair defenseman when you can stick Addison in there? I know he’s projected as a top 4 but you can still plug him into the PP, where he looks capable, and let him simmer in the NHL with bottom pair minutes.

I know his defense is a little shaky but it is bad enough to trade for a 6 or 7 instead of bringing him up?

We need size and grit on our 3rd D pair, Benn snd Merrill are those types of players, but they peaked 4-5 years ago….perhaps Greenway could get us that type of player…

^^^yeah our average size would be under six foot. I think Merril will be fine for ten minutes a game.

Good point. Didn’t think about that. They do definitely need that size.

Addison is being groomed to replace Goligoski or Dumba, we have 3-4 other good/possibly great defense prospects that are 1-3 years away from taking spots…we still need a mean and nasty 6’4” type of guy, Vegas has 4 or 5 of them, so did the other 3 conference finals teams from last year… I have serious doubts our D corp could even physically survive to the conf finals, let alone the cup…

It’s definitely the biggest question mark on the team especially after watching the 3rd d pair in the preseason.

The Pitlick claim surprised me but I look at it as them taking a flyer on potentially adding a 24 year old middle 6 forward to the depth chart. They’ll need cheap options in the next 4 years and this just adds another guy to the list. Like said if he stick with the big club then send him back through waivers and if they lose him, they lose him.

As a fan I’m annoyed that Fiala gets buried in the lineup, so I wouldn’t blame him if he’s pissed about it. The only time in his career that he’s been on a top line was the last half of 2019-2020 up to the COVID shutdown and into the bubble. Anyone remember how that turned out? He was a 1.5 PPG player making highlight reels every night. How did he get rewarded? He got stapled next to Marcus Johansson for all of last season… the worst forward on the team. Top line isn’t just about playing time and linemates. It’s just as much about usage and match ups. Who is getting sent out against the other teams tired 4th line after an icing. Who’s getting sent out to end periods. Who’s getting sent out for the offensive zone faceoffs. For example Fiala got 91 O-zone starts last season, Kaprizov got 141. Fiala’s O-zone start percentage was 49%, Kaprizov and Zuccarello were both at 70%. Yes Fiala leads the team in turnovers, but guess who’s number 2… Kaprizov – no one talks about that. Turns out the guys making plays also have the most turn overs. Fiala wasn’t even top 40 in the league in turnovers last year. The other thing no one talks about is that Fiala also leads the team in takeaways by a fair margin. I just think the guy’s a stud, top line offensive driver on almost any team in the league. So I get annoyed when the Wild continue to under utilize him basically as a powerplay specialist and then fight for scraps at 5 on 5.

I don’t think it is. Their top 4 will be as solid as anyone’s in the regular season. Let’s not kid ourselves their top 4 are legit. Which Is more than most teams can say. Many teams would love to have a Spurgeon or Brodin. If spurg was even 6ft he may have a Norris to his cred and this isn’t just me or a Minnesota homer saying it. Unfortunately he is not the size of Victor Hedman and playing with a guy like Addison in your lineup to cover up the size.

Agree TSW. Fiala has O skills as good as any we have seen. When he is gone we will be begging for another playmaker like him. Those that think their prospects can fill that void…I say wait and see.

I’ve said before Fiala is the red haired step child to KK. He gets no love from the Wild. Ek gets the maximum number of years, KK gets well, nearly whatever he asks for and Fiala gets taken to arbitration. I don’t recall a whole lot of negotiation between the Wild and Fiala before the arbitration notice. Then coach and GM publicly state he’s the kind of guy you need to keep motivated. Yeah all that has gotta sting.

I hope the kid has a monster year and winds up someplace where he gets a fair shake. He deserves better. BG keeps saying that he hopes Fiala proves him wrong that he’s better than what BG gives him credit or rewards him for. Fun fact. If Fiala does BG would have most likely missed his chance for rewarding him.

Ice Cap wrote:

I’ve said before Fiala is the red haired step child to KK. He gets no love from the Wild. Ek gets the maximum number of years, KK gets well, nearly whatever he asks for and Fiala gets taken to arbitration. I don’t recall a whole lot of negotiation between the Wild and Fiala before the arbitration notice. Then coach and GM publicly state he’s the kind of guy you need to keep motivated. Yeah all that has gotta sting.

I hope the kid has a monster year and winds up someplace where he gets a fair shake. He deserves better. BG keeps saying that he hopes Fiala proves him wrong that he’s better than what BG gives him credit or rewards him for. Fun fact. If Fiala does BG would have most likely missed his chance for rewarding him.

we don’t know what Fiala’s camp was asking for in terms of a long term deal so you can’t say the Wild didnt offer him a fair deal…
If you were GMBG and Fiala wanted $9aav over 5+ years would you have done it? I believe most reliable sites that estimate out player contract values had Fiala’s worth between $6-$7aav

Ek is a 24 year old center showing promise, for a franchise starving for established centers its almost a no-brainer they locked him up for the max 8 years.

Kaprizov was a very unique player & contract, so they locked him up as long as possible thinking he’ll be more than worth the $9 aav for the contract…

I’m fine with paying Kaprizov $9aav, I would not be comfortable giving Fiala that much…Fiala’s argument is most likely if he’s given top players to play with, his stats would justify his asking price…I think GMBG’s decision on Fiala will ultimately come down to how comfortable he is with Ek/Rossi/Khusnidinov filling the 1C-2C-3C slots moving forward, because if he’s not, the money they would pay Fiala will need to go towards getting a new Center…

Iirc Fiala was asking for around $7aav. If that could have been negotiated to a $6 or $6.5 X5 or 6 years that would have been worth it. Or even 7X6 probably would have done it and still worth it for at least a 30 goal scorer. But of course KK was playing games (right or wrong it don’t matter) by not signing and then pulling a stunt by sneaking into Florida before announcing he will sign and is already here and has been for two weeks! SURPRISE!

That’s great he signed but you can bet because he wasn’t when they were dealing with Fiala is largely why the Wild took him to arbitration because they thought they might need more $$ to get KK on the dotted line. BG says he would not have upped the $$ but I call BS on BG on that one!

The Wild had ample capspace to sign both, so it wasn’t Kirill’s delay that lead to the Wild taking Fiala to arbitration. I think GMBG wanted to kick the Fiala can down the road and had an easy way to do it with arbitration. Like I said earlier, I think delaying Fiala’s long term contract also gives GMBG a better idea of what he has in the organization Center wise in regards to seeing if/how Rossi bounces back from Covid and if Khusnidinov is legit…

Looking through capfriendly today the Wild will have about $16.5 million in capspace next year after factoring in the modest $1 million cap increase and the $12.7 buyout penalty subtractions.

They will have Fiala, Sturm, Kahkonen and Greenway (maybe Goligoski?) to resign as well as 3-4 veteran minimum contracts to potentially sign.

If you project what some of these guys will ask for it gets tight:

Fiala – Likely $7+ aav
Sturm – Likely $2.5+ aav
Greenway – Likely $3+ aav
Kahkonen – Likely $2.5+ aav
3-4 Veteran minimum/Rookie contracts – $2.25-$3 aav
That get you $17 million right there and i’m just spit-balling contract costs…

Other possibilities to sign:
Goligoski 1 year extension – aav?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Looking through capfriendly today the Wild will have about $9 million in capspace next year after factoring in the modest $1 million cap increase and the $12.7 buyout penalty subtractions.

Where are you seeing $9M? Im seeing $15.3M at the same $81.5M cap hit but its only 13 rostered players.

Sounds like it’s going to be another cluster of a year to watch the Wild, no Bally Sports on streaming services, and a number of away games on ESPN+ which requires subscription.

Also, kudos on 21 pages before the season even starts!

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Looking through capfriendly today the Wild will have about $9 million in capspace next year after factoring in the modest $1 million cap increase and the $12.7 buyout penalty subtractions.

Where are you seeing $9M? Im seeing $15.3M at the same $81.5M cap hit but its only 13 rostered players.

I edited my post, also remember the cap goes UP $1 next year

BigWerm wrote:

Sounds like it’s going to be another cluster of a year to watch the Wild, no Bally Sports on streaming services, and a number of away games on ESPN+ which requires subscription.

Also, kudos on 21 pages before the season even starts!

I was looking at the TV schedule and the very first game is on ESPN+ so I guess I have to bite the bullet off the hop. There were quite a few games on TNT too.

Only games I’ll miss are ESPN+ games which means the season opener. I’m not paying anymore streaming services anymore money to keep chasing these games every couple years.

I’m not fretting at next years cap until the season is over… Lots can change between now and then. Hoping that we see some of the pending UFAs get extended before the season is over. Guys like Fiala, Sturm, and Goose. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Rask brought back for next year at under $1m.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
Sounds like it’s going to be another cluster of a year to watch the Wild, no Bally Sports on streaming services, and a number of away games on ESPN+ which requires subscription.

Also, kudos on 21 pages before the season even starts!

I was looking at the TV schedule and the very first game is on ESPN+ so I guess I have to bite the bullet off the hop. There were quite a few games on TNT too.

5 on ESPN+
5 on TNT
2 on ESPN
1 on ABC

If you do end up getting ESPN+ then you can also stream all the BSN games by paying for a VPN service. I have no cable or dish and will be able to watch 74 of the 82 games legally.

Ice Cap wrote:

Only games I’ll miss are ESPN+ games which means the season opener. I’m not paying anymore streaming services anymore money to keep chasing these games every couple years.

I just found out this fall that ESPN+ is included with my Verizon plan. Not a trial period or time limited either, just straight up included. Worth checking out if you have Verizon.

Disney+ was the only streaming service I had previously, so adding ESPN+ and HULU (which I’ll probably never watch) was only a few bucks more a month. I can see those that have Netflix and a couple other streaming services getting frustrated being nickle and dimed to death in addition to figuring out what’s on which service…

tswoboda wrote:

I just found out this fall that ESPN+ is included with my Verizon plan. Not a trial period or time limited either, just straight up included. Worth checking out if you have Verizon.

Interesting. I will have to check into that. I know we had Disney+ added like a year ago free but we have never used it. Perhaps ESPN+ is with that.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
I just found out this fall that ESPN+ is included with my Verizon plan. Not a trial period or time limited either, just straight up included. Worth checking out if you have Verizon.

Interesting. I will have to check into that. I know we had Disney+ added like a year ago free but we have never used it. Perhaps ESPN+ is with that.

Yeah it’s the full bundle. Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu all included with the plan. Came across it when I started looking up ESPN+ for streaming hockey this season.

tswoboda wrote:

Yeah it’s the full bundle. Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu all included with the plan. Came across it when I started looking up ESPN+ for streaming hockey this season.

Nice, now all I need is to figure out how to get into it for free LOL

mahtofire14 wrote:

This is all just speculation obviously but why trade for a bottom pair defenseman when you can stick Addison in there? I know he’s projected as a top 4 but you can still plug him into the PP, where he looks capable, and let him simmer in the NHL with bottom pair minutes.

I know his defense is a little shaky but it is bad enough to trade for a 6 or 7 instead of bringing him up?

Skill wise he’s already much better than our 5 & 6 Defenseman, but those guys provide the weight and size we lack in our top 4…

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Yeah it’s the full bundle. Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu all included with the plan. Came across it when I started looking up ESPN+ for streaming hockey this season.

Nice, now all I need is to figure out how to get into it for free LOL

For some reason I cannot find ESPN+ on my Roku. I can find Disney+ but it doesnt list ESPN+ with it. Maybe its under just ESPN?

it’s likely just a sub-tab/channel (ESPN+) inside the normal ESPN app…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

it’s likely just a sub-tab/channel (ESPN+) inside the normal ESPN app…

Yep, it is just found it.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

it’s likely just a sub-tab/channel (ESPN+) inside the normal ESPN app…

This is correct. The ESPN app has all of the streams included within them. There will be certain games that have a ESPN+ designation on them.

anybody figure out how to filter out all of the nonsense sports info in that app? I always have to scroll down and over to find the Hockey icon to view available games to watch, would like it if the app ONLY showed me the Hockey info….I do have my favorites setup for just the MN sports teams, maybe that’s why i’m getting all sports when I open the app?

Should I just select the Wild for my favorites list?

Other than this minor gripe of seeing pretty much every sporting event in the channel to navigate past to get to hockey, it is pretty slick watching an actual game, especially when you can select either team’s audio feed (love the TSN guys)…although I never thought I would get more sick of Stephen A Smith’s face, now I see it on the “commercial break is in progress” screen all the time…