2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

This is all a convoluted mess. Entering Covid protocol means a positive test or exposure right? Does not mean a player is actually sick from it as far as I can tell. Rarely do we hear if these players are actually ill or asymptomatic. They all seem to return after protocol times out so I’m guessing no one is actually sick with it. Are we seeing false positives? So the vaccine doesn’t prevent contraction or transmission? What a mess.

I’m hearing Canada is considering shutting down any fan attendance for the NHL or NBA games. How these players or anyone for that matter can even consider going to China under these circumstances is beyond me.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I have read a few articles that if they test positive there it may be anywhere from 2 weeks to 5 weeks. They also are considering putting them in a Chinese isolation hospital for 2 plus weeks to control it.
That would be hard pass for me.
I don’t see how the guys are going to willing to go knowing they won’t get paid if they test positive there when games resume here.
No doubt in my mind that someone will from the NHL

All NHL or NHL related articles though, right? Lots of quotes from players saying they don’t know if they’ll go if the quarantine is that long for a positive test. But what I haven’t seen is that 2-5 week quarantine mentioned anywhere except for quotes from NHL players, press, or league execs. If anyone can find that information, please do share.

Jack Peart made the USA WJC team! That gives the Wild 6 Participants! Kudos to Judd Bracket and the scouting staff!

After finally getting a chance to read some news, it looks like all pro sports leagues are blowing up with new covid cases today…yikes!

I agree TSW mostly NHL articles but it’s definitely looking dicey.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I agree TSW mostly NHL articles but it’s definitely looking dicey.

Honestly I think the owners got together at their little retreat and were like “hey let’s tell everyone it’s a 5 week quarantine if they get COVID in China”. Players will be scared to go and fans will think they’re dumb if they do go. I found the actual Beijing IOC Covid “playbook” and there is ZERO mention of this 2-5 week quarantine (screenshot below). McDavid was asked about it today and the headline compared to his actual quote is straight up ridiculous. He basically said yeah let’s see if that’s actually true first but The Wokethletic just runs with the word “unsettling”. Media is going full narrative on this BS.

For sure but would you take the risk of traveling to china and expect the IOC to take care of you and make sure you make it back to your job that pays you millions…It’s one thing for the other athletes this is what they train there whole life for…NHL guys there is a bigger picture.
Hell would you take your family to China right now with everything going on?

Ripjiggen wrote:

For sure but would you take the risk of traveling to china and expect the IOC to take care of you and make sure you make it back to your job that pays you millions…

Unfortunately my job doesn’t pay millions, but if you’re a scout for Billy G and this is your way of recruiting me then go ahead and tell him I’m in! Don’t tell my wife though

Tough to put myself in an NHLers shoes, but for the vast majority I think the Olympics are a once in a lifetime deal. So if I’m Nico Sturm or Kevin Fiala then yeah I’m 100% on team let’s go to China.

I think the 5 weeks BS is an obvious fear campaign from the NHL/NHLPA and fans are totally biting on it.

former 1st round pick Philip Johnasson just signed an 2 year extension with Frolunda in the Swedish Elite League, does anybody know how this factors into the Wild potentially getting a 2nd round draft pick back? I know we had a near deadline to offer him a legit contract, but how can we do that now that he resigned a multi-year deal with his team?

Does this finally close the chapter on Johnasson and we get nothing out of it?

The bigger prospect signing is Marat Khusnutdinov signed for 2 more seasons with SKA. Ironic after talking about how SKA and the KHL handle prospects yesterday. Shoulda seen this one coming from a mile away, but the reports from Russo all along were that he was coming over after this season.

In all honesty, there’s zero chance Marat would have played for the Wild next year and then even the following year although more likely, wasn’t gaurenteed… If you’ve watched him play, he doesn’t have an NHL ready frame at all, he’s a skinny kid that gets easily pushed off the puck, yes he has blazing speed and great hockey sense to leverage, but once they catch him, he’s toast… so 2 more years in the KHL doesn’t really matter imo as it allows him time to build out his frame and mature, it’s what happens AFTER those 2 years that does matter… Does he then come over to the Wild as a much more ready NHL prospect at age 21 or does he go the Kaprizov route and sign another 1-2 year to stay in the KHL and then force his way into a 1 year ELC Wild deal as a 22-23 year old and then go for a bigger RFA deal? Obviously his performance will dictate everything, so we’ll see…

The bright spot in this is that it might nudge GMBG to finally make a trade for a center (JT Miller?) You know Rutherford is itching to make a trade and after a recent win Bruce was in the hallway high fiving every Canuck player going into the locker room after an exciting win and JT Miller completely ignored him and walked right by, the dude isn’t happy there…

MK definitely not NHL ready but the desire was to get him into the organization ASAP to 1) avoid another Russian contract problem and 2) control his development. Not sure where the Wild envision him but he was called a center at the draft and has only played wing this season.

It certainly could work in Wild favor if he can come straight to the NHL in 2024 on a 3 year ELC. There’s just more risk now.

tswoboda wrote:

MK definitely not NHL ready but the desire was to get him into the organization ASAP to 1) avoid another Russian contract problem and 2) control his development. Not sure where the Wild envision him but he was called a center at the draft and has only played wing this season.

It certainly could work in Wild favor if he can come straight to the NHL in 2024 on a 3 year ELC. There’s just more risk now.

agreed, this is just the stuff you put up with when you draft a Russian though unfortunatly…he’s so young still…i’m sure they will burn the 1st year of his ELC if he signs in 2 years when the KHL season is done in March/April, so he’d be on a 2 year deal, but the Parise/Suter pain will be mostly done by then….again it’s all about the next contract…

Whomever drafts Mitchkov next year is taking a big risk…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
MK definitely not NHL ready but the desire was to get him into the organization ASAP to 1) avoid another Russian contract problem and 2) control his development. Not sure where the Wild envision him but he was called a center at the draft and has only played wing this season.

It certainly could work in Wild favor if he can come straight to the NHL in 2024 on a 3 year ELC. There’s just more risk now.

agreed, this is just the stuff you put up with when you draft a Russian though unfortunatly…he’s so young still…i’m sure they will burn the 1st year of his ELC if he signs in 2 years when the KHL season is done in March/April, so he’d be on a 2 year deal, but the Parise/Suter pain will be mostly done by then….again it’s all about the next contract…

Whomever drafts Mitchkov next year is taking a big risk…

Sounds like this may have been SKA strong arming him at the risk of not being on the Russian Junior team. MK had said in a Russian interview months ago he intended to come to NA after this season. Things change, but mother Russia seems to have pushed some buttons here. Not the worst thing as you guys have said, but lets hope this doesnt turn into another Kaprizov scenario where he signs another contract then forces his way to a lucrative deal earlier than expected. I dont see it turning out like that because he hasnt burst onto the scene like KK has YET, but hopefully history doesnt repeat itself.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Whomever drafts Mitchkov next year is taking a big risk…

He was the odds on #1 not long ago, have to believe its dropping now. He would never fall like Kaprizov Id have to think.

CaptainMusky wrote:

He was the odds on #1 not long ago, have to believe its dropping now. He would never fall like Kaprizov Id have to think.

Never been a consensus #1 from that class… always Bedard & Michkov at the top. Both potential superstars/generational players. They’re also 16 years old right now so a lot will change.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
He was the odds on #1 not long ago, have to believe its dropping now. He would never fall like Kaprizov Id have to think.

Never been a consensus #1 from that class… always Bedard & Michkov at the top. Both potential superstars/generational players. They’re also 16 years old right now so a lot will change.

He was on my board.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Sounds like this may have been SKA strong arming him at the risk of not being on the Russian Junior team. MK had said in a Russian interview months ago he intended to come to NA after this season. Things change, but mother Russia seems to have pushed some buttons here.

That’s certainly the picture Russo paints and it very well may be true. But I think it also comes back to the fact that Russians don’t do the AHL, it’s like an embarrassment to them. MK is likely smart enough to understand he’d be looking at 1 full season minimum in the AHL which makes it easy to stay home in Russia until he can go straight to the NHL. That’s exactly what SKA wants to do with their NHL prospects and it makes perfect sense to everyone except the NHL teams that want to develop their prospects in their own program.

CaptainMusky wrote:

He was on my board.

LOL

Michkov is already signed with SKA through the 2025/2026 season, so you draft him at #1 or #2 in 2023 and sit on him for another 2+ years and then need to deal with all the drama the richest team in the KHL can bring tempting him to stay and sign a new deal (with likely off the books $$) That sounds like a nightmare to me…

That 2023 draft will be bonkers though…the talent it has in the top 10 has never been seen before…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

That 2023 draft will be bonkers though…the talent it has in the top 10 has never been seen before…

Yeah there are going to be some fun times talking about the players leading into them.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
That 2023 draft will be bonkers though…the talent it has in the top 10 has never been seen before…

Yeah there are going to be some fun times talking about the players leading into them.

It will be interesting to see what teams purposely tank to get the better chance at the top picks…Why do I get the feeling Chicago is at the top of that list with Kane and Toews nearing the end of their runs…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

It will be interesting to see what teams purposely tank to get the better chance at the top picks…Why do I get the feeling Chicago is at the top of that list with Kane and Toews nearing the end of their runs…

They wont need to tank they will just win the lottery.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Michkov is already signed with SKA through the 2025/2026 season, so you draft him at #1 or #2 in 2023 and sit on him for another 2+ years and then need to deal with all the drama the richest team in the KHL can bring tempting him to stay and sign a new deal (with likely off the books $$) That sounds like a nightmare to me…

Not to mention his agent will most likely be the same as KK’s. I got around to reading that article on the Athletic. Sounds to me the KHL and the SKA in particular are taking a different turn in the way they look at the NHL. They say the want to make sure their players are first or second line players before they come over to NHL. My translation of that is they really want to keep their top talent over there. Michkov sounded like he didn’t care about the NHL draft and only cares about playing the best hockey where he is. I couldn’t help reading his comments in Drago’s voice! Lol!! I’m guessing a lot of teams will be looking back on what the Wild went through to finally get KK to show up.

If the KHL invests the money in it’s facilities and players it’s going to be increasingly more difficult to get them to come over. These aren’t the old days of the Russian Five where those guys were isolated from families and everything else and only allowed to play and practice hockey and under constant watch by the KGB. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Super Series return where the SKA comes over and plays against NHL teams. Maybe Michkov would defect like Federov!

You also can’t rule out the organized crime angle/pressure side of things in the KHL too… its real

Lol Rick Tocchet on TNT pregame, the other guys on set are trying to get him worked up and say something bad about Trevor Zegras and all his young generation youtube highlight reel hype and Tocchet calmly says “Hey I love the kid and he makes great plays, he has 6 goals and is a minus 8”

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Lol Rick Tocchet on TNT pregame, the other guys on set are trying to get him worked up and say something bad about Trevor Zegras and all his young generation youtube highlight reel hype and Tocchet calmly says “Hey I love the kid and he makes great plays, he has 6 goals and is a minus 8”

The old school guys don’t like the Zegras goal or that type of play. Forget what show I was watching but they were trying to get Tortorella to say more than he wanted to about the Zegras goal. He finally said that a few years ago you would have gotten you’re head knocked off for doing that especially as a rookie. He finally ended by saying he wasn’t convinced it was good for hockey and it’s not playing the game the right way.

Speaking of old school guys comments, Barry Melrose was on Sirius radio talking about the Olympics. He commented no one has ever been able to tell him in what way the Olympics was good for the NHL. It extends the NHL season too long. The casual fan loses track and stops following because of the long break, if any teams player gets hurt it will always be one of you’re best players never a fourth line guy or third pair defenseman. He seemed to feel that this year going to China was just a poor decision overall. I know it’s important to the players and it’s one of the things they fought hard for in the CBA but I have a tendency to agree with Melrose here. Particularly this year China is just not a good place to be.

Ice Cap wrote:

Speaking of old school guys comments, Barry Melrose was on Sirius radio talking about the Olympics. He commented no one has ever been able to tell him in what way the Olympics was good for the NHL. It extends the NHL season too long. The casual fan loses track and stops following because of the long break, if any teams player gets hurt it will always be one of you’re best players never a fourth line guy or third pair defenseman. He seemed to feel that this year going to China was just a poor decision overall. I know it’s important to the players and it’s one of the things they fought hard for in the CBA but I have a tendency to agree with Melrose here. Particularly this year China is just not a good place to be.

As much as I want the best players representing my country in the Olympics I agree with this especially this year with Covid and the potential ramifications around that.

The way Covid is raging through these teams the NHL is going to be lucky to get the full season in as it is. Calgary has what 18 players in Covid protocol right now? Plus a number of support staff. Already speculation the Wild and Panthers game may be postponed Saturday as Florida has five players out. Their best bet would be to use the Olympic break to try to make up a few of the games already postponed and do a reset with the players to get everyone healthy. At this point they can’t just continue the regular season as many of the arenas have already scheduled other events during the Olympic break.

Will the NHLPA make a decision in regards to all the players about going to the Olympics or will it be a individual decision? If the players go there won’t even be a chance of making up any games already lost. I’d say if they held a vote right now the players and coaches would go.

If Melrose can’t see how millionaire athletes playing a game they love on super teams for very little. The Extra TV exposure to non and casual fans. Isn’t good for the NHL then I don’t know what to tell.
I agree that this winter Olympic is pretty unique for many different reasons and the hesitancy is there.
As far Torts he is a guy that has been holding hockey back for a while now. Yeah let’s play like it’s 1970. God forbid we try to advance the game.

old school guys will always be old school…it’s good for the game and if the current players don’t like it, they could have let Zegras & Milano know after the play, but they didn’t… Players will police themselves…