2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Not having Price, Weber, Dandenoux does make a difference too…

They didnt have those guys 2 nights ago either did they?

They didnt have those guys 2 nights ago either did they?
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Sorry, I was talking about the team that went to the cup last year…

I have to give Ek some credit in terms of his faceoff improvement, not sure if Mikko has been working with him or he’s been studying alot of tape while injured, but he’s been noticably better and improving so that’s great!

Oh and he also had a few classic Stonehands point blank wiffs last night so there’s that….

His line is borderline unstoppable right now!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Oh and he also had a few classic Stonehands point blank wiffs last night so there’s that….

There was one big one in the third that I just laughed and thought of you. LOL
His FOs have been great! We havent really heard much about what Koivu is doing with the team. It would be interesting to know what, if anything, hes doing.

What happened to Montreal? They went to the Stanley Cup Final last season and they currently have 8 regulation wins so far this season. Talk about a massive descent.

gimruis wrote:

What happened to Montreal? They went to the Stanley Cup Final last season and they currently have 8 regulation wins so far this season. Talk about a massive descent.

Injuries is the biggest thing. What I find surprising is that Caufield has spent much of the season in the AHL. Perhaps they are just sheltering him since they are so bad, but that is pretty telling considering how good he was in the playoffs.

The team we see now is not the team they had last summer, but even that team wasn’t very that good. Montreal was a bad regular season team that went out of body in the playoffs and made a run to the cup finals. I’m not taking anything away from that run, they were legitimately very good in the playoffs and earned ever win they got against good teams. But they were not good in the regular season and snuck into the playoffs in the weakest division.

Then this offseason they got a lot worse by losing their best players and some key depth players to injuries and free agency.

And now here they are.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Injuries is the biggest thing. What I find surprising is that Caufield has spent much of the season in the AHL. Perhaps they are just sheltering him since they are so bad, but that is pretty telling considering how good he was in the playoffs.

Dude’s got 1 goal in 29 NHL games this year. I think it’s a mutual sheltering. I hope he can figure it out eventually, we all want to see the little midwest kid succeed.

tswoboda wrote:

Dude’s got 1 goal in 29 NHL games this year. I think it’s a mutual sheltering. I hope he can figure it out eventually, we all want to see the little midwest kid succeed.

Yeah, I dont want him to be a bust, but I didnt want the Wild to draft him and glad they didnt. I hope he gets it together but its really hard to succeed individually when you have a terrible team.

This is not the 2020-2021 canadians team.
No Carey Price, Shea Weber, Cory Perry,Thomas Tatar, Eric Staal.
That’s a lot of quality players.

Tom schmitt wrote:

This is not the 2020-2021 canadians team.
No Carey Price, Shea Weber, Cory Perry,Thomas Tatar, Eric Staal.
That’s a lot of quality players.

Exactly… Phil Dannault, Kotkaniemi, Edmunson, etc… Gallagher and Drouin also out last night.

And we gotta remember the 2021 Canadiens were not a good team in the regular season. Finished 18th in the league… 0.527 points percentage… 86 point pace… not even close the playoffs in a normal year.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Yeah, I dont want him to be a bust, but I didnt want the Wild to draft him and glad they didnt. I hope he gets it together but its really hard to succeed individually when you have a terrible team.

I remember having this conversation last year. The obvious comparison is DeBrincat, and I pointed out how Caufield will not have Patrick Kane – or anyone remotely close – to pass him the puck. But at some time you can’t just put all the blame on his teammates. I had him pegged as a Calder finalist this year and so far he’s more likely to compete for the Calder Cup than the Calder Trophy.

for as good as the team played last night and the past 5+ games, just imagine a Giroux/Pavelski/Miller between Fiala and Boldy AND completing the #2 PP unit (removing Greenway who is playing the boards position? wtf?) giving us 2 SOLID units with the proper skillset in every spot…

Doing this gives you basically the perfect team on paper, the 2 scoring lines, the shutdown GREEF line and the 4th line of speed, physicality and tenacity….

Watching the past few games, you’ve seen Freddy setup by Fiala/Boldy with prime chances and doing nothing with them, the guy has never been an finisher and never will be…

If I was GMBG I would put my focus on Giroux, he checks all of the boxes, still is a great skater & setup guy and is a great faceoff guy. He’ll for sure cost a 1st round pick, but I think he would be worth it…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

If I was GMBG I would put my focus on Giroux, he checks all of the boxes, still is a great skater & setup guy and is a great faceoff guy. He’ll for sure cost a 1st round pick, but I think he would be worth it…

I dont disagree, but I just dont think they can make the money work. He has a $9M cap hit. Understood it would be a fraction of the season, but how much would it be at the trade deadline? The league year goes to July right? So March 31 into July is still a hefty Cap Hit.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I dont disagree, but I just dont think they can make the money work. He has a $9M cap hit. Understood it would be a fraction of the season, but how much would it be at the trade deadline? The league year goes to July right? So March 31 into July is still a hefty Cap Hit.

I’m still looking online for clarification on how prorated caphits work at the deadline, but the TSN reporters don’t seem to be mentioning caphits as an issue in trade speculation?

In addition to a 1st round pick, I think Philly would want somebody coming back, Gaudreau or Sturm would work as it will cut some cap and solve the issue of us suddenly having too many centers for the 4th line…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

In addition to a 1st round pick, I think Philly would want somebody coming back, Gaudreau or Sturm would work as it will cut some cap and solve the issue of us suddenly having too many centers for the 4th line…

Id be all over sending Gaudreau the other way. He might be enticing for them since he has some term left so they could get something out of him. Sturm wouldnt be as attractive I dont think since he is up after this year, but I just dont see a way the Wild sign him with what else they have to do.

McBain makes the CA Olympic Team. What are the chances he signs with the Wild? I really hope we dont lose him. He was a late bloomer and has tremendous size.

If you can figure out how trade deadline cap hits work then please draw up a nice napkin sketch and share with all of us here.

Cap hits for rentals usually aren’t a big deal. Last year teams were retaining 50% for a 4th or 5th round pick. Rask could also be sent as part of any deal, just like the Wild acquired Galchenyuk in the Zucker trade just to make cap space for the Pens.

Giroux/Pavelski/Hertl all have basically full NTCs so a trade to the Wild may not be in the cards at all if they aren’t willing to waive. Would be a blessing in disguise as there’s no way you want to trade for a guy that doesn’t want to be here.

Saw twitter rumors that the Wild are one of 3 or 4 teams in on JT Miller. That’s more than just a rental with a lot of salary cap implications for next season.

I’d hate for the Wild to move Gaudreau or Sturm in season. There’s no such thing as too much center depth, especially in the playoffs. One or two injuries is all it would take to put Rask or Rau back in the playoffs lineup.

CaptainMusky wrote:

but I just dont see a way the Wild sign him with what else they have to do.

There’s ZERO chance whomever they trade for is with the Wild after the playoffs, this is a pure Rental Only for the playoff run, that’s why I don’t see any GMBG interest in Hertl, of course he would love to have him, but the price you’ll have to pay for him is way to much for just a rental. If your a GM investing a ton of your future assets for what it will take to get Hertl, you are fully intended on making a full effort to re-sign him long term after this season. This is why I think a team like Carolina makes sense, they have Trocheck & Nino up after this year and Staal up the next, so they COULD make the deal and have the capspace to resign him with those players salaries coming off the books the next few years…

CaptainMusky wrote:

McBain makes the CA Olympic Team. What are the chances he signs with the Wild? I really hope we dont lose him. He was a late bloomer and has tremendous size.

We share the same brain sometimes, go look back to yesterday afternoon’s posting I did about it…

How’s about that Geordie Benn last night? Sneaking in there as a trailer and then a quick release shot like a damn sniper. Love it.

I love that this iteration of the Wild don’t take their foot off the gas. No way to prove it, but IMO past teams would have shut ‘er down about halfway through the 2nd and tried to glide it in for a landing. I’ve said to my kids before at games, there’s no team more in danger of losing a game than the Wild with a 2 goal lead…

Also, the talent depth of this team is just stunning. Hope Talbot gets back again soon, but what a deal to have Kappo playing well. And to be able to have a player like Addison and then sending him to the taxi squad because you’re got the D lines loaded. Wow.

Boldy. Awesome. What a player he’s become.

Don’t want to look too far ahead, but in years past it was just hoping that the Wild could get into the playoffs with a decent slot to face a team that they had a so-so chance at beating in 6-7 games to get past R1. I don’t have any doubt this is a playoff team so now we need that #1 seed to get to play #8 and really set up a run.

tswoboda wrote:

If you can figure out how trade deadline cap hits work then please draw up a nice napkin sketch and share with all of us here.

Cap hits for rentals usually aren’t a big deal. Last year teams were retaining 50% for a 4th or 5th round pick. Rask could also be sent as part of any deal, just like the Wild acquired Galchenyuk in the Zucker trade just to make cap space for the Pens.

Giroux/Pavelski/Hertl all have basically full NTCs so a trade to the Wild may not be in the cards at all if they aren’t willing to waive. Would be a blessing in disguise as there’s no way you want to trade for a guy that doesn’t want to be here.

Saw twitter rumors that the Wild are one of 3 or 4 teams in on JT Miller. That’s more than just a rental with a lot of salary cap implications for next season.

I’d hate for the Wild to move Gaudreau or Sturm in season. There’s no such thing as too much center depth, especially in the playoffs. One or two injuries is all it would take to put Rask or Rau back in the playoffs lineup.

I’d love JT MIller, but it would mean GMBG would be under the gun to move either Fiala or Dumba before next season (might not be a bad thing, but other GM’s would know he has a deadline to move a player and that reduces the players value)

I’m only speculating on trading Sturm IF he already told GMBG that he intends to test FA and wants more than a 4th line role, something the Wild likely can’t give him…My guess is that if Sturm wanted to stay here, he likely would have already resigned (Sturm and the Wild brass already knows what kind of player he is and always will be, there shouldn’t be any wait and see how he finishes the rest of the season to determine what his value is)

It also might be in GMBG’s cards for saving Rossi’s final 7 games and use him as a temporary center injury replacement in the playoffs, obviously a long term injury would throw a wrench in that idea…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

There’s ZERO chance whomever they trade for is with the Wild after the playoffs, this is a pure Rental Only for the playoff run

Sorry I was talking about Wild signing Sturm after this year. I agree whoever they might target would be a rental.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

We share the same brain sometimes, go look back to yesterday afternoon’s posting I did about it…

Missed that. You step away from this thread and you guys post like 20 replies. I make the mistake of clicking the notification for last post and miss a lot. LOL

Missed that. You step away from this thread and you guys post like 20 replies. I make the mistake of clicking the notification for last post and miss a lot. LOL
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lol, yeah I’ve been watching McBain since his freshman year, and more closely when Boldy was on the team, he’s really blossomed this year and his size and skating are desired in the NHL. I hope GMBG can convince him to sign…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
McBain makes the CA Olympic Team. What are the chances he signs with the Wild? I really hope we dont lose him. He was a late bloomer and has tremendous size.

We share the same brain sometimes, go look back to yesterday afternoon’s posting I did about it…

McBain signing comes down to what the Wild can offer him and how he views his chances at making the NHL. The one thing the Wild can offer that no other team can is burning this season of his ELC. So if the Wild really want him they should be able to keep him. But realistically he came outta nowhere this season at age 22 and still is not a great skater, so it’ll be interesting how hot the Wild or other teams are on him. Sturm is the comparable but Sturm is a great skater, McBain is not.

tswoboda wrote:

Sturm is the comparable but Sturm is a great skater, McBain is not.

You guys remember that NCAA Tourney game where Sturm was basically his team’s offense and then he got kicked out of the game for that hit and was standing by the glass in full pads watching? I really felt bad for him. It was a questionable call. They were up 2-1 only to end up losing.

Sturm is also a UFA and likely looking for a deal in the $1.25-$1.50 aav vs McBain would be signing 2-3 years at the rookie minimum , its all about saving money where they can to get through the next 3 seasons…our 4th line should all be league minimum guys that you dangle the NHL life carrot in front of their face to maintain maximum effort every shift/game..

I didn’t realize Dewar is on the last year of his ELC deal, so he’ll need to be resigned as well this offseason at a likely very modest raise, but will it be 1 or 2 way?

Greenway has been playing really well most of this season and it might be too early to give up on him, if GMBG goes rental only at the deadline (vs somebody with term left like Miller) maybe he can resign Greenway to a 2 year bridge deal?

Tough choices for GMBG with only a few bucks in the wallet

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I didn’t realize Dewar is on the last year of his ELC deal, so he’ll need to be resigned as well this offseason at a likely very modest raise, but will it be 1 or 2 way?

Greenway has been playing really well most of this season and it might be too early to give up on him, if GMBG goes rental only at the deadline (vs somebody with term left like Miller) maybe he can resign Greenway to a 2 year bridge deal?

I think Dewar will be a two way, just a hunch. If Ek is out Greenway is a different guy. He is far more noticeable when Ek is there. Did you guys see the advanced stats for that trio last night? It was unreal, didnt even allow a shot.

Ek’s line has been absolutely dominating, they are a perfect cryptonite for the powerlines of the Avs, Preds, Blues…over a playoff series, their weight will wear those guys down (maybe the Avs top line can withstand it since they are all beasts themselves)

I think Duhaime “could” be an eventual Greenway replacement on that line if the $ just won’t workout to resign him, but i’ve never been more impressed with Greenway’s game, and he’s FINALLY starting to show some of the nastiness we’ve all been begging for from him…