2023/2024 NHL/WILD Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Dumba to Arizona 1x$3.9

Surprised with the crickets on this one… but it is middle of August, many aren’t thinking hockey yet including me. Or busy fishing.

Slight bummer but glad to see him going elsewhere.

We all knew he was not coming back here it was just a matter of time that he signed somewhere. I dont think teams are going to be sleeping on the coyotes for too overly long. THey got some talent in their pipeline and added a few vets too.

I was blown away by the Coyotes with how hard they played last year. That roster was garbage but they were a tough team to play against and I think based on home records would have been a playoff team. Still can’t take them serious until the ownership/relocation thing is settled.

Why was Dumba waiting on the Karlsson trade to sign? I can’t figure out the connection there.

The Karlsson trade looks like a masterpiece for the Penguins but that’s based on coming off a Norris season and being healthy, we’ll see if he can repeat that in Pittsburgh. Also it never worked with Karlsson and Burns so will it work with Kalsson and Letang? So many moving pieces in that trade, love to see it.

its amazing how hard career minior leaguers play when they get a taste of the NHL life vs AHL…Chartered Plane flights vs 12hr bus rides, 5 star hotels vs Holiday Inn, etc etc…

Its the reason why your 4th line should be made up of mostly minor leaguers, they need to give 110% EVERY SHIFT or they get sent back down…

I’m really surprised Arizona didn’t draft Mitchkov, because his arrival in 3 years lines up with their projected top prospects landing in the NHL as well…Unless he flat out told them don’t draft me…

Dumba might have been holding out for Pittsburgh bidding against Arizona if the Karlsson deal fell through…Arizona will just be renting him until the trade deadline…

tswoboda wrote:

we’ll see if he can repeat that in Pittsburgh. Also it never worked with Karlsson and Burns so will it work with Kalsson and Letang?

That’s what I questioned about a few posts earlier as well…Both Alpha dog right handed shots…That Powerplay has EVERYTHING you could want, but will it just be too much talent and they overpass? we’ll see…

Syd and Gino gotta be happy…

Pitt had no cap space before the deal though so signing Dumba was never an option there. Crazy they got Karlsson and also gained $3m+ in cap space all in the same trade. Sad to see Granlund reduced to a bad contract cap dump, I’ve always been a Granny fanboi.

There were rumors Michkov pulled a Lindros and told certain teams he wouldn’t sign with them. I’m sure if that’s true the Coyotes were #1 on that list.

tswoboda wrote:

Pitt had no cap space before the deal though so signing Dumba was never an option there.

They could always bring in another team and/or move other assets, just like they did with Montreal..

I can’t wait for the Dumba fans to stoke the fires of the Wild re-signing him next year…

Yurov looks like he’s added some beef… dude looks like a power forward…

https://twitter.com/hockeynewshub/status/1688905816269570048?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

2023/2024 Wild Powerplay….what will be different?

So we now have the former Canucks PP guy running the PP show this year, what can he do to put the PP units in the best possible strategy to succeed? How much of his past percieved “success” was due to the Canuck PP1 unit being one of the most skilled in the league?

PP Units:
PP1 = Kaprizov – Zuccy – Boldy – Ek – Addison
PP2 = Johansson – Hartman – Rossi – Foligno – Spurgeon

PP1 unit should obviously funnel everything through Kaprizov, the problem is of course the penalty killers know that and overload his side…The way to counter that is to have him roam around the zone without a designated spot, especially keeping him high in the zone pulling the penalty killers a bit away from the net…We did this in spurts last year by having Kirill come up the boards and then circle at the blueline getting the puck towards the net and then it’s upto him to either shoot with Ek in front and Zuccy & Boldy moving in for rebounds or pass down low to Zuccy or cross ice to Boldy…not sure why we went away with that? The other thing to fix is that Boldy needs to get a better 1 time shot, especially from cross ice passes by Kirill or down from Addison…he consistantly whiffed on his chances, but the few times he did get a good shot off it was met with success. Hopefully this was something the staff told him to work on over the offseason…the good thing is that its a skillset he can get better at with proper coaching…

PP2 unit should be all about just getting shots to the net and having Foligno and Hartman banging away for rebounds, if that group tries to get cute, its over…

The PP has been my biggest gripe with this team over the years, they just never appeared to have an understanding or a plan on what they needed to do to dictate the play, they were always more reactionary… we’ll see if the new coach has a plan and knows how to get the players to buy into it…

I forgot to mention another option is to have Kirill play all 2 minutes of the PP…we’re starting to see teams play their superstars for extended PP times ala Washington with Ovi (although Ovi doesn’t do much on the PP ice other than stay in his office and shoot 1 timers)

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The PP has been my biggest gripe with this team over the years

The postseason eliminations the past two seasons against the Blues and Stars have primarily been because of their superior execution on special teams. Those two opponents have been able to take advantage of their power play opportunities against Minnesota. The Wild did actually have a middle of the pack power play % in the regular season the past two years, but as you can see, the numbers drop in the playoffs and their opponent’s go up.

2020-2021 Regular Season PP %20.5
2021 Playoffs PP 16.7% (Blues 30.8%)
2021-2022 Regular Season PP 21.4%
2022 Playoffs PP 18.2% (Stars 30.8%)

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
The PP has been my biggest gripe with this team over the years

The postseason eliminations the past two seasons against the Blues and Stars have primarily been because of their superior execution on special teams. Those two opponents have been able to take advantage of their power play opportunities against Minnesota. The Wild did actually have a middle of the pack power play % in the regular season the past two years, but as you can see, the numbers drop in the playoffs and their opponent’s go up.

2020-2021 Regular Season PP %20.5
2021 Playoffs PP 16.7% (Blues 30.8%)
2021-2022 Regular Season PP 21.4%
2022 Playoffs PP 18.2% (Stars 30.8%)

I think most of that is the desparation teams have in the playoffs regarding thier PK (find some stats on what ALL NHL teams regular season vs playoff PP % are, they are likely all down in the playoffs) Teams that don’t have the proven playoff performers who excel under the pressure suffer (like the Wild have)

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I think most of that is the desparation teams have in the playoffs regarding thier PK (find some stats on what ALL NHL teams regular season vs playoff PP % are, they are likely all down in the playoffs)

Yep, I agree and no, I’m not digging up those stats lol

I was only trying to point out that special teams have arguably been the primary reason their season has ended the past two years.

I don’t know enough about PP strategy to really contribute a lot here, other than that I remember watching the Blues PP in the playoffs last year and it was just so consistently dangerous. It seemed like they played with just one guy on the blue line more centrally, is that more common in the NHL now? Is it a personnel thing though? Like you need a specific type of player to be able to run that single blue-line look?

Our 2nd line PP absolutely sucks though. Obviously there’s always a big drop off from PP1 to PP2, but look at these PPG numbers from the Wild forwards.

PP1:
KK: 17
Ek: 12
Zucc: 9
Boldy: 8

PP2:
Freddy: 3
Hartman: 1
Johansson: 1
Sundqvist: 1

Is that normal for PP2 units? Maybe that’s fine if your first unit is top tier?

Justin Donson wrote:

I don’t know enough about PP strategy to really contribute a lot here, other than that I remember watching the Blues PP in the playoffs last year and it was just so consistently dangerous. It seemed like they played with just one guy on the blue line more centrally, is that more common in the NHL now? Is it a personnel thing though? Like you need a specific type of player to be able to run that single blue-line look?

Our 2nd line PP absolutely sucks though. Obviously there’s always a big drop off from PP1 to PP2, but look at these PPG numbers from the Wild forwards.

PP1:
KK: 17
Ek: 12
Zucc: 9
Boldy: 8

PP2:
Freddy: 3
Hartman: 1
Johansson: 1
Sundqvist: 1

Is that normal for PP2 units? Maybe that’s fine if your first unit is top tier?

most teams run with a single guy up high because they typically have at least 4 forwards out, in our case that equals (Strong side boards player (Kirill or Boldy), strong side lower corner player (Zuccy), bumper (Ek) and weak side boards player (Kirill or Boldy) and the distributor up top (Addy) The lack of a quality RH shot hampers our PP a bit as the defenders know they can get into the shooting lane easily when the puck moves to the left side…

2nd PP unit is basically a throw away as they typically get the last 30 seconds of the 2 minutes off a linechange which then requires a successful zone entry to do anything…

Good powerplays typically equal teams with multiple superstars with elite execution and finshing skills, something the Wild only has 1 of right now, but hopefully more on the horizon…

Agree with Joe. The second PP is typically not out there very long so that results in way fewer points normally or they would be on the first PP.

and as for the PK…

majority of the time NHL PK success = constantly hounding the puck, forcing turnovers and mistakes…there needs to be a complete philosophy change in terms of how we attack on the PK and Deano needs to hold players accountable who don’t abide by it…with today’s modern analtyics and video analysis its hard to beleive the Wild can keep making the same mistakes year after year…to me that points more to coaching philosophy issues than anything else….

I think Shaw getting hurt definately hurt the PK. He was a constant energy go hard no matter what. Ek as well.
Going to have some new forwards on the PK and Rossi may be one of them.

Dewar and Shaw were an elite pair on the PK and a big part of that was their willingness to push play the other direction and possess the puck rather than just chip and change every time they touch it. I would love to see Boldy and Kaprizov get consistent PK time this year.

BillyG on for an hour right now on KFAN, great interview sofar (as always)

JoeMX1825 wrote:

BillyG on for an hour right now on KFAN, great interview sofar (as always)

I listened to most of this in the car today. BG is his same old pissy ornery self during most of that with Berreiro. Entertaining for the most part, but always going back to the well for the same bucket of water lol

“I make the decisions.” -BG

He seriously must have said that 7 times in like 10 minutes.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
BillyG on for an hour right now on KFAN, great interview sofar (as always)

I listened to most of this in the car today. BG is his same old pissy ornery self during most of that with Berreiro. Entertaining for the most part, but always going back to the well for the same bucket of water lol

“I make the decisions.” -BG

He seriously must have said that 7 times in like 10 minutes.

cuz Barreiro kept asking if Deano makes the calls on everything… he’s done enough local interviews to have answered the same questions over and over again, I mean he was asked about the buyout decisions again… not much new to talk about hockeywise in August…i’m glad he’s finally broken away from not needing a #1 center argument… I like his answer to the crowd, “Go find me one”

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Ovi doesn’t do much on the PP ice other than stay in his office and shoot 1 timers

I wish the Wild had someone who did as little as Ovi!

Great Wild on 7th Podcast with Mason Shaw…make sure to listen to the story at 1:07:30 of it to hear the “Smoked LM Bass” story…hilarious and a total Minnesota thing to give crap too….

of course after listening I had to go find his Lets Play Hockey video…. love the players reaction on the bench afterwards…

Kind of an off/on hockey topic, for those who’ve seen the movie Oppenheimmer, did you spot the former NHLer who had a short cameo in it?

I noticed him instantly…

Hint – he was a huge d-bag in the NHL

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Kind of an off/on hockey topic, for those who’ve seen the movie Oppenheimmer, did you spot the former NHLer who had a short cameo in it?

I noticed him instantly…

Hint – he was a huge d-bag in the NHL

Sloppy Seconds?

I havent seen Oppenheimer but hope to soon. Who was it? There were a lot of huge D Bags.

KP got it, Sean Avery

I didnt catch the reference, but yeah, he is a puke.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I didnt catch the reference, but yeah, he is a puke.

Look up Dion Phaneuf’s wife…Avery used to date her and made the comment about Dion then dating her, many years ago…caused a big flare up in the league at the time, funny how it probably doesn’t even make the news nowadays…