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

I looked at a few sites projecting out Team USA’s Four Nation Faceoff roster and most had Faber making the team…

Modo was the guest on the latest Wild on 7th Podcast, some good stories about the 96 World Cup- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL6zSzIj4cQ

Go search youtube for the 1996 World Cup of Hockey documentary they talk about, its awesome!

Love how GMBG says this callup is Adam Beckman’s best shot to prove he belongs on the Wild’s NHL roster and then he’s made a healthy scratch…

No tweener prospect will ever be more loved and respected than Adam Beckman. He’s still riding that electric pre-season from 3 years ago

Is Chisholm playing?

Couldn’t agree more. A 22 year old wing with a whopping 9 goals in the AHL.
Lethal shot though.
No place in our top 6 in the future when the Russian Mike Bossy signs.
Yeah yeah he has been injured.

So Pat Maroon had back surgery today… out 4-6 weeks…

Just to many injuries this year…

Two great teams on the ice in Chicago tonight. What a yawn’er.

Top 6 were invisible last night (Kirill was getting his chances though)
Marco and Vinny were the best 2 Wild forwards last night…Lettieri fits perfectly as a 4th liner, he’s an aggressive forechecker, can shoot and has great speed, he’s basically a better Duhaime without the fighting…

I saw Russo mention that Rossi has to lead the league in goals taken away this season, it’s crazy how often it has happened to him….

I couldnt finish the game last night, but see they pulled it out in the end. They should have though Chicago is terrible.
I find it somewhat funny my buddy’s kid who said he was already a better skater than Brodin cannot get a sniff in that lineup.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I couldnt finish the game last night, but see they pulled it out in the end. They should have though Chicago is terrible.

It took a ridiculous breakaway toenail save by GusBus to secure the win…

The question now is, will they win another game this month? The Penguins and Sabers home games are probably their best chance…

11 points in his last 11 games for Faber….

That was just bad last night. Wild seemed determined to make the game as close as possible. Everything was made worse by the TNT announcers fixation on the Foligno vs Foligno thing. FFS they’ve done this 25 times before. Get past it.

I’m calling it. The Wild are finished for 2024, now it’s all about player development and draft position.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

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

The question now is, will they win another game this month? The Penguins and Sabers home games are probably their best chance…

Never know with Arizona, even as a road game. The Butt Kracken could be a maybe if the Wild decide to show up. But pickins will be slim, you’re right.

Most exciting thing to me is the chance to see some of this much celebrated prospect pool. Will we see Marat? Others? GM Average better hope the juice is worth the squeeze or he’ll be looking for assistant to the assistant GM jobs in minor leagues the world over.

Faber (and Rossi) are certainly having good seasons and both should be candidates for Calder.

Faber – 4 goals, 26 assists in 50 games played (as a defenseman)
Rossi – 13 goals, 15 assists in 50 games played
Bedard – 15 goals, 18 assists in 39 games played

I would say at this point Bedard’s production on a terrible team is probably more impressive but he’s also the top pick, so I would expect that. He’s gonna need to get back in the lineup pretty soon though. I am not sure how long he’s projected to be out. Apparently he was seen at practice recently so maybe sooner than later?

Bedard is also a -26 or something ridiculous like that. He avgs about 10 less minutes of ice time too.

^^15-18-33 for Bedard. It’s a media voted award so it’s still going to be Bedard’s trophy to lose. I think he comes back after next week and will have 25ish games to win votes. The argument for Bedard is even after missing a month he has 8 more points than the next closest on his team (which is insane for a kid who could still be in high school), and also that he’s Connor Bedard. I think if he finishes the year like he started then he’ll get the Calder for sure.

At this point Faber deserves the award. Elite defense to start the season, now he’s producing and driving offense and the D has fallen off but the fact he’s 21 and shown he can do both as a #1D is incredible. If he can figure out how to do both at the same time yet this season, then the Calder should be his no matter what Bedard does. I just don’t think that’s reality though. The other thing is Luke Hughes might take some votes from Faber, not because he deserves them but just because he’s a good rookie defenseman who’s part of the royal family.

Hawks fans will march on Murder Grove if Faber wins the Calder

gim wrote:

I am not sure how long he’s projected to be out. Apparently he was seen at practice recently so maybe sooner than later?

Can’t see what the rush would be. Chicago is terrible with or without Bedard, they are just a slightly more exciting terrible to watch with him in the lineup. The Blackhawks season is in the sh!tter like the Wild’s so why not do what the Blackhawks do best and tank for draft position? I mean you have to go with your strengths, right?

I would expect just about every player on the Blackhawks to have a terrible +/- rating considering that they are the worst team in the league.

Another candidate that may emerge is Sam Ersson, goalie for the Flyers. With Carter Hart being out for the assault charges in Canada for an undetermined amount of time, Ersson will be the number one there. He is 13-9 in 22 games started, 2.53 GAA, a .900 save percentage, and 3 shutouts thus far. His stats didn’t originally show up when I looked up rookie stats because he’s a goalie.

I put 13 assists for Bedard instead of 18. Typo. Changed it now.

No way would the Hawks sit Bedard longer than he needs to be out. He puts butts in seats and with how bad they are that is very important.

Most regular season broken jaws miss about 40 days, so just under 6 weeks. I think the Hawks stated 6-8 weeks on Bedard and he’s at about 5 weeks now.

Players have played with broken jaws before and wore a bubble. I wouldnt suggest Bedard do it considering how dang good he is however.

I agree it’s Bedard’s to lose IF he comes back from injury and picks up the same scoring pace he had before it…Faber’s recent offensive production uptick along with the fact that he’ll be leading the PP1 unit the rest of the season is helping his case and it seems like more and more National attention is being paid to his Defensive game and Minutes played which is pretty abnormal (offense sells)

It’s pretty obvious that the NHL is putting all their “future of the game” chips in on Bedard, I mean they just gave one of the worst teams the Winter Classic next year, who else could they possibly market for that game? There’s zero chance they “let” (put on foil helmet now) a non-offensive guru Defenseman from MN win it…

McJesus finished 3rd in the ROY vote his year due to injury, but he also had 48 points in 45 games played. Panarin rocked a 30 goal, 47 point 80 game season so he was more than deserving of winning it. Gostisbehere finished 2nd with 17 goals and 46 points in only 64 games…

I think Faber needs to get to 60+ points to have a legit shot against Bedard. That point total would put him at the same level of some of the greatest rookie defenseman scoring seasons in NHL history… that’s assuming he doesn’t hit the rookie wall and his defensive game doesn’t slack and remains a huge selling point for him…

11 points in his last 11 games certainly puts him on a pace to do just that, but it will be EXTREMELY tough…honestly it just crazy he’s even being considered since prior to this season he was always deemed a safe “Defensive Defenseman”…

Lastly, selfishly for the Wild’s future Salary cap, if he doesn’t win it, it’s one less bullet point his agent will present to GMBG when it comes to arguing his extension AAV.

In terms of the ROY competition this season, Luke Hughes has hit the rookie wall and is being sheltered by the Devils defensively. Adam Fantilli will miss another 4-5 weeks with his leg cut injury, the Ducks defenseman is still out hurt…Marco is now playing with a forechecker and the softest player in the league…Zary and Cooley are just a big offensive production game away from getting back into the conversation…

tswoboda wrote:

Hawks fans will march on Murder Grove if Faber wins the Calder

This is very true and absolutely hilarious to read comments about…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Players have played with broken jaws before and wore a bubble. I wouldnt suggest Bedard do it considering how dang good he is however.

I always found those playing with a broken/wired jaw so impressive, you’d think every body contact would bump it in some way…and you know other teams are going to be hitting him up high the rest of the season…can Nick Foligno’s fingers take the workload?

CaptainMusky wrote:

No way would the Hawks sit Bedard longer than he needs to be out. He puts butts in seats and with how bad they are that is very important.

The only way they keep him out is if the bone isn’t healing properly, which I believe was the case early on and why they said he’d be out the full proposed time period if not longer…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

his defensive game doesn’t slack and remains a huge selling point for him…

His defensive game has 100% slacked since he started producing offense. And I’m not saying that as a bad thing, probably doing exactly what the coaches are telling him to – drive the offense. It’s not that he’s “bad” on defense now, just play way way way more aggressive and taking more risk. He’s spent a lot of time below the o-zone goalline in the last month or so. I think it’s great that he’s showing he can do both.

No shock here, but Billy G officially name Team USA GM. Will he put Faber (and maybe Boldy) on the squad(s)?

I was actually sorta surprised they announced him considering the two scandals in recent years.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
his defensive game doesn’t slack and remains a huge selling point for him…

His defensive game has 100% slacked since he started producing offense. And I’m not saying that as a bad thing, probably doing exactly what the coaches are telling him to – drive the offense. It’s not that he’s “bad” on defense now, just play way way way more aggressive and taking more risk. He’s spent a lot of time below the o-zone goalline in the last month or so. I think it’s great that he’s showing he can do both.

it’s still pretty rare he’s on the ice for a 5-5 goal against…with his minutes played per game and matchups, this has been impressive. I absolutely agree he’s been told he NEEDS to think more offensively now at the cost of some defensive liability, especially with all of the injuries…

CaptainMusky wrote:

I was actually sorta surprised they announced him considering the two scandals in recent years.

i’m sure they’ve looked well into all of them and there must not be much there there…otherwise why would USA hockey even risk a distraction? especially with the microscope on the associations nowadays…in my mind this is reassuring…