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

it’s crazy how a 2-3 game swing can take the Wild from the verge of making the playoffs to being in the bottom 7 worst teams in the league…most teams just below the Wild have 1-2 games in hand still…

They’ve won alot more games than I thought they would the past 10 games or so, but I think alot of that is due to Kirill and Flower playing so well and basically carrying the team on their backs…

14 games left (7 Road, 7 Home)(5 vs Ducks, Hawks, Senators and x2 Sharks) and the remaining 9 vs Playoff hunt teams, it will be interesting for sure…

as expected, the Wild signed their first 2nd round pick from last draft Rasmus Kumpelainen today to his ELC, he’ll play another year of Junior next season…

Riley Heidt (our second 2nd round pick last draft) will sign once his WHL team’s season is done, the kid is upto 1.78 points per game this season, just bonkers… He’ll be too young for Iowa next season so the Wild will likely give him 9 games out of camp to prove he belongs in the NHL and then decide to keep him or reluctantly sending him back to Juniors to be bored for a season…

I think that age restriction thing with the AHL is just plain dumb. Get rid of it so these kids can get in the org and learn systems, etc.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I think that age restriction thing with the AHL is just plain dumb. Get rid of it so these kids can get in the org and learn systems, etc.

Selfishly, tt’s just meant as a way for the CHL to not get pilfered of top young talent every season…but yes, not the best for the players at all…

Riley MIGHT be excluded from it, because if you play 4 WHL seasons, you’re then excluded from the under 20 rule…He’s technically played in 4 separate WHL seasons, but his first season was the Covid shortened 24 game season that the WHL later deemed a “Development Year” from a season perspective… so perhaps he/Wild could appeal it?

i’m excited to see a more comfortable version of Marat K moving forward…you could tell he was nervous the first few games, always passing away the puck, deferring to teammates, etc..

He now has some practices under his belt and I expect him to open up a bit offensively and start rushing the puck more…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

i’m excited to see a more comfortable version of Marat K moving forward…you could tell he was nervous the first few games, always passing away the puck, deferring to teammates, etc..
He now has some practices under his belt and I expect him to open up a bit offensively and start rushing the puck more…

Totally with you on that. Step 1 was just to get him signed and over here. Now use the tail end of this season to get Marat comfortable and let him build relationships and start to feel like he’s a part of the team. All without “win now” pressure.

It’s also time to start sending Marat and Rossi out for the PK

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
I think that age restriction thing with the AHL is just plain dumb. Get rid of it so these kids can get in the org and learn systems, etc.

Selfishly, tt’s just meant as a way for the CHL to not get pilfered of top young talent every season…but yes, not the best for the players at all…

Riley MIGHT be excluded from it, because if you play 4 WHL seasons, you’re then excluded from the under 20 rule…He’s technically played in 4 separate WHL seasons, but his first season was the Covid shortened 24 game season that the WHL later deemed a “Development Year” from a season perspective… so perhaps he/Wild could appeal it?

Don’t see how he he makes the club next year unless the pi$$ missle dribbles or Rossi/Riley is moved to wing or another team.

Ovi scores goals 20 & 21 last night, only 51 behind the Great One now… remember when folks said he was done with…..

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Ovi scores goals 20 & 21 last night, only 51 behind the Great One now… remember when folks said he was done with…..

He could very well break it next season and good for him. But there is no comparison to him and Gretzky. The amount of goals scored is where it stops.

Ice Cap wrote:

He could very well break it next season and good for him. But there is no comparison to him and Gretzky. The amount of goals scored is where it stops.

Its impossible to compare them because its a completely different game now. Scoring is finally starting to go up, but in 99s day it was much higher.

In 2014-2015, the prime of Ovi’s career, Jamie Benn won the Art Ross (most points) with 87 points. No player in the entire NHL had more than 87 points that season!!! Ovi still had 53 goals… greatest goalscorer of all time.

tswoboda wrote:

greatest goalscorer of all time.

I would agree.

Didn’t Wayne have 40 something goals in the WHA before being part of the NHL?

Wayne was also 17 in the WHA… too young to be in the NHL. Ovi on the other hand missed his entire 18 year old season because of the lockout… then scored 50 the next season. Ovi also had 3 more seasons shortened by lockouts or covid

Comparing generational players is always fun, there’s so many variables to take into account…

Nobody is saying Ovi is better than Gretzky, but just look at the teams Gretzky played on for a majority of his career (before their was a salary cap) He played with 5 Hall of Famers his entire tenure in Edmonton (Messier, Coffey, Fuhr, Anderson, Kurri, Lowe) In today’s salary cap world, they likely could only afford to fit 2-3 of them on a single team…

The quality of goaltending in the 80’s-90’s isn’t even close to the quality of the 2000+ generations. Grant Fuhr was a ground breaking goalie in terms of athleticism at the position that wouldn’t spur the movement until guys like Roy & Broduer came into the league, ever since then, goalies are among the best athletes on the team and their overall physical size (and goalie gear size) has increased ever since…Compare Grant Fuhr & Billy Smith both 5’10 180lbs with Martin Brodeur & Patrick Roy both 6’2″ 210 or Andre Vasilevskiy 6’4″ 220lbs…it’s ridiculous how much more net they cover just by standing in the crease let alone fanned out in the Butterfly position…

Ovi is the greatest goal scorer in NHL history, he’s only 51 away from making it official…

Gretzky has more Assists than any other player has total Points, that says everything about who’s the greatest player ever…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Nobody is saying Ovi is better than Gretzky…
Gretzky has more Assists than any other player has total Points, that says everything about who’s the greatest player ever…

Completely agree. Gretz is the great one and no one is even close. The true mount rushmore of hockey is 4 heads of Wayne Gretzky. Ovi isn’t even in the conversation for all time greats.

But when it comes to simply scoring goals and only scoring goals… no one has done it better than Ovi

The Clutch and Grab era is also a telling point to Gretzky’s unreal production, he had guys hanging on him for dear life 1/2 the game and still produced…Modern era hockey has a guy tap your hands with his stick being a penalty resulting in Ovi playing the entire 2 minute powerplay…

like I said, so many variables…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Gretzky has more Assists than any other player has total Points, that says everything about who’s the greatest player ever…

I mentioned this earlier and its absolutely bonkers and hard to believe its true.

tswoboda wrote:

The true mount rushmore of hockey is 4 heads of Wayne Gretzky. Ovi isn’t even in the conversation for all time greats.

You gotta include Bobby Orr on the mount rushmore…He changed the defensive position forever and had he not had guys taking cheap shots at his knees for 7 seasons resulting in a shortened career, his numbers would be even more ridiculous…915 points in only 657 games for a DEFENSEMAN…

but then the goalies in that era were an absolute joke… so many variables! lol

When do we start discussing hockey gear advancements making players better? lol

Go to the hockey hall of fame and look at the sticks Howe and Hull were using vs Ovi’s 1 piece carbon sticks… or the goalie gear advancements (how many goals in the Howe/Hull era were scored late in the 3rd periods when the goalies leather pads absorbed another 10 pounds of water weight?)…. lol it’s laughable…

IMO, NHL Mount Rushmore has to be:

1A – Gretzky
1B – Lemieux
2 – Orr
3 – ? (Howe/Brodeur/Jagr/Dionne)

I even think you could argue Lemieux #1A as he might have broke all of Gretzky’s records had he stayed healthy…Gretzky played in 572 more regular season games too…

Gretzky made better use of his surrounding players (mostly hall of famers) to dominate, where as Lemieux could dominate entirely by himself (yes, he also had Jagr helping too)

There’s 4 heads, Joe.

I completely agree with your top 3 and would throw Gordie in the 4 spot

I cannot believe neither of you have Boogaard on the mount rushmore.

tswoboda wrote:

There’s 4 heads, Joe.

I completely agree with your top 3 and would throw Gordie in the 4 spot

my only argument with Gordie is that he played so long that it dragged out this point totals vs guys he played with in that era like Richard/Hull/Makita being just as good if not produced more but just didn’t play as long… I’m not sure he was ever the absolute dominant player during his playing days, maybe a 4-5 year stretch in the early 50’s, but even then he was only winning the scoring titles by 5-20 points…yes, i’m knit picking here…but were talking about Mount Rushmore… maybe an argument for Marty Broduer being on it, his numbers are just gawdy and with modern goalies playing less, his records will likely never get close to…

it’s funny when you look at the all time scoring list there’s guys you forgot about how good they were… guys like Ron Francis, Joe Thornton and Mark Recchi all in the top 15 all time scorers…

I know the top 3 is easy but if you’re doing Rushmore you gotta pick a 4th. The longevity is a big part of why Howe is a legend so that’s just part of his legacy in my opinion. I’d keep the goalies separate but if you want to pick one I’m going with Hasek and by a good margin. Brodeur is Emmitt Smith… all time great for sure but the insane stats are heavily influenced by his situation.

You’d really put Hasek over Brodeur? I dont think I would.

tswoboda wrote:

I’d keep the goalies separate but if you want to pick one I’m going with Hasek and by a good margin

Now that’s a BOLD statement!

Brodeur’s workload is the same argument for Howe though right? Hasek’s career GAA & SV% numbers are just ever so slightly better than Marty’s, but you’d think Marty’s numbers would get worse the longer/more games he played?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Gretzky made better use of his surrounding players (mostly hall of famers) to dominate, where as Lemieux could dominate entirely by himself (yes, he also had Jagr helping too)

JoeMX1825 wrote:

it’s funny when you look at the all time scoring list there’s guys you forgot about how good they were… guys like Ron Francis, Joe Thornton and Mark Recchi all in the top 15 all time scorers…

Ironic