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

I have to assume every fan that says the Wild should tank fully realize they need to trade Kaprizov to actuality make that happen. Faber and Boldy too probably.

Tanking has for sure worked. Definitely does not work out more often than it does but still works for sure. The thing is no bubble team tanks, those cup winners that got generational players weren’t in the playoffs the year before and said hey let’s tear it down. No they were awful for years with no future in sight and that’s the point when they tear it down to the studs, lose on purpose, and hope to get lucky with couple good top 5 picks. Maybe the Avs are an outlier there with somehow having the worst season ever (getting Makar) sandwiched in between a couple playoffs years… that was the season Roy quit like a month before the season. Not even close to the norm though. Most tanks look like current Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim, Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit, etc. When’s the last time one of them were in the playoffs? Blackhawks missed the playoffs for 5 season before finally tearing it down and getting lucky to get Bedard.

I have to assume every fan that says the Wild should tank fully realize they need to trade Kaprizov to actuality make that happen. Faber and Boldy too probably.

Exactly.

I think the latest Chicago tankjob is the worst of the bunch though… They held out hope (due to their caphits) that the Toews & Kane era would last alot longer but Toews came down with some mystery illness that knocked him out of the game and they decided to just fold up sell the entire farm in a season and a half…
Its their choice to do so and sucks for their fanbase…

In the Wild’s case, fans just see a likely lost season and would rather get a higher draft pick vs finishing 17th overall… we’ve gone into length on how players will continue to play hard and really the only “tank” things a GM can do is call up minor leaguers to get some NHL playing time and suggest shutting down guys playing through injuries… we’re almost at that point…

The Wild could have tanked for just this year when it became clear that they were not a playoff team at the halfway point.
The injuries and cap have crippled the Wild this year.
They could have spent more time cycling players up from Iowa, sending players that need surgery, playing 4 lines more evenly, trading away dead weight.
Take a look at Dallas, how do you think they got Robertson, they had a bad year.

Tom schmitt wrote:

The Wild could have tanked for just this year when it became clear that they were not a playoff team at the halfway point.
The injuries and cap have crippled the Wild this year.
They could have spent more time cycling players up from Iowa, sending players that need surgery, playing 4 lines more evenly, trading away dead weight.
Take a look at Dallas, how do you think they got Robertson, they had a bad year.

They got Robertson because they have good scouts… He was a 2nd rounder.

Dallas has been drafting gems for the past 4-5 years, I believe their highest pick was Hieskanan at #3 (Cale Maker went the next pick)

The Wild missed out on that great draft class by Fletcher trading away our 1st & 2nd round picks for trade deadline pickups Martin Hanzel and Chris Stewart… makes you want to cry, but you can understand WHY he made the trades, but his player choices were terrible…

Tom schmitt wrote:

The Wild could have tanked for just this year when it became clear that they were not a playoff team at the halfway point.

How?

Tom schmitt wrote:

They could have spent more time cycling players up from Iowa, sending players that need surgery, playing 4 lines more evenly, trading away dead weight.

Cycling players up from Iowa: have you seen the 4th line?
Players getting surgery: where’s the captain?
playing 4 lines: coaches don’t tank
trading dead weight: They’ve traded 4 roster players for picks/prospects

Again, what more could they do?

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom schmitt wrote:</div>
They could have spent more time cycling players up from Iowa, sending players that need surgery, playing 4 lines more evenly, trading away dead weight.

Cycling players up from Iowa: have you seen the 4th line?
Players getting surgery: where’s the captain?
playing 4 lines: coaches don’t tank
trading dead weight: They’ve traded 4 roster players for picks/prospects

Again, what more could they do?

nothing…lets put the tanking idea to bed…

obvious statement here, but this Saturday’s game is the season on the line imo, it will set the tone for the last 11 games…

IF they beat the Blues, I think they’ll carry that momentum into beating the Sharks and then setting up another HUGE game vs Vegas…if they win that, then they have a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

IF they lose this Saturday, I think they’ll lose alot of confidence moving forward and then there’s a huge risk of a let down game loss vs the Sharks and that would likely finally sink their playoff chances…

The sad part is that they’ve failed pretty much everytime there’s been a huge must win game (Nashville OT win as the exception)

Speaking of Nashville, how about the run they are on? (Maybe the Wild should schedule a U2 concert in Vegas and then cancel it last minute)

The good news is Vegas lost again so now that is 6 in a row. There is still a chance.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The good news is Vegas lost again so now that is 6 in a row. There is still a chance.

??

They beat Seattle last night 3-1, the Blues & Nashville also won, so worst case scenario last night for the Wild…

Hmm, I thought I saw on Twitter that they lost and it was 6 in a row. I better find better sources.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom schmitt wrote:</div>
They could have spent more time cycling players up from Iowa, sending players that need surgery, playing 4 lines more evenly, trading away dead weight.

Cycling players up from Iowa: have you seen the 4th line?
Players getting surgery: where’s the captain?
playing 4 lines: coaches don’t tank
trading dead weight: They’ve traded 4 roster players for picks/prospects

Again, what more could they do?

Hold players out who have those minor injuries, bring up guys like Walker, play Hunt, pretty much give everyone a tryout.

The difference between where they are now, just missing the playoffs and drafting #16, and drafting top 6 is really only about 10 losses.

The idea that the Wild are not a playoff team is a hard one to swallow, but they are not a playoff team.
It’s time to except the reality.

Ok play Hunt and Walker… over who? That just means Lucchini/Letteri and Mermis/Merrill are coming out. You really think Hynes or Billy G are going to healthy scratch Kaprizov or Faber or Boldy or Ek or insert any other veteran leader all for the sake of losing? And do it at the trade deadline or after the all-star break with 25+ games left? I assume you’re on board with trading Kaprizov before July 1, because if they pulled those stunts he’s good as gone.

Tom schmitt wrote:

The idea that the Wild are not a playoff team is a hard one to swallow, but they are not a playoff team.
It’s time to except the reality.

I’ve said since before the trade deadline the playoff chances are slim to none, I fully comprehend that. Ironic “except the reality” line but apparently can’t accept the reality this team was incapable of tanking after the 3 extensions were signed in October.

For the record I loved Chris Stewart. Not necessarily the trade just the dude.
If anyone is bored today and can find a list of man hours lost this season I would be curious to see where the Wild rank.

This tank BS is driving me nuts!

Stewie was money, still is… He bought MN Hockey Camps from the Grillos and has a place in Cross Lake. One of the few if not only fighting and shootout specialists. I think his stick came up to his belly button.

There’s a blog I think called NHL injury viz that tracks man games lost. The Wild have been injured but compared to other teams I bet not as bad as we think.

tswoboda wrote:

There’s a blog I think called NHL injury viz that tracks man games lost. The Wild have been injured but compared to other teams I bet not as bad as we think.

I was trying to research this yesterday, but could not find anything from this season. Most recent was like 2018.

That sounds like the ‘man games lost’ blog or twitter. Pretty sure Injury Viz was still rolling this season

tswoboda wrote:

That sounds like the ‘man games lost’ blog or twitter. Pretty sure Injury Viz was still rolling this season

Yes that is exactly what it was. They havent posted in several years

Of course this won’t let me post links but google search “NHL Injury Viz” and the first two hits should be their blog and their twitter.

Have fun decoding the charts

I just searched injuryviz and its not scientific because they dont rank the teams and each team has a tab, but you are right the Wild dont appear to be as bad as I thought. Edmonton has been very lucky.

I would bet the Wild games lost to injury is very comparable to the rest of the league with a few exceptions of teams who were very healthy all season… now the main difference will be the quality/importance of players who were injured. The Wild lost key players for large chunks of time vs injuries spread throughout the lineup and only out for 1-3 game spurts…it was also unfortunate that the injuries happened so quickly into the start of the season, not allowing the Wild to accrue capspace or call up the guys they really wanted from Iowa…Kind of the perfect storm GMBG was probably betting against happening to help survive this the worst Parise/Suter buyout pain season…

Graph on the left has teams ranked by “Cap Hit of Injured Players”
Graph on the right, X-axis has teams ranked in order of Lost WAR of Injured Players (evolving-hockey model). Y-axis is simply team standing points/game so disregard

*Note these charts do not include “retired” LTIR players, like noted tiny defensemen Brent Seabrook and Shea Weber

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I would bet the Wild games lost is very comparable to the rest of the league with a few exceptions of teams who were very healthy all season… now the main difference will be the quality/importance of players who were injured.

Yup, this is on the right track… as shown in the graphs above. Not sure where they fall in total man games lost but as you are saying Joe that’s not really what counts… it’s the quality of those players. NHL Injury Viz shows man games lost by both Cap Hit and by WAR (per evolving-hockey)

Wild are 9th in Cap Hit of Injured Players
Wild are 4th in Lost WAR of Injured Players; only behind Vegas, Colorado, and Toronto

I will say the Wild have been able to call up whoever they want, whenever they want because they’ve had significant salary on LTIR almost the entire season. Also the guys they’re sending up and down are bad enough no one claimed them off waivers

Just look at how they willingly put the entire 4th line on waivers at the trade deadline for no apparent reason. They all went unclaimed and that pretty much defines this season

tswoboda wrote:

I will say the Wild have been able to call up whoever they want, whenever they want because they’ve had significant salary on LTIR almost the entire season.

Not during their rough start of the season (when Spurgeon got hurt but wasn’t put on LTIR) that likely cost them the most…they were scraping the barrel only allowed to pull up the sub $800k Iowa guys…Once Spurgeon went on his first IR stint they finally got some relief, but it’s not like Hunt over Mermis was going to solve any problems…like I said, the perfect storm that GMBG was betting against…he got burned and it likely cost the team 3-4 wins, oh how they could use those 6-8 points right now…

3-4 wins because they couldn’t call up Beckman and Stripper Sami?!?! Spurge went on LTIR after game 6 and they won 3 of those first 6

Maybe the perception was they couldn’t call up Beckman or Walker or Hunt due to the cap but based off the evidence of their actions, they would call up the “sub $800k guys” Letteiri Lucchini and Mermis before all of those guys regardless of the salary cap. They’ve been playing those 3 guys all season with the other 3 sitting in Iowa

This season was always a wash for me, it’s next year and moving forward that has me excited. I’m still holding out hope they’ll pull Yurov over once his KHL season is done, this could be especially true if his team wins the KHL Cup (then wtf does he need to keep him in the KHL? if his team were to lose, it then presents the excuse that he wants to stay and win a Gugarin Cup..blah blah unfinished business….blah blah)

I think GMBG is sick and tired of Jojo’s play (You know a tough/sandpaper player like Billy was is sick and tired of Jojo’s antics) and would love to give Yurov the chance to replace him next season, give Kirill another countryman to play with and hopefully keep him happy enough to sign long term…

tswoboda wrote:

3-4 wins because they couldn’t call up Beckman and Stripper Sami?!?!

I’m thinking more in terms of cap flexibility, maybe it could have allowed GMBG to make an early season trade, waiver wire pickup, etc…they had no other options available than the cheap Iowa guys…didn’t we play a few early games short a full roster due to cap issues?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

didn’t we play a few early games short a full roster due to cap issues?

You’re right I think they played 1 game short a guy. But again that all happened in the first 6 games of the season and they went 3-2-1 in that span. Not sure how they add 3 or 4 wins there.

Every time I see Jojo now I instantly think of Gus Nyquist and his 60+ points and his $1.1m bigger AAV that they couldn’t afford