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

“After playing Merrill and now Goose over Mermis for the last half of the season, why would Mermis not look elsewhere?
It’s time to find out who they want between Merrill, Mermis,Hunt.
I am assuming they will play Faber/Brodin, Spurgeon/Middleton, Bogosian/Chisolm.
That leaves an audition for the #7 defenseman spot.
Merrill is still under contract for next year, so they will need to move him if they want to keep someone else.
And I don’t know how they will do that.”

Mermis is a 30yo AHL defensemen that is a UFA. Why would you sign him?

You don’t want your 7th D to be a guy that is 21 and can still get a lot of minutes in the AHL vs sitting in the press box most nights. Hunt. That’s just not how you develop.

So yeah Merril is your guy for the 7 spot. If an injury happens that is when a younger player like Hunt comes up and mixes in.

The debate over the 7th dman is great however. LOL

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
They are also set at D through next season.

likely true although I think they would prefer to move Merrill and replace him with Hunt…

You think they want a 21yo sitting in the press box most nights?

This is Deamon Hunt we’re talking about…his ceiling the next 4 years at a minimum (if they extend Middleton next year) is 6th or maybe 5th defenseman and odds are they would want a veteran or 2 in those slots if the Wild is building for cup runs…

His career projection is more like Dakota Mermis than anything else… I just think they are sick and tired with Merrill’s play and if they can find a taker, they would move him this offseason.

I also dont think Chisholm is a sure-thing next season…

You don’t want your 7th D to be a guy that is 21 and can still get a lot of minutes in the AHL vs sitting in the press box most nights. Hunt. That’s just not how you develop.

So yeah Merril is your guy for the 7 spot. If an injury happens that is when a younger player like Hunt comes up and mixes in.

Good point, it would be nice to get an upgrade over Merrill, but it could be worse as well.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

His career projection is more like Dakota Mermis than anything else… I just think they are sick and tired with Merrill’s play and if they can find a taker, they would move him this offseason.

Well you have 5 years to decide if he is Mermis.

He has just as much chance to develop as any of the other 20 and 21 year old d men in Iowa. Don’t think any of them are a sure thing or slated into a roster spot with this team.

Tom schmitt wrote:

You don’t want your 7th D to be a guy that is 21 and can still get a lot of minutes in the AHL vs sitting in the press box most nights. Hunt. That’s just not how you develop.

So yeah Merril is your guy for the 7 spot. If an injury happens that is when a younger player like Hunt comes up and mixes in.

Good point, it would be nice to get an upgrade over Merrill, but it could be worse as well.

Technically they did. Bogosian is there upgrade.
Remember Merrill was their 6th D on opening night.
Think of Merrill as replacing Goose next year for 800k less.

If I hear one more mention of Bedard’s +/- im going to lose it

brandmoney wrote:

If I hear one more mention of Bedard’s +/- im going to lose it

its a big wart to ignore…Carter just mentioned its the 3rd worst in Blackhawks HISTORY, thats alot of history…

Its obvious watching the game the kid pays zero attention to defense, so its easy to see how -38 happens

He can sure shoot the puck though!

Oh man, that was a dirty assist by Faber…

I’ve been watching the Chicago feed of the game. They showed a stat of the rookie scoring records for the Hawks. Bedard is 7th right now. What stood out to me is in the 1980-81 Denis Savard had 75 points (3rd on the list) and Daryl Sutter had 62 points (6th on the list). That’s 2 guys putting up a bunch of points in their rookie year on the same team.

Huge confidence builder for the future of Wild goaltending!

Looked like 2 rookies showed up today, only thing I noticed of Bedard was the shine from his fishbowl…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Huge confidence builder for the future of Wild goaltending!

Cuts his goals against in half.

We wouldn’t get anything for Merrill in a trade so they need to move on from him and make way for one of the kids. Take our lumps which I doubt will be few because he’s terrible and move on. Worst case just waive him.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Cuts his goals against in half.

LoL

CaptainMusky wrote:

We wouldn’t get anything for Merrill in a trade so they need to move on from him and make way for one of the kids. Take our lumps which I doubt will be few because he’s terrible and move on. Worst case just waive him.

He is not blocking any kid. He is their 7th dman for short term injury. Anything longer for a day or two they will call up a 21-22yo.
Who do you think will handle spot starts better a vet that sits or a rookie sitting 7-10 games in a row.

You could argue Chisholm is blocking one of those guys but he basically is one of those guys at 23.
Probably one of the reasons they claimed him in the first place.

With Goose and Mermis playing 78 total games this year one or two of those kids will play plenty of games next year.

One of the more impressive and not talked about stats for Faber and Rossi, they’ve both played in EVERY game this season, the only ones on the team to do so..

JoeMX1825 wrote:

One of the more impressive and not talked about stats for Faber and Rossi, they’ve both played in EVERY game this season, the only ones on the team to do so..

I wish you would have waited till seasons end to throw out that stat.

Charlie Stramel going to Michigan State next season via the portal…

options for the Wild with him:

1) He does well next season and they agree to sign him to his ELC so to not risk losing him as a College UFA (he likely wont have power to demand burning the 1st year of his ELC)
2) He doesn’t do well next season and they both agree to push his signing decision till after his senior season..
3) He plays well enough his senior season and the Wild and Charlie agree to sign
4) After his senior season if he doesn’t want to sign with the Wild and would rather be a College Free Agent, GMBG could try to trade him before August deadline, but I think the compensatory pick route is better (next option)
5) The Wild could be granted a 2nd round compensatory pick if he doesn’t sign and isn’t traded, but I THINK it’s different than the Filip Johansson compensatory pick we got in 2022 (4 years after we drafted him) in terms of timing when we would get the pick (European vs NCAA player)…

Omg… Flower’s revenge on Duhaime….

https://x.com/avalanche/status/1777473374857449904?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

LMAO

Why Duhaime just didnt get rides or take an Uber to the rink until the Wild left town? Dumb…

Really cool Becoming Wild episode that focuses on Player Development, I still find it hilarious we have Cody McCleod as a development coach….

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Charlie Stramel going to Michigan State next season via the portal…

I like this move. Sparty has a bit of a resurrection season after being downright terrible since the big 10 formed 10 years ago. They were a perennial cellar dwellar. They did it mostly through the portal too, not recruits. But that’s another topic.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Why Duhaime just didnt get rides or take an Uber to the rink until the Wild left town? Dumb…

Dewey1 doesnt strike me as someone who is real smart.

Wild fans need to start cheering for the Kraken, Flames, Sabres, Devils, Flyers, Capitals, Penguins, Islanders and Red Wings.

All of these teams are either just above or just below the Wild in terms of points with 4-6 games to go…The Wild could end up drafting anywhere between 16 and 9 depending on how these teams finish (before any lottery luck)

Obviously you want to finish in the bottom 10 to even have a chance at getting the #1 pick (3.5-5%)

Obviously you want to finish in the bottom 10 to even have a chance at getting the #1 pick (3.5-5%)
And that’s why they should have started playing their 4th line more much earlier.

Tom schmitt wrote:

Obviously you want to finish in the bottom 10 to even have a chance at getting the #1 pick (3.5-5%)
And that’s why they should have started playing their 4th line more much earlier.

They would need to play their 3rd line more not the 4th. Jojo and Freddy don’t do anything.

Tom schmitt wrote:

And that’s why they should have started playing their 4th line more much earlier.

Would that be the 4th line they traded for picks or the 4th line that passed through waivers after coming up from the AHL?

yeah, we’ve beat this dead horse enough, they’ve quietly tanked pretty well the past few weeks (barely beat the JV teams, lost to pretty much everyone else) hell they even gave a point back by losing in OT with the goalie pulled, who’s going to tell Kirill to stop playing? nobody…

5 games left and they will be officially eliminated from the playoffs with either 1 Kings/Vegas win or any Wild loss (likely tonight) Sharks and Kraken are the 2 games where they could get points, the other 3 should be losses…

We need to get into the bottom 11 to likely get one of the top Defensive prospects…that’s and finally getting some f’ing lottery luck is all i’m hoping for at this point…

Dewey’s apology video to Flower… lol

https://x.com/mnwild/status/1777772900008751319?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw