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

Very entertaining game and as I type this Florida scores. I don’t want them to win but both teams are playing very well.

Lol, TV guys mentioning every possible jinx after the 2nd period…

Kulikov we didn’t need him. They’re praising him. Yeah he’s looked good but he is what he is…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Kulikov we didn’t need him. They’re praising him. Yeah he’s looked good but he is what he is…

oh he’s had several “Wild version of Kulikov” moments tonight though…

Great game 7, i’m happy for Florida after losing last year…

McDavid is the Conn Smythe winner. When was the last time a player from the losing team won the playoff MVP?

Nice to see a southern state like Florida get a 4th cup. Makes me feel all warm a fuzzy being from the state of hockey and never really getting a sniff at one.

Paul Fenton just lifted the cup…. Now that one hits different for Wild fans…

Can’t ask for a more exciting game 7. Florida was back on their game.

gimruis wrote:

McDavid is the Conn Smythe winner. When was the last time a player from the losing team won the playoff MVP?

yeah its pretty rare… if Bobrovzy hadn’t fallen apart in games 4-6 he would have won it… McDavid’s playoff scoring was worthy of it, but probably still should have gone to Bob though, especially in Florida…

I looked it up.

Only 5 players in the entire history of the Stanley Cup have been named playoff MVP as a member of the losing team.

The most recent one was in 2003: Jean-Sebastian Giguere (Anaheim), losing to the New Jersey Devils in 7 games.

It was a great game! I too was hoping McJesus would get his name on the cup. Maybe next time. Florida was clearly the better team. Bobrovzy was stellar & that was all Florida needed.

I heard something last night that this was the longest season ever played. The playoffs need to be reconstructed.. It’s July in less than a week. I know it’ll never happen, but I’d love to see a 3-5-7-7 game series’ for the playoffs.

Thanks for the entertainment fellas! 14 pages short of 200. Looking forward to the next seasons thread & the Draft Friday night!!

The problem with season length is I think it will only get longer with Olympics, 4 Nations and other tournaments they have planned moving forward. I dont think they’ll change the playoff format as they love to hype it as the toughest in pro sports…

The only thing that would make sense is shortening the regular season to like 70 games but that then messes with all of the scoring records…

Senators trade for Ullmark, kind of surprising… GusBus is probably the next best goalie option to trade for now…

New season starts on July 1st, we still have time left to get to 200 pages!

What a season, the Wild sucked but the rest of the league was grade A entertainment this year right up to the end. Hats off to Florida, they were the best team through all 4 rounds.

Completely agree finishing the playoffs week from July is a joke.

If I remember correctly, the 2021-2022 season was also very long. The Avalanche ended up beating Tampa one week before the 4th of July, but that was also due to a bunch of delayed games in Canada because of their strict covid policy that had to be made up after the end of the regularly scheduled end of the season.

I agree though, the season takes too long. I think the final would have ended sooner had they been closer geographically. They gave them an extra day for travel each time because it was over 2500 miles each way (and it went 7 games of course).

Don’t think they’ll be lessening the games. They could certainly compress the schedule a little more though.

gimruis wrote:

They could certainly compress the schedule a little more though.

The NHLPA would never allow that…there’s no real good answer, fans want to see things like the 4 Nations Tournament/Olympics so there’s no real way around not having a long season…maybe get rid of the stupid bye week, but again the NHLPA would likely fight that…

Let’s start a draft discussion…

1) Will the Wild stay at pick #13? I see zero chance of moving up now, if anything there’s a slight chance they trade back 1-2 spots and try to nab an extra 2nd round pick if they think the kid they want will still be there…(somebody like Brandsegg-Nygard at pick 14 or 15)
The Hockey News just did a mock draft this morning and had the Wild taking Konsta Helenius at #13, they had Philly taking Zeev Buium at #12….

2) Will Rossi get traded? I still think this could happen, say 15% chance, Rutger McGroarty’s name was just in the news as not wanting to sign with Winnipeg…Winnipeg would have likely drafted Rossi next pick if Wild didn’t…

3) Will GusBUs get traded? I think this all depends if GMBG wants to increase his capspace to go after a bigger UFA forward or not, I don’t foresee the trade return being worth it … I do think there will be interest for GusBus…

The easy answer is start the season earlier. College hockey starts at roughly the same time as the NHL but gets done 2 months earlier. Move the NHL season up 3-4 weeks and they’d be handing out the Cup around Memorial Weekend… perfect.

The only reason they don’t start earlier is because it means more games during the NFL Season. I’d absolutely want more games during football to not have the most important games of the season after the freaking summer solstice.

Paul Maurice’s cup celebration was pretty awesome. Crazy that he’s been coaching so long that he was the head coach of the Hartford Whalers (!!!) … and yet somehow he’s still only 57 years old

tswoboda wrote:

Paul Maurice’s cup celebration was pretty awesome. Crazy that he’s been coaching so long that he was the head coach of the Hartford Whalers (!!!) … and yet somehow he’s still only 57 years old

Wow that is incredible!

tswoboda wrote:

Paul Maurice’s cup celebration was pretty awesome. Crazy that he’s been coaching so long that he was the head coach of the Hartford Whalers (!!!) … and yet somehow he’s still only 57 years old

Yeah, his post game comments/interviews will go down as some of the best ever…hard to believe he bounced around so much, he seems like a really good coach, but that’s probably why he always got re-hired…

And then there were ten. Florida took themselves off the list of never having won a Stanley Cup leaving only ten teams never having done so.
Who do you think will be the next team to take themselves off the list?
I will go with Nashville.

Vancouver Canucks
Buffalo Sabres
Ottawa Senators
San Jose Sharks
Nashville Predators
Columbus Blue Jackets
Minnesota Wild
Seattle Kraken
Winnipeg Jets
Arizona Coyotes/Utah Hockey Club

That’s not much turnaround time for those two teams. They get what, like 2 months and change before preseason stuff starts up? Can’t imagine that’s easy for anyone needing something more than a minor surgery.

Ice Cap wrote:

Who do you think will be the next team to take themselves off the list?

Id go with either Nashville or the Jets.

You know I’m going to be a homer and go with the Wild on this list. I think in 2 or 3 years we can be serious contenders. Obviously a lot of things have to come into play with player development, keeping Karil, and some additions. But in true forum fashion in Billy G I Trust!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

July 1st is the big day I’m watching for regarding the Oilers…if Leon DOESN’T sign his extension on July 1st, then the odds that he wants out of Edmonton are pretty high imo, you gotta think his agent and the Oilers have been talking about this for awhile now and if he wants to stay how would they NOT have a deal ready to sign…

Going back to this earlier post. Absolutely right Joe, NOW this situation gets really interesting.

Now that Edmonton lost the cup and the play by play guys were absolutely all over Leon last night for his lack of contribution. Even going so far as saying that he should be on the third line you and his lack of production.

I have to wonder if a lot of butthurt in Edmonton is going to get focused on Leon and he’s going to be made the Fall Guy for this loss. Obviously they love McDavid more than anyone since gretzky. So he’s not going to be blamed for anything.

Does Edmonton make a move to trade Leon and get some middle lineup players? It seems like they were just grinding that first line into dust last night. They just don’t have any faith in the middle of their lineup.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ice Cap wrote:</div>
Who do you think will be the next team to take themselves off the list?

Id go with either Nashville or the Jets.

Are the Jets even staying in Winnipeg? I thought there were some rumors they might leave that town? Not saying that will change their chances to win, I was just curious if them moves was still a possibility.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
July 1st is the big day I’m watching for regarding the Oilers…if Leon DOESN’T sign his extension on July 1st, then the odds that he wants out of Edmonton are pretty high imo, you gotta think his agent and the Oilers have been talking about this for awhile now and if he wants to stay how would they NOT have a deal ready to sign…

Going back to this earlier post. Absolutely right Joe, NOW this situation gets really interesting.

Now that Edmonton lost the cup and the play by play guys were absolutely all over Leon last night for his lack of contribution. Even going so far as saying that he should be on the third line you and his lack of production.

I have to wonder if a lot of butthurt in Edmonton is going to get focused on Leon and he’s going to be made the Fall Guy for this loss. Obviously they love McDavid more than anyone since gretzky. So he’s not going to be blamed for anything.

Does Edmonton make a move to trade Leon and get some middle lineup players? It seems like they were just grinding that first line into dust last night. They just don’t have any faith in the middle of their lineup.

I think Leon’s ego doesn’t want to play 2nd fiddle anymore to McJesus…so the Oilers will have a year to trade him and Leon will be able to pick his team (thus limiting the Oilers negotiating power) as no team is going to give up assets to get him without assurance he’ll sign an 8 year deal with them…

When do they announce injuries? Leon fell off a cliff after the 2nd round, I think we’ll find out there was a good reason for that.

Also think he’ll extend with Edmonton long term, but I do love reading all these dramatic fan fiction stories about him. Keep them coming, let’s hear even more juicy details

I wonder if Leon is hurt or just got worn out from the playoffs. Last night when they showed his stats for the different rounds it made me think that he must be playing hurt.