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

Good points on the NTDP. Lots of good players coming out of there lately.

That was so bad last night that at the end of the 2nd, it felt like a win just NOT to be down 5-0 or something.

What can we do? Everybody who looks at our roster comments they’ve never seen an injury list like this and lasting for as long as this is likely to drag out. I’m guessing Boldy is also hurt and trying to play through it, anyone else thinks he’s like at 75% speed out there? He just looks off.

And then Johansen takes a puck to the face. Man, Hynes had better not ask “What else could go wrong?” He might not like the answer.

I’d love to say things can only get better, but I wonder how long Hynes can lean on Fluery without having to give him a (what would likely be only a partial) night off with a McIntyre start? I don’t think that’ll go well, but put your seat in the full upright position and fasten your seat belt, we’re not even to the all star game yet.

gim wrote:

Good points on the NTDP. Lots of good players coming out of there lately.

Correct! And a lot of them are from not so typical locations. St Louis, Arizona, Florida, etc. Yes, its because there are NHL teams there and I am quite sure it helps with them putting money and such into youth programs, but that is fun when you see kids like Auston Mathews come from AZ, Duhaime from some place in Florida or the Tkachuk boys from STL (I think there are a couple others too from there).

Fleury is a gamer and he has been pretty good even through these losses. Trouble is we just cannot score and that isnt surprising. We are essentially playing without $51M in salary right now. I couldnt believe it when they showed we have what 6 guys on IR right now? Sheesh. I realize some of that is to allow for callups, but that means those guys are out at least 3 games right? We know Brodin is out a while, Gus is likely 2 months from what I think I heard yesterday. This will be a tough stretch.
Wallstedt should be able to return and after a few games in Iowa he will be up here I am sure.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Perfetti had a mic that night so it was going to come out anyway.

Russo just put out an interview with Hartman and I’m telling ya this Perfetti kid just put a target on his back. Not just Hartman and The Wild but players around the league aren’t going to like that he tattled to the media.

“I talked to multiple Jets players during the third period, and he told everyone,” Hartman said. “He’s acting like, ‘I didn’t say anything. They made me tell them.’ He f—ing told everyone right away. And then to bring it up into the media, whatever. I’m not going to apologize for high-sticking him. I didn’t see Dillon apologize for cross-checking Kirill.”

I don’t mind if they continue to lose to better our chances to get a top 5 draft pick. Yes, I realize we aren’t even 1/2 way through the season yet, but lets be honest with ourselves, we’re not that good of a team this season and after we get through the next 2-3 weeks before most/all of our current guys hurt likely come back, we’ll always be dealing with some injuries and we don’t have the cap flexibility to properly remedy them, like the first weeks of the season when we were counting pennies to figure out which Iowa Wild player was the cheapest option to recall…

Even when you look at our recent winning streak before this losing streak, you can argue the 2 good wins right after Hynes took over came from the typical “new coach bump” but then there’s a win against a JV Chicago and 2 shootout and 2 OT wins that could have easily been losses mixed in between a few other good wins where Gus & Flower played incredible and stole 2 points…Kind of smoke and mirrors imo…

Now i’m not saying the Wild should tank, i’m just saying they need to be very smart over the next month and shouldn’t bring back Kaprizov, Zuccy, Brodin, Foligno and Spurgeon until they are COMPLETELY HEALTHY to not risk further injury that then spills into next season…we’ve already seen how Spurgeon has yo-yo’d in/out of the lineup all season with the same injury, that just increases the risk of it getting worse and potentially turning chronic, we still have 3 more seasons with him being 35+ years old locked in at $7.5 aav with a full NMC…so manage your assets!

This current skid has all the signs of turning into a prolonged one and we’ve already seen how even having 6 wins in a row can barely move you up the standings, so another losing skid the next few weeks can basically take you out of playoff contention no matter how good you play the last few months of the season…

I absolutely have belief in the future of this team with Wallstedt, Yurov, Khusnutdinov, Ohgren and Lambos all coming up in the next 1-2 years, but the writing was on the wall the past 2 years that THIS season was going to be the most difficult with the max buyouts hit and miniscule league cap bump and now add on the historic injury issues and it’s looking more and more like a lost season with the only bright spots being Rossi and Faber have answered all questions about their readiness to take over a top NHL lineup spot and the high potential of getting a top 5 pick in another good NHL draft year (you want to be in the top 10 for a really good player)

tswoboda wrote:

Seriously though I think USA hockey membership has skyrocketed in that time frame, so to me that really is the driving force. More participation = more elite athletes playing hockey = more elite hockey players.

It’s pretty crazy even in MN now. Used to be if you had a few D1 guys, you were heading to St Paul. Now Minnetonka has, like 9-10 D1 guys on their team this year. And almost every legit AA program with St Paul aspirations has a few D1 guys it seems like. And it feels like it’s growing by the year, both in popularity and top end skill level.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Seriously though I think USA hockey membership has skyrocketed in that time frame, so to me that really is the driving force. More participation = more elite athletes playing hockey = more elite hockey players.

It’s pretty crazy even in MN now. Used to be if you had a few D1 guys, you were heading to St Paul. Now Minnetonka has, like 9-10 D1 guys on their team this year. And almost every legit AA program with St Paul aspirations has a few D1 guys it seems like. And it feels like it’s growing by the year, both in popularity and top end skill level.

I think the biggest factor is the training these kids do now. At the third year mite level our association is already having the kids do dryland at Acceleration. Where they skate on treadmills and practice stick handling and shooting drills. We also have summer program were the kids skate 4 days a week in the summer and 2 days of dryland.

Just 25 years when I was kid a week or two of summer camp was typical. Also they start these AAA programs now at 8 years old. That use to be 12 or 13 back then.

season saved, Wild called up Adam Raska from Iowa? who the F is Adam Raska?!?

tswoboda wrote:

lol, double post at the same time, we’re on the same wavelength…too funny!

but seriously…who is that guy?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

lol, double post at the same time, we’re on the same wavelength…

lol you’re dialed in today, Joe

He’s the contract thrown in from the Addison trade. I had to read the tweet 5 times because I thought for sure it was an Iowa Wild tweet saying they called him up to Iowa from the Heartlanders

tswoboda wrote:

I thought for sure it was an Iowa Wild tweet saying they called him up to Iowa from the Heartlanders

I did the same…do you have the other half of this amulet?

Justin riegel wrote:

Just 25 years when I was kid a week or two of summer camp was typical. Also they start these AAA programs now at 8 years old. That use to be 12 or 13 back then.

There are definitely a lot more kids playing “AAA” (let’s call it summer hockey) tournaments now but there was 8 year old AAA spring/summer tournaments back 25 years ago.

This is a bigger topic but the summer hockey tournament stuff is 99% a pay to play money grab and does next to nothing in making better hockey players. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing… kids love it and have a lot of fun, but it’s not pushing their development forward.

tswoboda wrote:

This is a bigger topic but the summer hockey tournament stuff is 99% a pay to play money grab and does next to nothing in making better hockey players

I absolutely see this too and it seems to mean more to the parents being able to show off their kids AAA team clothing at association games & practices than the kids giving a crap…Playing multiple sports during the different seasons is what’s more important for kids imo, once they get to the bantam level is when the extra hockey work (strength & skill progression) during the offseason starts to pay off imo…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
This is a bigger topic but the summer hockey tournament stuff is 99% a pay to play money grab and does next to nothing in making better hockey players

I absolutely see this too and it seems to mean more to the parents being able to show off their kids AAA team clothing at association games & practices than the kids giving a crap…Playing multiple sports during the different seasons is what’s more important for kids imo, once they get to the bantam level is when the extra hockey work (strength & skill progression) during the offseason starts to pay off imo…

This might be true for 90% of the population, but for the kids that have at least D-1 potential they would be far behind if they started only at Bantams. multiple sports these days means other sports alongside of hockey as well. Personally I do not believe in the AAA thing until Pewees, but i do like that the kids can go to hockey day camp instead of school program during the summer and play other sports in the evenings. Plus these camps also include other sports during the day, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, ninja courses, and they gold twice a week. Really wish they had that kind of program when i was kid.

All I was saying is the AAA tournament stuff isn’t making better hockey players.

This is getting into the weeds now but if you think the US and other countries are catching up to Canada because of training then you need to familiarize with what kids in Canada are doing. The GTA youth hockey scene is absolutely nuts. If anything the USA hockey model and minnesota community based model are completely pushing back against that. Less games, more practice, less exclusive, more accessible, less serious, more fun. And that’s all to drive participation up and get more kids playing hockey which in turn gets more cream of the crop athletes playing hockey. At a certain age yes it becomes more intense for those kids who have the natural ability and drive to have a future in it. But the reason for the USA hockey boom all starts with growing numbers and participation.

/sigh, Gabe Perrault scores for Team USA…dammit Judd!

and then Perrault wins a faceoff perfectly clean that directly leads to a USA goal… dammit Judd!

Toronto is set to extend William Nylander at over $11 million aav, that will give them 4 players at $11 million or over (Tavares at $11, Marner at $10.9 and Mathews at $13.25) for at least next season.

Marner will then likely re-sign for $12+, I wonder how much of a haircut Tavares will then take on his final contract?….just unreal…

tswoboda wrote:

All I was saying is the AAA tournament stuff isn’t making better hockey players.

This is getting into the weeds now but if you think the US and other countries are catching up to Canada because of training then you need to familiarize with what kids in Canada are doing. The GTA youth hockey scene is absolutely nuts. If anything the USA hockey model and minnesota community based model are completely pushing back against that. Less games, more practice, less exclusive, more accessible, less serious, more fun. And that’s all to drive participation up and get more kids playing hockey which in turn gets more cream of the crop athletes playing hockey. At a certain age yes it becomes more intense for those kids who have the natural ability and drive to have a future in it. But the reason for the USA hockey boom all starts with growing numbers and participation.

Don’t get me started on AAA hockey model. If you think it is a good thing you are wrong. If you think it is anything but making money you are wrong. Especially for kids that are pee wee or below.
Don’t ask me how I know.:(

BigWerm wrote:

It’s pretty crazy even in MN now. Used to be if you had a few D1 guys, you were heading to St Paul. Now Minnetonka has, like 9-10 D1 guys on their team this year. And almost every legit AA program with St Paul aspirations has a few D1 guys it seems like. And it feels like it’s growing by the year, both in popularity and top end skill level.

I think the Skippers have 8 this season, which is a lot. They are the defending AA champs. They also play in the toughest conference in the state though, against the likes of Wayzata, Edina, and EP every season. Wouldn’t surprise me if they won again this season.

Maybe Bedard should encase himself in bubblewrap if he can’t be hit? The poor Hawks player who felt obligated to fight for him got his face worked with some cross-checks…Then papa Foligno came in to earn his paycheck…This game is bonkers sofar…

https://x.com/sportsnet/status/1743432460971774274?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

The comments are rich in that thread. First one I saw “what if that was his son” had me in stitches. That chick from TSN from the other night.

No love for USA winning gold? What a game it was and dominating.

For some reason I thought the gold medal match was tomorrow. Congrats on the gold

Charlie Stramel scored his 3rd goal of the season tonight (game winner).

Felt he was owed some love with all the Gabe Perrault posts lately.

CaptainMusky wrote:

No love for USA winning gold? What a game it was and dominating.

I watched all of it, good tight game until USA pulled away, loved Lane Hudson fighting the tall Swede at the end!

That little feller seems to have grown up I know T is big on him. He’s got skill for sure.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Maybe Bedard should encase himself in bubblewrap if he can’t be hit? The poor Hawks player who felt obligated to fight for him got his face worked with some cross-checks…Then papa Foligno came in to earn his paycheck…This game is bonkers sofar…

The dude broke Bedard’s jaw.

Where are these comments when Middsy Maroon and Hartman all fight or take a sussy for Kirill?