2024/2025 NHL/WILD Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

New year, new thread…last year of the buyout pain!

Deano was just hired by Columbus, hopefully GMBG is already on the phone with him offering his adopted son Freddy up for return….

First. Let’s go!

What did last years thread end up making it to? I think the year before was 144 pages…

It was 190 some pages.
Freddy Hockey to CBJ confirmed…

I made it on the first page!

Wild are going 40-35-7 by the way

I’d take that record

That’s 87 points, same as they had last season and not even close to the playoffs

Get that sht outta here!

Think I’ll wait until at least September before making a prediction. July seems like summer.

Who is the Wilds head coach? Are they sticking with the re-tread?

Yep John Hynes is locked in for a couple more seasons I think

I’m excited to see how Boldy progresses this year and maybe get an idea what his ceiling is… is he a superstar Rantanen level player? Certainly could be, he does it in spurts every year. For perspective Boldy will finally be the same age this season that Kaprizov was in his rookie NHL season and the NHL production is not far off at all. I feel like we’re desensitized to how good Boldy is/could be because he arrived a year after we got our first true superstar here.

Kaprizov rookie 82 game pace 40-36-76 (23 year old)
Boldy career 82 game pace 30-39-69 (20,21,22 year old seasons)

tswoboda wrote:

Yep John Hynes is locked in for a couple more seasons I think

I’m excited to see how Boldy progresses this year and maybe get an idea what his ceiling is… is he a superstar Rantanen level player? Certainly could be, he does it in spurts every year. For perspective Boldy will finally be the same age this season that Kaprizov was in his rookie NHL season and the NHL production is not far off at all. I feel like we’re desensitized to how good Boldy is/could be because he arrived a year after we got our first true superstar here.

Kaprizov rookie 82 game pace 40-36-76 (23 year old)
Boldy career 82 game pace 30-39-69 (20,21,22 year old seasons)

The Athletic just did a 10 best & worst NHL contracts for 2024/2025 Season, Boldy was #10 best (the article really pumps his tires)

ZERO Wild players in the 10 worst…
at least when GMBG potentially gives out a bad contract, its typically on the lower pay scale level and not a huge franchise anchor for years…

The 2 things I want Boldy to improve on are his 1 timers (he’s still dreadful at them, so many whiffs) and his consistency (he’ll score 8 goals in 5 games, then disappear for 6 games) the latter is pretty common for young players and this is the year he needs to break that pattern…

35+ goals should be his season floor moving forward…. If we can get more top 6 talent to get him on the 2nd line and not face the other team’s top D pair 5-5 should help alot too…

Getting passed the 2nd round this season.

tswoboda wrote:

That’s 87 points, same as they had last season and not even close to the playoffs

Get that sht outta here!

HOw have they improved? THe only way they could be better is if they dont have all the stinking injuries they had last year otherwise it looks to be much the same this year to me as last year.

CaptainMusky wrote:

HOw have they improved? THe only way they could be better is if they dont have all the stinking injuries they had last year otherwise it looks to be much the same this year to me as last year.

That rationale seems reasonable to me too.

I think you also have to look at the competition in the division. Clearly the Stars and Avalanche are the class of the central right now. And Winnipeg also had a very good season. I don’t see the Wild passing any of those three teams next season in the standings – namely Dallas and Colorado.

I think they’ll have a better season than last year…I think we’ll finally see them get off to a normal start vs the previous years extreme struggles…

Spurgeon’s health will be the biggest factor, if he returns back to normal that’s a huge improvement vs last year’s need to play Goose/Merrill, we also MUST get better production from the 2nd line specifically, but also the 3rd and 4th line need to chip in goals every now and then, we got basically nothing last year other than the Dewar game vs Nashville, that’s why I see them keeping Boldy and Kirill split up 5-5…

I think they end up in the low/mid 90’s in terms of points…the biggest Wildcard is if they still plan on making a play for a top 6 wing like a Patrick Liane before the season starts…he’s a huge risk/reward gamble…his RH 1 timer could be deadly on the PP though and a big difference maker…

I really think GMBG will find a way to unload Freddy to the Blue Jackets, Deano will want to have his guy…there will need to be another decent salary player going with to make the capspace work if Liane is coming back…TS suggested including GusBus, he’s the right money value and has no trade protection…

Lastly, special teams improvement is a must…especially on the PK where they did invest a hefty contract in Trenin…i’m also interested to see what the new assistant coaches impact can be now that they’ve had an offseason to figure things out…

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
That’s 87 points, same as they had last season and not even close to the playoffs

Get that sht outta here!

HOw have they improved? THe only way they could be better is if they dont have all the stinking injuries they had last year otherwise it looks to be much the same this year to me as last year.

You don’t think Yakov Trenin is worth at least 15 standing points?

Getting right back to 100+ points this season like the 3 seasons before last LFG

tswoboda wrote:

Getting right back to 100+ points this season like the 3 seasons before last LFG

Well that is what I always hope for but I am just not seeing it. THey did have a resurgence under Hynes for sure so maybe there is hope, but like Gim said the teams they will be chasing havent gotten any worse except maybe Dallas since Pavelski retired.

Colorado will be interesting to follow based on what happens with both Nichushkin and Landeskog. Both may never play in the NHL again. Or they could end up playing for them next season.

That team will be fine as long as they have Mackinnon Makar and Rantanen, just a tough cap situation they’re in with 2 of their best forwards and $15+ million in limbo

Dallas is going to be good for a long time, Nashville will be interesting, and Winnipeg sucks. So pretty much status quo in the Central, it’s a tough division every season.

Dallas will be the toast of the division the next few years (accounting for the previously said Avs issues) it will be interesting to see what Johnston and Harley get for extensions…

Avs will probably be in the market for Liane when Nichushkin and Landeskog hit LTIR…he’s the biggest name out there and likely won’t take much to get him…

tswoboda wrote:

Dallas is going to be good for a long time, Nashville will be interesting, and Winnipeg sucks. So pretty much status quo in the Central, it’s a tough division every season.

Nashville going with the aging veteran route, they have a 1-2 year window imo…Winnipeg is a mess of not knowing what direction to go, they have key aging players and not many prospects coming, the Kings/DuBios deal really helped them avoid completely collapsing…Blues are wasting the best years of Kyrou and Thomas with their slow rebuild…
Utah is the team to watch out for in 1-2 years if just some of their top prospects pan out (they have so many)

I think the Wild will be in the same boat as Utah IF they can re-sign Kirill for 8 years…if Kirill doesn’t re-sign, that at least opens up $11-$13 million to spend on free agents to put around Boldy/Ek/Yurov/Heidt/Ohgren

tswoboda wrote:

Winnipeg sucks.

They finished second with 110 pts last year. How have they gotten worse? THey have one of the best goalies out there.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Winnipeg sucks.

They finished second with 110 pts last year. How have they gotten worse? THey have one of the best goalies out there.

Just a gut feeling on them. They bought out the Pride of Cathedral High School, vibes are at an all time low. I’ve never been a believer in Winnipeg since Big Buff retired.

The real point here is the central has been a dogfight for 10+ years so having to play good teams is nothing new, it’s the same as every other season.

You could certainly be right but I dont see them dropping off the map. I still think they finish in the top 3

tswoboda wrote:

since Big Buff retired.

I play in a weekly men’s adult hockey league on Sunday nights from late March through early June. The last week I played in early June, the other team had a sub. It was that guy.

He was freaking huge. He’s like 7 feet tall on skates lol. Skated circles around us. Whenever he had the puck, you couldn’t take it from him because of his size (obviously its a no checking league).

We made him switch teams halfway through and then the other team got dominated. I thought it looked like him in warmups, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Then someone later confirmed it was him.

Utah could go either way. They still don’t have much of a roster, but it’s gotten way better and they’ve over achieved under Tourigny.

I could also see them being worse than last year because they’re losing the big advantage they had the last couple seasons… Mullet arena. Their home record at Mullet was as good as playoff teams, seemed like they had a legit advantage there but that whole clown show is gone now.

That would have been wild Gim. Its crazy just how good NHLers are even well after they retire. My buddy from college who was from Edina was playing at the outdoor rink one day and a bunch of former North Stars joined. He said they would just toy with anyone literally skating circles around them and you could never catch them or steal the puck. He was a pretty decent player himself, but obviously not that level.

He was so good at using his body to protect the puck because of his size. Wasn’t a speed demon by any means but there was nothing you could do to take the puck away unless you tried to hook or trip him and even that didn’t really work either.

Anyone who even sniffed the NHL will dominate average men’s leagues like a bantam playing against squirts

I dont think I would hook or trip big Buff! LOL

I’m looking for a banner year from Rossi so we can finally take out the “trade him” trash. Rossi had so many iron ringers and bad bounces last year and I feel like this year he’ll finish more. I think Rossi should be a 30+ goal guy and a 60 point man and then like Ek before him, all the trade talk BS goes away and all the naysayers pretend like they never wanted to trade him in the first place.

The main X factor this coming season is which goaltending crew shows up? Is it the A team or the C team? It could be either. Does Wallstadt come in looking like an NHL starter or are we back to future with another development year for him? Trading Gus Bus IMO is high risk, low reward and if Billy Gee Wiz pulls the trigger on that trade he better hope it’s a home run or it’ll be cited as a key factor in his firing.

I totally agree Boldy needs a banner year.