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

and just to be clear, i’d pay Kirill whatever he wants… he’s the heart of the franchise and somebody you’d never question his effort on the ice…

A little late on the prospect ranking talk but found something today that is utterly comical. The 2020 Prospect Pool ranking from the Athletic. Wild ranked 14th – this is the “depleted” prospect pool Billy G inherited. The funny part is when you read the top 5 prospects from each team and in hindsight the Wild pool would be top 3 no questions asked. Shows how much of a guessing game this stuff is and how we put way too much stock in these rankings. Also how prospect depth doesn’t mean anything, it’s all about the top end hits.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1449623/2020/02/11/scott-wheelers-2020-nhl-prospect-pool-rankings/

JoeMX1825 wrote:

and just to be clear, i’d pay Kirill whatever he wants… he’s the heart of the franchise and somebody you’d never question his effort on the ice…

Agree. I have a feeling this will be a weekly topic for the entirety of this 24-25 thread

well, I agree the top star power is what bumped them upto 14th I guess, but after Kirill and Boldy that’s just a terrible group of prospects…other than Boldy, that pool was mostly built using 2nd or higher late in the round draft picks as Fletcher traded most of our 1st round picks away…I also find it funny that 2 of those picks were ultimately regained by trading away McBain after he didn’t want to sign and turned into a College UFA and getting a comp pick back for the terrible Fillip Johansson 1st round pick (I’m still convinced that pick was on purpose as payback for the Assistant GM knowing they would be fired soon after)

Agree. I have a feeling this will be a weekly topic for the entirety of this 24-25 thread
[/quote]

I wonder if Kirill gave Billy a timeframe or ultimatum for his re-signing decision? You’d think if Kirill has his mind made up to leave, he’d let Billy know and he could then get traded at anytime…

tswoboda wrote:

A little late on the prospect ranking talk but found something today that is utterly comical. The 2020 Prospect Pool ranking from the Athletic. Wild ranked 14th – this is the “depleted” prospect pool Billy G inherited. The funny part is when you read the top 5 prospects from each team and in hindsight the Wild pool would be top 3 no questions asked. Shows how much of a guessing game this stuff is and how we put way too much stock in these rankings. Also how prospect depth doesn’t mean anything, it’s all about the top end hits.

This made me chuckle a bit. People get way too wound up on draft picks and prospect rankings. Everyone wants to hear he is one of us story because we drafted him. They also hate when you trade away these guys as they are deathly afraid of losing the one.

I can remember not long ago about how good our core d prospects were and we should be set there for the next 15 years. Yet we are still drafting and trading for D.

The panthers who just raised the cup had 4 players on their team they actually drafted.

Drafting players is just 1 of many pieces of the pie. In Florida’s case it was probably a small piece.

I wonder if Kirill gave Billy a timeframe or ultimatum for his re-signing decision? You’d think if Kirill has his mind made up to leave, he’d let Billy know and he could then get traded at anytime…

I am willing to bet he has not told Billy a thing about wanting to play elsewhere at this time. What benefit would that be to KK? He isn’t an idiot and will use every piece to leverage a new contract.

Ripjiggen wrote:

What benefit would that be to KK? He isn’t an idiot and will use every piece to leverage a new contract.

Sure IF he wants to stay, i’m asking if he’s already made his mind up that he’s not, then why not tell him?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
What benefit would that be to KK? He isn’t an idiot and will use every piece to leverage a new contract.

Sure IF he wants to stay, i’m asking if he’s already made his mind up that he’s not, then why not tell him?

Again what would be the benefit to tell him now?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

well, I agree the top star power is what bumped them upto 14th I guess, but after Kirill and Boldy that’s just a terrible group of prospects

Yeah… that’s the point. Nothing matters after Kirill and Boldy, every other name on the list is irrelevant. And in hindsight they still would’ve been top 3 NHL prospect pool, could argue for 1 or 2. Prospect depth doesn’t mean a dam thing

#1 pool on that list was LA Kings… top 5 of Turcotte, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Vilardi, and Kupari

Again what would be the benefit to tell him now?
[/quote]

Why continue to play for a Team he doesn’t want to have a future with? If the team he would prefer to sign with longterm has an interest is getting him now with 1+ seasons left at $9aav GMBG would likely get a much better return vs waiting last minute and then getting pennies on the dollar…

I dont think there is any benefit in Kirill making that decision now. His focus is about the season. Let that playout and see what BG can do to get more help following this season.

Yeah… that’s the point. Nothing matters after Kirill and Boldy, every other name on the list is irrelevant. And in hindsight they still would’ve been top 3 NHL prospect pool, could argue for 1 or 2. Prospect depth doesn’t mean a dam thing

#1 pool on that list was LA Kings… top 5 of Turcotte, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Vilardi, and Kupari
[/quote]

well, 3 or 4 concussions later and Turcotte is still fighting to keep his career alive, couple of the other guys ended up being important trade pieces that ultimately failed for the Kings (PLD trade) but 5 months after this article they ended up getting Byfield who now looks like a stud…
The other 8 of that 2020 Wild prospect pool aren’t on the same planet to the talent level of our current top 10… but of course they are all 18-21 year olds and anything can happen (injuries, lack of development, etc)

LOL go down the list. Canadiens at 2 is Caufield and a then bunch of guys that make you say WHO? Carolina at 3 has almost no current NHL players on their list. Find a single team on that list you’d trade Kirill and Boldy for right now.

These lists are a joke when you look back at how it actually plays out. The Wild had Alex Khovanov at #3 in the same Tier as Matt Boldy. Then zero NHLers until you get to McBain at 12, Duhaime at 18, and Mason Shaw at “honorable mention”. Conor Dewar didn’t even make the list of 20

Khovanov entering steal territory.

tswoboda wrote:

LOL go down the list. Canadiens at 2 is Caufield and a then bunch of guys that make you say WHO? Carolina at 3 has almost no current NHL players on their list. Find a single team on that list you’d trade Kirill and Boldy for right now.

These lists are a joke when you look back at how it actually plays out. The Wild had Alex Khovanov at #3 in the same Tier as Matt Boldy. Then zero NHLers until you get to McBain at 12, Duhaime at 18, and Mason Shaw at “honorable mention”. Conor Dewar didn’t even make the list of 20

not sure what this is all about? Yeah alot of the prospects in these lists turned into nobodies… I simply said the Wild’s top 10 prospects right now are a hell of alot better than the 2020 top 10… not sure how that’s arguable?

Will this new crop turn out the same way? Time will tell….

The Kings prospects in 2020 were pretty good (having alot of centers helps) its too bad what happened to Turcotte, cant control injuries…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I simply said the Wild’s top 10 prospects right now are a hell of alot better than the 2020 top 10… not sure how that’s arguable?

I certainly hope you’re right but I highly doubt it

I bet you could swap names with descriptions and you wouldn’t know the difference.

Might be a fun game.

We pull a description from some wild prospect over the years and Joe has to guess who it is and where he would be slotted into todays lineup.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I bet you could swap names with descriptions and you wouldn’t know the difference.

Might be a fun game.

We pull a description from some wild prospect over the years and Joe has to guess who it is and where he would be slotted into todays lineup.

yeah, go get right on that…

Simple eyeball test is all that’s needed to see how this prospect pool compares with 2020’s…Buium, Yurov, Wallstedt, Ohgren, Lambos all 1st rounders and all were some of the best of their country’s age group, then you add in the 2nd rounders like Heidt, Haight, Khusnutdinov, Peart, Lorenz, Kumpeleinen… Thanks to Chuck Fletcher, the 2020 group had only one 1st rounder in Boldy and maybe 1 or 2 2nd rounders? (i’m not going to count the Filip Johnasson pick, that pick was rogue Assistant GM bull$hit – The2nd round compensatory pick we got for him turned into Reiger Lorenz…

So the percentages of this current group turning into NHL players is much much higher just based on where they were drafted, then you factor in how their development has gone early on (Buium one of the NCAA’s youngest highest scoring D in 40 years…Yurov breaking the 20 year old KHL scoring record, Wallstedt a 2 time AHL all star in 2 seasons, Ohgren making 2 Sweden WJC teams, Lambos & Stramel have struggled, no denying that…Heidt tearing up the WHL, the rest of the 2nd rounders signing AHL contracts at 20 years old…

This group has all the signs of being successful, hopefully they all continue to get better…

How many heights hates and khusnutdinovs does it take to equal one kaprizov or Boldy? Would you trade the entire current Wild prospect pool for kaprizov and Boldy?

OK don’t answer that.
Would any sane GM make that trade and still have a job?

You’re misinterpreting my argument, when have I said I wouldn’t want Kaprizov and Boldy? I know I’ve mentioned “top 10” a couple of times, but that’s just because I don’t want to keep repeating “top 10 minus the first 2 picks of Kaprizov and Boldy” I did mention earlier I was talking about the 8 prospects after Kirill and Boldy and how the 2020 3-10 prospects are just god awful compared to the 10+ we have right now in the pipeline…

Yes, I would take 1 superstar and 1 hopefully on his way to being one and 8 duds over a 10 good prospect pool anytime…I was talking about the overall levels of the top 10 prospect pools…2020 pool fell off a cliff after Boldy, the current one is pretty damn solid through the top 10…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I simply said the Wild’s top 10 prospects right now are a hell of alot better than the 2020 top 10

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I simply said the Wild’s top 10 prospects right now are a hell of alot better than the 2020 top 10

“The other 8 of that 2020 Wild prospect pool aren’t on the same planet to the talent level of our current top 10”

Can we move on to talking about the offsides challenge?

Interesting direction the Wild PR team is going this season…

t-minus 2 weeks until the start of training camp…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Interesting direction the Wild PR team is going this season…

That’s pretty clever.

That’s f%$#ed up

The Wild sure do have a creative or interesting PR team!

tswoboda wrote:

That’s f%$#ed up

yeah, that was my reaction as well… I doubt we’ll see more like it…

I want to see more of Brock and his glasses….lol… that’s still my favorite commercial…