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

That was some phone booth material there

Doubt they play for the shootout against Shesterkin

Oh well, a point is a point. Better than none.

Tough OT shift for Faber

I wish I could criticize Faber and Rossi, but they both played perfect games, especially in OT…

The streak stays at 100% only Boldy hate…

tswoboda wrote:

Tough OT shift for Faber

How dare you.

Rossi and Faber defending on the ot goal were far from stellar.

A points a point and ever point counts.

Freddy and Jojo had good games.

This Kirill recovery timeline has been so strange… Russo reported that he won’t even START skating now for a minimum of 2 more weeks…minimum…

They typically skate guys by themselves for a week, then take another week to fit them into full practices (which the Wild won’t have with games every other night)

That’s getting dang close to the end of the regular season, so not sure what was gained by not putting him on ltir when they knew it was going to be this close?

The likely answer is he knows this team isn’t ready for a playoff run yet and didn’t want to burn major assets…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

That’s getting dang close to the end of the regular season, so not sure what was gained by not putting him on ltir when they knew it was going to be this close?

When I looked the other day according to puckpedia he was on LTIR. THat just means they have to be out a minimum of x days and x games. In order to use his cap (to go over ALA Vegas and TB) he would have had to be out the entire remainder of the regular season. If he came back they would have to be cap compliant again.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
That’s getting dang close to the end of the regular season, so not sure what was gained by not putting him on ltir when they knew it was going to be this close?

When I looked the other day according to puckpedia he was on LTIR. THat just means they have to be out a minimum of x days and x games. In order to use his cap (to go over ALA Vegas and TB) he would have had to be out the entire remainder of the regular season. If he came back they would have to be cap compliant again.

yep, we know that… my post was showing that he’ll likely miss the rest of the regular season now or get to within a few games that they could just stretch out till the season’s over…

He’s not expected to START skating until April now… per Russo

He’ll have missed 2+ months with zero skating, its going to take 2-3 weeks to get back to NHL ready once he’s cleared

Barry Melrose always used to say “if you’re gonna lose, do it in extra time” or “best to lose your way up the standings.”

Every point matters. Teams miss the playoffs or home ice by 1 point sometimes.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

yep, we know that… my post was showing that he’ll likely miss the rest of the regular season or get to within a few games that they could just stretch out till the season’s over…

He’s not expected to START skating until April now… per Russo

Apparently WE dont know that because your post clearly said ” so not sure what was gained by not putting him on ltir”…

Maybe it wasn’t just a hernia ??

tswoboda wrote:

Maybe it wasn’t just a hernia ??

RIght? That is what everyone was thinking, but an athlete of his caliber should be further along than this.

tswoboda wrote:

Maybe it wasn’t just a hernia ??

That’s my thought as well. Going to be an interesting summer that’s for sure.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The likely answer is he knows this team isn’t ready for a playoff run yet and didn’t want to burn major assets…

Exactly right. You can’t have a Bill Gurin 7-year plan if you pull a Win Now move in Year 3 to try to make a playoff run.

I think all of us Great Hockey Minds know how this works, but for those of you who don’t, you got your basic Guerin 7-year plan. If you push the Win Now button before year 4, that leaves you with 4 non-reclaimable years left on your plan. Which, by GM Rules, means Guerin would be looking for a job in just 36 short months.

But if he waits until Year 4, then he can reclaim the original 4 years as an OCBE (Organizational Culture Building Exercise) and that resets the 7-year clock, thus negating the first 4 years because they weren’t “failures”, they were successes when it comes to hopefully winning at some future point. Maybe. But who cares? As long as we have GM job security, that’s as good as winning.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
The likely answer is he knows this team isn’t ready for a playoff run yet and didn’t want to burn major assets…

Exactly right. You can’t have a Bill Gurin 7-year plan if you pull a Win Now move in Year 3 to try to make a playoff run.

I think all of us Great Hockey Minds know how this works, but for those of you who don’t, you got your basic Guerin 7-year plan. If you push the Win Now button before year 4, that leaves you with 4 non-reclaimable years left on your plan. Which, by GM Rules, means Guerin would be looking for a job in just 36 short months.

But if he waits until Year 4, then he can reclaim the original 4 years as an OCBE (Organizational Culture Building Exercise) and that resets the 7-year clock, thus negating the first 4 years because they weren’t “failures”, they were successes when it comes to hopefully winning at some future point. Maybe. But who cares? As long as we have GM job security, that’s as good as winning.

Every GMBG “Plan” projection I’ve read in the past and what Russo just wrote about a couple days ago mentioned next season 2025/2026 as the year where the Wild need to be considered a legit cup contender (I take that as at least getting to the 2nd round and making it a 6-7 game series if losing, anything less than that (lose in the 1st round or lose in 4-5 games in the 2nd round) and I would consider GMBG’s job to be on the line…season’s following would need to see continued playoff progression to see his seat continually cooled off each successive season…

Obviously this summer is crucial for him to setup his nearly complete playoff team chessboard to achieve that success with next years trade deadline being a last chance roster boost like what we saw the Avs & Stars do the past few years…

That’s my interpretation, maybe Leopold has a different one with earlier/later success milestones?

He has some work to do then.

If Rantanen, Hinz and Harley get hurt tonight and Dallas goes on to lose in the 1st round of the playoffs, does the blame fall on their GM for a failed season?

And what if he doesn’t sign Kaprizov this summer?

What could we get for the guy next year? Look at what happened the last few weeks around the league.

For the record I love him and he’s the first star we’ve ever had. I’m not arguing that here. I’m just trying to think about what happens if he says he’s not staying here.

Also, it’s so Minnesota to say we just gotta win a playoff series. We cannot be content with that. Ffs we need to win a championship.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

If Rantanen, Hinz and Harley get hurt tonight and Dallas goes on to lose in the 1st round of the playoffs, does the blame fall on their GM for a failed season?

Well if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would all have a merry christmas.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
The likely answer is he knows this team isn’t ready for a playoff run yet and didn’t want to burn major assets…

Exactly right. You can’t have a Bill Gurin 7-year plan if you pull a Win Now move in Year 3 to try to make a playoff run.

I think all of us Great Hockey Minds know how this works, but for those of you who don’t, you got your basic Guerin 7-year plan. If you push the Win Now button before year 4, that leaves you with 4 non-reclaimable years left on your plan. Which, by GM Rules, means Guerin would be looking for a job in just 36 short months.

But if he waits until Year 4, then he can reclaim the original 4 years as an OCBE (Organizational Culture Building Exercise) and that resets the 7-year clock, thus negating the first 4 years because they weren’t “failures”, they were successes when it comes to hopefully winning at some future point. Maybe. But who cares? As long as we have GM job security, that’s as good as winning.

Maybe I am wrong but Billy G doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that is content just having a job. Also there is better GM jobs in the NHL then in MN and I am sure if he was fired he would be hired pretty quickly. What move has he made that he has lost out on? The guy has been doing the job with an arm tied around his back (you can say it was his own doing, but he didn’t sign those guys). To me he has 2 years to make the Wild cup contenders and I hopeful we are on the way already.

There are some trades in hindsight or signings in general that dont look particularly good, but at the time they made sense and then now they may not.
Donato is one, trading him away. He has had a steady NHL career, not going to light the world on fire, but from what I have seen he is strong in the faceoff.
The Lauko signing/trade is not particularly good since he just sent him back. He wasnt ever healthy for us and we lost that trade IMO because this new guy finally looked alive last night, but otherwise I dont think he adds much.
He gets an A++++ for the Faber trade. We were over the barrel on that one and everyone knew it he got Faber out of the deal.
I think some of the contracts he has signed have been an overpay. Hartman, Foligno come to mind and probably Freddy/JoJo. JoJo is thankfully done after this year but he has had a pulse as has Freddy lately.

Ripjiggen wrote:

He has some work to do then.

You can say that again. The reality is that when Guerin was named GM before the 2019/20 season, the Wild were a bubble/marginal 1st round playoff team.

6 seasons later, the Wild under Guerin are a bubble/marginal 1st round playoff team.

If next season is the make or break season, we’ll, I’d say Billy Gee has some making to do. A whole lot of it.

I havent read Russo’s article yet about Billy G and his moves he has made during his tenure but yesterday on KFAN he sure went after him. He brought up a lot of questionable trades and signings. Surprising to hear him go after him but he had some good points. The last trade right now looks terrible.

Charlie W wrote:

And what if he doesn’t sign Kaprizov this summer?

What could we get for the guy next year? Look at what happened the last few weeks around the league.

For the record I love him and he’s the first star we’ve ever had. I’m not arguing that here. I’m just trying to think about what happens if he says he’s not staying here.

Also, it’s so Minnesota to say we just gotta win a playoff series. We cannot be content with that. Ffs we need to win a championship.

If he walks you are looking at a 5 year plan turning into an 8-9 year plan. Nobody is replacing that production immediately and even in the near future. With what you would get in a trade. Don’t forget he holds all the cards on where he would want to go.

If Carolina signs Rantannen then the whole narrative changes and it’s a move I would have taken all day long.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
If Rantanen, Hinz and Harley get hurt tonight and Dallas goes on to lose in the 1st round of the playoffs, does the blame fall on their GM for a failed season?

Well if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would all have a merry christmas.

my point being if Kirill, Ek and Brodin don’t make it back for the playoffs (or if they are obviously limited by their injuries) and the Wild lose in the 1st round again does that all fall on GMBG?

Every team has injuries, its just part of the game, typically the Cup winner gets lucky and keeps most of their team together for the full playoff run… hard to pin losses on the GM, but that’s what everyone will do if the Wild lose..

You most certainly can pin losses on the gm if it’s because of signing or trading for players that don’t produce. Their job is to build the roster so it falls squarely on them. We all know he has been hampered by the buyouts but that is the bed he made. You can’t however hold a gm accountable for injuries.

CaptainMusky wrote:

You most certainly can pin losses on the gm if it’s because of signing or trading for players that don’t produce. Their job is to build the roster so it falls squarely on them. We all know he has been hampered by the buyouts but that is the bed he made. You can’t however hold a gm accountable for injuries.

re-read my post, I specifically mentioned injuries… The last few playoff series the Wild have been hampered by injuries, if Kirill and Ek dont come back anywhere near 100% then its likely more of the same this season..

I was just going to ask what the F is going on with Kirill. So frustrating.

This team really struggles to generate any consistent even strength offense these days. It’s painful to watch.