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

Really wish Foligno would lay off the refs. He gets so fired up at them and definitely not doing himself any favors. Embarrassing dive after his penalty too

Stick a fork in them.

Remember the good old days when the Wild could score more than 1 goal?

Just to clarify, I mean more than one goal iper game, not per week. But sadly, it could be interpreted as wishing for more than one goal per week. Ahhh, seems like only yesterday…

Yet another 4 goal L

So who gets the distinction of winning the Presidents trophy and getting bounced in the first round? Jets or Caps? I’ll lay it on the Caps.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
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 guess I fail to see where I was disagreeing with you.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Remember the good old days when the Wild could score more than 1 goal?

Just to clarify, I mean more than one goal iper game, not per week. But sadly, it could be interpreted as wishing for more than one goal per week. Ahhh, seems like only yesterday…

This team is allergic to scoring.

The one goal last night was a total blunder by Hofer.

The blues could’ve easily won that game 6 or 7 to zippo.

Thought both Rossi and Faber had rough games last night.

Hynes needs to try Boldy in front of the net. Not Boldy’s fault. But having Rossi and Vinnie as your net front presence on the pp is an absolute joke.

Russo put out a good article last night that pretty much summed it up pretty well… Boldy, Rossi and Faber are all burned out trying to carry the team, the other guys realize they are being asked to play above their talent and they just can’t get it done, so there’s a HUGE confidence problem on this team right now…obviously…

I’m thinking this about the time in the movie where Tom Cruise would invite everyone to a sandy beach and they play team volleyball together and flip the season into a success afterwards….

or

they crash and burn…

Ice Cap wrote:

So who gets the distinction of winning the Presidents trophy and getting bounced in the first round? Jets or Caps? I’ll lay it on the Caps.

2 good choices, I think the Jets are finally for real to win the cup…Caps will get Ryan Leonard and possibly Cole Hutson once the college season is over, those could be 2 wildcards that give them an offensive boost… tough call…

Zeev Buium scored 2 goals last night to help Denver force a 3rd game in the NCHC QF playoffs…

Denver bulldozed CC in game 3 to move on to the Semifinals, Buium had 2 assists…

He has 10 goals and 32 assists in 36 games sofar this season… He had 50 points in 42 games last season, nice to see him handle the bulls eye so well this year…

This Avs vs Stars game today is great hockey to watch, would love to see these two teams meet in the 1st round, go 7 games and beat each other up…

Looks like Russo went after BG again in his latest article that had interviews with Foligno.

To those who dont have the Athletic, the final line sums it up: “Help could have been provided. The players were owed that. So were the fans.”
IDK, Im kind of torn, you keep one of those two guys out the rest of the year AND STILL have to give up big assets to hopefully make a push? Not sure that is a wise move. It would have likely made hockey more interesting the end of this season and perhaps into the playoffs, we will never know. Risking the future for the present is a very tough pill to swallow.

The team (without Kirill) isn’t good enough to warrant spending the assets right now… they’ve proved that during this past skid…a Brock Nelson type of player acquired at the deadline wasn’t going to change much, looking back now… even giving up a 2nd rounder for Nyquil looks like a complete waste, it was GMBG’s attempt to do something with the pennies he had to spend…

Foligno with 0 points and -7 in his last 11 games needs to look in the mirror more vs complain to a beat writer imo…

Injuries to key players have killed this team, not the buyouts (yes we all know having an extra $15 million to spend would help) but GMBG had his reasons for doing it…

We’ve all talked about what the Wild would like AFTER the main buyout pain was gone AFTER this season, now we have “Buyout Spring Fever” and its driving everybody mad…

I do think GMBG will need to answer to the media and fanbase IF Kirill or Ek do NOT comeback before the season ends, if that happens it was a clear Management miss (more specifically a Wild Medical Team miss as they are the ones giving GMBG the rehab timelines) to use LTIR space….

Brock Nelson wasn’t the only option.
It is definitely debatable, but BG also gave up assets for a player that has been a healthy scratch for 7 games in a row as well.

I also think Russo is pointing out the fact that BG stated he is confident these guys will be back by the end of the season no doubt. So that is why he didn’t use the LTIR game. That sure doesn’t sound like the case now and this team has been the worst scoring team since the 4 nations are getting burnt out frustrated etc. Faber has said he is tired yet we have a 21 d man they gave up significant assets for doing pushups in the press box that apparently isn’t good enough to crack this NHL lineup.

The buyouts were an opportunity to get younger and build. This team has just gotten older.

Yes I agree spring fever is hitting in a lot of ways.

Ripjiggen wrote:

The buyouts were an opportunity to get younger and build. This team has just gotten older.

In the next 1-2 years they will be replacing guys 40 (Flower) 38 (Zuccy) 35 (Johansson) 36 (Spurgeon) 35 (Bogosian) 34 (Merril) years old with guys all in their early 20’s…

They’ll likely be one of the leagues younger teams soon…

Sorry but you can not say that with certainty. Flower Merril Johnson you can say that most likely. Outside of Merril and MoJo there is also no certainty the replacements will be better. In that same time frame guys like Foligno Hartman Freddy Brodin even to some degree Ek will all be in their mid to later 30’s. I agree the guys you mentioned are not coming back when the contract is up. Simply doesn’t mean they are any better position than they are now however.

Russo loves this sh!t – pouring gas on losing streak fires is his specialty. Guess I might as well join the party

I don’t buy the IR boys are all back by end of regular season – BG definitely left that door open in his presser… just said they were planning for them to be back so they can’t add players and then said “I don’t know” like 12 times. Seemed more like a great excuse to not make any trades. And why would he spend big to bring in help for a team that’s gotten their doors blown off like 10 times this year? I kinda agree with it.

I don’t blame the buyouts. Is Ryan Suter as a #6D what this team is lacking right now? That’s where they’d be without the buyouts, no extra cap space though. Maybe I’m too patient but I feel like the writing was on the wall for these past couple seasons back in 2012.

Sh!t better happen this summer though, that’s when the patience runs out. Get Kaprizov signed asap and then get busy, no reason not to be in on every big name. And I can already see that contract not getting signed right away and then being used as an excuse to do nothing this summer.

Also I’m not buying the Boldy Rossi Faber etc getting burnt out. They’re all big boys and are either getting paid like big boys or about to get paid like big boys. I don’t think it’s asking too much for the guys making (or about to make) the most $$ on the team to be the best players on the team every night.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Sorry but you can not say that with certainty. Flower Merril Johnson you can say that most likely. Outside of Merril and MoJo there is also no certainty the replacements will be better. In that same time frame guys like Foligno Hartman Freddy Brodin even to some degree Ek will all be in their mid to later 30’s. I agree the guys you mentioned are not coming back when the contract is up. Simply doesn’t mean they are any better position than they are now however.

Hartman, Freddy and Foligno won’t be on this team in 1-2 years (maybe they keep Freddy longer with his low aav)

GMBG has done a great job reloading this organization during the past 4 years of the buyouts, those pieces will all be in play the next 1-2 seasons replacing players outside of the core 6 (Kaprizov, Boldy, Ek, Faber, Rossi, Brodin, Gustafson) with the next young core 6 of (Buium, Jiricek, Yurov, Ohgren, Heidt/Stramel, Wallstedt) you then sprinkle in UFA’s and other drafted players to fill the remaining roles…of course there will be curve-balls along the way, Brodin’s health being a major one to watch…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

the next young core 6 of (Buium, Jiricek, Yurov, Ohgren, Heidt/Stramel, Wallstedt)

And here we are again putting all the eggs on the prospect basket… odds are there’s like 3 NHL players in that list and 1 of them is a true impact player.

Once Kaprizov is signed that prospect pool is best used as a trade chip

tswoboda wrote:

And I can already see that contract not getting signed right away and then being used as an excuse to do nothing this summer.

I think it happens right away or it won’t happen and they’ll start to look at alternatives like Marner…There should be ZERO excuses for not signing him the minute they are allowed to (if Kirill wants to stay here) There’s a set limit of AAV to work backwards from, and half of those numbers would be a ridiculous ask by Kirill and his agent… There’s ZERO other things to negotiate, he’ll get 8 years, he’ll get a full NMC….

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
the next young core 6 of (Buium, Jiricek, Yurov, Ohgren, Heidt/Stramel, Wallstedt)

And here we are again putting all the eggs on the prospect basket… odds are there’s like 3 NHL players in that list and 1 of them is a true impact player.

Once Kaprizov is signed that prospect pool is best used as a trade chip

I merely listed what’s known on this day, and you know most of these spots will need to get filled by prospects, you can’t afford to fill a team out of UFAs and traded for veterans, especially in a high income tax state like MN

Just because they “need” them doesn’t mean those guys will turn into everything Scott Wheeler says they are. Develop Buium, trade the rest. Preferably not for the kind of guy they just got from Boston though

And yeah they can sign Kaprizov July 1, but most superstar extensions don’t get done until well after that. Would be a convenient excuse to do nothing

Selling hope is like selling manure that’s still just crap in the cows and banking that the magic beans yet to be aquired will produce, and writing checks based on their hoped for yeild when the manures still in the cows and the beans aren’t even in the field yet.

I don’t follow it as closely as you guys do. From an outsiders point of view, as soon as the buyouts took place expecting deep playoff runs or a Stanley Cup run was out the window. You can debate whether the buyout was the right move or not, but expectations should be linked to that move and they have done better than I would have guessed during the anchor period. Now if Kirill doesn’t resign, Billy G’s out the door imo. And if Kirill resigns but he doesn’t add any significant piece next to him, the seat will still be real warm too.

I don’t think anybody expected them to be cup contenders during the buyout.
I agree if KK walks we are looking at another slow build/plan.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I don’t think anybody expected them to be cup contenders during the buyout.
I agree if KK walks we are looking at another slow build/plan.

If Kirill walks, it’s not the end of the world…we’ll have $15 million aav to spend and whatever assets GMBG can get back for him… Rantanen just got 2 x 1st rounders and a good young NHLer…Kirill’s injuries are becoming worrisome for a long term contract…I honestly don’t care anymore, it is what it is, why even worry about it…

Massive L for the organization if Kirill leaves, would set them back years. They’re not going to replace him in free agency or through trades. He’s missed half this season and the talk is all about the other guys being burnt out trying to make up for it. They draft a guy like that once every 15 years so I guess we are waiting until 2030s

But yeah the two late 1st round picks and 5’8″ middle 6 center will be oh so worth it

Hoping Rantanen’s little trip around the league to get $12m AAV after 3 teams playing hard ball sends a message to Kirill and his agent. Just watch Toronto mess that all up by giving Marner $15m

Isn’t Kirill’s injury history a bit of concern for giving him whatever contract he wants? I don’t know… the situation is looking like a mess right now and starting to feel like lose-lose.

Would really like some clarity on KK. Is he coming back or not???

lindyrig79 wrote:

Isn’t Kirill’s injury history a bit of concern for giving him whatever contract he wants? I don’t know… the situation is looking like a mess right now and starting to feel like lose-lose.

Would really like some clarity on KK. Is he coming back or not???

it’s concerning, but he’s the 1st legit league superstar we’ve ever had entering his prime so he’s gonna get paid like superstars should…

You just have to hope he stays healthy, he’s also Russian and they can be wildcards sometimes with contracts, but you put up with it when they produce like they do…

This particular injury has been a head scratcher as most believe it was a sports hernia, but he’ll be out for alot longer than the typical recovery timelines for that injury…. As my 8 year old would say “everybody is different”