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

Did Freddy sauce that over the D?

Give Freddy his flowers, dude’s had a heck of a comeback season! I’ll eat some crow…

28-0 when leading into the 3rd, hard to believe for this team, this season…

Ovi is special, glad I got to watch his career…. Huge win for the Wild…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Has Foligno hit anyone tonight?

no, and last shift he completely pulled up hitting the Capital behind the net…. He’s trying to tough it out…

Glad I wasn’t just seeing things. What is he toughing out but he looked terrible. Might as well not have him out there. Only good thing I saw out of him was a diving play to tip the pick out of the zone.

Classy by Ovi getting the whole team on the ice for Fleury. That was wicked cool.

Boldy needs to stop doing those cutsie break out passes in his own D-zone. It’ll cost him sometime.

basseyes wrote:

Classy by Ovi getting the whole team on the ice for Fleury. That was wicked cool.

He’s setting the standard for his farewell tour next year

Ryan Suter did the same thing with the Wild during the bubble season, but I forget who it was for. Maybe Marleau?

Danila Yurov looks like he’s back in the lineup for game 2 of his KHL playoff series, he missed the game 1 loss still rehabbing from ankle surgery…

Surprised there’s not more chatter about the all forwards powerplay they used last night. Went 1-1, which is kind of a big deal in a 1 goal game. This game wasn’t much different than the last two games, except they won the special teams battle

For this team I think a 5 forward PP1 makes sense. No natural PP1 D on the roster:
Spurgeon – fine on PP2 but always drags down the top unit
Faber – plenty of chances but not getting better
Brodin – nope
Middleton/Merrill/Bogo – lol
Chisholm – maybe?? but probably not playing in the playoffs, so why put him there now

I say go 5 forwards if it’s tied or down a goal, and throw Faber out with them if they’re winning and it’s 2nd or 3rd period. I mean throwing Freddy hockey on PP1 isn’t exactly a gamebreaker but once Kirill and Ek come back it allows them to add Rossi (all around) or Hartman (net-front and right hand one timers) or Jojo (say what you want, but his PP entries are head and shoulders above anyone else) to the top unit

tswoboda wrote:

Surprised there’s not more chatter about the all forwards powerplay they used last night. Went 1-1, which is kind of a big deal in a 1 goal game. This game wasn’t much different than the last two games, except they won the special teams battle

For this team I think a 5 forward PP1 makes sense. No natural PP1 D on the roster:
Spurgeon – fine on PP2 but always drags down the top unit
Faber – plenty of chances but not getting better
Brodin – nope
Middleton/Merrill/Bogo – lol
Chisholm – maybe?? but probably not playing in the playoffs, so why put him there now

I say go 5 forwards if it’s tied or down a goal, and throw Faber out with them if they’re winning and it’s 2nd or 3rd period.

lol, it was just 1 powerplay and we actually won the draw to setup properly for once (thanks Freddy)… Boldy at the top is a shorthanded goal nightmare waiting to happen with his puck decisions being the last man back…I think the more important point was that we had 2 guys in front of the net screening on the shot, we typically have none…

I wouldn’t have surprised me if Hynes put out a 5 D-man powerplay with how bad the attempts were the last few games…

IF Zeev gets signed soon and they put him in the lineup, The PP1 group will be where he gets his minutes, he’s ran a PP his entire career and it’s safe to say the Wild’s PP strategy isn’t too complicated for a new kid to pickup…I would think they’ll at least try it out if the playoff spot gets locked up soon, why wouldn’t you? Faber and Spurgeon just aren’t getting it done (Faber’s not shooting anymore)

So I guess you’re saying having Freddy on PP1 was the difference maker? He’s not out there unless it’s 5 forwards

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I wouldn’t have surprised me if Hynes put out a 5 D-man powerplay with how bad the first few attempts were last night…

There was only 1 powerplay ??

So I guess you’re saying having Freddy on PP1 was the difference maker? He’s not out there unless it’s 5 forwards

yeah, I meant the last few game attempts…I only mentioned Freddy because he won the draw, that allowed the PP group to setup and not have to struggle getting a zone entry…we just can’t catch the pass to the boards by the zone entry guy or we don’t win the forecheck race to the corner dump…

it is what it is until we get Kirill back…nobody on our PP scares the PKers…

Well the whole league has a golden opportunity. Torts is back on the head coach market after the Flyers fire his @ss with 9 games left..

Or owners, double your fun and make Torts your next GM. Act now.

Yeah entries have been brutal all year, that’s the one thing Jojo is actually good at. I guess my point is having that extra forward is what put an extra guy net-front and also had the extra faceoff guy out there. Completely agree Boldy or Zuccy running point is a risk – but previous games they didn’t score on big PP opportunities and they lost anyway. So might as well be aggressive and take chances when they’re down or tied and need a goal. Add the D back in when protecting a lead.

Door is definitely wide open for Zeev if the cards fall right. Hell I wouldn’t mind if they went 7d/11f to shelter him and only play him at the right times. I haven’t seen the 4th line play in about a week anyway

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Well the whole league has a golden opportunity. Torts is back on the head coach market after the Flyers fire his @ss with 9 games left..

Or owners, double your fun and make Torts your next GM. Act now.

Ha I hope he gets hired soon… anywhere but MN. And preferably in the Central. Top notch entertainment!

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Well the whole league has a golden opportunity. Torts is back on the head coach market after the Flyers fire his @ss with 9 games left..

Or owners, double your fun and make Torts your next GM. Act now.

Would love to know the details of what happened between him and Cam York.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Would live to know the details of what happened between him and Cam York.

Same. Seems they both “crossed the line”. Torts?! NEVER! LOL

No doubt. York got benched half way through the 1st of Torts’ last game and never played another shift. Then last night with the new coach he sat on the bench fully dressed and never played.

Wouldn’t be the first time he came to blows with a player.

Probably smashed Torts over the head with his stick, happens all the time

tswoboda wrote:

Probably smashed Torts over the head with his stick, happens all the time

Where’s the video? There’s video of everything nowadays right?

tswoboda wrote:

Probably smashed Torts over the head with his stick, happens all the time

Aaaand Jiricek is done for the season.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Aaaand Jiricek is done for the season.

Spleen injury first Iowa game back after sitting out 9 with the Wild…at what point do they friggin call in a Spiritual Advisor to rid them of whatever hex they have? It’s beyond unreal…

So how many games did he actually work on his game after he was traded. Between Iowa and MN?

Something like 30 games between Iowa and MN?

i’m not worried too much about his development, the 21 year old kid needs an off-season of no drama and just focus on getting stronger & quicker (Wild told him to spend the summer in MN like Rossi did a few years ago)…in the brief stint with the Wild he showed the tools that made him a top pick, he then fell into dreaded “we’re more comfortable with the veterans we have right now” roster crunch imo…

Iowa Wild is a prospect graveyard the past 2 years, especially for defenders, GMBG needs to acknowledge the failure and reboot the matrix down there this offseason…

I would worry about any first round picks development at 21. Especially a dman with the wild.

I think Billy needs to bring in a team witch doctor. This is getting absurd.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I would worry about any first round picks development at 21. Especially a dman with the wild.

His development has been pretty solid upto this crazy season…The kid has had 2 normal seasons since getting drafted, he was a 19 year old AHL allstar in 2022-23 with 6 goals and 32 assists in 55 AHL games, then in the 2023-24 season he mostly split between AHL/NHL and had 8 goals and 21 assists in 72 games (43 NHL/29 AHL) and then added 3 goals and 8 assists in 14 AHL playoff games. Then the Management team that drafted him was fired/gutted in Feb 2024 and the new regime wanted to go in a different direction so there was drama that offseason/training camp and they ultimately traded him to us and he spent this season ping ponging between the AHL/NHL for Columbus and Wild organizations…

like I said, the kid needs a normal offseason to reset knowing he’s in a place that wants him. By all accounts, he’s really happy here sofar… The latest becoming Wild focused on Iowa Wild and showed some of this with his fellow Czech teammates…

This was also a trade for 1-2 seasons down the road when Spurgeon needs to be replaced…yes Billy took a risk, but he felt it was worth it knowing where the Wild would likely draft the next X amount of years if his plan works out and there would be no chance to draft an offensive RH shot Defenseman with size in that pick range…

jack klusa wrote:

I think Billy needs to bring in a team witch doctor. This is getting absurd.

at the very least, they need to take a look at the offseason/in-season workout plans they have the players do and see if anything is helping contribute at all to the amount of injuries happening both in St Paul and Iowa. Iowa Wild players have also missed a ton of games the past few seasons with injuries…of course some are unavoidable, but it for sure deserves a look because as you said, it’s utterly ridiculous and getting beyond the math of probability how frequent they’ve been happening…

I thought Russo said Wallstedt has had 4 separate unrelated injuries causing missed games this season alone, one was caused by a player crashing into him in Iowa…

His development has been pretty solid upto this crazy season…The kid has had 2 normal seasons since getting drafted, he was a 19 year old AHL allstar in 2022-23 with 6 goals and 32 assists in 55 AHL games, then in the 2023-24 season he mostly split between AHL/NHL and had 8 goals and 21 assists in 72 games (43 NHL/29 AHL) and then added 3 goals and 8 assists in 14 AHL playoff games. Then the Management team that drafted him was fired/gutted in Feb 2024 and the new regime wanted to go in a different direction so there was drama that offseason/training camp and they ultimately traded him to us and he spent this season ping ponging between the AHL/NHL for Columbus and Wild organizations…

like I said, the kid needs a normal offseason to reset knowing he’s in a place that wants him. By all accounts, he’s really happy here sofar… The latest becoming Wild focused on Iowa Wild and showed some of this with his fellow Czech teammates…

This was also a trade for 1-2 seasons down the road when Spurgeon needs to be replaced…yes Billy took a risk, but he felt it was worth it knowing where the Wild would likely draft the next X amount of years if his plan works out and there would be no chance to draft an offensive RH shot Defenseman with size in that pick range…

And you have confidence in the wild to develop him for 1-2 years down the road. At this point I do not. It’s not as if their track record is real great in this department. They have literally developed 1 player in BG’s time and he is always on the trading block.
Watching more games than playing at 21 isn’t exactly the best way to develop.
I understand there was circumstances at play.