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

How about that hot mic when James Hagens got tripped up as they whistled for icing in the final minute.
“That’s not a hit? Are you fukin kiddin me?”

https://x.com/awfulannouncing/status/1906525460001075330

I like the Buium “Adios Eagles”…. it’s funny that he’s getting torched online because of it, but if you watched the game, the kid had a target on his head all game, they tried to knock him out of it, so i’m sure he had a little “FU” to get out at the end of the game…

https://x.com/SpokedZ/status/1906525357043257809

Ending of the Canadiens vs Panthers game…. they play again tomorrow…

https://x.com/spittinchiclets/status/1906440036817535245

So the supposed knock on Buium’s game at the draft was that he wasn’t overly physical and played soft at times, Ryan Leonard might disagree with that after this hit…Zeev took a beating last night and didn’t miss a shift…

https://x.com/Dhogan1982/status/1906494492766814215

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I like the Buium “Adios Eagles”….

Billy G probably gonna trade Buium for future considerations after he disrespected BC like that

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Ending of the Canadiens vs Panthers game…. they play again tomorrow…

How does the NHL fine him for that? It’s bush league, absolutely. Just don’t see how they fine him for technically taking a shot on goal.

Some prospect updates.

After the University of Denver beat Boston College on Sunday to advance to the Frozen Four on April 10 and 12 in St. Louis, the soonest the Wild would be able to sign defenseman Zeev Buium is April 11. They play in Calgary on April 11 and in Vancouver on April 12. So most likely, he’d join the team in St. Paul after the Frozen Four and potentially play in the April 15 regular-season finale against the Anaheim Ducks.

Since the Wild barely have enough cap space to sign Buium, they’re not planning to sign 2022 first-round pick Danila Yurov if his KHL team loses in the playoffs. Metallurg is trailing 3-0 in its playoff series.

Though there’s no salary cap in the playoffs and the Wild could technically sign him then to burn the first year of his contract, Yurov’s KHL contract ends the last day in May. At this juncture, it’s more likely the Wild will sign Yurov to a contract starting next season, not this one.

This is not like the Marat Khusnutdinov situation, when everything went perfectly last season and the Wild and his agents were able to get his KHL team in Sochi, Russia, to terminate his contract once their regular season ended in late February, allowing him to play 16 games for the Wild.

• As we’ve previously speculated, 2023 first-round pick Charlie Stramel, who had a big bounce-back year after transferring to Michigan State, is indeed planning to stay in school for his senior year.

tswoboda wrote:

How does the NHL fine him for that? It’s bush league, absolutely. Just don’t see how they fine him for technically taking a shot on goal.

probably just an optics reason or because it was bush league…it was totally needless down 2 goals and could have injured any players it hit up high? Maybe Parros doesn’t like Haakeppa?

Ripjiggen wrote:

2023 first-round pick Charlie Stramel, who had a big bounce-back year after transferring to Michigan State, is indeed planning to stay in school for his senior year.

Probably the right move given his past few years and his age, but it brings risk in losing him if he explodes as a Senior and wants to play his cards as a UFA looking for the best situation to go to…

Gus starts again… riding him like a rental right now – hard not to I guess. Wild play every other day until the last couple games of the season so he could be starting all of the next 6 games. That would be a stretch of starting 15 of 16 possible.

Am I allowed to be concerned with Faber and Middleton right now? In 2025 Faber has 4 points in 32 games. Getting scored on a lot too, but maybe that’s on his partner – Middleton has look pretty rough for awhile now. That pairing seems to spend most shifts in their own zone getting peppered.

You know the rules. Nothing negative about Faber whatsoever

tswoboda wrote:

Am I allowed to be concerned with Faber and Middleton right now? In 2025 Faber has 4 points in 32 games. Getting scored on a lot too, but maybe that’s on his partner – Middleton has look pretty rough for awhile now. That pairing seems to spend most shifts in their own zone getting peppered.

What about Rossi who has 1 goal in over a month. I think they are pretty spent at this point. Losing top guys without much reinforcements is tough.

Rossi… You mean 30 goal guy, Rossi? He’s fallen down the depth chart lately, just don’t really hear his name much.

tswoboda wrote:

Am I allowed to be concerned with Faber and Middleton right now? In 2025 Faber has 4 points in 32 games. Getting scored on a lot too, but maybe that’s on his partner – Middleton has look pretty rough for awhile now. That pairing seems to spend most shifts in their own zone getting peppered.

Hard for anybody to get significant points in 2025 when we score 0-2 goals for the majority of games played…
I think roster fatigue has finally caught upto this team, top guys repeatedly hurt, next level guys can’t maintain production against top defensive assignments every game, mid & low level guys can’t elevate their games for more than just short 1-2 game spurts…$15 million in dead cap get’s you 2 guys that would help alot during this painful stretch, it feels like that dead cap burden has never hurt as much the past 3+ seasons as it does this season…

tswoboda wrote:

Rossi… You mean 30 goal guy, Rossi? He’s fallen down the depth chart lately, just don’t really hear his name much.

he’s still getting chances (taking far fewer shots than the first half of the season) and not burying them like he was earlier in the season (he’s still shooting at 18.2%) the biggest issue I’ve seen is with his d-zone play, he gets lost all the time in coverage now and when it’s a 1-1 battle he’s routinely losing it…

tswoboda wrote:

Rossi… You mean 30 goal guy, Rossi? He’s fallen down the depth chart lately, just don’t really hear his name much.

At this point he may not be 25 goal 60 point Rossi. Crazy that KK is third on the team in scoring still.

And the 18% shooting is probably not something Rossi is going to sustain during his career. My guess is over the span of his prime he settles into the 10%-15% range.

In the D-zone Rossi is usually covering the point and Boldy is playing down low. At least that was when those two were together but they’ve been getting split up lately. It was so consistent that they were clearly doing it on purpose, part of the gameplan.

It’s 5 percent in the month of march.

tswoboda wrote:

And the 18% shooting is probably not something Rossi is going to sustain during his career

it just shows how he’s not shooting anymore to still be at 18% and yet only scored a handful of goals in the last few months…

and to think by the first week of May odds are we’ll probably be out of the playoffs but so will the Stars or the Avs and Lightning or Panthers (if the playoff slotting holds up)

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Hard for anybody to get significant points in 2025 when we score 0-2 goals for the majority of games played…

And maybe the lack of team scoring has something to do with the #1D man having 4 points in 30+ games? Chicken or the egg, right. I know Faber’s play isn’t measured in point production, but even Bogosian has 10 over the same stretch. Spurgeon 17 points in less games. Just a little concerning after getting compared to Makar and Hughes 50 point rookie seasons last year – I remember getting a lot of backlash for saying that was nuts.

Yeah there’s going to be some awesome first round matchups in the playoffs. The first round is always the best round, but could be especially so this year. I guess that’s what you get when the division leaders from all 4 divisions aren’t really seen as top cup contenders. Maybe Vegas; but I think most would put the 4 teams Joe listed ahead of Caps, Jets, and Leafs.

tswoboda wrote:

And maybe the lack of team scoring has something to do with the #1D man having 4 points in 30+ games? Chicken or the egg, right. I know Faber’s play isn’t measured in point production, but even Bogosian has 10 over the same stretch. Spurgeon 17 points in less games. Just a little concerning after getting compared to Makar and Hughes 50 point rookie seasons last year – I remember getting a lot of backlash for saying that was nuts.

He’s right on par with goals, but the assists just aren’t there this season, is that due to him not shooting (37 fewer shots sofar vs last season) or passing as much and instead dumping the puck in the corners? or guys just aren’t scoring in general? His PP point differential isn’t that far off from last year (10 vs 16) so it’s maybe not related as much with the loss of Kirill/Ek, but I will say since Ek has been out we NEVER have a guy in front of the net screening on the PP, so that negates the QB position a bit from getting easy rebound points…

I remember posting somewhere the first few months of the season that Faber seemed to be getting alot of “3rd” assists lately, maybe it’s just a bit unlucky with how goals are scored with him on the ice and what order the puck flows?

I agree he’s not been good lately and he’s starting to show his frustrations after giving up goals that we didn’t see much of in the past…

I think Zeev’s addition will calm his game down a bit, but I still see him as a 35ish point scorer in the league just based on his smarts, minutes played and scoring opportunities that presents…

TSN’s Western Conference Playoff Team factors, the Wild’s says everything…tale of two teams…

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/yost-eight-factors-that-define-the-nhl-s-western-conference-playoff-picture-1.2279806

At what point does just getting to the playoffs warrant riding players like rented mules just for the sake of saying, we got to the playoffs just for F’s sake?

Yeah, they’ll get playoff experience….but more than likely get their arses handed to them in the 1st round.

Faber and Middleton have looked out right awful lately. Maybe Faber just needs more minutes on ice per game? That’s a joke.

Who is Rossi? Does he even play on the wild still?

Boldy is jekyll and hiding. It’s a crap shoot who is going to be steering the ship in that empty brain cavity.

Spurgeon and Brodin aren’t looking great either.

Probably the most consistent players through this rough stretch have been Gus, Freddy and barf in my mouth Merrell.

This is just a team with to many missing nuts and bolts to hold together long term and it’s indicative of the injuries and cap hit.

If they play perfectly, get good puck luck and Gus plays solid, they “can” win. If anything is off at all and off early, good luck.

Am completely done caring if KK or Ek are back for a playoff run. Especially if they aren’t 100% healthy. Am going to roll the eyes when the team tries to pitch the oh they are back just in time to make a big difference in the post season. Yawn!

Yeah and even before injury, Ek was having a down year. I’m sure there’s plenty of variables adding to Faber’s dry spell, I was just surprised when I noticed his production has been that low for that long. And no one is really talking about it.

The Rossi stuff got me looking at shots and shooting percentages. Boldy is at 9.5%, well under his career average 12.5%. Still scoring some goals at least due to his volume shooting – 12.5% would have him over 30 goals right now. The crazy part to me is Boldy leads the team in shots at 249. Next closest is Ryan Hartman at 142. Boldy has 107 more shots than the next closest player on the team Shot attempts he’s at 490, next closest is Hartman and Kirill tied at 271. That’s 219 shot attempts between Boldy and anyone else.

**Quoting this post every time I see a “Boldy needs to shoot the puck” post during games

basseyes wrote:

At what point does just getting to the playoffs warrant riding players like rented mules just for the sake of saying, we got to the playoffs just for F’s sake?

Are you suggesting they should… tank? We haven’t had that conversation yet this season

I mean at this point of the season, I think the game plan is do whatever you can to try to win the next game. Seems reasonable to me I guess?

basseyes wrote:

At what point does just getting to the playoffs warrant riding players like rented mules just for the sake of saying, we got to the playoffs just for F’s sake?

Yeah, they’ll get playoff experience….but more than likely get their arses handed to them in the 1st round.

Faber and Middleton have looked out right awful lately. Maybe Faber just needs more minutes on ice per game? That’s a joke.

Who is Rossi? Does he even play on the wild still?

Boldy is jekyll and hiding. It’s a crap shoot who is going to be steering the ship in that empty brain cavity.

Spurgeon and Brodin aren’t looking great either.

Probably the most consistent players through this rough stretch have been Gus, Freddy and barf in my mouth Merrell.

This is just a team with to many missing nuts and bolts to hold together long term and it’s indicative of the injuries and cap hit.

If they play perfectly, get good puck luck and Gus plays solid, they “can” win. If anything is off at all and off early, good luck.

Am completely done caring if KK or Ek are back for a playoff run. Especially if they aren’t 100% healthy. Am going to roll the eyes when the team tries to pitch the oh they are back just in time to make a big difference in the post season. Yawn!

I mean, what would you like them to do? seriously? what?

Not get slew-footed into the boards and miss a month+? not get hit on the hand by an Evan Bouchard shot and miss a month+? not get hit on the kneecap and miss a month+? Not fracture your leg/foot and miss a month+? Not have your Superstar get a soft tissue injury (most suspect a Sports Hernia) and miss 3 months after starting the first few months as a Hart contender? Most of the crap that happened this season is out of anybody’s control…

all of those injuries to key players means other players have to pick up their slack ontop of what is expected of their game, how do you do that for a league Superstar? Rossi is 15 points over his career high sofar, Chisholm and Boldy are the only other players likely to best their career highs this year (Kirill most certainly would have if healthy) For the most part, yes, the veterans had down years and how can you expect waiver wire additions and career AHLers to play decent minutes and contribute? You can’t, but we had to… Yes, the Parise/Suter caphits suck, but it is what it is, they obviously didn’t make that decision on a whim, they felt it needed to happen.

Sometimes you just gotta shake your head and yell wtf when things snowball for the season with the number of injuries we’ve dealt with, typically the silver lining is that missing the playoffs or getting knocked out early means you get a decent draft pick to hopefully improve the team down the road, we spent ours on a promising young defender who just so happened to lacerate his spleen in the AHL a week ago…you cant make it up sometimes…we’ve said that an awful lot this season…

tswoboda wrote:

Yeah and even before injury, Ek was having a down year. I’m sure there’s plenty of variables adding to Faber’s dry spell, I was just surprised when I noticed his production has been that low for that long. And no one is really talking about it.

The Rossi stuff got me looking at shots and shooting percentages. Boldy is at 9.5%, well under his career average 12.5%. Still scoring some goals at least due to his volume shooting – 12.5% would have him over 30 goals right now. The crazy part to me is Boldy leads the team in shots at 249. Next closest is Ryan Hartman at 142. Boldy has 107 more shots than the next closest player on the team Shot attempts he’s at 490, next closest is Hartman and Kirill tied at 271. That’s 219 shot attempts between Boldy and anyone else.

**Quoting this post every time I see a “Boldy needs to shoot the puck” post during games

it would be nice to see a splatter chart of Boldy’s 249 shots that were legit scoring chances vs pucks just thrown on the net (not just a chart on all shots, I’ve seen those) yes he shoots the puck, but i’d bet a decent chunk of those are harmless wrist/snap shots from a ways out when it looks like he wants a whistle…he does that alot…

I find it surprising he still has lots of issues getting a good 1 timer off on the powerplay, most of the time its a waffler or he whiffs on it…been that way since he started his career…

Sounds like everyone sucks so maybe trade away the whole team.
Except sign Gus to 15 million per.