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

Robin Lehner hasnt shown up to Vegas training camp so his contract will probably end up getting voided, we will see.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Robin Lehner hasnt shown up to Vegas training camp so his contract will probably end up getting voided, we will see.

at some point, these Vegas “cap fixes/scenarios” are no longer coincidences…

So if i’m the Vegas owner (who has unlimited $ he’s willing to spend on the team) and I call up Lehnar and say, hey, i’ll give you $5 million in cash in a dufflebag if you don’t report to training camp so we can then terminate your contract and get our $5 million in capspace back… if they are not stupid like the Timberwolves and Joe Smith were and don’t have any documentation of the transaction, who/what will to stop them? Their ethics? lol… Don’t say this stuff never happens, Jordan Tutu has gone on record saying one of the teams he played for (I can’t think of which one off the top of my head) told him to stay on LTIR and just get paid, no need to come back and play…

a counter argument will be that he at one time entered the player assistance program and him not showing up could be related, yes that’s possible…Now I absolutely know MOST players who enter it legitimately need help, but it also “feels like” this program could be used as a crutch in some situations it shouldn’t be (thinking back to Calgary saying that for the kid charged in the rape case)

If his absence is legitimate, I will absolutely eat crow, but there’s so much smoke around the Vegas accounting & medical departments the past few years that at some point the fire will ignite…

Can anybody think of a single injury/issue in the franchises history that DIND’T benefit Vegas?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Can anybody think of a single injury/issue in the franchises history that DIND’T benefit Vegas?

Maybe that time they missed the playoffs the year before winning the cup because half the team was injured most of the season ??

Leaner has a well documented history with substance abuse and mental health issues. Hope the guy’s doing alright after pretty much disappearing two years ago

Yeah I’m pretty sure this Lehner thing is legit. He was pissed at the team a few years ago aside from the substance abuse stuff

tswoboda wrote:

Maybe that time they missed the playoffs the year before winning the cup because half the team was injured most of the season ??

You mean the season after they traded the Vezina winner away, and traded away their best young player (Tuch) for a player needing experimental back surgery and who wouldn’t play his first game until mid-Febuary? and traded away a player at the deadline only to have that trade rescinded due to a NTC and awkwardly getting him back and playing him like nothing ever happened?

Yes they had some injuries to Stone and an aging Pacioretty and their goalie at the end of the season (who they replaced with their eventual future season starter) but that season was a cluster F due to the decisions by Vegas Management…

They won the cup with virtually the same roster the following season

Kaprizov on LTIR with a shiner and stitches today.

tswoboda wrote:

They won the cup with virtually the same roster the following season

Yeah, they had 67 regular season games of Eichel at ppg and he should have won the ConSmyth for his playoff performance.. They also turned Stone’s LTIR space into Barbashev who was huge for them in the playoffs…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Not very hard due to the lack of available roster spots, but here’s the likely starting lineup game 1 vs Columbus imo…of course Hynes will mess with the lines, but these are the 23 man roster…

Hartman is the wildcard imo, he could get slotted anywhere from 1st to 4th line depending if they want him at Center or Wing… Johansson will get the benefit of the doubt and start the season in the top 6, but if he falters it probably makes the most sense to bury him in Iowa (if he accepts the demotion) His play style just doesn’t work on the 3rd or 4th lines…Ek and Rossi could swap if they feel they need more defense on the 1st line, but I think Rossi excels playing with Kirill and Zuccy in preseason and they start the season with him at 1C…I also think we’ll finally see Hynes try Rossi out on Wing this season, especially if Johansson fails in the top6 and they keep Hartman as 1C…

Kaprizov – Rossi – Zuccarello
Boldy – Ek – Johansson
Foligno – Khusnutdinov – Trenin
Hartman – Gaudreau – Ohgren
Lauko swaps in with the 4th liners…

Brodin – Faber
Spurgeon – Middleton
Bogosian – Chisholm
Merrill

Gusbus – Flower – Wally

What say you Wild fans?

I think Hartman starts at 1C which puts Rossi at 3C and Khus on 4th line.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I think Hartman starts at 1C which puts Rossi at 3C and Khus on 4th line.

Yep, that’s how Hynes had it all setup today at the 3 practices:

Kaprizov – Hartman – Zuccy
Boldy – Ek – Jojo
Foligno – Rossi – Trenin
Gaudreau – Khusnutdinov – Lauko

Thinking they are going to put Ohgren in Iowa for the start of the season, get him 20+ minutes a game and see how he performs, if he’ll be better than Lauko, they’ll call him up…

Kirill’s interview today – https://www.nhl.com/wild/video/kaprizov-at-training-camp-9-19-6362169217112

Caeden Bankier is going to be a good NHL center soon…

Boldy is “week-to-week” with a lower body injury…great…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Boldy is “week-to-week” with a lower body injury…great…

Here we go again.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Boldy is “week-to-week” with a lower body injury…great…

Here we go again.

Russo reported afterwards that Hynes said it’s not a long term injury and should be back by opener…

Anybody else catch the various versions of the Rangers fans talking about a trade for Bordin?

Most versions have been looking like this +/- various draft picks going each way:

To the Rangers:
Jonas Brodin
Mats Zuccarello
2025 second-round pick

To the Wild:
Jonny Brodzinski
Kaapo Kakko
Ryan Lindgren
2025 first-round pick
2025 fifth-round pick

Just fan fantasy obviously, but interesting in terms of unlike most of these fantasy trades, this one had me thinking hmmmmm… That’d be one way to get younger.

That return wouldn’t help us at all… Brodin’s NMC expires next year and he’s signed at a really good aav for a 1st pairing Dman… Brodzinski and Lindgren are meh and Kakko is still unproven… the picks swap aren’t that great if the Rangers finish high and the Wild low…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

So other than maybe getting lucky with the opposing team’s TV coverage being on ESPN+, are ANY of the Wild’s preseason games on TV? The Wild’s Schedule doesn’t show Ballys on any of the games (or are they ALL televised on Ballys?)

Looks like tomorrow nights game is on Bally Sports North Extra.

Doug M wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
So other than maybe getting lucky with the opposing team’s TV coverage being on ESPN+, are ANY of the Wild’s preseason games on TV? The Wild’s Schedule doesn’t show Ballys on any of the games (or are they ALL televised on Ballys?)

Looks like tomorrow nights game is on Bally Sports North Extra.

yep, Ballys finally released their television schedule yesterday… now I need to make the call of shame and extend my Comcast contract another year…

Hoping next season the Wild goes the private streaming route like alot of other teams are doing this season… then I can end my comcast TV contract…

You guys see this? “Joe Smith of the Athletic said a lot could change before then but that the rumor on the draft floor back in June was that Kirill the Thrill wanted to be in Chicago”

Get to know Riley Heidt and Hunter Haight

CaptainMusky wrote:

You guys see this? “Joe Smith of the Athletic said a lot could change before then but that the rumor on the draft floor back in June was that Kirill the Thrill wanted to be in Chicago”

I’ve seen multiple different reports on that rumor, I think it’s all click bait…

What would be Kirill’s motivation? Just to play with 19 year old Bedard who is a shoot first center and plays zero defense? I also heard the argument that Chicago will have all this capspace to spend on Free Agents, how is that true when Bedard and the glutton of 1st rounders they’ve picked recently will all need new contracts in 1-2 years?

If his desire is to win, Chicago is 3-4 years away from even starting to think about that…

I think it’s BS, BUT if its true and Kirill wants out, Chicago has plenty of prospects and picks to pay for him…

Joe just doesn’t want to believe any other team can afford KK and that he only wants to go to the top team in the league if he wants to leave at all. Even though he will be in the prime of his career for several years on his next contract.

He also believes we will get a kings ransom even though he will get to pick where he wants to go and takes all the leverage the wild have out of their hands.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Joe just doesn’t want to believe any other team can afford KK and that he only wants to go to the top team in the league if he wants to leave at all. Even though he will be in the prime of his career for several years on his next contract.

He also believes we will get a kings ransom even though he will get to pick where he wants to go and takes all the leverage the wild have out of their hands.

Huh?

Why are you spouting nonsense?

The “assumption” is if Kirill doesn’t want to re-sign with the Wild its likely because he doesn’t think they can compete for a cup… Do you know many Cup contenders that can take on a $13+ aav caphit without likely losing some players that made them a contender in the first place?

He could also just hate living in Minnesota and nothing is going to fix that other than Kirill moving somewhere else…

I’ve always said the Wild won’t get anything close to full value back as Kirill holds the cards, just like Fiala did and forced a deal to LA, my point regarding the Chicago rumor is that they have so many prospects and picks that they would probably be willing to offer more up than other teams if needed…

The idea that the Wild controls any influence on Kirill’s decision is just silly other than they can offer him a max 8 year deal vs 7 if he’s traded elsewhere…We can talk about our prospects, Chicago and other teams can talk about their prospects, we can talk about future capspace like any other team can, but all of that can change on a year to year basis…

Its all upto where Kirill wants to be for another 9 years…

I would think a Cup contender could certainly find a way to find the money required. Trading back multiple contracts would do the trick.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I would think a Cup contender could certainly find a way to find the money required. Trading back multiple contracts would do the trick.

We’ve seen Vegas do it with questionable Smoke and Mirror cap tricks with Eichel’s $10aav, but $13+aav is another animal…can’t think of any other examples of a contender absorbing anything close to $13aav into their team?

Yes, there can/would be players coming back, but we’re not going to take on another teams problems (players not worth their caphit) we already have enough of those…getting back good anything (players/prospects/picks) is obviously the goal if a trade is forced, but do teams really want to give up those players? Probably to some extent for a player like Kirill, but you don’t want to end up getting a Jonathan Huberdeau back….

CaptainMusky wrote:

You guys see this? “Joe Smith of the Athletic said a lot could change before then but that the rumor on the draft floor back in June was that Kirill the Thrill wanted to be in Chicago”

Lazerus walked his comments back today….funny I wonder if Russo had anything to do with his walk back… Russo probably tired of all the DM’s this caused him to get recently…

https://www.yardbarker.com/nhl/articles/journalist_clarifies_rumor_of_kaprizov_leaving_wild_for_blackhawks/s1_16454_40951573

JoeMX1825 wrote:

can’t think of any other examples of a contender absorbing anything close to $13aav into their team?

Might have something to do with there only being two $13m contacts in the history of the NHL, and both being extensions.

But hey you’re definitely not wrong

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Hoping next season the Wild goes the private streaming route

I hope it never goes to that. I hate streaming live sports.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
can’t think of any other examples of a contender absorbing anything close to $13aav into their team?

Might have something to do with there only being two $13m contacts in the history of the NHL, and both being extensions.

But hey you’re definitely not wrong

use the same cap % then…