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

CaptainMusky wrote:

More Cap Circumvention… How is this even possible?

“unique situation” involving 3 parties: Vegas, The NHL, and the player/NHLPA. I doubt we ever get details but it’s a fair assumption Lehner is unfit to play in the NHL and it’s not due to injury. My guess is Vegas is saying they have grounds to terminate the contract, but they’re willing to pay the guy as long as the cap hit goes away. NHLPA is happy he gets paid, Team is happy the cap hit goes away, and the league is the middle man who’s happy to end this without a hearing.

I’d say big win for Vegas and big win for Robin Lehner

Yeah I think its a good deed Vegas is still going to pay him, but there are a lot of questions around it. Maybe he is in treatment or something like you said we may never know and that is probably just fine.

No way the league punishes its golden franchise…

At this point whatever the reason is (legitimate or not) there’s so much smoke around the Vegas Cap department that its hurting the integrity of the league, its a laughing stock for the other 31 teams/fanbases in the league…just like the player disciplinary department run by Parros…

Don’t put any stock in Vegas paying his salary as a good deed, it’s likely all paid with contract insurance policies…to me this stinks of a payoff to avoid embarrassing info about the league assistance programs from coming out had it played out like most other contract terminations…

The NHL cries that it can’t get its popularity up like the other major sports leagues, but 99% of that is due to the league shooting itself in the feet…

not a bad return for Riley Heidt to his WHL team a day after being sent home from Wild camp. He was named Captain and then had a goal and 2 assists (one was ridiculous) in his first game…

really good video on the state of the NHL as a skills league…side note, this guys youtube channel is great for hockey fans!

Those clips of the goalie gear in the 80’s-90’s is hilarious!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The NHL cries that it can’t get its popularity up like the other major sports leagues, but 99% of that is due to the league shooting itself in the feet…

NHL Regular season officially begins today at Noon…

…And then we get two more days of Preseason games…

…And then the Regular season starts again on Tuesday

Wild don’t open until next Thursday

I was reading about some season predictions last night.

Analysts are saying that the Stars and Avalanche are still the cream of the crop in the Central Division, and that the Wild and Blackhawks are the bottom feeders.

Also, there seems to be a lot of love for Edmonton (rightfully so), and the Panthers (rightfully so). Another team getting a lot of attention is New Jersey because they added Markstrom in goal.

As for the Wild, this triple headed solution in goal is not a good way to operate. And there always seems to be a shortage of offense for extended periods of time. Unfortunately I think they will miss the playoffs again this season. If they exceed those expectations, they could sneak in as a wild card team.

As long as McDavid stays healthy he has to be a shoe in for MVP.

Utah is the hipster pick to make the playoffs now that they’re out of Arizona. I don’t see it at all, the roster just isn’t very good. It’s ironic their record in Mullet arena the last two years was actually good enough to make the playoffs, an obvious home field advantage, and now that’s gone.

Agree Dallas and Colorado are locks. Colorado is incredibly top heavy and could run into trouble with a couple more key injuries. But if Landeskog and Nichushkin manage to come back, they’re among the cup favorites.

Next group is Nashville and Winnipeg – both likely make playoffs but could go the other way too. Winnipeg is completely dependant on one goaltender. Nashville signed two thirds of their top 6F and top 4D in the last two summers. If everyone fits together perfect they could win the division, but it rarely works that way. I think the Wild is in this range – if they get average or better goaltending they’ll be in the playoffs.

Final group is Utah and St. Louis who might make it interesting but won’t make playoffs.

Blackhawks still suck.

tswoboda wrote:

Blackhawks still suck.

That part doesn’t bother me one bit either.

Not to be a homer, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the Wild during the preseason, like any team, it will come down to injuries or more importantly WHO gets injured and for how long they are out…

If we don’t have any major injuries like last year, I think they will make the playoffs…

I think April will be alot of fun if Yurov and Buium join the club…

I think if they avoid injuries to key players and just get average goal tending then will with about 10 more games or close to it anyway.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I think April will be alot of fun if Yurov and Buium join the club…

Assuming Yurov makes playoffs, he’ll be in the KHL past the end of the NHL regular season

Hate to break it to everyone but the Wild weren’t that injured last year compared to NHL average. They were in the bottom half, but still far from the most injured. They were just among the healthiest teams the years prior, and we got used to it.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Not to be a homer, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the Wild during the preseason, like any team, it will come down to injuries or more importantly WHO gets injured and for how long they are out…

If we don’t have any major injuries like last year, I think they will make the playoffs…

I think April will be alot of fun if Yurov and Buium join the club…

I like your optimism.

I just can’t get there with this current club.

It’s not about how many injuries it was who was injured imo and for how long.

Buffalo can put out a pretty potent lineup! (But young). No more excuses for that franchise…

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I think April will be alot of fun if Yurov and Buium join the club…

Assuming Yurov makes playoffs, he’ll be in the KHL past the end of the NHL regular season

we’ll see, his team isn’t as good as last year..

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Buffalo can put out a pretty potent lineup! (But young). No more excuses for that franchise…

ong they are making mistakes everywhere in this game…

Jacob Markstrom with the Save of the year in game 1?

https://x.com/br_openice/status/1842260520285462994?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

Totally awesome that the NHL opens every season at a complete random time and on a network that has no streaming options. And 4 days before the actual regular season starts

Charlie Stramel playing 1C for Michigan State tonight….

I think Brock Faber is good at hockey

They sure have scored a hell of a lot of goals this preseason.

Pre-season is now over, time to make your Season Predictions:

I think the Wild make the playoffs as a Wild Card team with 95+ points, getting to the second round will depend on who the matchup is (do we get a juggernaut or not)
I think Kirill pots 50+ goals this season
I think Zuccy gets a new career high in points
I think Boldy pots 40+
I think Rossi & Ek pot 30+
I think our Powerplay gets into/very close the top 10 of the league, but our PK stays in the bottom 10
I think our goalies play fine, I don’t think Gus gets traded and Wallstedt doesn’t play as many NHL games as they originally intended this season.
I think Khusnutdinov will surprise a lot of folks and be the most improved player this season taking a big jump in his development.
I think Foligno will miss 30+ games due to injury
I think Hartman regresses yet again this season, stays on the bottom 6
I think Jojo doesn’t last and is sent to Iowa by December (if he accepts great, if he doesn’t, he’ll have his contract mutually terminated)
I think Hunt will replace Merrill as the teams 7th defenseman and get 20+ games due to injuries…
I think Cadien Bankier will be a surprise Iowa Wild injury callup and play really well in his games

Addison released from his PTO with the Sens. He’s not doing himself any favors he’s got some skill but he could be cooked now.

Zeev Buium with 3 assists in his first game of the season…

Swayman signs with Boston 8x$8.25

Boggles the mind how obvious compromise deals like this take so long to get done sometimes…

Same reason the last Kaprizov deal took time. Zero comparables… wouldn’t call it obvious at all

I was just talking about how the Bruins were at $8 for a long time and Sawyman was always at $8.5