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

Wallstedt extended 2 years at $2.2aav

cool article on TSN about once Ovi breaks Gretzky’s goal record, all eyes will shift focus on Mathews path to breaking Ovi’s total…

I just don’t see that happening, Ovi has been miraculously healthy over his 20+ seasons, especially for his play style, he’s a Russian Tank of a human being vs Mathews who’s had repeated issues with his wrist and shoulder….I just don’t see him physically lasting long enough in the league to get close…

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/travis-yost-alex-ovechkin-could-soon-go-from-chaser-to-chased-1.2184974

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Wallstedt extended 2 years at $2.2aav

Weird contract and really weird timing. Must be expecting him to play more than just a handful of spot starts this year

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Wallstedt extended 2 years at $2.2aav

Weird contract and really weird timing. Must be expecting him to play more than just a handful of spot starts this year

Russo said it was to get ahead of any possible offer sheet drama during the offseason (shrugs)

They obviously have interest in shipping GusBus off, the hope is he starts off well and drives some interest from teams in need…Wally learns from Flower this season and they find another reclamation project next offseason or one of the Iowa Wild options moves up

Saw what Russo said, but he can’t sign an offer sheet for another 9 months so not completely following that one.

Askarov signed an almost identical deal this summer after getting traded, and then got sent to the AHL… after demanding a trade because he didn’t want to play in the AHL.

tswoboda wrote:

Saw what Russo said, but he can’t sign an offer sheet for another 9 months so not completely following that one.

to get ahead of it…no worries about Wallstedt now for 3 seasons…total focus on Kirill and Rossi in July (but I expect Rossi to sign a 2 x $3+ bridge deal early this season too) I think they go the Chisholm route with Marat this summer, but maybe the Russian flight risk forces GMBG to lock him down with a bridge deal too?

I guess if Wallstedt plays a bunch of games and takes the starter role then they look like geniuses. And if he plays 5-10 games and is meh then they’re only overpaying him by $1m AAV for two years so not the end of the world. Still just seems weird both sides would want to do this right now

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Saw what Russo said, but he can’t sign an offer sheet for another 9 months so not completely following that one.

to get ahead of it

Oh is that how that works? Now I get it, thanks

I’m sure if any player agent gives Billy a call with a number and he likes it and values the player, who cares about the timing…

That also means he probably lets Merrill’s agent roll to voicemail right now…

Dang, its being reported that Rangers Goalie Igor Shesterkin rejected a 8 x $11aav contract offer…he’s currently in the last year of his $5.6aav deal…

for those who use Comcast/Xfinity for Cable TV and have the package level that gets Ballys Sports, are you able to watch the channel (is it even available?) on other TV’s in your house that use the smaller Xfinity Digital Boxes? (not your larger main Xfinity box TV)

I can watch Ballys on my main TV, but the channel isn’t even available on the 2 other TV’s in my house that use the smaller Xfinity decoder box…

I’ve tried the Xfinity Customer Service (lol) rabbit hole but it just leads to broken text links and worthless AI chatbots…

I can’t get off comcast TV fast enough! dear lord let this be the last season the Wild on are it…

Dump the smaller Xfinity boxes and stream to the other tv’s with Roku. Works for our other 3 tv’s just fine

Doesn’t work with smaller boxes. Just dumped mine and will stream from main service.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Doesn’t work with smaller boxes. Just dumped mine and will stream from main service.

Thanks

What a crock of $hit…

Another NHL opening night game going on right now wtf this is dumb why do they want no one to watch the first 3 games of the year

tswoboda wrote:

Another NHL opening night game going on right now wtf this is dumb why do they want no one to watch the first 3 games of the year

ESPN has exclusive rights to Opening Night….all about the benjamins…

It’s on espn. You guys don’t get espn?

I don’t get any TV at 3:30 in the afternoon, just a stupid time that’s all.

Swayman signed a week too early, he’d get $10m after this game

This gets back to my argument about the NHL shooting itself in the feet it its attempt to sell the game…

I honestly had no idea they televised a much earlier game today, I saw the score on TSN.com around 7pm and said wtf how is that game over already?

Blackhawks vs The Utah Hockey Club coming up…

Just seems weird

I caught part of the early game on Sirius radio on the way home from the cabin. Couldn’t believe a game was on so early. They called it a nationally broadcast game. If I can’t pick it up on one of the major over the air broadcasts it’s not a nationally televised game in my opinion.

Further proof the NHL does not give a rats a$$ about the fandom. All they care about is how much money they can extract from you at the gate and by buying huge tv packages to watch their product. This will never change until people stop buying tickets and paying for tv packages. Which means it will never change and only get worse.

Ice Cap wrote:

I caught part of the early game on Sirius radio on the way home from the cabin. Couldn’t believe a game was on so early. They called it a nationally broadcast game. If I can’t pick it up on one of the major over the air broadcasts it’s not a nationally televised game in my opinion.

Further proof the NHL does not give a rats a$$ about the fandom. All they care about is how much money they can extract from you at the gate and by buying huge tv packages to watch their product. This will never change until people stop buying tickets and paying for tv packages. Which means it will never change and only get worse.

outside of the NFL which only has a 17 game regular season and viewership through the roof so they can basically name their price to broadcast their product, EVERY other pro sports league operates that way…

Russo and Smith just put out an article about the Wild Management’s “5 year plan” and it turns out, we’re currently in year 2 of that plan…

one part of the story:

Even before last season, when Kaprizov had three years left on his contract, Leipold said his future was constantly on the team’s mind.

Leipold admits it’s still a worry.

“Am I convinced that we can (persuade him to stay)? No,” Leipold says. “Am I convinced that we will have a better offer than anybody else can do in the league? The answer is yes.

“I told you that this five-year plan is not a straight line. He’s the most important piece of our five-year plan. I think I can say that.”

Leipold says when Guerin begins serious talks with Kaprizov and his agent next offseason, the entire “plan” will be communicated to him.

Latest Not Weird, Wild video:

I will say, missed opportunity not having the guys playing with plastic cars on the bed ala Slapshot…is Bogo the new Middsy? (star of the show)

https://x.com/mnwild/status/1844060507545780666

So now there is another 5 year plan and we are year 2? Oh boy…

Ol’ Leo doesn’t sound to confident in resigning KK. At that point do we start another 5 year plan?

Arent we in year 3 because it started with the buyouts right? How could anyone be confident about signing him? He has to want to play here and we all know well and good that winning is the most important thing so we better start making some changes and prove to him that he can win here.

article was very specific about this season being year 2… at least now the Hartman, Foligno and Freddy extensions make a little more sense and it lines up with our recent high draft picks playing NHL roles…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Arent we in year 3 because it started with the buyouts right? How could anyone be confident about signing him? He has to want to play here and we all know well and good that winning is the most important thing so we better start making some changes and prove to him that he can win here.

Nope a new 5 year plan according to the article and this season is year 2.

CaptainMusky wrote:

so we better start making some changes and prove to him that he can win here.

Other than guessing right on a few cheaper free agent adds the next few years and maybe a tit for tat trade or two, what exactly does that mean? This Team/Org is who it is from a contract and prospect standpoint for the next X number of years, winning is upto the players…