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

I’m talking about the start of their seasons, dude you take any post and just 180 it to the extreme… yikes

Extreme? It’s 2 games in and you’re starting the “at least we’re not” with 3 teams that will probably finish above the Wild this season

Guarantee you said the same thing about the Oilers to start last year too

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m talking about the start of their seasons, dude you take any post and just 180 it to the extreme… yikes

Dude it was a joke relax.
We are 2 games in. lol

For the record it’s not just any post.
There is a pattern here.LOL

BREAKING NEWS

Good and bad news, Wild confirmed Ek only has a broken nose, but Spurgeon is now out with a lower body injury…

Kinda strange Ek couldn’t play the rest of the game yesterday or play tonight with a broken nose??

Whole team feels different without Ek.

Overtime should be 3 on 2. That’d really open up the ice.

Didn’t get a chance to watch the game live, but after watching the recap it looked like the Wild had plenty of chances to score and Hellebuyck made the saves (Rossi with several point blank chances)

Obviously we missed Ek on that faceoff play right before the end of the 1st…Boldy completely misplayed that Faceoff attempt (He tried to outright win it vs just tying up the other center’s stick) That’s on coaching…

GusBus was very solid again, not much of a chance stopping a 4-3 powerplay in OT, let alone Connor sniping from the faceoff dot…

darn IDO website, I had written up a Spurgeon post with multiple youtube links and it won’t save to the thread…

Obviously with his recent surgeries, a new injury is worrisome, but his play the first two games when he was supposedly healthy and better than ever was alarming…

Here’s 1 example on the PK, not sure what the F he’s doing here: https://youtu.be/0b8VEJxXneg?t=255

there were 4 more goals against where Spurge was in the middle of each one…Hopefully his new injury isn’t related to previous ones and we get the old Spurgeon back, if not, it will be a long 3 seasons….

Hunt recalled, expecting some not great Spurgeon news soon…

Spurgeon sure has turned injury prone. He’s very talented but always thought he was too small for a number 1 D man.

He hasn’t ever been 1. That title was Suter’s title and has been Brodin’s since his departure.

Now salary wise he is oh wait that is still Suter too.

Only half kidding.

Russo’s silence on Spurgeon for 3 days is worrisome…

Anyone recall when he actually got hurt?

CaptainMusky wrote:

Anyone recall when he actually got hurt?

No specific instance – he played the full game Saturday and couldn’t go Sunday

Agree it’s worrisome. It’s crazy too because there was just no way to see something like this coming

tswoboda wrote:

Maybe wait to see how the 35 year old mini captain comes back from multiple surgeries before trading the rest of D because of an 18 year old prospect

tswoboda wrote:

Spurgeon coming off a missed season is a huge question mark to me. Definitely not untouchable and I think more likely to move before Brodin

tswoboda wrote:

Doesn’t have to be a trade, or at least not of an active player. 35 years old coming off a missed season and 2 surgeries – another injury filled year and he could end up riding off into the LTIR sunset.

I would absolutely love to be wrong about this

I know every team has some bad contracts, but it feels like Wild may be moving from two albatross contracts that are killing the team to a handful of smaller contracts that in aggregate don’t look good on the back end.

We have $18M tied up this year in Spurgeon(through 2027), Foligno(through 2027), Hartman(through 2027), Gaudreau(through 2028). That number might be a bit bigger as the years go on too, I didn’t look at year by year numbers.

That’s about ~20% of our cap. That looks A LOT better if Spurgeon is healthy and playing like he historically can, but he missed most of last season and he’s 35…

I don’t know how that compares to other teams as I just don’t follow other teams as closely, but its seems like a lot of money tied into players who are on the wrong side of 30 and have been trending down.

Will those contracts be the next ‘Once we are done with those contracts our window will really be open!’ like we talk about Parise/Suter?

I imagine some of it is just the reality of trying to build a roster with ‘depth’.

jeepers, Ek didn’t fly to St Louis, Jojo held out of morning skate today, no mention of Spurgeon at all by Russo in his game lineup tweet…

My guess is Russo is holding out on reporting on Spurgeon until some tests come back from his physician and they make a decision on how to proceed for the season…

Justin Donson wrote:

I know every team has some bad contracts, but it feels like Wild may be moving from two albatross contracts that are killing the team to a handful of smaller contracts that in aggregate don’t look good on the back end.

We have $18M tied up this year in Spurgeon(through 2027), Foligno(through 2027), Hartman(through 2027), Gaudreau(through 2028). That number might be a bit bigger as the years go on too, I didn’t look at year by year numbers.

That’s about ~20% of our cap. That looks A LOT better if Spurgeon is healthy and playing like he historically can, but he missed most of last season and he’s 35…

I don’t know how that compares to other teams as I just don’t follow other teams as closely, but its seems like a lot of money tied into players who are on the wrong side of 30 and have been trending down.

Will those contracts be the next ‘Once we are done with those contracts our window will really be open!’ like we talk about Parise/Suter?

I imagine some of it is just the reality of trying to build a roster with ‘depth’.

Spurgeon is worrisome due to his age, body size and recent major injury history, Foligno’s is mid-level worry just based on his injury history and play style, Freddy’s aav is super low for a utility player, he could easily get traded after this season or next if needed…

Foligno and Hartman are middle 6 forwards that are paid exactly like middle 6 forwards. Spurgeon is hurt and could end up on LTIR – if he played for VGK then pitchfork nation would be crying cap circumvention!!

Hynes gave a presser this morning, said Ek didn’t fly because they didn’t want to complicate his broken nose (is that really a thing?)

and said they will wait to get back to MN to find out what’s up with Spurgeon…

tswoboda wrote:

Foligno and Hartman are middle 6 forwards that are paid exactly like middle 6 forwards. Spurgeon is hurt and could end up on LTIR – if he played for VGK then pitchfork nation would be crying cap circumvention!!

I watched an episode of the Faceoff series on Prime last night. Kind of like the Hard Knocks series for the NFL. Pretty good show. They featured Vegas in one of the episodes. Jackie Redmond described Vegas front office as the leagues honey badgers they don’t give a poop about feels they get whomever they feel they need to get in whatever way possible and trade whomever they have to in the process to win and that’s all they care about.

But yet I doubt there is a player in the league who has them on their no go list.

tswoboda wrote:

Foligno and Hartman are middle 6 forwards that are paid exactly like middle 6 forwards. Spurgeon is hurt and could end up on LTIR – if he played for VGK then pitchfork nation would be crying cap circumvention!!

IF Spurg goes on LTIR don’t expect the Wild to do anything with the $7.5…They likely don’t want rentals (or more precisely, don’t want to pay future assets for rentals) This could turn into an annual issue the next 2 seasons…

Maybe we can hire a Golden Knights Cap consultant to help us figure out the loopholes…

Ice Cap wrote:

Jackie Redmond described Vegas front office as the leagues honey badgers they don’t give a poop about feels they get whomever they feel they need to get in whatever way possible and trade whomever they have to in the process to win and that’s all they care about.

But yet I doubt there is a player in the league who has them on their no go list.

I think this blind eye to a lack of player loyalty will wear off over time, especially with veteran players with families…but the destination city, no state income tax and an Owner willing to spend whatever $ the GM asks for is still too good to say no to…

Ice Cap wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Foligno and Hartman are middle 6 forwards that are paid exactly like middle 6 forwards. Spurgeon is hurt and could end up on LTIR – if he played for VGK then pitchfork nation would be crying cap circumvention!!

I watched an episode of the Faceoff series on Prime last night. Kind of like the Hard Knocks series for the NFL. Pretty good show. They featured Vegas in one of the episodes. Jackie Redmond described Vegas front office as the leagues honey badgers they don’t give a poop about feels they get whomever they feel they need to get in whatever way possible and trade whomever they have to in the process to win and that’s all they care about.

But yet I doubt there is a player in the league who has them on their no go list.

I have been meaning to start watching that series but haven’t. Glad to see a positive review.

if you are able to watch a Montreal Canadians home game on TV, please watch it for a period and listen to the crowd absolutely freak out every time Lane Hutson gets the puck on his stick, its hilarious!

Wild home fans do it a little bit when Kirill does something special on the ice, but Montreal takes it to Beatlemania levels…

funny thing was that Lane Hutson played terrible last night, took lots of risks and got bit in the a$$ for goals against…

Justin Donson wrote:

I know every team has some bad contracts, but it feels like Wild may be moving from two albatross contracts that are killing the team to a handful of smaller contracts that in aggregate don’t look good on the back end.

We have $18M tied up this year in Spurgeon(through 2027), Foligno(through 2027), Hartman(through 2027), Gaudreau(through 2028). That number might be a bit bigger as the years go on too, I didn’t look at year by year numbers.

That’s about ~20% of our cap. That looks A LOT better if Spurgeon is healthy and playing like he historically can, but he missed most of last season and he’s 35…

I don’t know how that compares to other teams as I just don’t follow other teams as closely, but its seems like a lot of money tied into players who are on the wrong side of 30 and have been trending down.

Will those contracts be the next ‘Once we are done with those contracts our window will really be open!’ like we talk about Parise/Suter?

I imagine some of it is just the reality of trying to build a roster with ‘depth’.

Don’t worry they are all off the books by the time the 5 year plan is up.

IF Spurg goes on LTIR don’t expect the Wild to do anything with the $7.5…They likely don’t want rentals (or more precisely, don’t want to pay future assets for rentals) This could turn into an annual issue the next 2 seasons…

Maybe we can hire a Golden Knights Cap consultant to help us figure out the loopholes…

How many more prospects do we need? We already can’t fit them all into the 2030 lineup.

Being a wild fan is starting feel like ground hog day.

Pretty cool/sad moment in Columbus tonight….

https://x.com/sportsnet/status/1846330753514140118?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

Nice tribute in Columbus. Leaving the left wing spot open reminded me of the military flying the missing man formation. Cool and sad.