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

The Great Wall of St Paul getting the start tonight…

Now THAT’S what we were missing with Zuc out. Wow.

Jojo is such a waste on our top6…

Just watch him for a few shifts, he does NOTHING… I get we dont have better options right now (keep Ohgren in Iowa where he’s thriving) but I cant wait until the trade deadline as he’s in the pressbox (if not released)

Trade deadline might be tough with not being able to acrue any cap space with these injuries and not having a first round pick next year.

That was the worst play ive seen Faber make on the second goal. Rare

Ripjiggen wrote:

Trade deadline might be tough with not being able to acrue any cap space with these injuries and not having a first round pick next year.

It’s at times like this I ask myself what would Vegas do? LTIR loophole time.

Samsonov’s reaction to that goal was priceless. That catch, drop, and shot was so fast and so smooth. Brutal to be a goalie when he has that much open space

Ripjiggen wrote:

Trade deadline might be tough with not being able to acrue any cap space with these injuries and not having a first round pick next year.

with the caphits prorated, we’ll be able to afford most players available, we can also offer up a late round pick for a team to retain some caphit as well. I dont expect whoever they’ll get is a huge caphit to start with anyways…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Trade deadline might be tough with not being able to acrue any cap space with these injuries and not having a first round pick next year.

It’s at times like this I ask myself what would Vegas do? LTIR loophole time.

we dont seem to have the quack doctors willing to sign off on questionable injuries…

Another game where Hartman’s name is hardly mentioned… he’s gotta get going…

Wow, a Jojo sighting that shift!

with the caphits prorated, we’ll be able to afford most players available, we can also offer up a late round pick for a team to retain some caphit as well. I dont expect whoever they’ll get is a huge caphit to start with anyways…

At this point they are in risk of finishing over the cap which would affect their ceiling next year.

BG sounds less confident than you right now.

Asked if he thinks this will hurt his trade deadline plans to possibly add a top-six forward, Guerin said, “Yeah, I mean, it probably will. And again, that’s just one of those things. We can’t control it. We’ve been doing our best to build up cap space as we go along. But things happen and we can’t necessarily control it all the time. We’ll see what we can do though. That’s a couple months away. So we’ll see.”

Understand the “LTIR Loophole” requires a big salary to be on LTIR until game 1 of the playoffs. So Kirill, Boldy, Spurgeon, Brodin, maybe Ek. And they have to be out until the playoffs, not one game before. There’s more to it than just standing on a table and yelling I DECLARE LTIR, like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy.

So if you want to be like VGK, who are you picking to be out? You also don’t get to use the excuse of the team fighting injuries when they limp into the playoffs, because remember they are cheating now.

Rossi+Faber bonuses ($1.1m max) will almost surely have them finish over the cap this season, just like last season.

tswoboda wrote:

So if you want to be like VGK, who are you picking to be out?

So you’re saying it might look suspicious if Hartman and JoJo were both injured in an unfortunate knee on knee collision in practice?

tswoboda wrote:

Understand the “LTIR Loophole” requires a big salary to be on LTIR until game 1 of the playoffs. So Kirill, Boldy, Spurgeon, Brodin, maybe Ek. And they have to be out until the playoffs, not one game before. There’s more to it than just standing on a table and yelling I DECLARE LTIR, like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy.

So if you want to be like VGK, who are you picking to be out? You also don’t get to use the excuse of the team fighting injuries when they limp into the playoffs, because remember they are cheating now.

Rossi+Faber bonuses ($1.1m max) will almost surely have them finish over the cap this season, just like last season.

bonus points for inserting a Michael Scott Quote…”That’s what she said”…

Brodin is going to be our best bet for possible LTIR availability… Bad backs are a feel great one day, can’t walk the next day conundrum, oh and they are much less likely to get discredited by a physician vs a broken bone, etc… if he has any type of setback again they’ll likely go the LTIR route and then figure out do they try a much longer rest option and hold him out until the playoffs or do they go the surgery route to hopefully eliminate this issue from popping up again in the last 3 years of his deal and he’s ready by the start of next season…

He’s looked great the past few games, but then we all thought he looked good before he went out of the lineup with issues…

Ripjiggen wrote:

BG sounds less confident than you right now.

well yeah, he had 4 starters out…obviously if these injuries keep happening he’ll have cap issues, there’s no way around that, but if things get back to a little more normal injury cycle, he’ll start accruing again…

Sounded like they will be doing some cap gymnastics these next few days between games, so i’d setup a lemonade stand on the highway between St Paul and Iowa…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Brodin is going to be our best bet for possible LTIR availability… Bad backs are a feel great one day, can’t walk the next day conundrum

For sure, and this is what Vegas has done with Stone. Let him sit and rest until the playoffs so they can use the cap space, and also have a rested and healthy captain when it matters. Also part of why they were the 2nd wild card last year. You gotta have the stones to sit a big time player while the team fights for a playoff spot. The player obviously has to be on board with it too.

Wild fans would cry like babies if Brodin sat out the rest of this regular season

So what’s the emergency with Gus that brought Wallstedt up? I thought he played pretty well last night but surprised they didn’t put Fluery in against the team that kind of did him dirty for a revenge game.
Fluery looked good against the Flyers.

Ice Cap wrote:

So what’s the emergency with Gus that brought Wallstedt up?

“Lower body soreness”.

tswoboda wrote:

Wild fans would cry like babies if Brodin sat out the rest of this regular season

and they would cry if the Wild played the long game and just got the surgery done now to hopefully eliminate it from happening in future seasons, that’s up for the Doctors to decide which option is best…

In terms of resting, yes its a risk and then there’s the offseason surgery recovery timeline to factor in to make sure he’s ready to go next season…Stone’s previous few years have felt like he goes on LTIR to quiet/manage the pain the best they can and then gets shot up for the playoffs and plays through it…it paid off by getting him a cup, that’s the part that’s upto the Player, are they upto playing through the pain? The Team doctors step in if there’s more of a chance for long term damage by playing through it and that’s when they just hang them up for the season/playoffs…

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ice Cap wrote:</div>
So what’s the emergency with Gus that brought Wallstedt up?

“Lower body soreness”.

at least its not “bi-lateral leg weakness”… MN fans know that one all too well…

Sounds pretty similar so maybe they are mildly exaggerating his soreness so they can use the emergency exception to get the kid some games while getting Gus some rest. If that’s the case, then well played

tswoboda wrote:

Sounds pretty similar so maybe they are mildly exaggerating his soreness so they can use the emergency exception to get the kid some games while getting Gus some rest. If that’s the case, then well played

That’s what I thought of when I initially heard it…

Outside of beating Florida and maybe Vancouver and Tampa bay, is the Wild’s hot start more about smoke and mirrors beating a heavy below average team schedule vs them being a legit contender? Look at the teams they’ve lost to… its very similar to last season beating up on the weaker teams and losing to the good ones….

I’ve wondered the same thing. They caught Florida and Tampa at the right time I think. Sometimes it’s not who you play but when you play them. We beat Edmonton in the first meeting as well. They are playing more inspired hockey in comparison to last year but winning will do that. I think it’s safe to say they will not miss the playoffs at this point. Before the season started I felt it was a real possibility they may not make the playoffs.

When and if Kaprizov hits a dry spell it may get hard to rack up points. Of course injuries etc. etc. Enjoy the ride for now.

I agree with that assessment. I don’t get to see as many games as some here because of the espn plus broadcasts.

This topic has been brought up on KFAN a lot though. They consensus seems to be 1) goaltending, and 2) coaching. Obviously removing Dean last year during the season created some instability. And goaltending overall has been similar to what it was 2 seasons ago. Goaltending was pretty terrible last season.

They may not be able to stay in the top 3 of the central with the likes of Dallas, Colorado, or Winnipeg but at least a wild card spot seems assured at this point already, barring a complete collapse.

You can jump off the wagon at any time if you wish.

13-18 through 31 games last year
20-11 through 31 games this year.

They didn’t beat up on weaker teams last year
At least not very often.

But hey if they just replace JoJo with some magical top six wing for zero dollars this year think how good they could be…

it’s not a matter of jumping off a band wagon, it’s merely pointing out that this team had a big issue of NOT beating the better teams last season (weren’t we like a combined 0-12 against the Division powers Avs, Stars and Jets?) and even with their great start this season, they are still having issues beating the better teams (0-3 against those teams sofar)

Our schedule seems to be back loaded against the leagues better teams the rest of this season, so it will only get tougher…

and we get that you’re the Prez of the JoJo fanclub… its no secret that of course everybody wants him replaced in the top6 when the cap allows it at the trade deadline, you keep making up fake news saying people think there’s a solution to replacing him right now, there isn’t, we have no capspace, so we begrudgingly accept it and think about what could be at the deadline…The only option right now would be to call up Ohgren, but he showed he wasn’t ready at the start of the season and sofar he’s been on a Rossi trajectory in Iowa and they likely don’t want to mess with that…

Wild are 22nd in remaining strength of schedule, based on current standings (32 being easiest)

I still can’t get over the Preds in dead last

I only mentioned coaching and goaltending above because its obvious low-hanging fruit and its what they talk about the most on the radio. I’m sure there’s more to it if you chose to dive deeper into the weeds.