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

last point I’ll make about the current prospect pool, if you look at their individual success sofar, it looks really good. Boldy is a rising star who averaged 30 goals the past 2 seasons and has 6+ seasons left on his deal, Rossi finished with the 2nd most goals in franchise history as a rookie and was a top 6 Rookie of the Year Vote getter, Wallstedt has exceeded every challenge minus a terrible team game vs Dallas, Yurov just broke the 20 year old scoring record in the KHL. Ohgren and Khusnutdinov are too early in their pro careers to judge them yet, Stramel is the biggest prospect question mark, he has this season to prove his worth or he’s likely a lost prospect…Outside of Buium, The drafted D prospects still have a very big question mark over their heads, but they were all thrown to the Wolves last season in the AHL as 20 year old rookies (Hunt was 21) due to all of the Wild injuries, so lets cut them a bit of slack and see what a normal development year looks like…

Unfortunately I don’t think they have that much time.
You have this season to prove to KK there is something there worth signing for. You waste five years with arguably the best player they have had on cap strapped years and he walks that is going to be a tough sell. With his full move clause I don’t believe they will get back even close to what he is worth.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Unfortunately I don’t think they have that much time.
You have this season to prove to KK there is something there worth signing for. You waste five years with arguably the best player they have had on cap strapped years and he walks that is going to be a tough sell. With his full move clause I don’t believe they will get back even close to what he is worth.

its kind of just bad timing though for Kirill, not sure what else management (GMBG) could do?

Kirill waits to come over to the NHL when the Wild team is aging and just starting the prospect recovery from the previous GM who gutted it for playoff runs that only got them into the 2nd round once…
Would not extending Foligno, Hartman and Freddy really change anything? Maybe GMBG could have pooled 2 of those player’s salaries together and got a top 6 wing or center instead (but who?). Would things be better for Kirill if Parise & Suter were still on the team making $15 million against the cap as 4th line and 3rd pair grinders?
Oilers have had 2 generational players for 10 years and have zero cups and 1 finals appearance… yes thats better than first round exits, but when the goal is winning the cup, 2nd place is no different than 32nd…

I think its more about does Kirill think GMBG can build a winning team around him once his hands are untied and the team’s window opens…

yes thats better than first round exits, but when the goal is winning the cup, 2nd place is no different than 32nd…

Sorry but it’s very different.
And honestly a ridiculous statement.

You are going to blame roster management on bad timing. That excuse would get you fired as a GM imo…

Next year they are the 11th oldest team in the league and 26th in cap space according to spotrac.
Better hope Yurov is the next Fedorov.

Ripjiggen wrote:

You are going to blame roster management on bad timing. That excuse would get you fired as a GM imo…

Next year they are the 11th oldest team in the league and 26th in cap space according to spotrac.

I’m not blaming anything on anyone, just saying Kirill came over when the core players we’re well past their prime yet were still the highest salaries on the team and the prospect pool was bare trying to get that core farther into the playoffs… How is that the new GM’s fault for not having another new core immediately ready for a player nobody knew was going to be an instant superstar?

Flower, Zuccy, Spurgeon and Bogo heavily skew that age stat, they are gone in 1-3 years and all will replaced with kids under 22 years old…

odds are most fans can’t remember who lost in the cup finals 3 years ago just like they can’t tell you who was the very worst team that season…obviously you want to win in the playoffs, but you don’t get your name on a 2nd place trophy…Yes, you hope to see playoff progression, but its a yearly jigsaw puzzle only a few GM’s have figured out how to replace lost pieces and make it back…

What’s the Greatest 4 Player NHL Team Mount Rushmore? Hard to argue against the Penguins 4???

https://x.com/br_openice/status/1828814423529852945?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

odds are most fans can’t remember who lost in the cup finals 3 years ago just like they can’t tell you who was the very worst team that season.

I can tell you wild fans know it wasn’t them in the cup finals or even close.
Otherwise they would be talking about how close they were and if they just had some prospect coming up to get us over the edge.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

last point I’ll make about the current prospect pool, if you look at their individual success sofar, it looks really good. Boldy is a rising star who averaged 30 goals the past 2 seasons and has 6+ seasons left on his deal, Rossi finished with the 2nd most goals in franchise history as a rookie and was a top 6 Rookie of the Year Vote getter, Wallstedt has exceeded every challenge minus a terrible team game vs Dallas, Yurov just broke the 20 year old scoring record in the KHL. Ohgren and Khusnutdinov are too early in their pro careers to judge them yet, Stramel is the biggest prospect question mark, he has this season to prove his worth or he’s likely a lost prospect…Outside of Buium, The drafted D prospects still have a very big question mark over their heads, but they were all thrown to the Wolves last season in the AHL as 20 year old rookies (Hunt was 21) due to all of the Wild injuries, so lets cut them a bit of slack and see what a normal development year looks like…

Boldly is a stud. Cough wing.
Rossi was talked about being traded just this past summer.
We have no idea how good wallstedt will be and frankly is in a messy situation this season.
I am of the belief they wanted to move Gus and really couldn’t.
Yurov isn’t a guarantee he even comes over and hasn’t left Russia or played hockey outside of it since 2021.

Your glass half full could also be half empty.

The drafted D prospects still have a very big question mark over their heads, but they were all thrown to the Wolves last season in the AHL as 20 year old rookies (Hunt was 21) due to all of the Wild injuries, so lets cut them a bit of slack and see what a normal development year looks like…

Thrown to wolves what else do you do with these guys? Wait till the are in their mid 20’s to play in the A?

Still crazy they were able to draft Buium.

Joe Bobby

Ripjiggen wrote:

Rossi was talked about being traded just this past summer.
We have no idea how good wallstedt will be and frankly is in a messy situation this season.
I am of the belief they wanted to move Gus and really couldn’t.
Yurov isn’t a guarantee he even comes over and hasn’t left Russia or played hockey outside of it since 2021.

Your glass half full could also be half empty.

The drafted D prospects still have a very big question mark over their heads, but they were all thrown to the Wolves last season in the AHL as 20 year old rookies (Hunt was 21) due to all of the Wild injuries, so lets cut them a bit of slack and see what a normal development year looks like…

Thrown to wolves what else do you do with these guys? Wait till the are in their mid 20’s to play in the A?

Still crazy they were able to draft Buium.

Totally agree. This whole “just wait until the pipeline starts paying off” is giving GM Average way too much of a free ride.

If you’re ever going to be worth a damn thing as a GM, you have to manage both pipeline AND the win now roster.

Has GM Average done a better job on the draft and develop end? Let’s just say “yes” and set aside for a minute the fact that the Wild’s draft and develop game could hardly have been much worse so the bar was very low to begin with.

And now the roster. When GM Average took over, the Wild were a bubble playoff team that was old and locked into long contracts on players with declining productivity.

GM Average fixed this by executing 2 huge buyouts and then used the next 3 lost buyout seasons to remake the Wild into what is now a bubble playoff team that is old and locked into long contracts on players with declining productivity.

Does anyone notice a pattern here?

Johnny Hockey is trending on X this morning, so I wondered why. I didn’t find a lot of details but Gaudreau and his brother were killed in a bicycling accident. Sad news.

Both were hit by a drunk driver, The night before their sister’s wedding too, RIP Johnny Hockey…

Holy crap that is terrible! RIP Johnny hockey!

Just a horrible tragedy.

Stunning news in the NHL world about the Gaudreaus. They were on bicycles and hit by a drunk driver, who has been charged with two counts of death by auto.

Here’s the details.

According to police, a driver of a Jeep Grand Cherokee hit two “pedalcyclists,” identified as the Gaudreaus, from behind while trying to pass an SUV on the right that had moved over to make way for the two cyclists. Police, who responded to the scene in Oldmans Township, New Jersey, at 8:19 p.m., said both Gaudreaus suffered fatal injuries.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Higgins told police that he had five or six beers before the crash and had tried to go around the SUV on the right side after thinking the other vehicle was trying to block him from passing. He told police his drinking contributed to “his impatience and reckless driving.” Higgins failed a field sobriety test, according to the affidavit.

Heartbreaking and infuriating. Prayers to the Gaudreau family

Man that is beyond sad.

gim wrote:

Stunning news in the NHL world about the Gaudreaus. They were on bicycles and hit by a drunk driver, who has been charged with two counts of death by auto.

I’ll bet it’s not the perp’s first DWI arrest either.

Tragic is an understatement. Wives widowed and kids left fatherless.

Sean Higgins is the drunk murderers name. This is a quote from the NY Post article.

“So…I’m here until Thursday?” Higgins asked Judge Michael J. Silvanio at one point during the proceedings.

When the judge explained that the usual 72-hour holding period was extended due to the holiday weekend, Higgins sat back in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.

This guy isn’t going anywhere for a long time. There are hockey fans in prison. Someone will shank him.

Carolina Hurricanes locked up Seth Jarvis for 8 years $63.2 Million at $7.5aav
You might look at those numbers and figure out that AAV doesn’t make sense? Shouldn’t it be $7.9x million per season?

Well that’s because Carolina figured out and used a “deferred money” tactic and is saving $400k per season of salary cap hit! All perfectly legal per the current CBA!

My guess is you’ll see this new type of contract become the norm moving forward, that is until the NHL steps in and changes the rules again. Can you imagine a Draisaitl or McDavid contract that looks like MLB’s Dodgers did with Ohtani’s?

Kudos to the Hurricanes GM for thinking outside the box… really surprised Vegas didn’t think of it first (yes, Carolina did this with Slavin’s contract, but it was saving only $5,000 per season)

Explanation below:

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/sources-hurricanes-and-seth-jarvis-agree-to-63-2-million-contract-with-unique-deferred-structure

CBA has been in place for how long? 2020? And they just figured out this loop hole now. What a bunch of dummies.

Idk this deferred salary thing seems pretty convoluted and probably comes out close to a wash in the end. It’s absolutely not just a magical way of getting 400k of free cap space. I’m guessing it’s more about the business side of it and the notoriously frugal owner counting real dollars than it is about cap space.

A few interesting ones from the list of roster players yet to be signed for this season.

Cal Clutterbuck. Nobody had more grit. Loved his style.

Calen Addison. The Sharks pretty much confirm the Wild’s opinion of Addison and cut him loose.

tswoboda wrote:

Idk this deferred salary thing seems pretty convoluted and probably comes out close to a wash in the end. It’s absolutely not just a magical way of getting 400k of free cap space. I’m guessing it’s more about the business side of it and the notoriously frugal owner counting real dollars than it is about cap space.

I haven’t gone into all the details because I don’t think anybody can explain them fully yet, from what I gathered it looks like they have the deferred portion paid in the 9th year of Jarvis’s 8 year deal, so they “save” $400k in capspace each of the 8 seasons, but then get hit with the deferred payment in the 9th? (when god knows how much the cap has gone up in 8 years and Jarvis’s $7.4 is off the books anyways)

I’m sure there will be additional reports on it that go further into the details, bottom line is that its not circumventing the cap (per the NHL) but it sounded like the NHL can put a stop to it if they deem it being “taken advantage of”
Obviously the LA Dodgers took the deferred contract to the extreme with Shohei Ohtani’s deal…

Puckpedia broke it down, they even added a Deferred Contract calculator to their toolset.

https://puckpedia.com/deferred

They’re holding $10m worth of his signing bonus for 7 and 8 years. There’s another deferred signing bonus in year 7 I think, not as big of deal there though. Anyone that’s ever invested a penny knows money now is worth more than money later. The only way Jarvis agrees to that deferred payment is if the total contract dollar number went up. The NHLs calculator put the value at $3.2m spread over 8 years… probably a good estimate.

I really believe this is about the owner wanting to hold money, not the salary cap. That’s why the Bobby Bonilla deferred money happened as well

tswoboda wrote:

They’re holding $10m worth of his signing bonus for 7 and 8 years. There’s another deferred signing bonus in year 7 I think, not as big of deal there though. Anyone that’s ever invested a penny knows money now is worth more than money later. The only way Jarvis agrees to that deferred payment is if the total contract dollar number went up. The NHLs calculator put the value at $3.2m spread over 8 years… probably a good estimate.

I really believe this is about the owner wanting to hold money, not the salary cap. That’s why the Bobby Bonilla deferred money happened as well

but the net effect is that his caphit is $7.4x instead of $7.9x for 8 years if it was a typical contract on the books right?

I fully agree that Jarvis will end up getting his full salary (possibly more for accepting the deferred payment)

That’s right. And Jarvis is definitely getting more for accepting the deferred payment. Why else would he do it?

If your employer said your annual bonus is $35k, but you can’t touch it or invest it for 8 years, would you be OK with that? Probably not. Now if they bumped it up to $50k due to holding it for 8 years, that’s maybe worth considering.

How about the Leon Draisiatl contract hypothetical Seravelli proposed:

“Take Hart Trophy winner Leon Draisaitl and the contract he is currently negotiating with the Edmonton Oilers. Sources indicate Draisaitl’s initial ask on a long-term deal was north of $14 million per year on average. Let’s call it $14.2 million for example and argument sake. That is a total of $113.6 million over eight years, which yes, would typically come with a salary cap charge of $14.2 million on the AAV.

What if Draisaitl was hypothetically willing to defer $33.6 million of that contract to be paid out over the 40 years after the deal expires? That would be approximately $840,000 per year from 2033 until 2073, and yes, we’re talking a Bobby Bonilla-type contract. That would pay Draisaitl $80 million over the first eight years of the deal, hypothetically making for a cap hit in the neighborhood of $10 million per year – or a discount of $4.2 million per year of the deal.

That isn’t exactly how the calculation or the math works, but the numbers are round and it’s easy to grasp and understand. Draisaitl has already earned north of $70 million in his career. To bring in another $80 million over the first eight years of the next deal makes him more than financially secure for future generations of Draisaitls – and the deferred $33.6 million, which is accruing interest the entire time, is not just gravy but also idiot-proof savings”

How does this not turn into the Toronto’s of the league offering HUGE deferment totals to big stars in order to get their cap hits lower to allow them to sign more stars under the cap? Toronto could care less about ultimately paying more $ over the length of the deal, they’d double the salary cap if they could…

tswoboda wrote:

That’s right. And Jarvis is definitely getting more for accepting the deferred payment. Why else would he do it?

If your employer said your annual bonus is $35k, but you can’t touch it or invest it for 8 years, would you be OK with that? Probably not. Now if they bumped it up to $50k due to holding it for 8 years, that’s maybe worth considering.

yeah, I don’t see anybody arguing that its not ultimately good for the player, especially players that have already made a ton of $ in the league and are basically just living off their interest and I don’t think Jarvis will have any problems living off his $7.4 million yearly salary…

I just don’t see how this isn’t circumventing the salary cap idea when somebody like Faber signs his 8 year x $68 deal with a caphit of $8.5 and Jarvis’s 8 year x $63.2 deal only has a $7.4 caphit due to moving payment schedules around (yes I know there’s a $4.8 difference, but you get the idea).

I realize the Wild could have designed a similar deferred structure that Carolina did, either they didn’t know about the idea or Leopold or Faber didn’t want to agree to it…Kudos to Carolina for doing it, its an interesting issue for the league, curious to see if/how it effects future contracts…