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

They look terribly slow.

Ripjiggen wrote:

They look terribly slow.

Except Marat

For about 6 seconds anyway.

Terrible shift by baby Jesus almost cost them a goal there.

Rantanen sure looks like he’s having fun playing in Carolina…

Good lord the lack of effort by Johansson is laughable….

Crazy finish, can’t believe we had the new waiver wire guy out in the last minute?

The curse was barely broken. Apparently my kid had Trenin and Hinostroza on his bingo card this whole time.

Gus was the best player on the ice by a long shot.

Okay did anyone else have ESPN minus cut off the wild game with 2 minutes left to go to a pregame show for the Leaf’s game? What a clown show this broadcast stuff is.

Hinostroza making a nice debut. Great to get a home win.

Ripjiggen wrote:

The curse was barely broken. Apparently my kid had Trenin and Hinostroza on his bingo card this whole time.

Gus was the best player on the ice by a long shot.

Gus was sharp as a tack.

Hino-bunch-OH-letters looked good for his first game with the club.

Boldy still needs to think less, shoot more.

Hot take, but i REALLY like that angle from behind the net that ESPN was using. I’ve always enjoyed the play- calling aspect of sports and watching plays develop and IMO you get to see that a ton better from behind a net or and zone in football.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Okay did anyone else have ESPN minus cut off the wild game with 2 minutes left to go to a pregame show for the Leaf’s game? What a clown show this broadcast stuff is.

Hinostroza making a nice debut. Great to get a home win.

Just curious if you use a VPN? I don’t and mine didn’t cut out. Maybe it thought you were in a different market? Just a thought.

Overall they didn’t look great, but good enough to pull out the win against a good team. I agree Rantanen looked very frustrated. But because he’s played for the Snowflakes for 9 years, I kinda enjoy it!

Rip, Glad the kid had those guys on his Bingo card, because no one else but Gus Bus was going to win that game.

If Billy hasn’t figured out what Rossi is a player by now I doubt he’s smart enough to go after Cozens.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Lots of trade speculation around Buffalo Sabres Center Dylan Cozens (2019 #7 overall pick, we took Boldy at #12)

If he’s still available this offseason (when we have capspace) if you’re GMBG and you still have doubts about Marco Rossi as a long term 1C, do you give them a call and see if they would do a swap (we include one of our Iowa Wild defenseman too)

Cozens is 23 years old, RH shot Center who’s huge (6’3”) and can skate and he’s locked in at $7.1 aav for the next 5 years… he had a 30 goal season a few years ago, but like the rest of the Sabres, the last few years have been down ones… Put him in a healthy team environment with good linemates and he could take off…

Again, this is all based on if Billy isn’t sold on Marco long term… if so Cozens would be a good option to look into…

Lots of fans are questioning if he’s truly available and if so, why is Buffalo giving up on him so early after he proved he can be successful in the NHL? My guess is because its dysfunctional Buffalo and maybe they like the many high end Center prospects they have coming better??

Well our hopes of the #1 Prospect Pool are dashed as we came in at #2.

Scott seemed particularly hard on Wallstedt and probably deservedly slow. In this year’s writeup he mentioned things that I dont recall him ever saying about him. Quickness and fitness. Perhaps I missed it, but I never remember reading him say that about him. Both are things that can be worked on and you cannot coach size which he has. I think his numbers are made more negative because he had a few really really bad games, but regardless still not a good year for him.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
Okay did anyone else have ESPN minus cut off the wild game with 2 minutes left to go to a pregame show for the Leaf’s game? What a clown show this broadcast stuff is.

Hinostroza making a nice debut. Great to get a home win.

Just curious if you use a VPN? I don’t and mine didn’t cut out. Maybe it thought you were in a different market? Just a thought.

I think Grouse has mentioned he uses one of those discount streaming sites. The kind you still have to pay for so it’s *probably* legal but you definitely double and triple check before giving them your credit card information

I had no issues on the ESPN app last night, watched the full game live and even the Spurgeon interview after

CaptainMusky wrote:

Scott seemed particularly hard on Wallstedt and probably deservedly slow. In this year’s writeup he mentioned things that I dont recall him ever saying about him. Quickness and fitness. Perhaps I missed it, but I never remember reading him say that about him. Both are things that can be worked on and you cannot coach size which he has. I think his numbers are made more negative because he had a few really really bad games, but regardless still not a good year for him.

Honestly it’s just refreshing to not have a goalie as the #1 prospect

tswoboda wrote:

Honestly it’s just refreshing to not have a goalie as the #1 prospect

No doubt! Yeah #4 is a lot better than being #1 unless it was a sure fire franchise goalie like Fleury or something, but he would have been in the league for 4 years already LOL.

tswoboda wrote:

I had no issues on the ESPN app last night, watched the full game live and even the Spurgeon interview after

I had no issues either.

Wheeler said if he didn’t count Will Smith in the Sharks list, they would have ranked 4 or 5…so if going by the rules of his list (no full time NHLers) I don’t see how the Wild didn’t finish 1st (no way Marat’s addition moved the needle much for the Wild) but its just an opinion piece, still fun to see the stockpile of players Judd has built with Rossi at #9 being our highest pick, compared to the numerous top 3 picks the other final 5 teams have had over the years…I find the comments by the Montreal fans to be hilarious in that they are so salty they finished 3rd…

The Wild’s prospect ranking will surely drop by alot next season with no 1st rounder this year and the majority of our top 5 likely playing in the NHL fulltime… I still don’t see them risking Stramel going the UFA route if he stays for his Sr season and will offer him an AHL deal after this season. I think this trade deadline/offseason we’ll see a couple of our Iowa Wild defenseman included in trades, we just have too many of them with all similar projections, need to start making room for the newer prospects…

They way the Iowa Wild gives up goals I dont think those D men in Iowa have a whole lot of value. Perhaps “future considerations”?

CaptainMusky wrote:

They way the Iowa Wild gives up goals I dont think those D men in Iowa have a whole lot of value. Perhaps “future considerations”?

I think the coaching down there is brutal (McClean has been mistake) but yes the D prospect value is about as low as it can get… I think they’ll part ways with O’Rourke, Peart and Masters, Lambos and Spacek are likely the most ready as injury callups so they’ll keep them…Jiricek likely bounces back and forth depending on if he can get 3rd pair NHL playing time, otherwise let him cook in Iowa…

it’s been mentioned lately but bares repeating, Marat has been the Wild’s best player the past 6+ games, not sure what epiphany he had, but whatever he figured out, its working…

Thought I read in a Russo article that both the Wild and Strammel have already talked about him returning to college next year.

Think I’ve heard the same with Stramel but in an interview or podcast, and it makes sense to stay. Kid’s had 3 different coaches in 3 years, 2 really rough seasons and now finally has some success in a new spot. Let him have a little stability in a good development situation. Putting him in Iowa full time next year would be a pretty selfish move on the Wild’s part, and I can’t imagine Stramel or his advisor’s wanting that.

tswoboda wrote:

I think Grouse has mentioned he uses one of those discount streaming sites. The kind you still have to pay for so it’s *probably* legal but you definitely double and triple check before giving them your credit card information

I do use Uzzu and in doing my homework on it didn’t look dodgy. There wasn’t anything I could find online that screamed “scam”.

It was strange because after the broadcast cust away with 2 minutes left in the game, the stream ended when the game ended.

No idea what’s going on, just wondering if that was what everyone saw. I suspect it is some kind of technical deal based on how I’m watching. Anyone remember the good old days when you could subscribe to cable and watch all the Wild games? Or any other team for that matter. Seems like just a few short years ago.

I get the logic in letting him stay in College, I agree that probably makes the most sense, but how good will Michigan State be next season if Augustine and Howard leave? if Charlie keeps developing next season I think its hard to assume that they (Charlie & his eventual Agent) won’t just hold off signing a contract and see if there’s a better organizational fit elsewhere in the NHL as a UFA. That would likely be Agent malpractice not to have him hold off signing and see what 31 other NHL teams think about your client…

If you’re GMBG, do you risk losing the 1st rounder you personally picked (Judd’s always said its best to take BPA vs need in the 1st round, I seriously doubt taking Charlie was his idea) for late 2nd round compensatory pick in 2026 or whatever he could possibly trade him for like they did with Jack McBain?

I just dont buy the idea of loyalty anymore in pro sports, teams and players do what’s best for them to cash in as early as possible…Maybe Charlie is different and won’t look behind the UFA curtain and signs with the Wild after his Sr season?

No doubt the multiple platforms sucks, but all pro sports are going that way, right. Football you have most on fox or cbs but then also amazon, espn, and nbc exclusives too. Maybe the NHL is worse, IDK – NHL Network games bug the heck outta me. Regional sports networks are a mess across the board and we’re all caught in the middle during this transition period between cable and streaming. But fanduel/bally/fsn left the normal streaming platforms years ago, and since ESPN+ took over it’s been the easiest and cheapest way to watch at least 90% of NHL games.

Yeah I get the risk with Stramel, tough situation. Going to Iowa just feels like the worst thing for Stramel’s development, especially if the only reason to bring him to Iowa is because the team is scared to lose him. And if I’m the player or agent and the team approaches with that BS I’d tell them to pound sand. Hopefully they have a good relationship with him, tell him to go have a good senior year, and give him some performance bonuses on that ELC in April 2026

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I get the logic in letting him stay in College, I agree that probably makes the most sense, but how good will Michigan State be next season if Augustine and Howard leave?

With the transfer portal, who knows – program is definitely trending up though.

tswoboda wrote:

No doubt the multiple platforms sucks, but all pro sports are going that way, right. Football you have most on fox or cbs but then also amazon, espn, and nbc exclusives too. Maybe the NHL is worse, IDK – NHL Network games bug the heck outta me. Regional sports networks are a mess across the board and we’re all caught in the middle during this transition period between cable and streaming. But fanduel/bally/fsn left the normal streaming platforms years ago, and since ESPN+ took over it’s been the easiest and cheapest way to watch at least 90% of NHL games.

I think you’re going to see more and more teams (in all pro sports) owning their own streaming solution for broadcasts. I think if they were smart they would do away with the expensive Pre & Post game shows and ONLY broadcast the game itself, fans have access to all of the stats and interviews on their phones anyways…

$120 a year for ESPN+ is a great deal…I think the VPN trick to get blacked out home games will ultimately get solved though…