Let's Go Wild!

The Broziak era has ended. Too bad. He had one bad year, otherwise he’s a good 3-4 line center that is good on the PK.

sticker wrote:

you make some great points (edit — about Vanek) and I agree when we got him and what we got him for was the perfect fit. I just don’t see him being a good fit going forward.

Which is precisely why he only has 2 more years on his contract. It isn’t like the Wild are hogtied like the Parise/Suter deals.
3 years is nothing (2 remaining). By the time his contract is up, some of our current “young” guys better have emerged to earn new contracts and the Wild can look on to something else.
The player on this roster I am the most critical of is Pominville. There isn’t another player even close to the number of grade A scoring chances he has and he shanks the majority of them. Like Vanek, he was brought in to finish and the Wild paid a HEFTY price to get him. Yes he is a leading scorer for the team, but I think he and Spurgeon are (or should be) both trade bait at this point.

Stewart Gone – Signs with Anahiem for $1.7M

Only posting the link because the comments are funny.

I think the Wild needs to pick up a veteran center who can play 2 ways in the absence of Brodziak. Here’s names Russo listed…

Some forwards still unsigned include Alex Semin, Eric Fehr (center), Mike Santorelli (center), Manny Malhotra (center, huge on faceoffs if healthy), Erik Cole, Stephen Weiss (center), Tomas Fleischmann, Matt Cullen (center), Mike Ryder, Jarret Stoll (center), Jiri Tlusty, Brad Boyes, Curtis Glencross, Scottie Upshall and Lee Stempniak.

Bold = Guys I’d be interested in

Eric Fehr has some size that would be good to have with losing both Brodziak and Stewart.
We have gotten a lot softer this off season. I hope there is a trade in the works for a solid centerman with some size. Not much room cap wise and Haula is in arbitration so that number will shrink even more.
Folin signs a 2 year, 1 way deal. The D area has gotten crowded. They have 8 on roster now and all of them are 1 way guys so that means they will not have room for an extra forward because of 3 goalies on roster.
This Backstrom thing is really going to bite them unless they can figure out something.

what the heck happened to Stephen Weiss? He used to be a great player on a terrible team (florida), signed a huge free agent deal with Detroit and fell off the earth, he might be worth taking a flier on..

otherwise Fehr is reliable, I’d sign Semin to a incentive laden deal, motivate him to play at the high level he’s capable of…He’s a potential 30 goal socrer, but has Vanek’s work ethic…

what the heck happened to Stephen Weiss? He used to be a great player on a terrible team (florida), signed a huge free agent deal with Detroit and fell off the earth, he might be worth taking a flier on..

otherwise Fehr is reliable, I’d sign Semin to a incentive laden deal, motivate him to play at the high level he’s capable of…He’s a potential 30 goal scorer, but has Vanek’s work ethic…

Russo Q&A Alex Tuch

I’d like to just hear one prospect come out and say, I’m not a 2 way player, either I’m all offense or all defense. It’s pretty funny that all the agents have coached them to make sure they say they are a 2 way player. I don’t think any prospect at the draft interviewed forgets to say that.

Personally, I hope he is a more physical player than Coyle eventually. I can’t wait to see what he brings in a couple seasons.

I watched a few BC games last season, he has very good offensive instincts, uses his body extremely well and is very fast skater for his size. He and Adam Gilmour dominated everytime they were on the ice together…

mplspug wrote:

I’d like to just hear one prospect come out and say, I’m not a 2 way player, either I’m all offense or all defense. It’s pretty funny that all the agents have coached them to make sure they say they are a 2 way player. I don’t think any prospect at the draft interviewed forgets to say that.

Another hockey cliché that HAS to be used.

It’s like any media discussion of any offensive player must include “defensively responsible” or some version thereof. Just once, I’d like to see a media report call a player as “defensively irresponsible” just to provide some balance.

Both Tuch and that Erickson Ek kid were said to look really good at camp this week.

Overall, it’s really exciting that the Wild seem to be making progress on actually getting something for their #1 pick. Obviously the GM switch and probably some scouting changes have resulted in some much better choices than the string of total bustouts that we were saddled with for 5-6 years. You can’t afford that kind of draft incompetence.

Grouse

They had John Torchetti on with Russo on KFAN (Filling in for PA) so lots of hockey talk today. Anyways, he was speaking very highly of Olofsson. To be honest, I wasn’t very impressed with him at all at last year’s camp so hopefully he has progressed quite well.
It does appear that we are starting to build up the farm system again. That takes some time and I think we have some good pieces in place now to build around.

How can he speak highly of his game? How many did he actually play for the Baby Wild?

I have a feeling he’s going to be a solid defenseman…even though my feelings are off in a lot of cases.

Brodin – Suter – Scandella – Olofsson – Dumba – Folin
That has the making of a top D corps. Too bad Spurgeon is expendable.

Whoops, forgot the new guy Reilly.

Patrick Kane is under investigation for rape in Buffalo NY. Sure wouldn’t hurt the Wild if he was released.

You mean this reserved man? Was her name Cecil?

Can’t say I’d be surprised. Can’t say I’d be surprised if it were false either. It’s a lovely world we live in today.

Anybody seen an update on Tuch after he was injured in that friendly vs Finland? Saw the report, but nothing else on what happened or how bad.

Going to be an interesting season. Lots of pieces got moved around the board and we could see some much-improved teams over last year. Dallas had a few notable signings, the Jets won’t be pushovers, and so on.

But I think we can all agree that the season will get off to an AWESOME start if we can pound the cr@p out of the Avs in the first game! That was just terrific last season, whipping Colorado’s @ss 2 games in a row to start the season. Nothing better.

Grouse

mplspug wrote:

You mean this reserved man? Was her name Cecil?

Can’t say I’d be surprised. Can’t say I’d be surprised if it were false either. It’s a lovely world we live in today.
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hes He’s the Johnny Mazel of the NHL.

I hope the Winter Classic TV special is filmed this year with the Wild and Hawks, that would be a lot of fun.

It won’t be long until it all starts again.

I hope the Winter Classic TV special is filmed this year with the Wild and Hawks, that would be a lot of fun.

It won’t be long until it all starts again.
[/quote]
Yes, it will.
I see today they released the player playing in the alumni game for the north stars and wild. Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dino Ciccarelli, Dennis Maruk, Basil McRae and Brian Bellows. Jim Dowd, Andrew Brunette, Brad Bombadir, Darby Hendrickson, Antti Laaksonen, Richard Park and Wes Walz. Coaches Lou Nanne and Tom Reid.
Its going to be a good game to be at. Just a shame its taken so long for the wild to get this game.
Wallster ><((((>

I hope that Basil has his Velcro jersey on just for old time’s sake.

That’s a great lineup!
I was a salesman at Twin City Honda Suzuki back in 83 and Bellows bought a couple Quadrunners from me. We hit it off pretty well and talked a lot of hockey. When he came to pick them up he gave me a autographed jersey. We stayed in touch and hung out occasionally until he was traded to the Canadians.

Remember the Dino Ciccarelli indecent exposure thing?
The joke was that he wanted to be traded but Nanne told him to stick it out in Minnesota.

wallster wrote:

Antti Laaksonen, Richard Park

Some of my favs from the early days.

The name I did not see on the alumni list was Al Secord. Would have been great to bring out the “Secord Sucks” chant for old times sake.

“…… and, even though he’s not yet listed on the official roster, Al Secord is expected to play as well.”

Nanne says that he’ll be on the final roster. I never doubt Nanne.

Oh yeah, more bumps in the road…

Coach Sydor Blows .30

Friedly??? ORly?

mplspug wrote:

Oh yeah, more bumps in the road…

Coach Sydor Blows .30

Friedly??? ORly?

while bringing his young kid to a hockey game even…. it’s a miracle he didn’t kill anybody driving from Woodbury to Fridley that $hitfaced…

No kidding.

I wonder how the Wild will handle this. I am pretty sure the first thing Fletch did when he got the news is an eyeroll and a sigh, as in, what else can possibly go wrong.

mplspug wrote:

No kidding.

I wonder how the Wild will handle this. I am pretty sure the first thing Fletch did when he got the news is an eyeroll and a sigh, as in, what else can possibly go wrong.

if it was just himself in the car, it would probably be a public apology and a short team suspension, but because he had a small child in the car, he’ll probably get fired…

Very poor decision. I’m glad he got caught and no one was hurt.

Updated part from Strib…

Sydor, who said last spring that he was a recovering alcoholic, was arrested Thursday evening when he failed field sobriety tests after being stopped by police. He was taken to the Fridley Police Department where a test revealed he had a blood alcohol level of .30. He was charged in Anoka County with two gross misdemeanor counts of second-degree driving while impaired with two or more aggravating factors.

I guess I assumed he may be an alcoholic, but I didn’t want to prejudge.

He’s facing some serious charges.

Growing up with an alcoholic father I fully understand the challenges he faces. It’s unfortunate and I hope he can recover from this. Whether he ever works for the wild again or not.

I believe it takes at least 5 years of sobriety to even consider beating this problem. My dad stayed sober for a year at a time here and there, but always seemed to slowly slip back into it. It would take him getting sick for seceral days on end to quit for another year. He never fully beat it before he died.

I heard today as well that he actually tattooed his hands to remind himself not to drink. I hope people understand that this guy truly wants to beat this, it just isn’t easy.

Hope my statement wasn’t misunderstood. Prejudge wasn’t the right word either, I should have said jump to conclusions.

I think we have 5 alcoholics in my, no make that 6, in my immediate family that I can think of (including cousins and uncle/aunts). A couple have survived many years of sobriety, but others continue to be off the wagon.

mplspug wrote:

Hope my statement wasn’t misunderstood. Prejudge wasn’t the right word either, I should have said jump to conclusions.

Not at all. No offense, but I wasn’t thinking about your statement when I posted that.