MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

jeff_huberty wrote:

Now thats the first round pick that”lacked so much value” because of the lack of talent in the NHL armature draft?
So now Fletcher is willing to give up Dumba or Brodin to get it back?
Good Move

This is one rumor that has been circulated in the Cities sports media. Whether or not it actually represents what Fletcher is thinking is unknown.

Also, this trade could have less to do with what Fletcher wants and more to do with what’s on offer from a given team considering the alternatives. The conventional wisdom is that Vegas will be stripping the wild of a D man. So the question is what can Fletcher get from a trade instead of giving away either Brodin or Dumba for free to Vegas.

One team that’s been named as shopping hard for a d-man is Boston. The problem with a Boston trade is that nothing they’d want to give up is a need for us or it wouldn’t work with cap space. Except, possibly, a draft choice… Other teams shopping for d-men are in similar positions, not much to offer that we’d want, but draft choices are attractive becuase they can’t be stolen by Vegas.

So it’s less about Fetcher “trying to buy our pick back” and more about taking what you can get for a player you’re probably going to lose anyway. But it’s all speculation at this point.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

One team that’s been named as shopping hard for a d-man is Boston. The problem with a Boston trade is that nothing they’d want to give up is a need for us or it wouldn’t work with cap space. Except, possibly, a draft choice… Other teams shopping for d-men are in similar positions, not much to offer that we’d want, but draft choices are attractive becuase they can’t be stolen by Vegas.

So it’s less about Fetcher “trying to buy our pick back” and more about taking what you can get for a player you’re probably going to lose anyway. But it’s all speculation at this point.

Grouse

The draft is weak this year, no superstars in the draft. IMO there is no sense in trading one of our D-men for any first round pick because it isn’t worth it. I don’t think you are going to get a talented player to replace the guy we trade away and if you just give that pick to LV to avoid them taking one of your other players you basically lost 2 guys.
One other trade scenario that is building some steam is with TB for Drouin (again). We will see what happens if anything.

Regarding the “eligible” players for the draft, this isn’t like Basketball or Football where you declare for the draft. Once you hit the age restrictions you are able to be drafted and you can continue playing where you are without impact whether that be NCAA, USHL, OHL, KHL, etc.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
Now thats the first round pick that”lacked so much value” because of the lack of talent in the
So now Fletcher is willing to give up Dumba or Brodin to get it back?
Good Move

This is one rumor that has been circulated in the Cities sports media. Whether or not it actually represents what Fletcher is thinking is unknown.

Also, this trade could have less to do with what Fletcher wants and more to do with what’s on offer from a given team considering the alternatives. The conventional wisdom is that Vegas will be stripping the wild of a D man. So the question is what can Fletcher get from a trade instead of giving away either Brodin or Dumba for free to Vegas.

One team that’s been named as shopping hard for a d-man is Boston. The problem with a Boston trade is that nothing they’d want to give up is a need for us or it wouldn’t work with cap space. Except, possibly, a draft choice… Other teams shopping for d-men are in similar positions, not much to offer that we’d want, but draft choices are attractive becuase they can’t be stolen by Vegas.

So it’s less about Fetcher “trying to buy our pick back” and more about taking what you can get for a player you’re probably going to lose anyway. But it’s all speculation at this point.

Grouse

NHL armature draft? WTF Is an armature?

I agree with you, my point of view is that I am simply not a fan Fletcher.
His trades have not brought much value IMHO, he seems too Helter skelter
when it comes to competing for players with other teams.

it will be interesting what the Wild do…(Can they get Pommer to drop his NTC? Will they trade Dumba or Brodin? Which forwards will be made available?)

Then there’s the stance the Redwings take, per Holland, they will NOT make any trades with Vegas to protect players, they will go the 7-3-1 route and if they lose a player, they lose a player…they will not sacrifice their future to protect a current asset not protected.

I’ve said it before, losing a late 1st round pick to take a shot at the cup is acceptable when you have good assets close to the pro’s (The Wild are stacked with players like this – Kunin, Erickson Ek, Greenway, Kaprizov) If you have too many young players, you end up with no place to put them other than wasting away in the minors…at least Fletcher is taking a shot, how un-Minnesotan is that!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’ve said it before, losing a late 1st round pick to take a shot at the cup is acceptable when you have good assets close to the pro’s (The Wild are stacked with players like this – Kunin, Erickson Ek, Greenway, Kaprizov) If you have too many young players, you end up with no place to put them other than wasting away in the minors…at least Fletcher is taking a shot, how un-Minnesotan is that!

I totally agree. How many times did we hear that the Wild were lacking that big body to jam up the middle? Parise is too small to have any net front presence… There’s no screening… Etc, etc, etc.

So Fletcher goes out and gets a big body in Hanzel and then the complaints just shift to he’s too slow, doesn’t fit our speed game, etc.

Will be interesting to see who the Wild could have gotten with the #23 pick. Current mock drafts I’m watching suggest SCSU’s Ryan Poehling. Lots of unknowns if this were the pick, he’s a freshman, small for an NHL centerman, and has lots of development needs.

Looking at the top available players this year, it’s slim pickings. Beyond Nolan Patrick the consensus #1, there are lots and lots of question marks starting at #2. The predicted first D-man pick is predicted to be Miro Heiskanen, but he’s 5’11”, 170 pounds, and 19 years old. Yikes. Can you say, “development project”? And this is at the predicted #3 pick. Not a rich draft even in the top 5.

Grouse

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’ve said it before, losing a late 1st round pick to take a shot at the cup is acceptable when you have good assets close to the pro’s (The Wild are stacked with players like this – Kunin, Erickson Ek, Greenway, Kaprizov) If you have too many young players, you end up with no place to put them other than wasting away in the minors…at least Fletcher is taking a shot, how un-Minnesotan is that!

To take this even a step further, it is not a secret that the NHL is trying to get to 32 teams and this could happen sooner rather than later. It will depend how smooth the transition for LV is and if Quebec can get their feet under them. Having said that, we could be at the same spot in a couple years with an Expansion draft.
Now, consider all these young guys you mentioned. IF they are on the active roster (or many of them) by nature they are exempt (per current rules anyway) from the expansion draft, so the Wild wouldn’t have to protect them.
Look at the Leafs, they are not worried about losing anyone to the expansion draft because all the studs they care about are on their ELC’s and are exempt. This could be the Wild (to a lesser extent) when the next expansion draft happens.
Granted, there are a lot of projections including some of these guys getting their shot at the NHL, which I think a couple of them at the very least will spend a considerable amount of time with the big club next year. A lot depends on who we lose.
If we lose or cannot sign a guy like Nino, you can bet that Tuch is up. Haula? Likely candidate to fill his spot is Kunin.

Graovac to Caps for 5th round pick in 2018.

mplspug wrote:

Graovac to Caps for 5th round pick in 2018.

talk about a late round draft find that shot up the ranks and then fell flat at the pros…maybe it was the injuries, but he never really used his size to his advantage, he seemed very timid. I guess we just reset the draft pick, but 2 rounds earlier… hopefully we can find another Kaprizov in the 5th!

I expect we make some type of trade in the next few days, i’m now thinking maybe it would be for a high draft pick since we would likely need to protect whatever player we would get back in a trade, so we would be in the same position we are before the trade…

I think he was in Boudreau’s dog house and once a player is there, you might as well move him. Not like Bruce is ever going to forget that I guess.

I thought he looked alright up here and I never got why they soured on him. He was only getting 10 minutes a night, so I don’t know what they expected.

I wonder if he sticks in Wash or gets moved again before next season.

Apparently they acquired him so they would only have to expose only one of Jay Beagle, Lars Eller or Tom Wilson, as opposed to 2.

mplspug wrote:

Apparently they acquired him so they would only have to expose only one of Jay Beagle, Lars Eller or Tom Wilson, as opposed to 2.

I heard that too, but, I don’t know how that works, by acquiring him, they have to protect him right? Unless he is still on his ELC, then that might make sense, but I still don’t see how that helps them in the protection side of things.

I just read an article about how this allows the Caps to protect another forward. Savvy move by the Caps.

Even if you’re not a fan of Twitter you owe it to yourself to join and follow Michael Russo. He is always right on top of explaining everything. He also posts links to all of his articles.
DT

No loss with Graovac being dealt. I know some perceived him to be another big body that the Wild are, in the minds of some, always short of because we’re “too small”. For me, there’s only so many fair to middling producers like Charlie Coyles that the Wild can support just because they are big bodies. We need production, you don’t get extra points in every game for average player weight.

I like the idea of turning and burning some of these players. If they aren’t working out, hit the “dump” button and get them out of here.

I wonder if there will be any chance of getting a better look at Kaprisov this year? Can he attend the Wild’s development camp, for example? Would be interesting.

Grouse

deertracker wrote:

Even if you’re not a fan of Twitter you owe it to yourself to join and follow Michael Russo. He is always right on top of explaining everything. He also posts links to all of his articles.
DT

That’s how I stay on top of breaking news down here in the wang.

Drouin to the Canadiens

That’s the kind of trade I expect the Wild to make, get rid of a player who we would likely lose (Zucker, Dumba or Brodin) to get something in return we don’t have to protect…

I guess the Habs have cap space? Druin will demand and get $5.5+ million per…

I wonder why no update on if Pommer waived his NTC? If he did, we could protect Zucker…

Maybe Fletch knows who Vegas wants (Zucker) and he’ll accept that and not have to worry about trading Dumba or Brodin?

I found the 2000 expansion draft rules, no wonder we and Columbus had such crap to pick from….

2000 Expansion Draft Protection Rules:
28 teams existing in the league at the time of the draft were each allowed to protect either one goaltender, five defensemen, and nine forwards or two goaltenders, three defensemen, and seven forwards

We took Jamie McClennan with our 1st pick…./sigh

Goalies were the first 6 picks (Then traded for other assets) then the following 15 picks were all defenseman…Sean O’Donnell was our first skater taken #7

Bottom line, with the $500+ million expansion entry fee, the new teams can demand the ability to build a good team fast and not lose fan interest after several bad seasons…

I have a feeling Vegas is going to do a lot of wheeling and dealing. They’ll basically leave some teams intact, not even plucking a player from them. NHL GMs are shady and almost impossible to protect from themselves. That’s why we have a lock out every 7-8 years.

I was hoping we could have swung something for Drouin. I REALLY hope we don’t trade with Boston for the rumored return. That would be a waste IMO. There is talk the Cap is going to go up by a good margin. That would help too.
The Hawks are actually OVER the cap right now as it currently sits.
They have 11 players signed for $64M through 2017-18. Ouch. They have a ton of draft picks this year. They are going to be moving some players.

There will be an announcement any day that the Blackhawks are shedding players and they aren’t going to get much for them because the buyers have them over the salary cap barrel.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

$5.5+ million

I was wondering what you were talking about, but I see he signed a 6 year 30M+ deal with the Habs. That’s seems a little risky, but I guess compared to Poms, a great deal. If he scores 30+ for 3 of those years that’s a heck of a bargain.

There is talk of trading Brodin for Montreal’s Galchenyuk. I’d take that deal, but they also say Galchenyuk is due for a big pay hike.

I wonder what will happen when Drouin slumps and the media gets on him.

mplspug wrote:

I wonder what will happen when Drouin slumps and the media gets on him.

He doesn’t seem to have the personality to fend off the media when that happens. Should be interesting.

mplspug wrote:

There is talk of trading Brodin for Montreal’s Galchenyuk. I’d take that deal, but they also say Galchenyuk is due for a big pay hike.

his new salary would be similar to Druin’s new deal, we would have to protect him then too so that makes both Zucker and Staal exposed to Vegas, not sure that’s much better?

I think they trade Dumba or Brodin for a mid level 1st round pick. They can the potect everybody they want to. Worst case we lose a Haula or Scandella…

Wild expose Dumba, Staal and Scandella to expansion draft.

They protected Zucker and Pomminville.

I bet they select Scandella. Although Dumba has been the more healthy defenseman, so that may play into it. I guess it depends if Vegas wants/needs Dumba to lead the PP and be their offensive defenseman. I’m just thinking Marco is the better all around defenseman.

Wouldn’t that be something if they selected Staal? I just don’t see that.

I wonder how Poms not waiving his NMC will effect locker room chemistry. I mean there was no chance of him being selected. Now they have to dangle Staal.

This could be only the tip of the iceberg as far as moves go. A lot can happen before an unprotected guy gets selected.

Only Vegas can make moves with other teams right now right?

I thought Drouin was traded to the Habs? Then he signed a new contract.