MN Wild 2017-18 Official Thread

So why meet now and what changed that it happened, I wonder?

We need Kaprisov over here.

Grouse

Hey, if people whine about a guy scoring an empty net goal instead of passing I guess that is just typical MN sports fans. Looking at the vid and while watching the game I don’t think Coyle even knew Staal was there and the proverbial gripped the stick too tight happened.
I won’t brag up Coyle for the goal but I do believe it will mean more for him than a hat trick would do for Staal at this point.
Chicago in last place when was last time we said that?

Right now it’s shaping up that cool, chi and mn will be battling for the last wild card spot based on goal differential. Of course that will fluctuate for the rest of the year, but goal differential is a great indicator of who makes the playoffs.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Hey, if people whine about a guy scoring an empty net goal instead of passing I guess that is just typical MN sports fans. Looking at the vid and while watching the game I don’t think Coyle even knew Staal was there and the proverbial gripped the stick too tight happened.
I won’t brag up Coyle for the goal but I do believe it will mean more for him than a hat trick would do for Staal at this point.
Chicago in last place when was last time we said that?

NO DOUBT!! Making a big deal out of Coyle getting an empty netter when Stall could have gotten a hatty, REALLY…BFD! Who wants a hatty on an empty netter anyway, that’s cheap. Staal wants a hatty, put your head gown and go get one jeepers

I don’t get why everyone is so butt hurt about Coyle? He isn’t going to score 40 goals a year, get over it. It’s not like he is on the first line. He’s a big kid who works hard in the corners and wins puck battles. I like the kid and think it’s a fools bet to even think of getting rid of him.

There you go Grouse, light me up, you know you want to you hatter

i’m not giving up on Coyle just yet, he’s on a very good (for the team) contract right now and he broke his leg earlier this season…hopefully he’ll figure it out, if not, you don’t re-up his contract when it’s up and hopefully Greenway can then fill the void of power forward on this team with Nino… Coyle has the skillset, it’s all mental with him right now…

Well, GM Fletcher successfully met with Kaprisov and Svetlakov yesterday. That is a good sign because to this point Kaprisov hasn’t met with any of the Wild leadership.
With his new agent I think any barriers that may have been there might be softening a bit. Still a ways out before he will be here, but I am hopeful that eventually he will be.
Sure would be nice to have him on this team right now.
Its a bonus the Wild drafted his buddy Svetlakov so that might help convince Kaprisov to come over.

What about Suter? Man is he dragging this team down.

biggill wrote:

What about Suter? Man is he dragging this team down.

Well played sir, well played.

sticker wrote:

There you go Grouse, light me up, you know you want to you hatter

It’s The Code, man. The Code. You don’t pot an empty-netter when you’ve got a teammate on the ice who can have a hattie. Especially if you’re up by more than one. Now that Coyle’s on a hot streak maybe he’ll go out an and score one with a goalie standing in front of the net.

JoeMX is right, it has to be mental with Coyle because I agree, at times he looks great. So why does he hardly ever find the twine and only at intervals of 8 games or more?

I was hoping for WAY more scoring production out of Coyle. He doesn’t really seem to be much of spark plug out there in other ways either.

On to other news, I’m still wondering what prompted Fletcher to meet with Kaprisov now? To me this is kind of a strange time, during the seasons? Just leaves me wondering what changed suddenly?

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

On to other news, I’m still wondering what prompted Fletcher to meet with Kaprisov now? To me this is kind of a strange time, during the seasons? Just leaves me wondering what changed suddenly?

Grouse

I am sure it had to do with finally having an agent who has had relationships with NHL teams/players before. He just switched agents back in November some time I think. I am sure it took some time to get things to mesh schedule-wise.
Its hard to imagine, but we could be the Bolts of the North in a few years. We have 3 Russians under our control. That would be exciting.

I wouldn’t hold me breath on Sokolov turning into anything but a career minor leaguer…he showed no hustle in the WJC…that’s been his trademark, a lazy offensive player..

Svetlakov is a tossup if he’ll turn into anything (he has 17 points sofar this season in KHL)…Kaprizov has proven his elite talent on every level he’s played in…there’s lots of legit hype around him…

I agree that his new agent appears to be the godsend here…he has a track record of bringing players into the NHL…it would be interesting if there’s a buyout option with Kaprizov? If there is and it has no effect on the team’s cap, SPEND THE MONEY! you just got 13 million last year from expansion!

Kaprizov is currently 10th in the KHL in scoring..

JoeMX1825 wrote:

If there is and it has no effect on the team’s cap, SPEND THE MONEY!

I believe I have seen it stated that a buyout would count against the cap because, essentially, it’s money being paid to the player. Technically, it’s Kaprisov buying himself out of a contract, regardless of who gives him the money to do so. So the Wild giving him the cash would essentially be “salary” of some type.

The situation around Kaprisov’s contract is very murky. He has never confirmed that he signed anything or for how much.

There is no transfer agreement between the KHL and NHL, so the Wild hold his NHL rights forever. He can’t play for any other NHL team.

The timing of this meeting has me hoping something is up. The change in agents may be the reason, but just to have Fletcher jet all the way over there in the middle of BOTH KHL and NHL seasons for a meet-and-greet? Seems like a lot of distraction and miles traveled just to say zdravstvuj and have tea.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Seems like a lot of distraction and miles traveled just to say zdravstvuj and have tea.

Grouse

Were you creeping Kaprisov’s Facebook page to find out his interests?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I wouldn’t hold me breath on Sokolov turning into anything but a career minor leaguer…he showed no hustle in the WJC…that’s been his trademark, a lazy offensive player..

Svetlakov is a tossup if he’ll turn into anything (he has 17 points sofar this season in KHL)…Kaprizov has proven his elite talent on every level he’s played in…there’s lots of legit hype around him…

I don’t have much expectations for the other two because I know very little about their game and haven’t seen them play at all, but I do think its a bit encouraging if one of them is a buddy of Kiril because perhaps they can convince them both to come over together and it would be an easier transition. I have read that Kiril speaks very little English so that will certainly be a bit tough.

Russo just posted an article on the Athletic about the Fletcher trip, they said there will be no buyouts and that both players will stay in Russia 2 more years until their contracts are up…BUT after that, they are excited to join the Wild… so put this story on ice until 2020…

The NEXT wave of prospects looks encouraging (Kunin, Greenway, Erickson Ek, Kaprizov) and with Granny, Nino, Zucker, Dumba, Brodin, Spurgeon being the team’s core in the prime of their careers and Parise & Suter nearing the end of theirs maybe we can make another run?

Doesn’t surprise me. I am actually fine with that because we have enough trouble with cap right now trying to fit anyone in wouldn’t work even at the rookie minimum.
Give them a couple more years to develop and then hopefully they or at least Kaprisov can make the team right out of camp. No sense in letting them waste away in Iowa. I would like to see Kunin up with the big club now, but he just wasn’t getting the ice time he needs, but I like his game A LOT.
Ek is playing better, but the points aren’t flowing in. Hopefully that will come. He had like 5 pts in 7 games when he first came up last year, so the ability is there for sure.
Because I like to project, I was looking at the cap situation for the Wild. Right now there is a “deadline cap space” of $1,586,608. If I understand that correctly the wild have that amount available to them for deadline trades. I believe this is the money that accrued while Parise and Coyle were on LTIR. So maybe there might be some options coming up to make a move. Hopefully no shifted draft picks again.

There you go Grouse, got your wish. Charlie hit the twine with a goal tender in the net

Granted it was against the Sabres, but the “FULL” squad looked really good last night…perhaps it’s a sign of things to come if they can remain healthy!

That was a thorough whitewashing last night. A complete game from start to finish. The team certainly looks much different now than when key guys have been out of the lineup, but as you said Joe, it was the Sabres. I mean, how in the world does Winnick knife through the entire Buffalo team enroute to his goal? It was like they all skated the other direction or something.
Nino when he is on is great at capitalizing on his chances. It was pretty cool to watch him get a hat trick with his parents in attendance.
Coyle notched another goal, 2 in 2 games.
I wish the guy showed some emotion. If he did I think he would play with more fire. We do have to remember he is playing with screws and plates in his leg so that is undoubtedly affecting him somewhat.
Dubs is what 12-2-1 in his last 15 starts? Pretty impressive. The home record for the Wild is equally impressive we just need to be consistent on the road. Starting with the Avs. Gotta get that one, pts are precious looking at how tight everything is.
Crazy thing is last year after the same number of games they had 59 pts (47 this year). That record would be good for the 2nd best in the league this year.

what’s sad is that they could easily have 59 points by now, they’ve pissed away too many games they had the lead in…I’m hopeful they’ve turned it around…but we’ll see…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Coyle notched another goal, 2 in 2 games.
I wish the guy showed some emotion. If he did I think he would play with more fire.

Koivu is training him to be the stern next captain. Or is it Suter?

sticker wrote:

There you go Grouse, got your wish. Charlie hit the twine with a goal tender in the net

I can’t describe my excitement. It was like I’d just seen a unicorn.

Nice to see the full roster in action last night for the first time all season. Yes, even though it was the Sabers, you have to win those too and you certainly don’t want to do what we did with FL and let them hang around. It will be interesting to see what happens as lines start to gel and we get Parise onto a 1 or 2 line.

Nino looked fantastic last night. Firing on all cylinders not missing anything that was thrown his way. Also nice to see the Captain get in on the fun with an A grade sniper shot.

Absolutely key to keep it rolling on this critical stretch of games. I’d like to see the Wild send a no, no, no message to the Avs and make sure Colorado remembers who owns their punk @sses come playoff time. It’s not quite as much fun since Roy got canned, but the only thing better than beating the Avs is running up the score when beating the Avs.

Grouse

mplspug wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Coyle notched another goal, 2 in 2 games.
I wish the guy showed some emotion. If he did I think he would play with more fire.

Koivu is training him to be the stern next captain. Or is it Suter?

Take your pick. I like guys that show emotion. Whenever Staal scores a tear comes to my eye. Its like the first goal he has ever scored. He gets so pumped up and I think others feed off that. I still cant get over what a steal it is to have gotten Staal for what we did. His production and what he brings each game is worth double what he is getting.

CaptainMusky wrote:

His production and what he brings each game is worth double what he is getting.

Shhhh, he might get it come contract time.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
His production and what he brings each game is worth double what he is getting.

Shhhh, he might get it come contract time.

biggill wrote:

aptainMusky wrote:
His production and what he brings each game is worth double what he is getting.

Shhhh, he might get it come contract time.

The whole Staal acquisition kind of started like this year’s acquisition of Cullen. At the beginning, it seemed like the direction was that hopefully Staal had 1 or 2 years left and could contribute a few goals and some leadership before he was put quietly out to pasture.

Things look a little different now.

I wonder if it makes a big difference to him that he’s from Thunder Bay, so this is geographically close and it just feels better to play here?

Grouse

And then they get STOMPED by Colorado. What the heck?

another game played, another different Wild team showed up…who knows?

Can they play decent on the road? Sheesh. That game was a complete embarrassment.

So I’m a Colorado fan and I liked seeing the wild loose but what I didn’t like was seeing Dubnyk loosing his s**t after getting beat a few times. Class it up guys, everyone is going to have a bad night from time to time. There was no reason for what he did.

On a lighter note it was sure nice to see the Aves play well against the wild for once. Seems like for the last couple years it is usually a team we can’t play well against.

Sorry for my rant.