MN Wild 2018-19 Official Thread

So your wild leadership of koivu, won’t stand up for teammates getting mauled, Suter, openly admits that he “Pace’s himself” so he can stay on the ice longer and parise who doesn’t really want to step on toes but works his ass off can’t get the rest of the team motivated.
While Bruce’s resume looks great, what exactly has he won?
Do you think the other players don’t think if Suter can “pace” himself why can’t I?
If mikko won’t stand up for me why should I stand up for anyone else.
Zac gets the crap beat out of him do I really want to do that too.
This team has some real issues and I’m afraid we’re in for long haul.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Kaprizov had 3 goals and an assist in a 4-1 win today, he now leads the KHL in goals!

Where do the Wild stand with him? I haven’t kept up with it other than to know they are working on getting him over here. My guess is if the kid has a choice he’s not going to want to go to a aging team that is going to be rebuilding like the Wild.

Ice Cap wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Kaprizov had 3 goals and an assist in a 4-1 win today, he now leads the KHL in goals!

Where do the Wild stand with him? I haven’t kept up with it other than to know they are working on getting him over here. My guess is if the kid has a choice he’s not going to want to go to a aging team that is going to be rebuilding like the Wild.

He’s signed with CSKA (basically the Toronoto Mapleleafs of the KHL) through next season, he can’t be bought out of his KHL contract early (The Wild would have already done so) although I don’t know the NHL/KHL rules around this anymore and there were also some rumors that he was never allowed to communicate with Fletcher, so the relationship soured… Fenton has actually met with him this year and spoke with his agent who said he’s coming. He’s friends with Vlad Terasanko and other Elite NHL players and he see’s their success and what they make now $$, plus he said he wants to play in the NHL. The only thing that could keep him in KHL longer is the Russian Mob (seriously)

Ice Cap wrote:

Where do the Wild stand with him? I haven’t kept up with it other than to know they are working on getting him over here. My guess is if the kid has a choice he’s not going to want to go to a aging team that is going to be rebuilding like the Wild.

He doesn’t have a choice and the Wild are no better or worse than any other team that lands a draft prospect. The Wild own the rights to Kaprizov in perpetuity. League rules are different for him vs US players whose rights expire if they don’t sign with the team that drafts them. Either he plays for the Wild or he doesn’t play in the NHL ever.

When the Wild drafted him, he was represented by local yoko agent of dubious reputation. Who knows what that clown told him, but that agent was behind him signing a 3-year deal in the KHL and to say the least, he did NOT encourage Kaprizov to meet with the Wild. Draw your own conclusions.

Kaprizov has since replaced him with a real agent who had legit experience with NHL players and operations. And unsurprisingly the relationship seems to have warmed a bit.

My understanding from articles and interviews is that there are no good buyout options. It’s questionable if it’s even legal in Russia and any buyout that was backed with money from the Wild would have NHL salary rules and implications that make it difficult. The bottom line seems to be a buyout and early arrival in MN is highly unlikely. It looks like late in the NHL season in 2020 at the earliest.

Grouse

Tom schmitt wrote:

While Bruce’s resume looks great, what exactly has he won?

When the Coach of a struggling team calls out the players as shells of their former selves, he is seeing the writing on the wall.
When the GM of a struggling team sees that his coach called out the players as shells of their former selves he is seeing someone who has lost the team and now undermines any trade value of those players.

It’s a broken team, with a broken coach.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

My thoughts on firing Bruce were due to both his and player quotes that they weren’t ready to play and that the effort isn’t there…So his style must not be resonating and the players are saying “F@#$ it”…

This is the same exact thing that happened to the coaches here before Bruce too. The only thing that didn’t change since rotating coaches are the core group of players. If the players are not ready to play, its on them. Shouldn’t need a pep talk from a coach at this level. Bruce is like the highest winning percentage regular season in history. He can win in the regular season. Post season, well, that has yet to successfully prove out, but one thing is for sure his teams historically play at a high level defensively and on special teams. Arguably he has had significantly better talent in his other stops, but it has been working well here too, but yet they still find a way to flounder. That is on the players.

Has anyone else seen this about the Kenya Ice Hockey players?

Pretty, cool. It gives me chills as I watch the videos on YouTube.

cool story, I wonder if any of them have an interest in playing for the Wild? Think their GM would take Rask?

mplspug wrote:

Has anyone else seen this about the Kenya Ice Hockey players?

<div class=”oembed-wrap”><div class=”fluid-width-video-wrapper” style=”padding-top: 56.23%;”><iframe id=”fitvid499990″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/CqYfhY5gVl8?feature=oembed&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture”></iframe></div></div>
Pretty, cool. It gives me chills as I watch the videos on YouTube.

I haven’t seen that. Wow that is awesome! The absolute joy in their face is priceless.

They looked like they were decent skaters for picking it up as adults and skating for less than 5 years.

mplspug wrote:

They looked like they were decent skaters for picking it up as adults and skating for less than 5 years.

You must be talking about the wild again?

mplspug,

Thanks for sharing that video! That’s awesome to see. Hard to step back and understand how foriegn the game of hockey is to anyone not from a place were it’s just hockey. Watching players float around the ice and having never seen it before, has to be a what the flatulence moment.

No problem. The other thing that is cool is these guys are making sacrifices just to play in what amounts to a beer league. And they aren’t just playing shinny, they are actually doing drills they learned from YouTube,

Here is the full video

Kaprizov had another 2 goals and Assist today in a 3-2 win

If you have a chance there is a documentary about the soviet Red Army Hockey team it is on at 8 PM tonight NHL channel,Pretty eye opening view of 1980 Russian Olympic hockey team from Slava Fetisov.

jeff_huberty wrote:

If you have a chance there is a documentary about the soviet Red Army Hockey team it is on at 8 PM tonight NHL channel,Pretty eye opening view of 1980 Russian Olympic hockey team from Slava Fetisov.

Good heads up! I watched that show a couple times and its extremely intriguing to see how dedicated they were and interesting the dynamics of how they were essentially outcasts after the loss. Very touching moment when he returned to lake placid and walked into the locker room and his daughter sat in the exact spot he did with no prior knowledge. Cool as heck.

I watched it last night also. Very fascinating, how dedicated they were, basically to a fault. Can’t help but think if they would have treated their players with just an ounce of respect instead of treating them like machines their legacy would be much different. Quite a unit the Russian Five were, very possibly the best ever to play the game together.

I was at the ’83 Superseries game when the Russians played the North Stars. This was after the 80 Olympic loss so the Soviet team had been deconstructed for the most part but the Russians still had that flow to the game where they could make no look passes and control the zone.

I don’t think the North Stars were expecting to win the game it just seemed like they wanted to knock some Russians around the ice.
I remember watching behind the play one time and Al MacAdam and Gordie Roberts had one of the Russian players trapped behind the play. They had him down on the ice and every time he’d try to get to his skates they took turns knocking him back to the ice.

Russians wound up winning as they usually did 6 to 3 but it was a fun game to watch. Pretty empty Met Center that night if I recall.

Going to be an interesting week in wild land…fenton received permission to deal anyone on the roster it sounds like now..wether or not he had that blessing before

Uff dah

Jeeeeezus. Impressive loss tonight against New Jersey. In fact, the previous loss against Philadelphia took some doing too, but this takes the cake.

Keep the young guns but get rid of everyone else you can. Including Dubs.

Embarrassing.

See anything different from the past several seasons.
Should we expect anything different from the past several seasons.

I will say that if it was not for Dubnyks goaltending this season the Wild would be 10-12 points lower and not even stumbling around a playoff spot.

Simply put they are wearing him out,as has been predicted.

Fenton; should do Dubes a favor by sending him to a team that has a shot at the cup,they owe him that.

The Rebuild needs to begin now.

Teams with a shot at the cup already have their number 2 goalie.

So, how much of this is due to Koivu being out?

mplspug wrote:

Teams with a shot at the cup already have their number 2 goalie.

So, how much of this is due to Koivu being out?

Koivu:
Nill- They have played the same inconsistent style with him more than without him.
Dubnyk:
There are other Second tier playoff teams who think they can move to the top Tier with a solid back up goalie.

It’s the coaches fault, it’s the goalies fault, it’s Fletchers fault, it’s Coyles fault, blah blah blah.

Time to wakeup to the fact there’s 2 players on this team with no accountability for leadership roles. With MK injured was curious to see who stepped up, well I think we can clearly see ZP and RS aren’t leaders, and define milk toast.

Blame everything on DD, “sure” this teams slumps are all on him, so trade him and see what happens.

Not even sure who you are talking to Basseyes. I don’t think anyone has said (including me) that Dubnyk is the problem. However he is streaky, has let up a lot of soft goals this year, and his stats are barely better than Stalock. So….. if we agree this team sucks, for whatever reasons, and we are on the path to rebuild or at least a significant overhaul not sure why we would keep Dubs. Or keep him but then at least don’t let him out of the crease to play the puck. The guy absolutely botches more pucks behind the net than I’ve ever seen. Hence my statement keep the young guns but everyone else (who is moveable) should be on the trading block in hopes to truly compete in 2020 or beyond.

The whole “moveable” part is a whole another discussion because it’s obvious that the twin contracts are a major problem and slowing killing this team.

Last nights game was truly embarrassing. And no I’m not surprised.

Blame? Good Question
When the then 1st place Wild traded all they could find for Hansel and Grettle.

Or reality?
Even when they had the best season,and their top players, were playing at the top of their game, They just were not good enough.
They needed then,and still do now,a Top Tier elite forward.
Instead they fiddle fart around with the bottom of their roster. It didn’t work then,it doesn’t work now, it won’t work in the future.

Blame? Not the players.
BLAME Fletcher and Leopold for standing pat with the same team that is not talented enough to win a playoff series.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Not even sure who you are talking to Basseyes. I don’t think anyone has said (including me) that Dubnyk is the problem. However he is streaky, has let up a lot of soft goals this year, and his stats are barely better than Stalock. So….. if we agree this team sucks, for whatever reasons, and we are on the path to rebuild or at least a significant overhaul not sure why we would keep Dubs. Or keep him but then at least don’t let him out of the crease to play the puck. The guy absolutely botches more pucks behind the net than I’ve ever seen. Hence my statement keep the young guns but everyone else (who is moveable) should be on the trading block in hopes to truly compete in 2020 or beyond.

The whole “moveable” part is a whole another discussion because it’s obvious that the twin contracts are a major problem and slowing killing this team.

Last nights game was truly embarrassing. And no I’m not surprised.

Don’t disagree, just a frustrating team. You just knew when they couldn’t score in the third, if it went to overtime they were going to pooch it.

I’m fine trading DD, and hope he goes to a better team.

There’s so many holes, so many balances we are still paying for, it’s going to be a rough road going forward.

I love a good meltdown.

IMO zero of this has to do with Koivu being out! If anything what you see is a product of Koivu leading this team since his started wearing the “C”. Has this team won anything? NOPE!!!

It’s too bad that Stahl will probably be gone soon because I would like to see him take over as the captain of this team. He seems to be very vocal on the bench and the guy can play despite his age. Oh, and he has a cup under his belt. Can’t say that about any of the other over paid skaters on the club.