MN Wild 2018-19 Official Thread

mplspug wrote:

Having koivu, Zach and suter is a nice problem to have. Koivu should be relegated to the 3rd line though. Let Kunin and Ek battle for that #2 spot.

I agree but Koivu is never going to be a 3rd line canter in Minnesota. He is the elder statesman, the face of the Wild and they won’t embarrass the captain by burying him on the 3rd or 4th line. For as long as he wants to put skates on he will be first or second line center and get more than his share of ice time.

The earlier Wild teams seemed to have a lot more team chemistry than the teams they have put together the last 5 years or so. These days it seems to be Parise, Suter, Koivu and yeah those other guys. Good talent can be bought team chemistry cannot.

If the team is afraid to reduce his minutes, they should move him.

The problem is he is still our best defensive center which commands minutes by default and that’s why he’s #2 on a line with 2 offensive minded players. I don’t want to see Kunin or Ek going up a Crosby or MacDavid.

Ice Cap wrote:

Good talent can be bought team chemistry cannot.

Agreed

The whole Koivu issue might be moot, he’s now on his last year with the Wild and who knows how fast he can get back after surgery… He will not be re-upped after next season.

I’m thinking Fenton is clearing cap space to pay for a top FA center either this (not too many options) summer or next summer who’s more of an assist guy like Granlund was except has more size to survive the full season and playoffs…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m thinking Fenton is clearing cap space to pay for a top FA center either this (not too many options) summer or next summer who’s more of an assist guy like Granlund was except has more size to survive the full season and playoffs…

How good would someone like Ryan Johanson look in a Wild jersey? He’s a Predator you know. LOL

As bad as it was for the Wild, I was happy to see Kuemper get as shut out. I always liked him.
DT

I always liked Kuemper too. When he was good he was stellar. When he was bad, he was real bad. Hopefully he’s got it together now. He’s been carrying the yotes all year.

What a sloppy game yesterday when you would think both teams would be lazer focused, the score could have been 12-11 if either team could bury just a fraction of their chances…

This team is counting the days until golf season, the only thing we now get to look forward to is if we can sign any of the prized College FA’s or get lucky in the lottery draft.

Hopefully the Wild tumble to the 8th lottery slot. There’s a good chance of that. Chicago, Vancouver and even Edmonton has a chance to jump over them.

mplspug wrote:

Hopefully the Wild tumble to the 8th lottery slot. There’s a good chance of that. Chicago, Vancouver and even Edmonton has a chance to jump over them.

Yep, except they will probably go on a 3 game winning streak now, miss the playoffs and get the worst draft slot…typical Wild….

The season is ending with a whimper. Reminds me of the beating they took against Winnipeg last year after limping into the playoffs.

Hoping they have a new look and attitude next year……

Nico Sturm looks like a really good college FA signing by the Wild (6’3″ Center who lead College hockey in faceoff %) He can also score as well (something like 104 points in 114 games in 3 years at Clarkson). He could only be signed to a 1 year deal due to his age which will get burned off in the last 3 games for the Wild, so he would need to be re-signed this summer if we want to keep him.

If only the players cared as much as the fans.

This is true for all professional sports……

Wonder what a team like Calgary(suspect goalie) would’ve given up at the trade deadline for Dubs?

Regarding goaltender, rewind every goal this year and you will see an inordinate amount of goals scored because our d-men are too weak to cover big forwards in front of our net.

I love Spurgeons heart and his skill all over the ice BUT he cannot stop a man from scoring on a loose puck in front of the net. Yesterday was a prime example, Duby fumbled a puck and Spurgeon got bowled over for the goal.

You might think Duby should have had that puck, and maybe he should have, but goalies and d men need to be bailed by each other out once in a while. Our D are just not good enough, strong enough to do so.

Likewise at the other end, we haven’t had snipers so we have had to resort to scoring off net front scrambles, other teams Big D control us like rag dolls.

Parise is the only guy that knows ho and puts for the effort in front of the net to score.

The right questions should have been, what would we have gotten for Spurgeon. Could we have traded him to Colorado for Cale Makar? That would have been intriguing.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

except has more size to survive the full season and playoffs…

I am glad someone else also realized Granlunds glaring issue…just look at his stats in March, April and Playoffs the last 3-4 yrs with the Wild….the guy goes AWOL. He just cannot take the beating of a full season I guess…in the 13 games with Nashville since the trade he has 1G, 3A and is a -6….we’ll see how he does in the playoffs.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Nico Sturm looks like a really good college FA signing by the Wild (6’3″ Center who lead College hockey in faceoff %) He can also score as well (something like 104 points in 114 games in 3 years at Clarkson). He could only be signed to a 1 year deal due to his age which will get burned off in the last 3 games for the Wild, so he would need to be re-signed this summer if we want to keep him.

I like his measurables. He had something like a 70% FO percentage. That is dang good at any level. Hopefully they can get his work visa figured out and we can see a glimpse of him the last few games. His dad was making flight arrangements to be at the game tonight. Havent seen confirmation that everything worked out on the Visa end.
Fenton also targeting Schuldt from SCSU. Seems like he would be a steady player. Definitely a dependable player, but not sure he would help in the top 6 D, but would a bottom pairing for sure. Cheaper Pateryn maybe? I haven’t read much about Soucy lately, I wonder if he was hurt or had taken a downturn because I was optimistic about him coming into the season with his size.

wormdunker wrote:

Regarding goaltender, rewind every goal this year and you will see an inordinate amount of goals scored because our d-men are too weak to cover big forwards in front of our net.

I love Spurgeons heart and his skill all over the ice BUT he cannot stop a man from scoring on a loose puck in front of the net. Yesterday was a prime example, Duby fumbled a puck and Spurgeon got bowled over for the goal.

You might think Duby should have had that puck, and maybe he should have, but goalies and d men need to be bailed by each other out once in a while. Our D are just not good enough, strong enough to do so.

Likewise at the other end, we haven’t had snipers so we have had to resort to scoring off net front scrambles, other teams Big D control us like rag dolls.

Parise is the only guy that knows ho and puts for the effort in front of the net to score.

The right questions should have been, what would we have gotten for Spurgeon. Could we have traded him to Colorado for Cale Makar? That would have been intriguing.

I like Dubs, but look again at all the goals scored over the year. How many of them were weak goals he definitely should have stopped. Way too many, and when he does let a weak one in early in the game you had better pull him immediately, because it gets in his head big time.

Say what you want about Spurgeon, but he is our best D guy on the team for over all worth!

sticker wrote:

Say what you want about Spurgeon, but he is our best D guy on the team for over all worth!

I like Spurgeon too, but weren’t not going to pay Suter 7.5 million, Dumba 6.0 million and then give Spurgeon a raise in the $7-8 million range after his current deal is done, that’s way too much money tied up in 3 defenseman, so he will most likely get dealt this summer or next years trade deadline.

I would really like to see us add some sand paper and bulk to the back end, maybe try to get Faulk away from Carolina?

Schuldt could easily be a 2nd pair defenseman on our team.

WalleyeChaserMN wrote:

Lets get Fenton to look for a goal keeper first things first Dubby is not the answer .

If Dubnyk isn’t the answer, then what, exactly is the question?

He has the most starts and games played in the NHL, currently by 5 games which is significant and he STILL has a .912 save % and while his 2.56 GAA isn’t stellar in theory, it also is bettered by only 5 other goalies in the whole league when you look at starters with over 50 games played. It’s very hard to hold a low two-something GAA when you’re the go-to guy for 50+ games no matter how good you are.

So if not Dubnyk, which UFA would you be signing this summer to replace him? Or who would you trade for that would represent an upgrade?

I think the Wild have way bigger fish to fry than goaltending.

BTW, am I the only one who would like to see the Wild try Spurgeon on the wing for the last 2 games of the season? Honestly, when I watch him jump down low into plays, I just can’t help but think…

Grouse

I’d say ride Dubnyk one more year and slowly groom in Kahkonen from Iowa. Stalock is not a solution long term, but Kahkonen at least had been playing very well for much of the year. Now they added Mat Robson who should help out Iowa next year and possibly contend for a backup spot with the big club in a couple years.
Serviceable years for Dubnyk are limited as he is aging and how many games he has been playing. We need to get a young guy up here to get experience so when his consistency falls off someone is ready.

Dubnyk is Fine

Unless of course you want to scramble halfway through the year like you did a couple seasons before Doobs.

Yeah, I am not saying dump him by any means, but I think we need a better option for backup than Stalock do Dubnyk doesn’t have to play so much.

Getting rid of Spurgeon would be a mistake. A big one. If you do you better bury him so deep in the Eastern Conference you hope you never see him again. He’s played 79 games and he is tied for best on the team with TJ Brown at a -1 That’s right the Wild do not have a single skater on the + side of the ledger. So this idea of him not being able to stop anyone down low from scoring a goal just isn’t true. He’s fourth on the team with 43 points. He has 2 more points than Zucker. Who would have guessed that at the begining of the season?

Why on earth would we want to get rid of this guy?? All things considered there’could be a strong argument made that he’s the best player on the Wild roster.

I’m leery of Dumba picking up where he left off. He might but he might not ever get back to that hot streak either. He was sketchy at best until he started to break out this season. He’s still a unknown imo.

Well on to golf…pretty good game played last night by the wild minus the one blemish when fiala turned the puck over and then we have a defensive breakdown…goood to see them sweep the jets for the season not that it means much. I don’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to ZP other than health one could argue. Only vet that looks like he gives a dam and goes balls to the wall every time hes on the ice. It looks like we could have something to build on going into the offseason and next year hopefully but time will tell. I do see them moving a d man this off-season wether it be spurg or brodes. And as stated above it would be fun to see spurg take a shift on the wing just to see somehow my TV survived a rough season that’s one positive take away.

Last night’s game epitomizes why this team is so frustrating! Why can they go 5-0 against teams like the Jets, 3-0-1 Golden Knights, convincing road victories over TB and the Caps, then lose to teams like Florida, NJ, etc. Its just perplexing.
Rumor has it that Parise has a significant injury that he played on last night. Russo is going to comment on what exactly it is but I haven’t seen it yet, I would assume today.
Hopefully we can get the Sturm warning era started tomorrow night. Get a glimpse of what he might be. Watched him in the NCAA tourney a bit, but he got a match penalty so that didn’t end well for him.

Well, I know they’ll take away my Minnesota Sports Fan union card for saying it, but I was cheering for the Wild to win last night. I know, I know, but grinding the Jets noses in a season sweep was just too much fun. Also, we denied the Jets a lead in the conference so they remain tied and will have to fight to the end if they want the favorable R1 matchup.

Total domination by the Wild last night. I don’t know how we managed to turn the tables on the Jets after last season, but the Wild are clearly in Jets heads and they can’t find their sticks with both hands while the Wild were on the ice.

Not only did the Wild rack up 5, but there were 2 post hits and 2 very near misses so we are getting better at getting the puck not just shot, but shot without missing the net by 2 feet.

Brady Valberg wrote:

I don’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to ZP other than health one could argue. Only vet that looks like he gives a dam and goes balls to the wall every time hes on the ice.

Totally agree, Parise was awesome. As I’ve said before, despite what the TMSF thinks, 30 goal guys don’t grow on trees and Parise has done a terrific job for this team as our #1 scorer and a clear leader out there.

It’s just the TMSFs who feel the need to hate on any player who puts himself above the crowd by having the audacity to sign a big contract. And it’s even worse if that slacker signs a big contract and then gets injured with some namby-pamby injury like a “back injury”, which the TMSF just knows is shorthand for “fake injury so I can just sit back and collect my overweight paycheck”.

Again, sorry for cheering for our team. I know, I know, losing is the new winning, but dang it’s just so much fun…

Grouse

It was nice to give the home crowd a win to cheer about lately, but lets be honest, the Jets played a tough road game against the Hawks the night before and looked tired, plus their backup goalie played terrible. Hopefully Parise is shut down for the rest of the season, he was obviously in pain when out on the ice. Yes, it was a gritty effort, but when you have somebody with injury history and 6 more years of guaranteed contract, you need to think long term, it was an unnecessary risk to play him imo…

Would be nice to see the SCSU kid sign today and provide some much needed defenseman depth, i’m looking forward to seeing what Nico’s game looks like the last few games.

Then we hope the lottery gods give us a gift Tuesday night, we are definitely owed some luck…Top 2 pick could reduce this franchise’s rebuild time by a year or so…the goal is to get into the top 8 and be assured one of the top centers.

Then we hope the Bruins get to round 2 of the playoffs to give us a 4th round pick upgrade from the Donato trade.

It will be fun to watch how the East playoff spots are figured out, what a HUGE gamble and loss if the Blue Jackets don’t make it in…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

their backup goalie played terrible.

Lol, I was going to ask who was in net for the Jets.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

It was nice to give the home crowd a win to cheer about lately, but lets be honest, the Jets played a tough road game against the Hawks the night before and looked tired, plus their backup goalie played terrible.

Looking like a early playoff exit for the Jets if they have to go to OT to beat the down/out Blackhawks. And then need to put their backup to the backup guy in against the Wild because Hellebuyck needs a rest? What’s he going to do during a playoff battle or is the thinking the games will get easier then?

Dallas has won 3 of the 4 meetings with the Jets this season. Hang on to your butts Jets fans, not going to be like playing the injury riddled Wild in R1 last year.

Grouse