MN Wild 2018-19 Official Thread

wow, Erik Karlson signs a 8 year deal for $11.5 per season with San Jose who now has $26.5 million per season tied up in Burns, Karlson and Vlasic for the next 6+ years (imo with Karlson’s injury history, this is a scary contract) and the NHL is now thinking the salary cap for next season will be less than what was initially projected. Sounds like teams with alot cap space will have more leverage in trade scenarios now…this could benefit the Wild a bit as you would think the better teams that need to cut salary would rather trade a player to the non-contending Wild vs one of their potential playoff competitors..

JoeMX1825 wrote:

ow, Erik Karlson signs a 8 year deal for $11.5 per season with San Jose who now has $26.5 million per season tied up in Burns, Karlson and Vlasic for the next 6+ years (imo with Karlson’s injury history, this is a scary contract)….

Saw that as well and totally agree with what you wrote. Scary. A gut “we didn’t make it” reaction by the Sharks that they will regret soon? We’ll see.

Fenton continues his herky-jerky on the job GM training. After drafting Filip Johansson as our R1 pick last year, he now says he’s all-in on re-signing Spurgeon as well. Not sure how it made sense to go with a D man in R1 last year as this seems to put a hole in the theory floated at that time that Spurgeon was being shopped.

Seems like Fenton is on sidelines watching other teams do all the dealing right now. When does the “Fenton Strategy” actually start? Next year after he’s had a few years to settle in?

Grouse

The Haglen signing was a good one by the caps, I never figured out why he was traded so often, he’s a good player on a very reasonable deal…Same with Oli Matta…

If the cap number goes down from the projection, the Wild will have the ammo to make some big changes to this team… The next 2 weeks (draft and FA) are critical for Fenton…

Trouba dealt by the Jets to the Rangers after pricing himself too high to sign again with Jets.

I love the theory about the Wild coming up with BIG acquisitions by being one of the few teams with cap space, but when does Fenton start actually making deals? All I can say is he better not get rolled over and give away too much when trading.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Trouba dealt by the Jets to the Rangers after pricing himself too high to sign again with Jets.

I love the theory about the Wild coming up with BIG acquisitions by being one of the few teams with cap space, but when does Fenton start actually making deals? All I can say is he better not get rolled over and give away too much when trading.

Grouse

Was trying to give Fenton some time, but am starting to agree. He seems out of his league for doing his job.

Getting the gut feeling he’s going to wait to long to do anything. Then he’ll be desperate and behind the 8 ball, mortgaging the future of this team.

Fletcher

Fenton

Lot’s of f words that aren’t doing this team any f’avors.

So I wonder what type of internal battle that may be transpiring.

Can Leupold – Boudreau – Fenton and now Madono, agree on what direction this team will go?

Will the owners or the players back out of the CBA this fall?

Let’s face it, the wild don’t have anything to trade and the good free agents that we would want don’t want to come here.

fenton had better find gold in the draft, or it will be tough being a wild fan

Tom schmitt wrote:

Let’s face it, the wild don’t have anything to trade and the good free agents that we would want don’t want to come here.

Not really true, you can “trade up” if you read the situation right. Look at today’s trade of Trouba, they sent him to NYR for undrafted Neal Pionk and NYR get the Jet’s R1 pick (#20 oa). Kind of a lopsided trade in the Ranger’s favor, but the Jets didn’t have a choice. They don’t have the cap space to sign Trouba for the raise he’s going to want so they were going to lose him for nothing anyway.

Fenton needs to be making those deals, but to do so requires a read of the situation that I don’t think his lack of experience gives him.

I’ll tell you one thing, we dodged a major bullet when Kessel wouldn’t sign up to Fenton’s trade deal. That deal would have taken the Wild in the complete wrong direction and it still baffles me what the strategy behind that deal could have been when every move Fenton has made was in the “get younger” direction. Fenton clearly doesn’t like Zucker so I hope the new Wild ownership can save the team from Fenton’s lack of strategy and experience.

Grouse

Really. The only player that is really marketable is Dumba.
Everyone else would need to be a package deal.

Spurgeon could be dealt and has value but they would be crazy to deal him. I don’t know how you could do better for a offensive D man. This team has a good number of tough years ahead of them. Not much can be done right now. It’s going to be a slow process and making too many wrong decisions and they could be mired right where they are for a long while.

Some of these early period FA signings are out of control from a $ perspective.. Kevin Hayes getting $7 million per season? Contracts like that make William Nylander’s contract look good considering his higher upside later on in the deal… I’m hoping Fenton trades for somebody with an established contract vs signing a new FA contract with today’s inflated value factor…

What should the Wild do if these two guys are still on the board at #12 (The goalie will likely for sure still be there)

Vasili Podkolzin – The top Russian in this years draft and most scouts agree he’s the 3rd best prospect in the entire draft. Led the recent U18 Tourney’s in scoring (not the Wold Junior tourney ) and completely dominated, lots of comparisons to Ovi in terms of his offensive mind and skillset and his ability to use his body to open up offensive chances, he’s only 17 years old and is signed with SKA in the KHL for two more years…

Spencer Knight – Top goalie prospect in this years draft, most scouts agree he’s the best goalie prospect since Carey Price, but goalie prospects are very hit/miss and typically take longer to develop.

SOOOOO…if you’re the Wild, do you swing for the fences on one of these guys? (Potential Superstar forward with KHL risk or Potential Franchise goalie for the next 10+ years if he projects the way most scouts believe)

Personally with the projections of other prospects that will likely available at #12 (not Caufield), I would take a shot with Podkolzin if available…

A lot of trade chatter

Zucker was reportedly part of the trade that would’ve seen Phil Kessel head to Minnesota from Pittsburgh. That puts the 27-year-old in a bit of an awkward position with his current team, so they may be forced to part ways with him soon.

I don’t understand the idea of they may be forced to trade him. Is he 12? If it is an issue with him yeah you better trade the head case, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d be effected by that.

mplspug wrote:

A lot of trade chatter

Zucker was reportedly part of the trade that would’ve seen Phil Kessel head to Minnesota from Pittsburgh. That puts the 27-year-old in a bit of an awkward position with his current team, so they may be forced to part ways with him soon.

I don’t understand the idea of they may be forced to trade him. Is he 12? If it is an issue with him yeah you better trade the head case, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d be effected by that.

How about a sign and trade deal with Vegas for William Karlsson. Zucker gets to play for his home town team and we get a pretty decent center man.

hop307 wrote:

How about a sign and trade deal with Vegas for William Karlsson. Zucker gets to play for his home town team and we get a pretty decent center man.

Karlsson is a RFA and looking for $7-$8 million per season…ridiculous…this just shows the value in Zucker’s $5.5 deal…why on earth do they want to get rid of him?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

What should the Wild do if these two guys are still on the board at #12 (The goalie will likely for sure still be there)

Vasili Podkolzin won’t be there. He’ll go in the top 10.

And if he’s still there, things have gotten turned upside down from somebody picking out of left field, so then the question would be who ELSE is there that wasn’t predicted to be?

It is just our luck that what may be the best player available is for a position we don’t really need to beef up right now and a high risk one at that.

One option the Wild could use if Spencer Knight is still on the board is as a “trade down” to go lower in R1, but the #1 goalie in the draft could well be worth an R2 pick.

Otherwise, I think we should stay focused on real needs for centers and not get distracted. You cannot predict how a mid R1 player is going to work out so there is no point in playing games with positions you don’t need to fill. Get the best center or wing who’s the closest to NHL ready and don’t overthink things in R1.

Grouse

I don’t think anybody picks for need anymore unless you’re in the top few picks and can choose from pretty much sure-things…Best player available is the safest bet figuring the guys picked after the top 3 usually require time to develop anyways so your perceived “needs” can change in those 1-2 years with trades and free agency…

My point was that I wouldn’t be mad if the Wild took a chance on Podkolzin or decided to invest in a potential franchise goalie with their 1st round pick…this is also assuming a player like Caufield is already off the board…

Fenton’s huge reach on last year’s 1st rd pick really has me worried, so I’m just hoping for a pick that most agree makes sense…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

My point was that I wouldn’t be mad if the Wild took a chance on Podkolzin or decided to invest in a potential franchise goalie with their 1st round pick…this is also assuming a player like Caufield is already off the board…

Fenton’s huge reach on last year’s 1st rd pick really has me worried, so I’m just hoping for a pick that most agree makes sense…

I agree, if Podkolzin is there, we take him. I just see a lot of mock drafts that have him going as high as 7 and very few having him available at 12.

I really hope that Modano is being positioned to take over immediately as GM if Fenton has another fall down at the draft. I hope Craig recognizes that Fenton was just not ready to be GM and he may not be GM material at all.

Grouse

Blow it up

Too soon?

Wild Boldy go where no team has before.

I’m fine with the pick, but when your a team that can’t score goals, why pass on the consensus best pure goal scorer in the draft?

with alot of teams being so cap strapped, it’s kind of surprising that the argument hasn’t come up regarding state income tax levels having an impact on FA/contract decisions. I read that William Karlsson 8 year contract with Vegas will net him an additional $3 million over the life of the contract because Vegas doesn’t have state income tax vs if he signed the same contract elsewhere like Minnesota…How is that not factored in to make it a even playing field for other teams? Same can be said for Canada teams…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m fine with the pick, but when your a team that can’t score goals, why pass on the consensus best pure goal scorer in the draft?

I would assume that the main reason for passing on Caufield was size. The Blues just showed the rest of the league that size and grit still matters in the Playoffs, especially if the refs are going to swallow their whistles as much as they did this year.

I am OK with the Boldy pick as he is known to be a guy who isn’t afraid to go to the dirty ice, which we will need as Parise can’t do it by himself anymore. In 2 years, when he is ready to play, Boldy and Greenway will be quite the tandem on the goal line during the PP.

I also like the fact that Boldy (and to a lesser extent Warren) came from the US NTDP. With Kunin, Greenway and Donato also having played for Team USA recently, they have a common thread that they can build on.

Finally, I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see him get moved to Center at Boston College due to his two-way game and bring that with him as well.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

How is that not factored in to make it a even playing field for other teams? Same can be said for Canada teams…

I have thought about this for a long time. It really isnt a level playing field with the salary cap. I do know that the teams all work in regard to US Dollar not Canadian, but still, I have to imagine their tax rates are high as well.
To me it would make it more fair if they adjusted the Cap based on the variance of tax rate. I realize that gets tricky, but it would seem to make things a little more fair. I was actually going to ask Russo about this at one point, but I didnt want to look like a complete moron. In my head it makes sense.

Dec 5 see you at Amelie.

I cant remember who it was, but recently someone was signed here and they talked about how the lightning had an advantage with no state tax.

mplspug wrote:

Dec 5 see you at Amelie.

I cant remember who it was, but recently someone was signed here and they talked about how the lightning had an advantage with no state tax.

It isn’t that much of an advantage anymore with the way that States tax the players. California started it when they saw all these high dollar football and basketball players come to their state and play in games without paying for the privilege. Illinois soon followed and now every state does.
When the players play a game, they pay tax based on their salary for that game to that state. So, when they play the Blackhawks, they pay IL state tax. Yes, that means that they get a “discount” on their home state’s tax, but for those living in low tax states (Florida, Texas, Carolina, etc.) they end up paying quite a bit more to the high tax states/provinces. The same goes for playing in Canada. When I was a Field Service Engineer, it was not uncommon for me to have to file in 15 different states and pay to a couple of other countries.

Mikkel Broas wrote:

I cant remember who it was, but recently someone was signed here and they talked about how the lightning had an advantage with no state tax.

It isn’t that much of an advantage anymore with the way that States tax the players.

Saw this online, on a $5.9M/year deal William Karlsson will take come $3.75M in Vegas. If he signed the same deal in other cities this would be his take home:
Tor/MTL: $2.77M
LA/ANA/SJ: $2.99M
NY: $3.02M

Mikkel Broas wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
Dec 5 see you at Amelie.

I cant remember who it was, but recently someone was signed here and they talked about how the lightning had an advantage with no state tax.

It isn’t that much of an advantage anymore with the way that States tax the players. California started it when they saw all these high dollar football and basketball players come to their state and play in games without paying for the privilege. Illinois soon followed and now every state does.
When the players play a game, they pay tax based on their salary for that game to that state. So, when they play the Blackhawks, they pay IL state tax. Yes, that means that they get a “discount” on their home state’s tax, but for those living in low tax states (Florida, Texas, Carolina, etc.) they end up paying quite a bit more to the high tax states/provinces. The same goes for playing in Canada. When I was a Field Service Engineer, it was not uncommon for me to have to file in 15 different states and pay to a couple of other countries.

Paying tax per game in each state is true, but they get the no-tax advantage at least 1/2 the time…like I said, they figured this savings out over the 8 year contract Karlsson signed and it was something like an extra $2-$3 million he keeps in his pocket vs another player signing the exact same contract in a state with an average sales tax…

I see the Red Star’s hockey guy is not openly speculating that it’s a do or die free agency period for the Wild’s on-the-job trainee/GM Fenton.

This is not good for Fenton. To play nicey-nice, the local media is always the LAST one on the bus as far as open speculation that a GM or coach is on his way out. I would have to speculate that there are some sources saying Modono ain’t here for his good looks and charm…

The draft was another solid C grade for Fenton as far as I’m concerned. He made the obvious and unremarkable picks that he should have made, so an average effort gets an average grade.

Boldy kind of fell into our laps from what I saw, he was predicted to be anywhere from a #8 to a #10 pick, so having him still on the board at 12 made him the obvious pick To be honest, I was relieved that Fenton didn’t try a left-field move a la Riseboro to try to prove he can see things others can’t. After last year’s horrible R1 debacle, I think even with Fenton’s limited experience, he now understands he’s on thin ice.

Fenton needs to make the right moves in FA and make them FAST.

Grouse