MN Wild 2019-2020 Official Thread

lindyrig79 wrote:

Did anyone catch the B.B. snippet on the news tonight?? He said some of the guys were mentally tired, not physically tired. Talking about giving them a break from practice and ‘time would tell if it was the right decision or not’

Seriously?!? This just totally confirms what a number of us have been saying all along! They don’t have what it takes mentally. It explains a lot, but what a joke. Get rid of these guys!

They have proven that ever since Parise and Suter got here. This isn’t new. And its a big reason why they can look like the best team in the league for a couple weeks then the worst team for a month. Been happening for years with this core.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Seriously?!? This just totally confirms what a number of us have been saying all along! They don’t have what it takes mentally. It explains a lot, but what a joke. Get rid of these guys!

The boat started sinking in the middle of Coach BB’s 2016-2017 season.
Feb 27th 2017 when not a Clue GM Fluck Flutcher made his infamous trade for Hanzel and Grettle. A very good team mentally imploded at that time.
Result 1st round playoff loss again, and this time to Mike Yeo’s Blues 4 games 1.
Really ironic when you look at the direction each team went from there.

My take is Coach BB is gone before the season ends, and 3 veterans will be traded to playoff contending teams. Zucker to Las Vegas? Stall to Carolina?
Folingo to ????

Vegas has no money to take on additional salary unless they sent Mark Stone, Statsny, Karlsson or Pacioretty the other way. Stone is the only one that would interest me but not at his salary.

If there are veterans traded I have a feeling its going to be Zucker and Brodin, though I hope its not Brodin. They are going to be in a tough spot for sure. Still cant believe Gallant was fired and the dude in the presser gave a less than direct answer as to why.

“It felt like a change needed to be made”.

I would take a hard look at William Karlsson in that his 8 year $5.9 per contract is decent in the prime of his career and he’s a #2 center. You then hope you can either strike gold in the draft for a #1 center or one of our existing prospects blossoms. I don’t think you’ll find a worthy FA anytime soon and you’ll be in a bidding war with other teams when one does show up…

Not sure if anybody saw the tweet floating around that said there was a Zucker for Galchenyuk & Good Prospect trade rumor with the Penguins…

if that happens expect to see Zucker turn into a 40+ goal scorer playing with Crosby…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Not sure if anybody saw the tweet floating around that said there was a Zucker for Galchenyuk & Good Prospect trade rumor with the Penguins…

if that happens expect to see Zucker turn into a 40+ goal scorer playing with Crosby…

I saw that too and dont put much stock in it. The person who “Broke” it apparently was referencing something Russo had said and Russo was not happy about it, contacted them and told them he never said what they were quoting him as and asked for it to be removed, which they did remove reference to him.
There are so many of these types of accounts out there and its really difficult to wade through whats real and what isnt.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Vegas has no money to take on additional salary unless they sent Mark Stone, Statsny, Karlsson or Pacioretty the other way. Stone is the only one that would interest me but not at his salary.

I think with the firing of Gallant they may makes some other moves within the team, George McPhee was certainly looking at acquiring Zucker previously during their expansion draft, if I remember right Fluctcher made a deal with them not to take Zucker.
It’s all speculation but it certainly improves the value of trading Zucker if you have two or three teams looking to acquire him.

jeff_huberty wrote:

I think with the firing of Gallant they may makes some other moves within the team, George McPhee was certainly looking at acquiring Zucker previously during their expansion draft, if I remember right Fluctcher made a deal with them not to take Zucker.
It’s all speculation but it certainly improves the value of trading Zucker if you have two or three teams looking to acquire him.

I wouldnt be surprised of some other Vegas shakeups too, considering their expectations.
Zucker was protected by Fletcher, to protect Dumba, Fletcher basically gave him Tuch, which Vegas then drafted Haula.

I still don’t understand this “gotta trade him” obsession with getting Zucker gone. Just don’t get it. There’s about 4 other players I’d want to get gone long before Zucker. I just don’t get the obsession with trading Zucker, seems like there is little upside to be gained and he’s not the cause of any of our problems.

I would only trade Zucker if it involved a 2-fer deal where we got a GOOD player AND we packaged Rask with him so we dump salary. Or some other package that gets us further ahead than just swapping player for player.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

it was a our problem for your problem trade, so both teams took what they could get. We got the worse of the two players, they got the worse cap hit. In a perfect world either team would rather get a draft pick and dump the salary.

Yeah, this is exactly the type of trade that we have to STOP doing. Solves nothing, just keeps the same problem with a different name on the back of the sweater.

Goes back to what I’ve been saying, to get a better team, we need a better GM. Is Bill the guy? We’ll see. There are tight races with teams that should be shopping hard to sew up gaps, so there should be deals out there.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I still don’t understand this “gotta trade him” obsession with getting Zucker gone. Just don’t get it. There’s about 4 other players I’d want to get gone long before Zucker. I just don’t get the obsession with trading Zucker, seems like there is little upside to be gained and he’s not the cause of any of our problems.

I am not advocating us trading Zucker, my point is that the other GM’s will be looking at acquiring him.

Packaging Zucker and Rask would mean the team we’re trading them to would have almost $10 million in cap space, no team (other than maybe the Senators or Coyotes) could do that…

Would you rather still have Nino and his $5.5 cap hit for 2 more goals than Rask? Those types of trades are a last ditch attempt to make a change when all other trade offers fail..

jeff_huberty wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
I still don’t understand this “gotta trade him” obsession with getting Zucker gone. Just don’t get it. There’s about 4 other players I’d want to get gone long before Zucker. I just don’t get the obsession with trading Zucker, seems like there is little upside to be gained and he’s not the cause of any of our problems.

I am not advocating us trading Zucker, my point is that the other GM’s will be looking at acquiring him.

I agree but the hard truth is who else are you going to deal to get any value back? of our 12 forwards, (Stahl, Parise, Koivu and Zuccarello) all have no trade clauses, so that leaves 8 possibilities (Kunin/Greenway/Fiala/Foligno/Ek/Donato/Hartman/Rask) You probably don’t want to deal Fiala,Kunin and Greenway as they are good players to build around, so that leaves 5 possibilities, Foligno could probably get you the best return, but it’s not going to be a player better than him anyways, maybe you do it to save cap space on a mostly 3rd/4th line guy. Ek/Donato won’t get you much return because they haven’t done anything in the NHL to warrant a good return. Hartman might get you a late round pick or two and Rask is a purely salary dump for a guy who should probably be playing in the minors.

That leaves Zucker as the only forward who can get you anything in return, but I agree in that what you get back must be worth more because he’s a proven goal scorer with years left on a good cap contract.

Brodin or Dumba are the only other pieces you could move that would get a good return, but Brodin still has another year left on a great cap contract and Dumba has the potential to turn into a Burns like superstar if he can figure his game out, but his recent goal drought is hurting his trade value…

Soucy or Seeler won’t get you a return better then what they are already producing on very low cap contracts…

I think another guy that could get some decent return, not superstar, but maybe a decent pick/prospect is Pateryn. When he plays well he is really a good shutdown type D guy. He had a very good first game back and then unceremoniously was healthy scratched the other night. Would have been nice to roll 6 D against the Pens, but I digress.
I dont particularly care to trade Zucker either, but agree, there are few options that would garner much interest or return.

My personal untouchables are: Fiala, Ek and Brodin. Under no circumstance would I trade those guys. It might be tough to be able to afford Brodin in a couple years, but the guy is just a solid player and moves the puck better than anyone else we have except maybe Spurgeon.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I think another guy that could get some decent return, not superstar, but maybe a decent pick/prospect is Pateryn. When he plays well he is really a good shutdown type D guy. He had a very good first game back and then unceremoniously was healthy scratched the other night. Would have been nice to roll 6 D against the Pens, but I digress.
I dont particularly care to trade Zucker either, but agree, there are few options that would garner much interest or return.

My personal untouchables are: Fiala, Ek and Brodin. Under no circumstance would I trade those guys. It might be tough to be able to afford Brodin in a couple years, but the guy is just a solid player and moves the puck better than anyone else we have except maybe Spurgeon.

Curious what you see in Ek? He will never be more than he is right now, a maybe 3rd but primarily 4th liner…he has zero scoring potential, it’s just not in his game…I mean how is he better than Gerry Meyhew stuck down in Iowa?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Curious what you see in Ek? He will never be more than he is right now, a maybe 3rd but primarily 4th liner…he has zero scoring potential, it’s just not in his game…I mean how is he better than Gerry Meyhew stuck down in Iowa?

He is Koivu 2.0 IMO. He will eventually get to where he scores 15 to 20 goals I think, but just look what he does against the oppositions top lines. He frustrates the crap out of them because he is so tenacious and is strong on the puck. He has a heckuva shot if he would just shoot the dang thing. Unfortunately to this point he hasnt been given much of a chance, but he is great on PK and shutting down the other team’s top line. That is tremendously important when looking at matchups for your more skilled players.
When the GEEK line was going they were shutting down the other team AND scoring. Now with injuries and such they have been broken apart and not reunited. Even though Greenway is playing like garbage I wish BB would put them all back together.
Regarding Mayhew, he is what he is. A guy that can excel at the AHL level but nothing special in the NHL. From what I could tell the couple games he got when he was up earlier he didnt seem overwhelmed or anything, but definitely not making much of a difference whereas Ek he is always in the play when on the ice.
Mayhew certainly has more offensive upside, but I just dont think he has what Ek does defensively.
Mayhew if he continues to progress and if the Wild dump a center I would surely like to see him come up for some increased icetime. It would be nice to see him in the top 6 to see what he could do.

CaptainMusky wrote:

He has a heckuva shot if he would just shoot the dang thing.

Man that sounds familiar. I think I know of a few other Finns that have/had the same damn problem.

The NHL needs to change the offsides rule. It should be that as soon as the puck touches the top of the blue line, everything is onsides. Way too many ticky tac reviews and challenges how it is now

Possibly the worst rule, as is, in all of sports

Very entertaining game against TB. Sure wish they could play like that more consistently.

Even Pierre McGuire said “this is the type of intensity MN needs to play with every night”. Why can’t they?

Stalock looked good.

No way was there conclusive video evidence to call that icing and overturn that goal. That’s the kind of BS call you get when your Tampa. Along with the faceoff hold that gave them the last pp goal.

Oh well, they can’t beat the Wild, but at least they’re a good playoff team.

Grouse

I heard them say during the broadcast last night that Brodin is rumored to be leaving Minnesota. For my money if a D man is going I’d prefer Dumba to leave. Dumba can never seem to find his identity. He wants to score like Ovechkin and then play a little D too. Right now he’s doing neither. You know what you have in Brodin. A solid defenseman. He’s not going to score 15 or 20 but how about getting more than one or two forwards to do that.

I heard Pierre tout that blue line change and initially thought it was a good idea. But then I figured it wouldn’t change much because you still are going to have close offsides because players are still going to be pushing entering the zone before the puck touches blue.

Every team has a team they can’t seem to beat. I move to Florida and start cheering for the bolts against my old team. What does that say about the curse?

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
He has a heckuva shot if he would just shoot the dang thing.

Man that sounds familiar. I think I know of a few other Finns that have/had the same damn problem.

I feel vindicated that he had a nice goal last night. The first half of the first period was blah, but then they turned it up a notch. Fiala has been the best forward for months now. Goals are going to really start flowing if he keeps that up. I dont even know how Tampa made a save on that one shot he had in the second period I think it was.

I think it would help to change the blue line rule. And as Grouse said, it needs to be OBVIOUS to overturn a call like that. To take a goal off the board with video evidence that is not even conclusive is just flat out ridiculous.

Agree about Fiala… he looks good.

Unless they had a different angle I would have not overturned that goal. It was too close and a lot can happen between frames.

Zucker has a modified NTC, so may be difficult to move. I say you gotta move Brodin – best player we have that can get the highest value. Additionally, our blue line is in the top 5 cap hits – hard to pay a few top line forwards or centers when most of the money is tied up on the blue line. It would be good to move Dumba as well, but he hasn’t played well this year so wouldn’t be able to get much for him.

I’d accept picks and prospects so we can build things internally. Gotta keep cap space open to have any chance at a big free agent buy.

drewbop wrote:

I say you gotta move Brodin – best player we have that can get the highest value. Additionally, our blue line is in the top 5 cap hits – hard to pay a few top line forwards or centers when most of the money is tied up on the blue line. It would be good to move Dumba as well, but he hasn’t played well this year so wouldn’t be able to get much for him.

I’d accept picks and prospects so we can build things internally. Gotta keep cap space open to have any chance at a big free agent buy.

This may come to fruition sooner rather than later. Dougie Hamilton broke is leg last night so Carolina is down a top D man.
They were already rumored at looking at Brodin.
Prospects and picks, no current NHL player would I want back. Carolina has a few prospects I would certainly be interested in. Necas a good sized Center would be the top of the list for me, but I think Carolina would be very hesitant to give him up, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.

lindyrig79 wrote:

The NHL needs to change the offsides rule. It should be that as soon as the puck touches the top of the blue line, everything is onsides. Way too many ticky tac reviews and challenges how it is now

Possibly the worst rule, as is, in all of sports

Offsides is fine… the rule is the same from Mites through the NHL and hasn’t changed in forever. There has to be a deciding edge and the rule is really simple… the blue line is part of whatever zone the puck is coming from. Leave it alone or there will be a lot more confusion and more offsides.

The part that drives me nuts and needs to change is the challenge aspect of it. Goals are getting overturned because there was an offsides 50 seconds before the goal that was completely unrelated. It would be super easy to put a 5 or 10 second time limit on it so that a goal can only be overturned if it was scored off the rush… not after a lengthy offensive zone possession.

CaptainMusky wrote:

This may come to fruition sooner rather than later. Dougie Hamilton broke is leg last night so Carolina is down a top D man.
They were already rumored at looking at Brodin.
Prospects and picks, no current NHL player would I want back. Carolina has a few prospects I would certainly be interested in. Necas a good sized Center would be the top of the list for me, but I think Carolina would be very hesitant to give him up, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I agree on prospects and picks. Also I don’t think the Wild should be in business of any big free agent signing for quite awhile. They need to cut salary and redevelop the core of this team with youth

CaptainMusky wrote:

This may come to fruition sooner rather than later. Dougie Hamilton broke is leg last night so Carolina is down a top D man.
They were already rumored at looking at Brodin.
Prospects and picks, no current NHL player would I want back. Carolina has a few prospects I would certainly be interested in. Necas a good sized Center would be the top of the list for me, but I think Carolina would be very hesitant to give him up, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Well I wouldn’t say no Aho or Svechnikov. Hey a guy can dream, right?!?! Never forget Edmonton did Hall for Adam Larsson… We need Peter Chiarelly back in the league.

tswoboda wrote:

Well I wouldn’t say no Aho or Svechnikov. Hey a guy can dream, right?!?! Never forget Edmonton did Hall for Adam Larsson… We need Peter Chiarelly back in the league.

It certainly wouldnt hurt to ask I think. LOL

Here’s a recent Kaprizov interview in english –
https://en.khl.ru/news/2020/01/16/464672.html

Two points:

1) The reported started the “what’s your interest in playing in the NHL” question with “I know i’m not supposed to ask you about this”. This kind of tells the story why you rarely see any north american interviews with him..

2) He answered it like a professional, but added he’s excited to take the final step to play with the best.