MN Wild 2019-2020 Official Thread

tswoboda wrote:

Granlund 9th overall – 9th most points in 2010 draft
Tuch 18th overall – 19th most points in the 2014 draft
Kunin 15th overall – 15th most points in the 2016 draft

You’re missing the point: None of these Wild R1 picks are playing for the Wild.

And only Grandlund played what I’d call a significant number of games in a Wild sweater. So I grant you he doesn’t belong on the list, for Grandlund I’d say they got value, but the overwhelming consensus was they should have gotten more than one player for him at the time. Good thing we got the player we got.

Yes, Tuch is having a decent career. For Vegas. How’s that helping us?

Kunin is TBD, but again, another R1 pick that had a very short Wild career.

And to make it worse, Greenway is reported to be on thin ice and it sounds like this is a do/die season for him.

Yes, Fillip Johanson and Zach Phillips ARE worse R1 fails. Not sure how that makes me delusional, you just named yet two MORE high picks that never will play for the club that drafted them. What about Nick Leddy? Tyler Cuma? And everybody’s favorite Wild superstar Colton Gillies.

I’m just asking the question, has any team gotten LESS value out of their R1 picks than the Wild? Given the washouts, burnouts, and blowouts that we’ve had, I’m still saying the Wild have actually defied gravity in terms of performance given the terrible management draft decisions we’ve had basically since day 1.

BTW, I’m cautiously optimistic with Gurin and this new talent guru he brought in from Vancouver. Gurin seems to have a real direction and IMO this looks to be one of the Wild’s best overall draft classes in many years. Now we just need them to pan out for us.

Grouse

I think Columbus has drafted much worse than the Wild has during its existence. I think if the coin flip between the Wild and BlueJackets had gone the other way, the Wild could be worse as Gaborik was the Wild’s best draft pick and Columbus got stuck with Klesla…Name another BlueJacket draft pick other than Nash 1st overall, Johansen, Werenski or DuBois? They have had MUCH higher draft slots than us as well…

BUT

The Wild has SEVERAL YEARS of ENTIRE drafts with no players ever making more than a cup of coffee games played in the NHL, that is just inexcusable, how the hell did Risebrough keep his job that long?

Wild Draft History – https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/MIN/draft.html
BlueJacket Draft History – https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/CBJ/draft.html

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The Wild has SEVERAL YEARS of ENTIRE drafts with no players ever making more than a cup of coffee games played in the NHL, that is just inexcusable, how the hell did Risebrough keep his job that long?

That’s the million dollar question. Its actually a miracle that Fletcher got anything accomplished because of the prospect pool was literally bare. He didnt help himself though by trading away so many picks but that was mainly after the Parise and Suter signings in an attempt to win now. We all know how that played out.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

It is an absolute miracle with as badly as our GMs have performed in the draft, that this team hasn’t been like last year’s Deadwings for about the last 10 years.

^^Here’s the part I’m talking about. Saying the Wild draft poorly enough to be the worst team in recent history is delusional.

Riseborough – sure, but that was a long time ago now. Since Fletcher became GM they have not drafted poorly, rather they’ve drafted extremely mediocre. Very Minnesota Wild like.

The three guys you called out just aren’t good examples of bad drafting OR bad trades.
Granlund gave them 500 games as a top 6 forward before being traded for Fiala – the most talented player they’ve had since Gaborik.
Tuch was a “championship in a box” expansion draft casualty.
Kunin is TBD based on the Russian center they drafted and if they get anything more from Bonino.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The Wild has SEVERAL YEARS of ENTIRE drafts with no players ever making more than a cup of coffee games played in the NHL, that is just inexcusable, how the hell did Risebrough keep his job that long?

Riseborough was a disaster!

The minister of sport in Canada banned checking in the OHL this year due to Covid.
Good luck with that!
No I did not bring up to discuss Covid. More so no checking in the OHL. I wonder if you can still spin your lid on the ice and then punch someone in the face.