Wild 2015-16

The Wild currently has 4 bad contracts (in terms of the price vs production) here’s what’s expiring on the horizon:

end of this season – Backstrom is finally off the books

end of 2016/2017 season – Vanek is off the books

end of the 2017/2018 season – Koivu is off the books

end of the 2018/2019 season – Pomminville is off the books (good lord!)

The buyout rules = 1/3 the remaining salary of the contract spread out over double the remaining years of the contract. Example – Pomminville would cost us 1.65 million each of the next 6 YEARS!

I’m not worried about Parise and Suter’s contract as the last 3 years of their deal have very low remaining salary costs that equate into super small buyout penalties (They were structured this way on purpose to eventually be bought out)

Pomminville’s contract will be an anchor on this team until he’s gone, we’ll just have to bite our lip and deal with it, if the cap goes up in 2017 maybe his buyout then makes sense…Koivu is being overpaid, but he’s not the first overpaid player ever…once we finally get a #1 center, he can take his spot at #2 center and hopefully play better with less pressure… let’s hope…

I don’t think Vanek’s contract was bad in terms of length or $. The problem with an RFA is that it’s essentially a sealed bid auction so you have figure out what the player is worth to your team NOW based on past performance and a guesstimate of future potential.

Backstrom’s deal is more sad than it is something that’s really dragging the team down. IMO the biggest issue with Backstrom is that it’s a one way deal so flexibility is very limited. Again, it’s very tough to forsee all the combinations of needs and potential injuries and other if/then/if/then scenarios when trying to sign the guy who was then our franchise netminder to a deal during his peak productivity years.

I agree, Poms contract was WATY too long and this limits options going forward.

IMO the biggest limitation is not the contract situation, it’s that the Wild heavily mortgaged the future to build the present. The shelves are really, really bare at the farm club level. Honestly, the only real current blue chip players we have at a farm club / college level are Tuch and Erickson Ek. Yes we have some raw potential down there as well, but many of these guys are years away from NHL-ready, if they make it there at all.

All of this points back to what I’ve said before about the sad reality of the NHL being that to really make hay in the draft, your team has to be in the toilet for multiple years. The current talent depth in hockey worldwide is very shallow, there are a microscopic number of blue chippers coming out every year and then the next layer of talent is FAR, far, far below in terms of quality and readiness. If they even make it at all.

Basically, for a team to really improve its talent base significantly through the draft, they have to be in a position where they have overall picks in the 1-5 range AND for multiple years running. Sometimes this is accomplished by a trade, but in a lot of cases this has to be done the old fashioned way–by stinking it up for 3-5 years.

The one bright spot I see is that the Wild have a pretty substantial crop of D talent that could be traded to get young players or draft picks. I think one option that has to be considered is putting Dumba and/or Suter on the block for a team looking to beef up defense. I would hate to lose either of these players, Dumba especially has tremendous upside still, but for the right player I think it has to happen.

I hate to trade this kind of talent and then get beat up with it in conference play, but I still think Nugent-Hopkins is probably the most get-able player at the established level.

Grouse

I agree, but I would consider trading anybody on the team BEFORE Dumba at this point, his skillset is too hard to replace (He has a head on his shoulders, has a great personality, can rush the puck, play physical and actually score) We still haven’t seen his physical side yet (as I believe Yeo held him back on it) He was feared in Junior…

Back to my earlier response on playing the younger players more, I would replace Prosser/Folin with Reilly and Olofsson asap to see what these kids can do, from the limited NHL icetime we have seen from them, they looked pretty good…Replace Porter with Graovac, we need to know if he can handle himself at center for more than just a few games…

I would also sit Parise down and find out what exactly is bothering him physically…. you can tell something is wrong…. if needed, shut him down to protect him from himself and the next 7 years you have him under contract…

To those who question the FA/Playoff rental moves Fletcher made the last few years, I assume some/most of them were pre-promised moves to get Parise/Suter signed long-term (Fletcher – “ok guys, I can promise that the next few years we’ll be big players at the trade deadline to try and get you guys to a cup final”)…obviously they didn’t work out and now we have to pay the price..

I don’t recall anybody saying the Vanek signing was bad at the time. I’m not sure it was, even today. People have to play it’s that simple. You can hide one or two under performing guys but you can’t hide as many as the Wild have right now. I think when the kids start to roll the vets will start to roll the goal tending will be solid everything will be OK. The million dollar question is what will it take to get them firing on all cylinders?

As far as they system being lean that won’t matter if what we have here is NHL caliber. The Wild are set for years to come at many positions of those players can play. So, either they have under performed or they aren’t really NHL players.

Time to find out.

BTW, if anybody watched Boston vs Detroit yesterday you saw some pretty entertaining hockey with both teams playing backup goalies.

I don’t think we can hope the salary cap will go up the way the Canadian dollar is and oil prices. It will be a marginal change I bet.

I was never for the Vanek deal, at least I didn’t buy into the hype and wasn’t pushing for it. He had a reputation before coming here.

It may be nothing, but to me when I hear his post games and other interviews, he doesn’t exude confidence.

That being said, I still don’t mind the signing. At times he can be a liability, butbhe also does produce, maybe more consistently than most on our team.

I think you get goal scorers when you can. They aren’t easy to come by and many have a quirk or attitude, maybe thats what makes them better then normal players at scoring goals. I dunno.

I’m going to get some popcorn for tonight’s game. What if they lose? What if they don’t show any urgency? It won’t be as much fun if they win

All I can think about the rest of this season is the thought of getting a top 3 pick and what it could do for this franchise… The last month has really drained my excitement for this team…maybe its watching the train-wreck that is our powerplay each night or watching Pomminville & Vanek give ZERO effort and yet still keep their priority icetime…Hopefully Torch can light a torch under some of our players, but I have my doubts…we’ll see starting tonight…

I’m excited to watch the playoffs and hope the Capitals can exercise their demons and Ovi hoists the cup…

per Russo, lines for tonight (let’s hope they last longer than 1 shift unlike the Yeo era)

Parise-Koivu-Coyle
Zucker-Granlund-Vanek
Pominville-Haula-Nino
Carter-Stoll-Fontaine

Suter-Spurgeon
Scandella-Dumba
Reilly-Folin

I’m excited to see Zucker play with an actual passer for once… I’m really interested to see who plays on the powerplay and if they use an actually strategy…if I see Pominville out there i’ll shut the TV off…

Torchetti had a good quote today: “Moving forward, we all know that we have to get tighter in our structure of the leadership because if it was going the right way, we wouldn’t be here. So we have to make sure moving forward that we do more team-building stuff and that structure-wise all 22 guys are part of it, and our younger guys have to start having a bigger voice in the locker room.

It’s time for them. They’ve been here for three years. Some of those guys have to speak up and they’ve got to identify that this is their team, too. We’re not going to settle to be average. We want to be better.”

I kind of like pumping the youngsters tires. Maybe guys like Suter, Koivu and Parise have a little too much say in things. Maybe that was an issue and the youngsters resented it. After all, look at that stellar 1st PP unit that got all the time. Pure speculation of course.

Much like when they fired Richards, I like Yeo for the fact he coached the guys that were up and coming in Houston. I like that Torch has a history with a lot of these guys. He said 12 on the current roster. Hmm, maybe the vets aren’t going to be as happy with the change.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

All I can think about the rest of this season is the thought of getting a top 3 pick and what it could do for this franchise… The last month has really drained my excitement for this team…maybe its watching the train-wreck that is our powerplay each night or watching Pomminville & Vanek give ZERO effort and yet still keep their priority icetime…Hopefully Torch can light a torch under some of our players, but I have my doubts…we’ll see starting tonight…

I’m excited to watch the playoffs and hope the Capitals can exercise their demons and Ovi hoists the cup…

Man, I really think its time to forget about a top 3 pick. It’s not gonna happen.

Here’s the only scenario where this team could possibly get one.

First they would have to be a serious contender for a cup. Fletcher would have to trade for and sign a number of rental players. Once those guys are gone after your run, you’d have to trade off the remaining talent you have and start fresh with a bunch of youngsters on the NHL club. Then you tank for a few seasons and get your top 3 picks.

Is this gonna happen? No.

This team has far to much talent to tank.

They are now only 7 points from being the worst team in the league…we’ll see what Torchetti can do…

And only 5 from the second wild card.

Looks like Parise was cured since last Saturday for some reason…

It almost looked like playoff hockey last night.

There was definitely a fire under their @ss last night. Was a welcome change in my mind!!

Just to bad Zucker couldn’t get a break and have one of those opportunities work out.

I’m not buying into it until I see a good sample size. Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton shouldn’t be tests. For me, every game now is a response game to the game before.

They definitely looked like the team that started the season vs whatever we watched the last month and 1/2…

It will be interesting to see if this was just a bolt of energy playing the 1st game under a new coach or if the bad habits/lack of effort of old left the minute Yeo was fired…

They definitely got some bounces yesterday. But I don’t think that was a product of some new found puck luck. They had a lot more of those plays yesterday like the tips and posts, so the law of averages means you get the odd Spurgeon goal and the Coyle goal redirected by the defenseman. And they were creating those chances, more than we have seen in recent history. They seemed real confident just getting the puck to the net and you saw a lot less of people delegating to someone else by passing, instead of shooting.

On the other goals you have Parise basically busting his butt and making a play. Haula hustles on a turnover, Nino does a great job of getting to the front and causing mayhem and Fontaine finding the open area and instead of a one timer he fakes a shot, gets Markstrom down and roofs it. Then Nino blocks a shot and is hurting, yet he gets on his horse and follows up a Granlund shot, yes shot, bowling over a Nuck to get to the rebound.

Nino and Zucker appear to be on the verge of getting back to the old Nino and Zucker. Which is promising, even in a tiny sample size of 1 game.

I think the most encouraging sign is Haula and Fontaine bringing up their play. And this has been brewing the last few games too. If those guys start providing secondary scoring and defense, that is huge.

I think it is obvious the players were bored with the Defense first system Yeo required. He put handcuffs on players that have a lot of skill. He attempted to change the way the play for his system.

That is a sign of ego creeping in but also a sign of why each year this team went into a funk. His reaction to adversity was more and more D play. I am a very defensive minded coach but even I know that players gotta play. They have to be allowed to just go at some point. Think about how many times we have players like Zucker,Coyle, Nino being sprung on breakaways for goals early in the season. Now how much of that did you see post Christmas? Not much, that is because Yeo benched anyone that played higher than the tops of our circles. They got bored and frustrated and it all compounded itself.

The minute 11 and 20 called in Adam Oates (likely next head coach) for PP skill work the writing was on the wall. Obviously they weren’t getting something from the current staff. That was a sign of no confidence and a shot across the bow.

Torch seems to have given them more freedom to cut loose and play. He has nothing to lose after all. The cupboard was bare in Iowa so that can’t have been the most enjoyable place to be. I wish him good luck, nice to see a coach on the bench actively coaching and motivating players. Unlike Yeo and that mannequin we have on the Gopher bench.

mplspug wrote:

Looks like Parise was cured since last Saturday for some reason…

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Whatever was ailing Parise and a few other players, it looked like they had fully recovered from it last night.

Hey, and let’s give a shout out to one guy who’s been a bright spot for a while now. Haula is BACK. Two key plays last night resulted in two capital A assists including a highlight reel pass to Fontaine who then completely torched the Canuck goalie by waiting him out and then top shelfing it.

Overall, I had the impression that there were some coach/player issues simmering and that despite “we’ll miss him” lip service from the players, Yeo was rubbing some key guys the wrong way.

IMO the bench body language was totally different last night. Watch this the next game and see what you think, I’ll be interested to see if it continues, but I had the real impression that there were some interpersonal issues going on between Yeo and several players including Parise, Zucker, Suter, and maybe others.

I’m pretty sure we’re all in the wait-and-see mode. One game doesn’t make a trend, but overall they looked like a totally different team. Especially this was evident in the dreaded second period when there was no letdown.

Bottom line is I hope this trends in the right direction short term, but to me it’s already mission accomplished in terms of getting Yeo gone. He had enough time to take this franchise forward and clearly we were stuck in a rut and going nowhere, so change is good.

Grouse

On the post game Wes Walz said that Yeo and Haula did not get along. The second period W(Y)hoa’s are a direct result of a team jumping on the ice in the first and playing like they are capable. Then getting a message from the coach to get back to defensive posture during second intermission. Guarantee you the players 2nd period performance was due to bad attitude and a coach that was trying to win with his system vs players ability.

NO team can crumble in one period without something going on behind the scenes. Maybe the players were sending a message to management. The first is how we can play without him the second is the outcome in his system.

Likely each game was mirroring each of the past 2 years. Strong start, slump, miracle comeback…..(no game comebacks but they tried) Pretty consistent message from the players if that is the case.

If nothing else this will be an extended audition for Torchetti to see if he has what it takes. The result at the end won’t make it break his chances to don’t think but it will be interesting to see.
Clearly after 1 game you can see this was a player issue vs coach/system one. A new coach cannot do much in 2 days. It was the same system as before they just actually played well from the drop of the puck for a change.
Lots of time left but they can’t afford any more losing streaks.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Clearly after 1 game you can see this was a player issue vs coach/system one. A new coach cannot do much in 2 days. It was the same system as before they just actually played well from the drop of the puck for a change.
Lots of time left but they can’t afford any more losing streaks.

I think the total opposite. He had 4 different lines on the ice in the first 4 minutes. Yeo seems to like to drive the veterans into the ground. Torch had a great interview with Barriero this afternoon. There weren’t many cliche answers and he really gave the impression that accountability is his highest priority. He told Koivu, Parise and Suter that they are to enforce his policies when he isn’t in the room. The young guys are supposed to step up and be leaders as well. He told the guys to praise each other for good plays, often. Seems like simple stuff but it’s quite obvious Yeo was really missing the most basic management fundamentals.

I am so sick and tired of hearing how great of a coach that Yeo was. How could you knowingly fire a guy that isn’t responsible for this? If so, didn’t you actually make things worse? You get it. You don’t need to damage his integrity to prove a point. I see through it though.

I personally didn’t realize how bad Yeo was. I just didn’t listen to you Yeo must go guys.

Let me remind you, its one game.

We don’t know what Yeo was telling the players. But yes, it obviously was falling on deaf ears.

Yeo was successful as a coach and will get a head coach gig again in the not to distant future, possibly next year. Heck, look at Todd Richards.

He told pros with a C or A to be leaders? You’d think that would be something you wouldn’t have to tell them. He told his players to praise each other?

I’m sure the honeymoon will be a fairly long one and I do hope Torch is the answer. It will also be interesting when they face adversity.

Torch does seem to be an upbeat guy, a student of the game and have some fire. Hopefully his personality meshes well with this team and he fixes whatever head issues some if these guys have.

Lastly, he is using the exact same system. He coached the same system in Iowa so players being called up would be ready. Not that hockey team play vastly different schemes. The basics are all the same.

mplspug wrote:

Let me remind you, its one game.

We don’t know what Yeo was telling the players. But yes, it obviously was falling on deaf ears.

Yeo was successful as a coach and will get a head coach gig again in the not to distant future, possibly next year. Heck, look at Todd Richards.

exactly. If you don’t think Yeo was doing the things Torch talks about I think it’s naive.
The players quit on him plain and simple.
There was more balance in ice time for the forwards I would say but that was largely due to few penalties.
1 game does not a turn around make. Torch is saying all the right things and if that is enough to salvage the season so be it. He has a lot of coaching experience at many levels so the guy can coach no doubt.

My thoughts have nothing to do with the first game. Ok maybe a little.

Maybe you can podcast that interview from this afternoon.

As far as captains being leaders, it appears to me that Torch may be setting their expectations so much more clear than Yeo did. Yeo expected his leaders to take over where he left off. I would guess that those expectations weren’t clear. So what you get is chaos.

Things to look for in the next 10 games.

1. Power play. Are there changes? How do they work?
2. Penalty Kill. If it gets worse, there’s reason to worry.
3. Goaltending. Does he challenge Doobs with split time with Kuemps? I think goaltending performance on this team is much more a reflection of our defensive play. Coming from a goalie, go figure.
4. Goals. Goal scoring has been horrendous in the past 5 weeks.
5. Suter TOI. How does he handle Suter. I saw Suter double shifting on the power play. I would bet that wasn’t Torch’s plan.

These are my key indicators. What are yours?

If my employees quit on me, I’d get fired too. As a manager am I responsible?

YES!

I’m sorry but all the defensive comments about Yeo in the press is making me sick. It’s all a front to salvage his integrity. He is responsible for the play of this highly talented team. I believe the runs this team made the past couple years are in spite of Yeo, not because of him.

It’s no secret it’s difficult to coach a bunch of egos in professional sports. He just didn’t have it. Like many coaches, the new coach smell wears off and you just want to get a new one.

I don’t know if Torch is the answer but he’s saying things that I’ve learned as a manager that Yeo never said.

If your employees quit on you, fire the employees. There are plenty more where they came from. Professional sports doesn’t work that way due to their huge guaranteed contracts. If this were the nfl without the guaranteed money you would have likely seen players cut before Yep getting the ax.
What do I want to see? It is interesting to me to see how some of the underperforming players will be handled.
I am of the belief that Yeo had pressure to play the veterans whether it be the GM or the guys in the locker room. It appears now that Torch may have some leeway, let’s see if he uses it. I really question how this came about. I bet Fletcher sensing his job is seriously on the line is taking this chance to rethink things.
I want Suter off the PP period. So tired of watching him saunter up the ice when he should be pressing ticks me off.
Reward the guys who are playing well. This is what Torch has said he would do, prove it.
I listened to the interview and the nhl network interview at 415 today. Torch has my support, but in order to really see what he can do we need to be 15 or more games in. Otherwise its 100% on the players. The system is in place, there are few injuries. People forget they actually had strung together 3 decent games that they still lost before the Bruins stinker.
We can’t kid anyone, even if they make the playoffs they won’t get past the 2nd round.
I see some significant changes to the roster happening before they can do that. Financially I’m not sure how they can do it.