Back to back powerplays and we get ZERO shots on goal and can barely get into the friggin zone…

Do we have the worst pk in the league yet? That’s a bold strategy leaving a guy wide open at the top of the slot…

I never brought him up because I figured no way would Buffalo trade him but I now see him listed on trade boards everywhere, but Alex Tuch coming back to the Wild would be pretty sweet…He’s got 1 more year at $4.75

You just know Billy would love to have him, can you imagine a Tuch-Ek-Boldy 2nd line?

but why would Buffalo trade him?

tswoboda wrote:

The sky is falling

It all started when you said they were a lock for the playoffs…

Outside of the PK, the sky is not falling…last night was ugly and they’ve had way too many of those types of games this season, but if they continue to bookend those blowouts between 5 wins in 7 games streaks i’m fine with it and we’ll be playoff bound…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

And what are we going to do for a backup while Wallstadt takes another 2 years to figure it out? More cap space burned

Wallstedt has a 1 way contract the next 2 years, he will be the backup next year for GusBus and then Billy has a big decision to make…

Wally has had a tough season no doubt, dealing with a few injuries and some confidence issues, but he turned 22 years old in November, his first 2 pro season in Iowa he was an All-star on terrible teams…name any goalies (besides Flower, Patrick Roy and Carey Price) with NHL success 1-2 years after they were drafted? its not easy to do…

Tom schmitt wrote:

Boldy needs to really start showing us on a consistent basis that he’s more than just a streaky player who can score when he’s on and pretty much worthless when he’s not.

Boldy has 7 points in his last 5 games, Rossi has 4, those guys are singlehandedly keeping this team above water right now…The top line is getting 100% of the top defensive matchups right now as there’s ZERO threat of the 2nd line scoring…it will be ugly wins for awhile until Kirill comes back…

Ripjiggen wrote:

We’ll likely sign a top6 UFA replacing Jojo, Yurov will take somebody’s job, Buium in the mix replacing either Chisholm or Merrill in the D rotation, Flower will be gone and I think one or both of Hartman and Trenin will get moved…Freddy stays as that aav is to valuable let go for somebody serviceable around the lineup if needed…

IF we can get a center like Cozens, that can change the entire makeup of the lineup with 4 deep down the middle with Marat moving to the 4th line…and Yurov likely moving to top6 Wing. If its a scoring wing they get, that improves all the lines…

Yes, there are some assumptions here, but things will look different for sure…

Like you said a lot of assumptions. Agree moves will be made how many and how drastic remain to be seen. I don’t see them moving both Trenin and Hartman. One might be replacing the other however.
I will still stick to my prediction that Brock Nelson signs this off season.

really the only assumption is moving Hartman and/or Trenin (Trenin has zero trade protection but an extra year of term so that might be tough, Hartman’s name is mentioned alot as a buyout candidate, but you could also retain some of his caphit that’s less than what the buyout hit would be if that helps trade him too)

The other changes are certain (Flower/Jojo/Merrill for sure will not be back, Chisholm is a ?) we just don’t have a name yet for the UFA/Trade addition, but they are adding somebody…

I keep forgetting Hinostroza is signed for another year at $775k, that’s a great value 4th line player to have and bumps one of the Iowa guys off the roster…

Ripjiggen wrote:

I’m not sure how vastly different the team will look next year

We’ll likely sign a top6 UFA replacing Jojo, Yurov will take somebody’s job, Buium in the mix replacing either Chisholm or Merrill in the D rotation, Flower will be gone and I think one or both of Hartman and Trenin will get moved…Freddy stays as that aav is too valuable let go for somebody serviceable up & down the lineup if needed…

IF we can get a center like Cozens, that can change the entire makeup of the lineup with 4 deep down the middle with Marat moving to the 4th line…and Yurov likely moving to top6 Wing. If its a scoring wing they get, that improves all the lines…

Yes, there are some assumptions here, but things will look different for sure…

Ripjiggen wrote:

30 percent on the draws and a save percentage of like .800

Can you get Detroit’s PK stats? are they similar to the Wild?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Sorry, but this season proved one thing: Guerin has to go or the PP and PP will NEVER be fixed and the Wild will continue to be first-round playoff fodder forever.

All these special teams coaches that have come and gone are all Guerin’s boys. No more “It wasn’t my guys.” excuses. Another 5-year GM Job Security Program/planning cycle isn’t going to fix anything because the first 5-year plan didn’t change anything.

It’s Deja Vu all over again. The Wild are still an injury-prone team that lacks special teams effectiveness. Either trait is an absolute playoff killer, but both of them together???? First-round exit every time.

The Wild need major changes, not tweaking. Hartman needs to get gone. Jojo obviously will be gone at the end of the season. Walstadt needs to get put on the “Rossi Summer Camp Program” where it’s clear to him he either makes major progress and becomes a real NHL backup or he’s outta here. And, of course, we still have the same need in the top 6 that we’ve had the past 2 seasons.

I mean with the injuries, how is it the Wild’s (GMBG) fault Spurgeon gets slewfooted into the boards, or Ek breaks his foot blocking a shot, same with Brodin? The Soft tissue injury Lauko has had COULD be looked at if the Medical staff/trainers handled it properly, Kirill had a Sports Hernia, how do you stop a hole forming in someone’s internal body?

The special teams issues are legit (powerplay has been good when everyone was healthy) we’ve discussed the PK disaster and that falls mostly on GMBG and Hynes… Next year’s roster will look VASTLY different than previous years (an extra $15 million in capspace will help)

Wallstedt has 2 more years to figure it out contract wise, goalies take longer, Wally needs a year of consistency on/off the ice…

Let’s let this play out….

Freddy is too soft for the PK, Trenin is to slow, Lauko and Marat should be the 1st rotation, then Hinistroza (I think he has a motor as is smart on the ice) and whoever…try anybody, there’s no wrong answers…

tswoboda wrote:

We are probably missing Victor Rask. LOL

Clearly it’s Parise and Suter

bravo gentleman… so the keys are to be overpaid, selfish and willing to give cheap a$$ cross-checks…

Ripjiggen wrote:

Center’s don’t matter. But constantly losing important draws does. Never seen a team who can’t win an important draw ever. How can a good defensively minded team be so pharking awful on the pk for going on what, getting close to well over half a decade now? It just doesn’t get touched at all.

They were tenth in the league in 2022/23 second in 2020/2021.

OMG are you hinting it’s the loss of DARBY

Ripjiggen wrote:

A wrong strategy or philosophy probably doesn’t make you virtually dead last.

When you basically are in BOTH the NHL and AHL, that’s an awfully powerful indicator…or maybe we just somehow have acquired the worst PK players in both leagues…

I just hope one of the MN Sports writers challenges GMBG when he inevitably says they need to be better on the PK at the end of the season presser…I’m a GMBG fan, but he needs to answer to this multiple season failure…

Tom schmitt wrote:

So the theory is the PK issue is one of talent not program?
If that’s the case the Wild have 2nd to last talent in the league.
I don’t believe our talent is that bad. No we don’t have elite talent but we have more talent than quite a few teams that have better PK and PP units.
I believe the issue is coaching and concept.

EVERY NHL player has played a significant amount of time over their total hockey career on special teams (remember these guys were always one of, if not the best players on their teams growing up through youth hockey, high school, junior, college, minors, etc and then when they make the NHL, they are most likely slotted into one or the other (PP & PK) some do both…

What i’m getting at here is that the players know what they need to do on the ice… for PKers, they know they can’t allow cross-ice passes or leave a guy alone in the bumper position, etc… They need to block shots and have quick sticks and outwork the PP guys to pucks, etc

Now there certainly could be an effort problem with the players, and if that’s the case, those players need to be moved out or the head coach isn’t doing his job…The players would also likely police themselves if they noticed somebody slacking on purpose…

I personally think the difference is what strategy/philosophy the coaches want the players to follow (partially based on what type of players they have available to use) but some PK coaches want to run a tight box, others want a diamond with pressure everywhere, there’s many options that have been used over the years. It’s upto to coaches to figure out what works for their team and perfect it or if its not working, figure out ways to improve it or go with a new strategy all together…our coaches have been failing at that for years…

another example of why I think the issue is our PK coaching philosophy/strategy vs players is that the Iowa Wild are dead last in the entire AHL on the Penalty Kill, they run the exact same system/structure as the Wild, so when players get called up, they know what the system is…The players all vary in skillset, body size, experience, etc… but the system they run is the same…

I know i’ve gone a bit back and forth on this (is it the players, is it the system) but i’m now convinced its the system… as others have mentioned, it’s crazy that they keep putting the same pairs of PK guys out night after night…how do you not shake things up a bit, why not try Rossi and Boldy, its obviously NOT working…

Ripjiggen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
GMBG & Hynes have to get a big F again this season for the PK. Its been terrible for years and every season ending presser they keep saying its a priority to fix it and they don’t (it has somehow continued to get worse)

GMBG hires the special team coaches and Hynes is in charge of them teaching the players the strategy… both huge fails… no excuses… Iowa Wild PK is bad too

Have you seen the in depth stats of the PK. Not sure Jesus could fix some of the issues.
30 percent on the draws and a save percentage of like .800

yeah, didn’t they say last game Detroit was on pace for the worst PK in NHL history and the Wild were just behind them? We might have passed them tonight…

Wild aren’t the only team to lose pk draws and its tough for goalies to stop pucks when nobody is covering for backdoor tap ins and rebounds in the crease…

Maybe it was just one of those games, I mean, Brodin was a 1 man turnover machine all game for gods sake! but as Ts mentioned, awful lot of those this season for them to be a fluke…

All we can hope for is this light’s a fire for tonight against the Avs…

I’m not holding my breath….

Sweet back check effort Freddy! This game is over….

as much as I hate to say it because he’s been bad tonight (they all have) but that was a pretty f’ing sweet goal by Freddy…

well at least Calgary lost tonight… Vancouver up 2-0 in the 1st…

GMBG & Hynes have to get a big F again this season for the PK. Its been terrible for years and every season ending presser they keep saying its a priority to fix it and they don’t (it has somehow continued to get worse)

GMBG hires the special team coaches and Hynes is in charge of them teaching the players the strategy… both huge fails… no excuses… Iowa Wild PK is bad too

Freddy loses draw clean, 15 seconds later Utah goal…

This game has been brutal to watch sofar…

gim wrote:

He could have easily aggrevated something during the tournament. The timing is not a coincidence. Of course the trainer or wild communications is going to say that he didn’t.

I can’t blame a guy for wanting to represent his country even if he wasn’t at full strength but the fact that he’s now out for the foreseeable future “could” have also possibly been prevented.

He also could have easily aggravated something skating by himself over the break if he decided not to play 4 Nations, no sense in worrying about injuries, they just happen…

I have a feeling the Wild will be one of the first team’s to strike a big trade, they need to get ahead of teams with more capspace and draft pick assets so they don’t get outbid and forced to dig too deep into their prospect pool to pay.

I think they make a trade sometime this weekend…I think Ohgren, Khusnutdinov, Heidt, Haight, Chisholm, Kumpelainen, Several of the Iowa defenseman and the 2026 2nd round draft pick are all part of GMBG’s currency to spend with… Some combination of those pieces should be enough to get pretty much any deal done, whomever they get will be looked at to re-sign after this season (no rental only players)

Ripjiggen wrote:

I know you are kind of joking but if that was his master plan it was a bad one as I would imagine it would be easy to keep a guy out an extra week or two to keep rehabbing after a surgery of a broken foot.
“Um I turned hard a t practice I had discomfort. “

The trade scenarios people are coming up with on Russo’s mailbag are comical.

GMBG’s Wild Office wall =

Last year’s deadline was more of an afterthought as a vast majority of the trades took place a week beforehand, that’s today… will we see a repeat of deals get done early again this year?

tswoboda wrote:

Is it fair to assume Ek’s injury is what kept him out of the Wild game before 4-nations started? If that’s the case he pushed his return back 2-3 weeks by playing in the tournament instead of sitting like Pietrangelo and Q Hughes. How are Wild fans feeling about that? I love it, guy wanted to play for his country and the team let him.

I don’t mind him playing in the tourney, but he shouldn’t have sat out the final Wild game before it, what did sitting it out do? In hindsight, we won anyways without him, but I don’t get sitting out that game??

Maybe the Ek situation was a master plan by GMBG all along?!? Have surgery after the tourney, rehab is 6-8 weeks, that puts him back at the start of the playoffs and we get $5.25 in LTIR to spend…

This goes against Leopold’s argument that ONLY the Wild can offer Kirill an 8 year extension, the truth in that statement is its if we keep him until the trade deadline NEXT season, that then likely lowers your trade return though as you have a gun to your head at the deadline…sure we could do a sign and trade afterwards, but unless your properly comped for it, that’s kind of a complete give up move imo….

tswoboda wrote:

Maybe that can just be worked around through a sign and trade?

yep