Article: This Was the Team the Wild Wanted To Be

[Tony Abbott]

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[SkolBrother]

I'd like to add that back during the Lemaire era, it was a gritty/defensive team. Low scoring but winning close games 2-1, etc. Fans didn't like it because goal scoring is exciting and defense was boring. Lemaire's comment to that was (paraphrased), "as long as you win, they'll show up to watch.". True to a point imo.

With that said the Wild didn't fare well in the playoffs. 

I wish I knew the answer.

[Dances With Gophers]

Andrew Brunette, your next Wild coach. 

[Pewterschmidt]

Tony. You’ve made it clear that you think Rossi was mishandled. And he shine if given “The right opportunities”

 we’ll agree to disagree on this one.  I’ll trust BG’s assessment of Rossi.  

[Beast]

A lot of good decisions have been made here.  A lot of equally hear scratching decisions.   It’s hard to get a feel for whether this team is being run well right now or not from the GMs perspective.

The Nyquist, Reaves, and Johansson moves were good.  The Sundqvist and Klingberg moves weren’t.

Playing Faber was a good decisions.  At the very least he’s got a playoff series under his belt already.  Relegating Rossi and Addison to the nether realms was not, in my opinion.

One thing I know.  Kaprisov has totally disappeared in two playoff series now.  Boldy also.  These are our centerpieces.  This team has no hope at any point in the future of those guys can’t figure out a way to perform in big games.  Whether it’s injuries or whatever, it doesn’t matter.

Second thing I know.  I’m done with Dean.  The guy might have the worst track record in the playoffs (both NHL and AHL) of any coach in the history of any professional sport.  He needs to be replaced.  I’m tired of talking about good regular seasons.  If we’re always going to get bounced from the playoffs with authority.  I’d rather be in the mix in the lottery to build something beyond mediocrity.

Very disappointing end to the season.  But, very easy to see coming.

[Will D. Ness]

I definitely feel the sentiment of this article.   This team fell flat.  It was the opposite of grit.

Let's face it though, we lost our grit when we lost Shaw and Ek.  We lost our grit when the ref's deliberately neutered Foligno and squarely put their thumb on the scale with inexcusably bad calls in game 4 and 5.  We lost grit after we benched an abrasively awesome effort from Gus in game 1.

Lots of bad things and bad handicaps come into play, but to call this team gritty is almost hilariously hypocritical.  We lost to a soft team with a good goaltender.

No grit.  100% fluffy marketing.  

[IllicitFive]

29 minutes ago, Beast said:

A lot of good decisions have been made here.  A lot of equally hear scratching decisions.   It’s hard to get a feel for whether this team is being run well right now or not from the GMs perspective.

The Nyquist, Reaves, and Johansson moves were good.  The Sundqvist and Klingberg moves weren’t.

Playing Faber was a good decisions.  At the very least he’s got a playoff series under his belt already.  Relegating Rossi and Addison to the nether realms was not, in my opinion.

One thing I know.  Kaprisov has totally disappeared in two playoff series now.  Boldy also.  These are our centerpieces.  This team has no hope at any point in the future of those guys can’t figure out a way to perform in big games.  Whether it’s injuries or whatever, it doesn’t matter.

Second thing I know.  I’m done with Dean.  The guy might have the worst track record in the playoffs (both NHL and AHL) of any coach in the history of any professional sport.  He needs to be replaced.  I’m tired of talking about good regular seasons.  If we’re always going to get bounced from the playoffs with authority.  I’d rather be in the mix in the lottery to build something beyond mediocrity.

Very disappointing end to the season.  But, very easy to see coming.

Who are you wanting for a head coach? Have someone in mind or just want a change? What if they then miss playoffs or squeak in for 7 or 8 seed? Would you be happy with it as long as there is a change?  We all know its going to be rough until the dead cap disappears. I feel this was the last time to push, now let the young guns get their shot and learn how to play with the big club before we have cap space for FA.

What two years has Kap disappeared? 20-21 - 7 GP 2 goals 1 assist, - 3. Chalk that up to learning how to play in playoffs. 21-22 - 6 GP 7 goals 1 assist. This year yes, disappeared 1 goal in 6 games but maybe still playing hurt? Hard to know. Boldy again, 0 points but was coming in as a star and was treated as such. Maybe learning how to play with that added pressure?  They are still young and relatively new to post season play. Also who do they have around as support? Losing Ek coincides with Boldy disappearing too.

It's easy to point fingers but who here truly knows the whole story? I for one do not.  As far as lottery goes, only 1 team gets that top pick, and even getting the top picks doesn't equal a cup, ask the oilers, maple leafs, rangers. They seem to have won a ton of cups lately with their high draft picks.

 

[mnfaninnc]

Wow, where to start. Tony and I will have very different takes but are equally frustrated. So, I'll go chronologically with the article:

Quote

The Wild’s transformation goes back to its original sin: Refusing to treat Kevin Fiala as a core part of their team. Yes, Fiala has a contract that carries a massive $7.9 million cap hit, one the Wild surely couldn’t fit under their cap because he came off a career year last summer.

The Fiala decision didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Fiala was an absolute gift that Bill Guerin inherited from his predecessor Paul Fenton. A true star talent that cost the team nothing more than a slightly used Mikael Granlund. His contract was ready to be renewed two summers ago, before his 33-goal, 85-point breakout season. 

But Minnesota didn’t do anything with him except force him into a one-year arbitration deal, offering him no long-term security. Why? 

I wish we could have kept Fiala. I wish we would have moved the 3 other pieces necessary to do it.  Fiala wasn't a placeholder.  However, as we've seen with McBain, and 2 guys traded away at the deadline this year, it is very possible that Fiala did not want to stay.  This never gets addressed by Tony. It takes 2 to get the contract done and I think it is very possible and even plausible that Fiala wanted to go to a warm weather team, told Guerin this and Guerin moved him. This may even have been why Fiala never went the offersheet route, giving the Wild the opportunity to match.

Since Guerin does his negotiations in the cone of silence, and expects all agents to keep things confidential (see Talbot's agent), we will never know exactly what was said and what the circumstances were. Fiala's girlfriend/wife is a model, and it would be best if she were in a model friendly environment like Miami, LA or maybe even Tampa.  It makes sense for them to finally be in a place where they could live together from a career perspective.  

Quote

Even when Eriksson Ek's injury occurred, the team told Rossi not to drive up from Iowa to get a look. Instead, they had him fly out to Chicago, watch an AHL game from the press box, and meet up with Minnesota two days later. Rossi got 20 minutes of checking-line duty over the next two games, with Evason refusing to see what he could do in a playoff lineup.

Now, would Rossi have done better than the triumvirate of Ryan Hartman, Freddy Gaudreau, or Sam Steel? We can never know, of course. But we do know what didn't work. Last season, the Wild centers (with Eriksson Ek swapped out for Steel) produced four goals and 11 points in a six-game series loss. This season? Six goals and ten points in a six-game series loss.

This is where we will agree the most. Arguably Vegas, definitely St. Louis and Dallas were stronger down the middle than the Wild. This is where we have lost the play in and last 3 playoff series.  We have enough to get through the regular season, but not enough to play against the top 10 teams in the league.  Specifically draws and the middle is where a "grit" team has to win, and we couldn't do it. This is a big fail. Rossi was supposed to help here, he was no help the whole season.

I am very certain that the Wild front office watched Iowa tape often on how the prospects were progressing. I only had access to the highlights, but from watching those, I saw the exact same things that Rossi did up here down there.  Rossi was gliding, not hustling, standing around a lot, not physical, trying to pick pucks out of piles while not getting involved and lacking a compete level. He was not close to being ready for an NHL roster. I saw a glimmer of hope in his final game up here and the final playoff game for Iowa, enough to think that he will be a different player next season. I don't know if he'll ever be physical, but that speed and agility was there that we could see in his jrs. highlight videos.

Quote

We've talked at length in this space about how Addison was the sixth-best power play quarterback in the NHL this year. But it bears highlighting again now that the season has wrapped up. Guerin and Evason basically phased Addison out of the lineup to bring in a player who was an older, declining version of Addison.

Our power play did not lose this series, our penalty kill did. Addison did well QBing the power play, but, this was the only thing he did well. Klingberg was not a defensive stalwart, and was directly responsible for Hintz's goal in the final game.  However, he was far more willing to use his body, leverage it against opponents, not get completely run over and get back into the play far faster than Addison can. Addison is not built for playoff hockey, and questionably built for regular season hockey. He is now fully in the Ryan Murphy category of defensemen.  

Addison doesn't even try to sell you on the fact that he's willing to try to play defense. He constantly gets clobbered behind the play and needs a moment or 2 to collect his wits.  I am fully convinced that Addison on the power play would have made 0 difference in this series.  Eriksson Ek missing from the power play is what sank this unit and likely the penalty kill.  I know Guerin had high hopes for Addison being Letang 2.0, but unless Addison comes to his RFA meeting looking visibly filled out, it is time to trade him. Some will see his points and PP tape and bite. 

In conclusion, we have a lot of centers on this team, but, really, they are truly wingers. We have an overabundance of wingers. Our talent pool has an overabundance of wingers. How do we find true centers with our cap situation? UFA is likely not an option. Somehow, Vegas found some centers in their expansion draft.  They identified some players that could thrive if given an opportunity. Their centers weren't paid like top 6 centers either.  Seattle chose to draft them. We've got to figure out a way to fill that void. Maybe, just maybe, Rossi is ready? We won't know until training camp. I'd be willing to deal him, though, if it meant getting a true top 6 center. 

[mnfaninnc]

22 minutes ago, IllicitFive said:

Who are you wanting for a head coach? Have someone in mind or just want a change? What if they then miss playoffs or squeak in for 7 or 8 seed? Would you be happy with it as long as there is a change?  We all know its going to be rough until the dead cap disappears. I feel this was the last time to push, now let the young guns get their shot and learn how to play with the big club before we have cap space for FA.

Replacing Evason is a 2-step process. I would have to disagree with moving on from Evason at this point. I know his playoff record is really frustrating, but he still is a starter coach, and we're going to have a lot of starter players over the next couple of seasons.  Do we want to hire another starter coach? We're simply not yet ready for a trophy coach.

I do wish we'd get more deference to some of the younger guys and not the vets. Evason needs to go back to what he was doing in his 1st year, trusting the new guys.

[mnfaninnc]

CHL Update-Winnipeg won it's opening game, Lambos scores.

So, moving forward, we should be fans of the Panthers, Kraken, Lightening in the opening series. We will draft somewhere in the 18-22 slot.

There are several centers, North American players who are ranked in this area. I haven't seen any film on anyone, and they are likely, at least, 3 years away.  Calum Ritchie had interesting measurables and results. Nate Danielson also does. Both are right handed. 

Do we try and move up? Do we trade to get the C we need? Are there any Cs playing underneath their positions right now?

[Tony Abbott]

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Tony. You’ve made it clear that you think Rossi was mishandled. And he shine if given “The right opportunities”

 we’ll agree to disagree on this one.  I’ll trust BG’s assessment of Rossi.  

Which one? The one where he thought it was fine to pick him two years ago, or the one where he said "I don't trust him" two years later?

[bean5302]

I'm not going to fault Evason for this one. The impact of the devastating buyout penalties is real, and expectations this season were fairly limited. I bought my season ticket package the day before my first game and there were plenty of sections and seats available, for instance. In any case, I think the buyouts do more than just restrict the signings, the buyouts do have an effect on general strategy in how the team is going to be designed to play. GMBG needs to find a way to construct a roster which can be competitive and that means being flexible and finding efficiency in the market. 

I'm sure everybody here has noticed the Wild being a streaky team during the season, and while there were times when it really looked like they were firing on all cylinders, there were many times when it looked like the lines had never played together before and had no idea what their team mates were going to do. I definitely saw a lot of poor anticipation, pucks tossed towards areas where nobody was home, etc. Ultimately, I felt like there was a break down in fundamental play as frustration mounted in this playoff series. Intensity gave way to desperation and I will remain convinced the dump n' chase (at least through game 5, couldn't watch game 6) was a big part of the Wild's issues.

I suppose Evason could be blamed for the fundamental issues, but it's taken benching guys to get them to listen, and benching players in the playoffs is a tough call.

[Cole_Train]

May we all agree that the Wild PR team needs to stop making embarrassing playoff slogans? Slogans that end up making us look silly. It’s like the team ends up doing the complete opposite of whatever the phrase is. Maybe if the team even makes the playoffs next year it should be, “ah, we’ll see what happens.”

Edited April 29, 2023 by Cole_Train

[bean5302]

49 minutes ago, Cole_Train said:

May we all agree that the Wild PR team needs to stop making embarrassing playoff slogans? Slogans that end up making us look silly. It’s like the team ends up doing the complete opposite of whatever the phrase is. Maybe if the team even makes the playoffs next year it should be, “ah, we’ll see what happens.”

I can understand the sentiment, but the PR team needs to get the fans hyped up. It only looks embarrassing when the Wild get beat.

As far as changes, I'd rather them focus some energy on getting the crowd into it before a puck drop than after a whistle during a commercial break. What am I cheering for? There aren't any players on the ice to be motivated by the crowd right now, lol.

[bean5302]

Side note... how did that woman in the photo get the bag into the game??? haha

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Tony Abbott said:

Which one? The one where he thought it was fine to pick him two years ago, or the one where he said "I don't trust him" two years later?

As I remember it Brackett was hired before this draft and BG was giddy to have him and gave him free rein to draft as he saw fit.  The pick is bracketts imo. 
 

BG not trusting Rossi 2 years later is based on two years of watching Rossi play in the wild org.  I trust BG’s opinion (and agree with him not trusting Rossi) 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Quote

That sounds like a team that really could’ve stood to lock up Fiala, who finished behind only future Hall of Famer Anze Kopitar on the Los Angeles Kings with 72 points. 

Fiala would definitely help the Wild scoring, but the Kings are about to get bounced by Edmonton too.

Other players wouldn't be on the Wild if Fiala was, so hard to say the result would be better when it wasn't last year for the Wild and likely will not be this year for the Kings.

I mean, I wanted the Wild to keep Fiala for his scoring, but Faber looks like he's going to be very good, and that trade allowed the Wild to get both Ohgren and Yurov last draft rather than coming away with only 1 of them.

Guerin is building this team for 25-26. Being competitive between now and then is more interesting, but the Wild aren't likely to be a real contender until they regain over $13M in cap space and can truly have the talent and depth necessary for a deep playoff run.

Parise and Suter are likely going to be among the top 4 cap hits for the Wild each of the next 2 seasons, so every team the Wild face can essentially have 2 more Matt Boldy's than the Wild can afford. They are in a bad spot to compete with the best.

Guerin is not going to make short-term deals to win now. He added players at this trade deadline to improve the depth, but still came away with a better draft pick than what he gave up. I didn't agree with the Suter buy out, but once it was completed, it's hard to argue with the long-term approach that Guerin has been using.

Rossi and Addison simply are not ready to play a complete NHL game. It's on them to improve their strength and playing ability. I believe Rossi will do that. Addison might learn, but he wasn't learning it from being gifted ice time and not working harder for it.

[Pewterschmidt]

4 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

I do wish we'd get more deference to some of the younger guys and not the vets.

I think next year Wild have no choice but to give the prospects a healthy tryout: Beckman, Rossi, Walker, etc.  dewar will move up

[Pewterschmidt]

4 hours ago, Cole_Train said:

May we all agree that the Wild PR team needs to stop making embarrassing playoff slogans? Slogans that end up making us look silly. It’s like the team ends up doing the complete opposite of whatever the phrase is. Maybe if the team even makes the playoffs next year it should be, “ah, we’ll see what happens.”

The Grit theme never made sense to me.  Yes marketing has to do marketing things.  But beyond Hartman and SHAWZY, I’ve never associated this group with grit.  

[mnfaninnc]

4 hours ago, Cole_Train said:

May we all agree that the Wild PR team needs to stop making embarrassing playoff slogans? Slogans that end up making us look silly. It’s like the team ends up doing the complete opposite of whatever the phrase is. Maybe if the team even makes the playoffs next year it should be, “ah, we’ll see what happens.”

Perhaps using this logic our next year's slogan should be "Playoffs, where we get shut out." Maybe that will produce some goals?

[Pewterschmidt]

3 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Guerin is building this team for 25-26. Being competitive between now and then is more interesting, but the Wild aren't likely to be a real contender

The last two seasons have been worst case scenario from a restock the cupboards standpoint.   Finishing high in regular season standings ensuring a late first round pick, then getting rolled in a disappointing (especially for fans) round one performance

[Pewterschmidt]

3 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Perhaps using this logic our next year's slogan should be "Playoffs, where we get shut out." Maybe that will produce some goals?

Wild playoff fever: where ticket prices and fan disappointment rise exponentially.  Catch it!

[mnfaninnc]

5 hours ago, bean5302 said:

I bought my season ticket package the day before my first game and there were plenty of sections and seats available, for instance.

Bean, many of us are out of towners who might see a game if the Wild come as visitors. Guys like you have a different perspective, and you can see stuff that the cameras don't cover. 

What are some of the things you noticed that the tv watchers wouldn't see?

[Mateo3xm]

8 hours ago, Beast said:

One thing I know.  Kaprisov has totally disappeared in two playoff series now.  Boldy also.  These are our centerpieces.  This team has no hope at any point in the future of those guys can’t figure out a way to perform in big games.  Whether it’s injuries or whatever, it doesn’t matter.

Although I agree with some of what you said, I vehemently disagree with your assessment of Kaprizov. If the guys hurt what is he suppose to do? Why don’t you reserve your opinion until it comes out if he had an injury or not?

after watching him it seemed pretty obvious.

It’s so easy for you to say that doesn’t matter where you’re sitting.

even if he was performing there were way too many things out of his control. It’s a team sport, this team isn’t going to ride Kaprizov and Boldy into the Stanley cup finals.

[Mateo3xm]

8 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

. I only had access to the highlights, but from watching those, I saw the exact same things that Rossi did up here down there. 

How can you possibly form a reasonable opinion by watching highlights?

that’s seriously what you’re going off of?

that pretty much makes your opinion irrelevant. It’s actually laughable.

you don’t take into consideration how other teammates such as walker talk about him or even take into consideration how he was producing point wise in Iowa.

that’s pretty much all I need to hear about the soundness of your opinion on Rossi.