Article: The Wild Never Address Their Core Issues

[Luke Sims]

View full article

[Jon]

Call Kaprizov the Avatar the way he disappeared when the Wild Nation needed him most.

Lmao

[Protec]

Wild could've got Oettinger if Fletcher hadn't traded the 2017 1st. Then the Wild wouldn't have needed to select Wallstedt and could've got Dallas center Wyatt Johnston.

Instead the Wild still have inadequate center depth, and haven't had the assets or money to bring one in. The draft hasn't been terrible for the Wild but hasn't produced an NHL forward other than Boldy in the last 6 years.

When other teams are getting players into their systems who succeed at the NHL level while Minnesota doesn't it is pretty annoying. At least we got a shitload of Elite Swedes and get to go to Sweden for international exhibitions.

Toronto won so the Wild now reign as the current biggest first round chokers.

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

We had good goaltending in Gus Bus, just nothing in front of it. His stats prove he was anything but undewhelming in this series even while done no favors by our defense. 

 

I think the story of this season will be our refusal to develop guys in house. We can't expect every player to be a Boldy and burst into the NHL with a boatload of point. We need to have a little patience and faith in our young guys or they will never develop. We are not doing ourselves any good by repeatedly picking up a small busload of discount veterans, stuffing our young guys in obscurity on the third and forth line or down in the AHL, they expecting them to instantly produce the moment they get an opportunity. This season and next season we should be told we are going to focus on our young guns and have a workable team when the cap restraints fall off. I would rather have an off year than be stuck in the constant cycle of mediocracy. BG has been excellent in keeping this team competitve but we don't want to be just competitive, we want a cup. We will never get there refusing to develop our draft picks.

[hockey_fan_87]

18 hours ago, Protec said:

Wild could've got Oettinger if Fletcher hadn't traded the 2017 1st. Then the Wild wouldn't have needed to select Wallstedt and could've got Dallas center Wyatt Johnston.

Instead the Wild still have inadequate center depth, and haven't had the assets or money to bring one in. The draft hasn't been terrible for the Wild but hasn't produced an NHL forward other than Boldy in the last 6 years.

When other teams are getting players into their systems who succeed at the NHL level while Minnesota doesn't it is pretty annoying. At least we got a shitload of Elite Swedes and get to go to Sweden for international exhibitions.

Toronto won so the Wild now reign as the current biggest first round chokers.

Well, you can amend that chocker statement, as the Bruins are the biggest chocker and the Avalanche are the second biggest, moving the Wild to a solid third biggest chocker...

[Pewterschmidt]

18 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

This season and next season we should be told we are going to focus on our young guns

I think this is unavoidable at this point.  Cap hell dictates this result.  We’re going to find out what we have in: Rossi, Beckman, Walker, and the rest of the inexpensive spare parts in the bargain bin.  It will be nice to see what we have and then begin claiming Kuze, Yurov and Ohgren are our next saviors when they finally get up to the nhl

Edited May 1, 2023 by Pewterschmidt

[vonlonster67]

Player this, player that...we need a bonafide coach and Deano is NOT that.....OUR FOCUS needs to be finding the WHO can be that coach. With the talent base we have coming, NOW is the time to act. Billy G made the first step in Iowa, I have to believe Evanson is next or we just go back to repeat cycle again with the playoffs and the future development of our up and coming. I like his grit, but his constant whining about calls and bring the focus of that to our team is not helping. "DEFLECTION" is the word your looking for and I say just go play the game, make smart adjustments not wing and a prayer moves in Game 5.

[mnfaninnc]

23 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

I think the story of this season will be our refusal to develop guys in house. We can't expect every player to be a Boldy and burst into the NHL with a boatload of point. We need to have a little patience and faith in our young guys or they will never develop. We are not doing ourselves any good by repeatedly picking up a small busload of discount veterans, stuffing our young guys in obscurity on the third and forth line or down in the AHL, they expecting them to instantly produce the moment they get an opportunity.

There are 2 schools of thought here-

1. Let the kids get experience in the N and get better at that level.
2. Let the kids marinate in the A, get better and be prepared for success in the N.

I believe the 1st shoe dropped with Army & Co. not having their contracts renewed. This is a results oriented league and having limited guys promoted may have been the reason, or was it? 

Duhaime, Dewar, and Shaw made it, Boldy was just there temporarily. But with Shawzy and the Dueys, it shows you how long it takes to actually develop guys. These guys are still Fletcher and Fenton's guys! Billy's guys aren't here yet. And, it appears that Shooter is squarely in school 2 of how to develop guys. 

Shooter also answers to OCL, something we all have to accept and acknowledge. OCL is very interested in his team making the playoffs every year. I don't know if the extra 3 games of revenue put him over the top? Maybe he just believes that if you don't make the dance, you can't win the cup! Also, if the team was out of it by February, would the fans still show up?

This is a reality when putting together an NHL team. Shooter has protected his prospects and put together a roster of, well, misfits from the island of misfit toys! They are merely placeholders who get to have an opportunity. Some thrive with it, some are good enough to hold it. 

Now Shooter's got to go look in the mirror.  In case he forgot, perhaps putting up sticky notes on that mirror to show the depth of C in the organization should be a constant reminder? For 4 straight postseason adventures, we have been beat because we lack center depth, and in the 1st one, it was obvious to Guerin that Staal and Koivu were to old and slow. 

Shooter's got no money, but opportunity for an shiny C to want to reclaim stardom. Are there any takers out there in a similar situation to where Staal was after the Carolina experience? Hartsy and Freddy are nice pieces, and I think Freddy's proven his value, but they ARE NOT CENTERS!!!!

Maybe we should just move Ek up to the top line and say this is your C? Maybe we line up Rossi at 2nd C and tell him to learn on the fly? Maybe he's ready next year? What we did learn is when it comes to playoff time, Hartman is not a #1C. Freddy is not a #2C. Steel isn't either. I thought Dewar played better than a #4C. 

We've got a lot of guys who can play C for awhile, but they just aren't true Cs. It appears we don't have many of those in the entire organization. At this point, I would have to say that the positionless hockey experiment has failed. So, now what?

We have the top prospect pool in the league. What does that mean? It could mean that you take some of that depth at other positions and convert them to true Cs that may still be developing in other organizations.  It also could mean that some Cs are yet to come, like Petrovsky and Haight and maybe Bankier? 

Shooter replenished the D corps in spades. Having a bunch of them knocking on the door would be nice.  I think an veteran NHL defender from yesteryear who likes coaching should definitely be an assistant in Iowa. I'd even be willing to have Goligoski retire and move into that spot with the same salary. (or maybe 2 years at $1m/). 

I don't think it's the right thing to do to fire Evason. He's been really good in the regular season, really top 5 in coaching. For 3 years, his guys have overachieved.  Evason earned his contract extension. I don't see how he gets another one with this playoff record, but we're not ready yet to change coaches.  I would get rid of Darby and Woods, though, and bring in different voices. Bruno would be a great get if we can get him.  I'd absolutely love to see what Phil Housley could do. A quick check of Wikapedia says he's available.

We can make trades now, if we want to. We can make them with anyone, but the players can't play any games now. So, they'd be minor league/prospect deals, unless the team was already knocked out. 

I think we've got to also do some real evaluation of players and it will hurt. After Kaprizov got hurt, Zuccarello looked like he hit the wall (actually the Pominville wall). As a #1 defender, but paid like a 2nd pairing one, Spurgeon, the captain, once again had an uninspiring playoff series. He battled hard, and probably to the best of his ability, but it just wasn't enough. He'd be hard to trade but still has a lot of tread left on the tires. Addison is a player a lot of people love around here and he's cheap. But, does anyone think he can be a top 4 defender? I do not. I think Rossi gets one more season. If there's not stark improvement and physical growth, he may be in the "change of scenery" area. Foligno has 1 year left on his deal. Do we try to move him to a playoff team? 

 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

8 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

There are 2 schools of thought here-

1. Shooter also answers to OCL, something we all have to accept and acknowledge. OCL is very interested in his team making the playoffs every year. I don't know if the extra 3 games of revenue put him over the top? Maybe he just believes that if you don't make the dance, you can't win the cup! Also, if the team was out of it by February, would the fans still show up?

This is a reality when putting together an NHL team. Shooter has protected his prospects and put together a roster of, well, misfits from the island of misfit toys! They are merely placeholders who get to have an opportunity. Some thrive with it, some are good enough to hold it. 

Now Shooter's got to go look in the mirror.  In case he forgot, perhaps putting up sticky notes on that mirror to show the depth of C in the organization should be a constant reminder? For 4 straight postseason adventures, we have been beat because we lack center depth, and in the 1st one, it was obvious to Guerin that Staal and Koivu were to old and slow. 

Shooter's got no money, but opportunity for an shiny C to want to reclaim stardom. Are there any takers out there in a similar situation to where Staal was after the Carolina experience? Hartsy and Freddy are nice pieces, and I think Freddy's proven his value, but they ARE NOT CENTERS!!!!

Maybe we should just move Ek up to the top line and say this is your C? Maybe we line up Rossi at 2nd C and tell him to learn on the fly? Maybe he's ready next year? What we did learn is when it comes to playoff time, Hartman is not a #1C. Freddy is not a #2C. Steel isn't either. I thought Dewar played better than a #4C. 

We've got a lot of guys who can play C for awhile, but they just aren't true Cs. It appears we don't have many of those in the entire organization. At this point, I would have to say that the positionless hockey experiment has failed. So, now what?

We have the top prospect pool in the league. What does that mean? It could mean that you take some of that depth at other positions and convert them to true Cs that may still be developing in other organizations.  It also could mean that some Cs are yet to come, like Petrovsky and Haight and maybe Bankier? 

Shooter replenished the D corps in spades. Having a bunch of them knocking on the door would be nice.  I think an veteran NHL defender from yesteryear who likes coaching should definitely be an assistant in Iowa. I'd even be willing to have Goligoski retire and move into that spot with the same salary. (or maybe 2 years at $1m/). 

I don't think it's the right thing to do to fire Evason. He's been really good in the regular season, really top 5 in coaching. For 3 years, his guys have overachieved.  Evason earned his contract extension. I don't see how he gets another one with this playoff record, but we're not ready yet to change coaches.  I would get rid of Darby and Woods, though, and bring in different voices. Bruno would be a great get if we can get him.  I'd absolutely love to see what Phil Housley could do. A quick check of Wikapedia says he's available.

We can make trades now, if we want to. We can make them with anyone, but the players can't play any games now. So, they'd be minor league/prospect deals, unless the team was already knocked out. 

I think we've got to also do some real evaluation of players and it will hurt. After Kaprizov got hurt, Zuccarello looked like he hit the wall (actually the Pominville wall). As a #1 defender, but paid like a 2nd pairing one, Spurgeon, the captain, once again had an uninspiring playoff series. He battled hard, and probably to the best of his ability, but it just wasn't enough. He'd be hard to trade but still has a lot of tread left on the tires. Addison is a player a lot of people love around here and he's cheap. But, does anyone think he can be a top 4 defender? I do not. I think Rossi gets one more season. If there's not stark improvement and physical growth, he may be in the "change of scenery" area. Foligno has 1 year left on his deal. Do we try to move him to a playoff team? 

 

I guess my hesitation with Deano comes from the lack of development in more skilled player. He has grown a small crop of 3rd and 4th line forwards that are all grinders. We know this is Dean's mentality. I agree that he has done well to get the regular seasons he has out of this team. We've overachieved every year. My question comes down to the development of skill players. We can backfill the 3rd and 4th lines with bargin bin grinders andthey will hold up. How do we attract and develop skilled players when it seems like Dean likes to pick on them for lack of a better phrase. You can't take a skill and speed player, chuck them on your 4th grinder line, give them 8 mins a game and expect them to produce points.

We have watched our previously fourth liners flourish under other teams; Bjudstad is doing very well in Edmonton, Sturm's points have gone up in San Jose as have Rem's in MTL. Even Parie and Fiala are scoring at a quicker pace on their new respective teams.

The point i was trying to make above is our system is not conducive to offence creation. Add that in to Dean's tendancy to sprinkle grit in the scoring lines and it doesn't make for a great enviroment to make scoring players. We've seen Boldy flourish everytime he gets a skilled player on his line but still chose to stick Gaudreau in the C spot for the majority of the year. Fiala had similar issues last year of getting stuck with lackluster linemates. Yet, we refuse to break up Zuc and Kap to put our best players on the first line because of our fear that we may upset Kap. Then we wonder why we can't get anything going on the powerplay when Kap hasn't developed that chemistry with other players.

I am okay with struggling through the next couple years, but I would hope we come out of those years with some well developed prosepcts that can add to the skill end of the game rather than more bruisers that don't create offense.

[MNCountryLife]

Until we fix the finer details of the PK we will never be successful.  Know when to be aggressive... when not.  Know the weak spots of your PK.  Know the best way possible to block passing lanes.  Know when to retract back to the goalie.  It is not just a positional thing.  Doesn't matter who the players are.... it is in the finer details of the game within a game.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

If anyone is still hung up on who started game 2 for the Wild, the Rangers proved that taking a 2-0 lead on the road is not an insurmountable advantage when you are facing a strong opponent. I believe the Wild would have lost that game regardless of goalie, but I'd certainly concede that Fleury allowed more goals than Gustavsson likely would have.

Shesterkin is a great goalie, winning the Vezina the prior year, and posting a .931 save percentage in his first round series. Shesterkin allowed just 14 goals in 7 games.

The Rangers accumulated more regular season points than the Wild, so taking a 2-0 advantage back home with a strong goalie seemed like a pretty safe bet for them to advance. Instead, they lost the next 3 games to the Devils, picked up another win at home in the game 6, but fell in 7 games.

The Rangers weren't missing their top center either. Eriksson Ek does play on the 2nd line, but playing both as the top PP center and top PK center, he plays the most minutes among Wild centers. Kind of impressive the Wild were able to get ahead 2-1 in their series considering the drop off from Eriksson Ek to the next man up.

[mnfaninnc]

8 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

The point i was trying to make above is our system is not conducive to offence creation. Add that in to Dean's tendancy to sprinkle grit in the scoring lines and it doesn't make for a great enviroment to make scoring players. We've seen Boldy flourish everytime he gets a skilled player on his line but still chose to stick Gaudreau in the C spot for the majority of the year. Fiala had similar issues last year of getting stuck with lackluster linemates. Yet, we refuse to break up Zuc and Kap to put our best players on the first line because of our fear that we may upset Kap. Then we wonder why we can't get anything going on the powerplay when Kap hasn't developed that chemistry with other players.

I am okay with struggling through the next couple years, but I would hope we come out of those years with some well developed prosepcts that can add to the skill end of the game rather than more bruisers that don't create offense.

I don't think that Kaprizov hasn't got chemistry with Boldy since both play on the PP together. And, if Zuccarello was attached to Kaprizov so that we wouldn't anger Kaprizov, then the coach making that decision needs to be shown the door immediately, because that's not how this works. That would be painting Kaprizov into a Suter. 

I also believe that both Boldy and Kaprizov have grown their "skills." Hartman grew his last season, and showed some this season, though, I believe he was scratched and dented pretty much all season. Gaudreau showed off some good skill too.  

So, who are you referring to? Dewar? I think the main problem is at the NHL level, the team in general lacks the necessary skill for it.  Going with school of thought #2, it is Guerin's opinion that these guys should be developing the skill and pace of play in the A. He does not believe in the "throw them into the deep end" mentality. 

In regards to Rossi, I don't believe development of skill has been the problem. He's got plenty of skill. It's a more basic thing that he needed to develop: Compete Level. I really do believe we have underestimated how much muscle and conditioning he lost in the year he had to take off. His play this year with the big club was a shell of himself from how he used to play. He's very young, and I can only conclude from that that he is scared to step on the gas and go full. This is not a coaching problem, it's probably been pointed out often.  This is a healing of the mind problem getting him to trust his heart again.

We've got some other skill guys coming, but they are not ready for the NHL challenge yet. I'm hoping for a DeChambeau summer for Beckman, where he transforms into a beast. He's got great hands, decent height, but needs mass to take hits and not get knocked around. Yurov and Khus^&*( have skill. But, they're not here yet.