Article: Can Marcus Johansson Break the Cycle Of Bad 30-Something Signings?

[Tony Abbott]

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[Will D. Ness]

I wouldn't conflate Freddy and Mojo with Goligoski and Merrill.  Actually, Merrill at 1M isn't bad for an insurance policy.

Goligoski is turning into a facepalm but I don't see a trend here.  We have to use band aids for another 2 years and all things considered I think Freddy and Mojo allow us to give Boldy his due this season and potentially Gus in the offseason.

Opportunity cost should also be part of the equation with Mojo.  Are we missing something because of it?  

[mnfaninnc]

I like the deal, but don't like the possibility of an NMC with it. Tony, where did you get that, just checked capfriendly and they don't have any restrictions on him?

$2m for a guy with speed who can enter the zone. I think that's more than fair. He's another placeholder until someone is ready. I don't think he takes a place for Beckman, Walker, or Rossi. But, he's also insurance in case one of those guys isn't ready.

[Tony Abbott]

3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

I like the deal, but don't like the possibility of an NMC with it. Tony, where did you get that, just checked capfriendly and they don't have any restrictions on him?

No Trade, they could send him to the AHL. It's on his CapFriendly page. The team pages are still showing this year's contracts. 

[Protec]

It’s not like it’s long term. Besides Parise & Suter aren’t Ennis and Vanek the other recent buyouts? I don’t think it will be possible for Johansson to fizzle out that completely going full Rask or Hanzal. 
 

Man I just wish the Wild would hit on draft picks like other teams do. 
 

Just think about the unassisted Jarvis goal early against NJ the other night. That is an amazing example of playoffs momentum generation. Just awesome and Carolina goes on to win 5-1. I believe that was the 2nd Carolina goal giving them the lead. That doesn’t inspire the team when the youngest guy does that for your group???

The Wild need to get something from a draft that shows up. I don’t give two cruds what a bunch of writers say about prospect pools and their pretentious rankings. When is MN gonna have another player from the draft who helps somehow? That is where the cheap talent is supposed to originate. Since 2015 only two 1st rounders are with the Wild, Ek & Boldy. You better have the best prospect pool someday just to get out of the minus category...

[Imyourhuckleberry]

I'd definitely like it better at $1.5M per season, but there did seem to be some chemistry with Boldy, and Eriksson Ek between them can work. I believe those two need a strong defensive center.

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Protec said:

Since 2015 only two 1st rounders are with the Wild, Ek & Boldy.

It cannot be overstated how chronically bad Fletcher is at GM’ing.  He kneecaps an organization for a decade

[Will D. Ness]

If we wanted to rank the worst moves of BG era, Fleury has to take the cake.  If I remember right, trade deadline move where we potentially gave up a 1st and ultimately gave up a 2nd rd pick?

Both post-seasons, Fleury was inexcusably played in front of a better goalie based off of fluffy reasoning.

I think the narrative here isn't BG signing old dudes, but rather BG having a Pittsburgh fetish.

 

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, Protec said:

The Wild need to get something from a draft that shows up. I don’t give two cruds what a bunch of writers say about prospect pools and their pretentious rankings. When is MN gonna have another player from the draft who helps somehow? That is where the cheap talent is supposed to originate. Since 2015 only two 1st rounders are with the Wild, Ek & Boldy. You better have the best prospect pool someday just to get out of the minus category...

Which camp are you in then? Marinate them or toss them into the deep end? It's clear Rossi simply wasn't ready yet, and it is possible he never will be anymore. However, The Wall just finished his 1st season in Iowa, O'Rourke, Hunt, Khus$%^&* are all in lower leagues and not ready yet. Lambos is just leaving jr. Ohgren is still in Sweden. Yurov is in the K one more year. 

Looking through the years:

1. 2016 was Kunin who was a wasted pick. But, I advocated for Bellows who has shown less. We could have had Chycrun or Tage Thompson.
2. 2017 was traded in the disastrous Hanzal deal. Jason Robertson was a 2nd rounder this year, but for those drafted around our spot, it's not been a good draft.
3. 2018 was Filip Johansson. No explanation needed.
4. 2019 was Boldy, a good pick. Beckman and Firstov also came from this draft, and the jury is still out on them. I think Beckman likely makes the team next season.
5. That brings us to 2020. We know about Rossi. Khus is doing well. O'Rourke kind of baffles me, he was supposed to be this really nasty defender, yet, he's still listed at only 179. Is he sandbagging his weight? Hunt is over 200 lbs. now and by the numbers they look pretty much like the same player. I'm not sure what their TOI was, but they finished this season in Iowa with 18 and 14 PIMs. To me, that doesn't read like a nasty game. We've also got Paval Novak from this draft which, who knows what we'll get out of him. It's also a bit interesting, bad luck, that 2 of these draftees had life threatening illnesses.

Of course, Guerin's guys just aren't here yet, but missing on Kunin, Hanzal and Johansson in 3 straight drafts was very handcuffing when going through 2 monster buyouts.

[mnfaninnc]

31 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

If we wanted to rank the worst moves of BG era, Fleury has to take the cake.  If I remember right, trade deadline move where we potentially gave up a 1st and ultimately gave up a 2nd rd pick?

Both post-seasons, Fleury was inexcusably played in front of a better goalie based off of fluffy reasoning.

I don't think you can claim this year that Fleury was played in front of a better goalie. Yes, Talbot got hosed, but who thought Goose2 was going to be a monster when we traded for him? I'd say Fleury got the majority of the starts, especially early on while Goose2 got acclimated to our system and fixed some things in his game that the goalie coach pointed out. Once that happened, Goose2 was elevated to at least 1b while capturing 1a down the stretch.  

I was a big supporter of the Gustavsson trade once I read up on him right after the Talbot deal. I thought he would fair way better under our structure than in Ottawa. But those 1st few starts he had were shaky at best. Early on I was the most vocal supporter of Goose2, but never advocated for him to be the full time starter, nor did anyone else until well into the 2023 portion of the season.  

Also, what needs to probably be acknowledged was the role Fleury played in this. Behind the scenes, my bet is he helped Goose2 with his confidence and mentoring. And, Fleury has this track record with other organizations he's been with. Hopefully, The Wall will have some of this rub off on him too.

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Will D. Ness said:

Fleury has to take the cake.  If I remember right, trade deadline move where we potentially gave up a 1st and ultimately gave up a 2nd rd pick?

Fair point.  I'm a BG supporter but it's ok (req'd) to be critical when it's necessary.  And yes Fleury has been abysmal when we needed him (playoffs).

But didn't BG find Gus?  Yes, but this is a two steps backward, then two steps forward argument.  This got us back to treading water.  This org. has to catch lightning in a bottle with every move we make (given the cap hell) so Fleury was a clang off the upright.  

[Will D. Ness]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Also, what needs to probably be acknowledged was the role Fleury played in this. Behind the scenes, my bet is he helped Goose2 with his confidence and mentoring. And, Fleury has this track record with other organizations he's been with. Hopefully, The Wall will have some of this rub off on him too.

I think Fleury has been a great mentor and confidence boost for Gus as well as being a pretty good goalie in his own right.  Maybe that makes the trade just a little more palatable.

My point was mostly that his post season impact though.  It has been negative and he really didn't earn the starts based off of merit.  Both Gus and Talbot outplayed him.

To me this points to a somewhat egotistical "chasing a bet" type of thing and trying to rely upon some "magical" performance from Fleury.

[Will D. Ness]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Fair point.  I'm a BG supporter but it's ok (req'd) to be critical when it's necessary.  And yes Fleury has been abysmal when we needed him (playoffs).

But didn't BG find Gus?  Yes, but this is a two steps backward, then two steps forward argument.  This got us back to treading water.  This org. has to catch lightning in a bottle with every move we make (given the cap hell) so Fleury was a clang off the upright.  

BG is ahead of the game IMO.  Couple bad moves mixed in with a lot of good ones.  

But let's face it... BG just payed Suter 7M to play against us, defeat us,  and crosscheck our true lighting in a bottle in KK97.  (I say this jokingly as I think Suter was a dickhead and needed to get the boot)

[Quebec1648]

The Wild have a dilemma at the goalie position. Fleury is the perfect mentor for the two Swedes Gus and Wall, but we don't really have room for three goalies on the main roster. Best case scenario, would be to make Fleury a goalie advisor / mentor for the Wild organization. Fleury doesn't seem interested in retiring yet, so BG will have to decide between the Wall and Gus for next year, with Fleury as the backup. 

The Wild also need to get a real center for the Kaprizov line during the offseason.

[Pewterschmidt]

31 minutes ago, Quebec1648 said:

so BG will have to decide between the Wall and Gus for next year, with Fleury as the backup.

Russo says on his recent podcast that there's zero % chance they throw Wall into NHL next year.  

If you believe that then we're ride or die with Fleury next year under any scenario.  That leaves open the question of whether or not BG can get a decent return for Gus in open market this summer.  This team goes sideways for next two years regardless IMO.  What's point in signing Gus so we can win 10 more games next regular season.  Why not get a draft pick or a big sturdy prospect who may be able to help the big club in two years.

[Up North Guy]

21 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Russo says on his recent podcast that there's zero % chance they throw Wall into NHL next year.  

If you believe that then we're ride or die with Fleury next year under any scenario.  That leaves open the question of whether or not BG can get a decent return for Gus in open market this summer.  This team goes sideways for next two years regardless IMO.  What's point in signing Gus so we can win 10 more games next regular season.  Why not get a draft pick or a big sturdy prospect who may be able to help the big club in two years.

I have thought the same thing and it may happen. Gus may be priced out of the Wild budget. At the same time, i know how hard it is to find good, young goalies and don't want to throw away the chance to have two in 2024-25. The Wall is going to have growing pains in the NHL. They all do.

[jgodwin17]

I think a 2 year 2 million for Johansson is fine. We aren't going to be winning a Stanley Cup in the next two seasons (honestly at the beginning of the season I thought we would miss the playoffs or get in at WC2). If he works out he will play well along Boldy and help develop him. If he doesn't, it's not like his signing is throwing away our future or not giving a shot at the Cup.

I think he earned the deal in his small showing here in Minnesota.

The only thing I would be concerned about with it is resigning Gus.