Article: The Wild Are About To Drop In the Prospect Rankings. And That's A Good Thing.

[Tony Abbott]

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[mnfaninnc]

I don't believe we will fall this year. These are preseason rankings, but the top 5-10 prospects went to teams that need them. Many of these guys are going straight to the NHL and will drop off their farm systems and prospect pools. 

The majority of ours are still going to be in the pool, at least until the '24 season. While Rossi might make the club, and Faber likely will, Stramel, Kumpulainen, Heidt take their place. Our pool solidified down the middle prospects, and really didn't give up much.

On top of all this, these prospects actually have to beat out NHL competition, unlike other teams where they're looking for an internal savior. Even with that guy, those teams won't be very good. 

Just in the Central, it looks like 5 teams are already about to wave the white flag, at the very list they have a white flag sitting next to them. In the East, it looks like Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa are going to try and make a run at vulnerable Washington and Boston spots. The East, to me, looks like the way more competitive conference and they look much faster than the West. 

While our prospect pool will be very good still, we're probably the only top prospect pool franchise with odds of making the playoffs. 

[MNCountryLife]

IMHO: The draft gets you players that want to make the NHL.  A year or two later we will find out who has actual potential and who doesn't along with players that just can't because of injuries.  That is when the AHL becomes vital.  IE: Coaching becomes absolutely crucial.  It is the AHL where we truly find out which organizations and coaching staff are the best at building internally.  It is here where perennial contenders are built.  It is in the AHL where we will find out how good BG is at building a team.  The next 2-3 years will tell us if the IA Wild is capable of providing NHL ready players.  BG re-tooled the staff in IA this summer.  I hope it pays dividends.

[Smokey]

Hay,Bill and all of rest of organization I have never been in the locker room or at the practices. SO in my opinion the staff has done the best job in hockey possible in the Wilds situation 😎😎

[TCMooch]

Mr. Tony—I would love to see you do a comparison of this prospect pool to the other ranked prospect pool we had about 10 years ago with Granlund, Coyle, Zucker, Borodin and Dumba. That prospect pool really turned into magic beans for us. The best player was far and away Brodie and even he didn’t develop isn’t an all star. I mean he’s good don’t get me wrong but he isn’t an exciting player you get jazzed over

[mnfaninnc]

13 hours ago, TCMooch said:

Mr. Tony—I would love to see you do a comparison of this prospect pool to the other ranked prospect pool we had about 10 years ago with Granlund, Coyle, Zucker, Borodin and Dumba. That prospect pool really turned into magic beans for us. The best player was far and away Brodie and even he didn’t develop isn’t an all star. I mean he’s good don’t get me wrong but he isn’t an exciting player you get jazzed over

I'd love to see that too. But, for starters, I think we have more prospects to choose from in this bunch. I'd even throw Niederreiter into the mix above since we got him really before much of his NHL career started. 

Fletcher started with the 2009 draft, but it was the 2010 draft that he put his chips into the middle on. Leddy was his top pick, traded away quickly. No 2nd round pick, Matt Hackett in the 3rd, and then comes an interesting scenario in the 4th: 102, 103, 104 were

• Mattias Ekholm
• Kris Foucault
• Marcus Foligno

2 of these 3 have over 700 NHL games under their belts, 1 has 1 game. Guess which one we took?

So, in 2010 we took Granlund and Zucker. 2011 was Brodin and 2012 was Dumba. Even back then, Fletcher showed off his allergy to 2nd and 3rd round picks. Coyle and Niederreiter were acquired shortly after.

So, Granny's in Europe, Zucker's in college, Coyle was in college and then moved to junior and Niederreiter was developed on the Island. Fletcher gave these guys 2+ years to develop before tossing them into the fray!

If I were to make a comparison/observation about these 2 prospect pools, I would have to say that Fletcher was very impatient about development, and Guerin has been overly patient. Rossi has gotten his 2+ years with a completely lost year. It could even be argued one of those years was just trying to get back to where he was.

• Khus$%^&- 3+ years 
• O'Rourke- 3+ years 
• Hunt- 3+ years
• Lambos- 2+ years
• Faber- 3+ years (Kings/Gophers)
• Beckman- 3+ years

That's more time than Fletcher gave his troops, and in Fletcher's case, the + years was due to the lockout. What if Fletcher had been a little more patient and given the prospects an extra year in the A? Would it have made a difference? You could argue that getting the NHL experience helped their development, but, they never really got the chance to shine. The coaches would constantly defer to the older players in crunch time, so this group never really got the chance. It was never more evident than starting 3v3 with Koivu-Parise-Suter. And how many times did that unit get scored on before anyone else made it to the ice?

[mnfaninnc]

Just a thought, but with our lineups, where does Mason Shaw fit in when he finally returns from ACL surgery? Do you sign him to a 1 year/2 way deal so he can get back up to speed in the A before coming back up with the big club? I'm thinking to the big team, he'd be close to a TDL acquisition. I'd think he'd probably spend January-February in the A getting his rehab finished. 

Shaw doesn't seem to me to be a guy who can relax. He seems like a guy always on the move. I wonder if he's going to be a bit more bulked up upper body wise when he returns. He's always been feisty, a bulked up Shaw could be an interesting add. Weight training is very good in blowing off frustration, which I believe Shaw has in spades!

[Up North Guy]

6 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Just a thought, but with our lineups, where does Mason Shaw fit in when he finally returns from ACL surgery? Do you sign him to a 1 year/2 way deal so he can get back up to speed in the A before coming back up with the big club? I'm thinking to the big team, he'd be close to a TDL acquisition. I'd think he'd probably spend January-February in the A getting his rehab finished. 

Shaw doesn't seem to me to be a guy who can relax. He seems like a guy always on the move. I wonder if he's going to be a bit more bulked up upper body wise when he returns. He's always been feisty, a bulked up Shaw could be an interesting add. Weight training is very good in blowing off frustration, which I believe Shaw has in spades!

I am of the opinion that BG will honor his commitment to Shaw and sign him but it may be possible that he gets a AHL contract and when he is ready his contract is purchased from Iowa. It would keep him out of the 50 contract issue and yet support Shaw.