Article: Brock Faber Is the First Building Block Of Minnesota's New-Look Defense Corps

[vonlonster67]

38 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

And, they both have size. Not great size, but size.

And on to the next debate which Justin just started today in regard to size and elite D! 

[vonlonster67]

23 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

I'm not so sure about the trade myself being a good trade in terms of relative value.  

Having a somewhat known high end offensive talent in Fiala (granted it was a contract year) vs a late 1st rd pick plus Faber was pretty one sided for LA.  Fiala has helped turn that team around on a dime and has shown that he has actually turned a corner and it wasn't a contract year fluke.

Faber does look good but Ohgren is a complete question mark really.  Jury is still out  but as of right now the trade is squarely in LA's favor.  We should have gotten a little more value the day of the trade, and probably in hindsight even more now.

So if your a big Fiala fan and didn't think we got enough, minus the culture issues. Ohgren is another EEK type player plus at wing.

Would you really want to risk losing Boldy after a bridge deal to sign FiFi. Plus mnfaninnc makes an excellent point about Yurov who's gonna make you say Fiala who?

Guess you'll have to wait n see to be a believer when LA blows up and the Wild are smiling back.

[Will D. Ness]

13 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Will D., what do you consider more value? Another prospect? Another draft pick? Even here, it seems that defenders who can keep the puck out of the net are undervalued when we've been watching Brodin do it so well. I was hoping for a center prospect as the Kings seemed to have a plethora of them. Who/what did you want?

As things look, this trade has 3 pieces in it: Faber, Ohgren and Yurov. If we don't take Ohgren at 19, we probably don't get Yurov a few picks later, so there is some fluency to the actual deal. 

It's not really apples to apples but look at the Chychrun trade.  I would say Fiala is quite a bit more valuable so I would add on another conditional 1st down the road.

[Will D. Ness]

57 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

So if your a big Fiala fan and didn't think we got enough, minus the culture issues. Ohgren is another EEK type player plus at wing.

Would you really want to risk losing Boldy after a bridge deal to sign FiFi. Plus mnfaninnc makes an excellent point about Yurov who's gonna make you say Fiala who?

Guess you'll have to wait n see to be a believer when LA blows up and the Wild are smiling back.

I would take Boldy over Fiala if it would have been one or the other.  Boldy is going to be a monster IMO.  

[mnfaninnc]

35 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

It's not really apples to apples but look at the Chychrun trade.  I would say Fiala is quite a bit more valuable so I would add on another conditional 1st down the road.

Would another team even throw in, say a 2029 1st? I think that would make me chuckle. But why not ask for something like that?

[mnfaninnc]

33 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

I would take Boldy over Fiala if it would have been one or the other.  Boldy is going to be a monster IMO.

I don't think it was one over the other. I think Shooter would have had to do some real roster gymnastics to get it to fit. I think shedding costs, you might be looking at subtracting Zuccarello or Spurgeon, something that might not have been a bad thing. 

Of course, I disagree wholeheartedly with Von's take on the poor culture player. The Wild had a strong locker room, and winning tends to trump that. Fiala and Boldy had a very nice chemistry going. What would that look like with Ek as the center? I also disagree with the disappearing in the playoffs. I thought Fiala was positioned very well, but the final 6 games of the regular season, you could tell his hot streak was over and he was fighting the puck. It carried over. He had the chances, just fired them high and wide. To me, a disappearance in the playoffs is that you never see the player even getting chances.

[vonlonster67]

45 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

I would take Boldy over Fiala if it would have been one or the other.  Boldy is going to be a monster IMO.  

I agree wholeheartedly, that is a biggest reason I believe Fiala is gone. Boldy is a cornerstone player like KK. I feel Faber follows that path!

[vonlonster67]

11 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I don't think it was one over the other. I think Shooter would have had to do some real roster gymnastics to get it to fit. I think shedding costs, you might be looking at subtracting Zuccarello or Spurgeon, something that might not have been a bad thing. 

Of course, I disagree wholeheartedly with Von's take on the poor culture player. The Wild had a strong locker room, and winning tends to trump that. Fiala and Boldy had a very nice chemistry going. What would that look like with Ek as the center? I also disagree with the disappearing in the playoffs. I thought Fiala was positioned very well, but the final 6 games of the regular season, you could tell his hot streak was over and he was fighting the puck. It carried over. He had the chances, just fired them high and wide. To me, a disappearance in the playoffs is that you never see the player even getting chances.

I watched Fiala every night, saw the good the bad and the ugly hissy fits on the ice.

Can't tell me that didn't happen behind the scenes and a big reason they took him to arbitration.

BG had enough of his tude and cleaned house similar to others who didn't fit the culture. 

 

[mnfaninnc]

2 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

I watched Fiala every night, saw the good the bad and the ugly hissy fits on the ice.

There's a lot that doesn't get picked up by the cameras when just watching on tv. If you've got a good shot of it live at the arena, I've got nothing in response. However, Tkachuk is a similar player who tends to have antics on the bench. That's never really bothered me.

[vonlonster67]

27 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

There's a lot that doesn't get picked up by the cameras when just watching on tv. If you've got a good shot of it live at the arena, I've got nothing in response. However, Tkachuk is a similar player who tends to have antics on the bench. That's never really bothered me.

I have season tickets

[joebou15]

For everyone excited about Faber after a handful of NHL games, and I am, those same people want to trade Rossi after a small sample size as well. 

 

How about we just let things play out a bit. And for God's sake, Dean, let the kids play. 

[Will D. Ness]

10 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Would another team even throw in, say a 2029 1st? I think that would make me chuckle. But why not ask for something like that?

Well 2029 is like next generation but an asset is an asset.  I was thinking 2026 or so.  There was more on the table basically is what I'm saying.  Fiala's value to LA is more than any trade for the past couple years... maybe the one exception is Florida getting Tkachuk?

[FredJohnson]

Does Faby-Baby pair with J-Bro to form an elite D-pair or with an offensive-minded player like Addison to balance the pairing out? (Or pair with a more rounded vet like Spurge?)

[Pewterschmidt]

32 minutes ago, FredJohnson said:

Does Faby-Baby pair with J-Bro to form an elite D-pair or with an offensive-minded player like Addison to balance the pairing out? (Or pair with a more rounded vet like Spurge?)

Judd has great point on his latest pod.  Faber + JoBro frees up jobro because he now knows he doesn’t have to backstop Dumba anymore.  Not predicting jobro becomes makar but we could see another level from brodin this year.  

[vonlonster67]

19 hours ago, joebou15 said:

For everyone excited about Faber after a handful of NHL games, and I am, those same people want to trade Rossi after a small sample size as well. 

 

How about we just let things play out a bit. And for God's sake, Dean, let the kids play. 

Apples and Oranges

[vonlonster67]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Judd has great point on his latest pod.  Faber + JoBro frees up jobro because he now knows he doesn’t have to backstop Dumba anymore.  Not predicting jobro becomes makar but we could see another level from brodin this year.  

You are definitely onto something and NOT on something!

[Sviginak]

On 8/26/2023 at 7:40 AM, vonlonster67 said:

Your pretending and burying your head in the snow if you think Fiala's talent outweighs the culture of the team. It's hardly badmouthing, but calling out all his BS we saw on the ice most nights and his inconsistencies. How soon we forget.

These two including Faber are team oriented and live for pressure, give me more. Fiala is old news and his movement off this team and return was a brilliant move by BG

Where did I say Fiala’s talent outweighs the culture here? I made the comment that the guy who goes value gets downgraded and the incoming guy(s) might get unnecessarily upgraded before we see it. It is just something us fans do.

[vonlonster67]

3 minutes ago, Sviginak said:

Where did I say Fiala’s talent outweighs the culture here? I made the comment that the guy who goes value gets downgraded and the incoming guy(s) might get unnecessarily upgraded before we see it. It is just something us fans do.

I wasn't inferring you said that, but BG being old school didn't see him as a value if he continued the hissy fits, one ice, off ice with coaches, getting benched for not following team concepts.

I believe we are lucky to have gotten what we did and I'm not convinced it wont happen again in LA with Fiala. Sorry if I offended you and your right its about what fans do!

[Sviginak]

And there we have it folks, unprecedented and unequalled expertise has come aboard the Wilderness train and they have season tickets! 🙂 

(For the record, I am through with pretending and I have pulled my head out of the snow) 

[vonlonster67]

6 minutes ago, Sviginak said:

And there we have it folks, unprecedented and unequalled expertise has come aboard the Wilderness train and they have season tickets! 🙂 

(For the record, I am through with pretending and I have pulled my head out of the snow) 

Nice!

[joebou15]

On 8/28/2023 at 3:22 PM, vonlonster67 said:

You are definitely onto something and NOT on something!

Or Brodin is what he is at 31 years old and were just not going to see a bump in offense. I don't believe Brodin has been/was held back by Dumba as his pair in any way. They both got tough deployment, lot of minutes and still the offense wasn't making a jump. The coaches don't put him on the PP unless there's injuries. 

Brodin is a net positive on the ice for the Minnesota Wild, and has been for the entirety of his career. But there just isn't offense like people have been hoping for.

[vonlonster67]

5 minutes ago, joebou15 said:

Or Brodin is what he is at 31 years old and were just not going to see a bump in offense. I don't believe Brodin has been/was held back by Dumba as his pair in any way. They both got tough deployment, lot of minutes and still the offense wasn't making a jump. The coaches don't put him on the PP unless there's injuries. 

Brodin is a net positive on the ice for the Minnesota Wild, and has been for the entirety of his career. But there just isn't offense like people have been hoping for.

He is pretty damn good yet. I have yet to see another Dman who shuts down McDavid like he does.

Dumba did hold him back in the matter of Dumba making entries or turnovers and forgetting his coverage of the ice. Brodin was the safety blanket and Dumba rarely returned the favor. 

Imagine the goals scored if he's not on the ice. I hope DE plugs him in with Faber. Gonna be a fun tandem to watch.