Article: Is the Clock Ticking On Adam Beckman?

[Justin Hein]

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[Imyourhuckleberry]

Athletic confirmed that Hartman is the forward banged up entering camp, but it's a minor upper body issue they expect to be fine for the season.

If Hartman were out, Gaudreau seems most likely to play 1st line C. Not sure if they would fill his spot with someone from the 4th line, or just add the 13th forward to the 3rd line to replace Gaudreau. Beckman or Sammy Walker next to Rossi might not be a bad way to go. No need to disrupt the checking line then.

Also, the rest of the Wild roster has come to camp healthy, and Kaprizov has substantially improved his English, doing a vast majority of his Q & A without needing interpreter assistance--he's still there for the occasional help on a word.

[Luke Sims]

Shoot man, I was learning about Primacy in my management class three days ago. 

He's a really solid player and could be in the NHL right now. The Wild roster is just full. I believe in Beckman. Loved him when he was picked and still love him now. This pains me to say but Beckman may have to find success in a sweater that is not green and red. 

Hopefully, he has more of a chance to show what he can do at the NHL level this season.

[vonlonster67]

Bottom line Justin, the clock is ticking for Beckman in regard to getting an opportunity to show his wealth of talent and skills under DE's guys. 

After watching him bulk up last year and stay consistent I felt like this was his year to rise to the level of the MN Wild and not go back down to IA. He is an RFA in '24 and we may risk losing him to another team for nothing in a trade if that doesn't happen this year. 

If Moose doesn't show this year, he may finally get an opportunity next year at age 23, after we wasted at least two years of time/talent arriving at that place.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

5 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

If Moose doesn't show this year, he may finally get an opportunity next year at age 23, after we wasted at least two years of time/talent arriving at that place.

The other note I forgot to add is that Foligno was playing through an injury much of last season, and did have abdominal surgery following the season. I suspect it was something like a sports hernia, which may have limited his shooting ability for quite a while.

Foligno is healthy entering camp this season, so hopefully he returns to the form he had 2 years ago.

[vonlonster67]

8 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

The other note I forgot to add is that Foligno was playing through an injury much of last season, and did have abdominal surgery following the season. I suspect it was something like a sports hernia, which may have limited his shooting ability for quite a while.

Foligno is healthy entering camp this season, so hopefully he returns to the form he had 2 years ago.

Him breaking down with injuries is our signal to not "hope", but move on to our youth movement.

[mnfaninnc]

Beckman really impressed out of camp 2 seasons ago. Last season, as a call up, I thought he had made long strides in getting better. IIRC, he had his goal called back, but he rang the pipe 2 or 3 times during that callup. 

I'd like to address a few things from Justin though. 

Quote

 Perhaps that’s why Beckman played only 9 AHL games in ‘20-21, even though he’d already shown the WHL was light work for him. 

This one's a bit quirky, but 19 year olds got an exception to play in the A when their leagues were canceled due to Covid. Only O'Rourke stayed the full year (I think his league didn't open). But, both Beckman and Hunt had to go back when their jr. leagues started playing again and that was the AHL agreement. They did not burn a year on their ELC while playing underaged either.

Quote

That means an injury to any of the top nine forwards could open the door for Addison. But if that doesn’t happen, Beckman can still crack next year’s roster if he plays out of his mind because Minnesota has three wings becoming UFA’s in 2024-25. 

Justin, was this a Freudian slip here?

Quote

In Beckman’s case, this is made even more likely because he’s not especially large. “Just putting on strength has always been one of my biggest weaknesses as a player,” Beckman noted in the same article, “so just getting some time to work on myself physically was hugely beneficial this summer.” 

I believe this is the greatest reason for Beckman not carving out an NHL role yet. He's 6'2" but not a power forward. He's lean and thin and can get knocked around far too much. It's not just his shot we need, we need him to be strong in the corners and to fend off some larger guys. And, for him it's not about bulking up, it's more about thickening to average, and every person's body fills out uniquely. 

Beckman needed to pay attention to getting stronger to compete and win more battles. Obviously, this was not a priority for him or the strength and conditioning coaches in Iowa (and I have a serious problem with that). 

But, Beckman has passion, it was on full display at the end of the season when he came back from injury and scored a big goal late in a game. His cellie showed that passion. That's the guy I'm hoping comes to camp this season. 

He was willing to fight in preseason 2 seasons ago, even though it was obvious this was not his thing. If he shows his body has matured, and he can compete at the next level, I think he could be promoted much like Shaw was mid-year. 

I thought this would start happening 2 seasons ago, but, when the kids are ready, the placeholders need to move over. Moving over, in this case, is getting traded. The trade will bring back some assets, but not real high ones. I believe that part of the deal of being a placeholder means that Guerin will find that guy a home in a good fit for a fair price. He's not looking to use the guy as trade capital, he's looking to find him a new home and thank him for what he did here. I think that is a fair tradeoff. 

But, for this to happen, Beckman, or any other prospect in the A, has got to clearly win the position. Tie goes to the vet. It's got to be a solid win. The young guys definitely need to show more jump and a well rounded game. Honestly, I think if Hartsy starts off slow, he could be the 1st to give up his spot. 

[mnfaninnc]

18 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

Him breaking down with injuries is our signal to not "hope", but move on to our youth movement.

I don't know that this is an age thing as I believe Freddy and Zuccarello (admittedly older too) had similar injuries. Perhaps we need to look into the training a little harder to eliminate these injuries? I wonder if they are overworking a certain area?

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Athletic confirmed that Hartman is the forward banged up entering camp, but it's a minor upper body issue they expect to be fine for the season.

Season hasn't even started and Dewar is one spot closer to his 1C audition 

[vonlonster67]

53 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Beckman really impressed out of camp 2 seasons ago. Last season, as a call up, I thought he had made long strides in getting better. IIRC, he had his goal called back, but he rang the pipe 2 or 3 times during that callup. 

I'd like to address a few things from Justin though. 

This one's a bit quirky, but 19 year olds got an exception to play in the A when their leagues were canceled due to Covid. Only O'Rourke stayed the full year (I think his league didn't open). But, both Beckman and Hunt had to go back when their jr. leagues started playing again and that was the AHL agreement. They did not burn a year on their ELC while playing underaged either.

Justin, was this a Freudian slip here?

I believe this is the greatest reason for Beckman not carving out an NHL role yet. He's 6'2" but not a power forward. He's lean and thin and can get knocked around far too much. It's not just his shot we need, we need him to be strong in the corners and to fend off some larger guys. And, for him it's not about bulking up, it's more about thickening to average, and every person's body fills out uniquely. 

Beckman needed to pay attention to getting stronger to compete and win more battles. Obviously, this was not a priority for him or the strength and conditioning coaches in Iowa (and I have a serious problem with that). 

But, Beckman has passion, it was on full display at the end of the season when he came back from injury and scored a big goal late in a game. His cellie showed that passion. That's the guy I'm hoping comes to camp this season. 

He was willing to fight in preseason 2 seasons ago, even though it was obvious this was not his thing. If he shows his body has matured, and he can compete at the next level, I think he could be promoted much like Shaw was mid-year. 

I thought this would start happening 2 seasons ago, but, when the kids are ready, the placeholders need to move over. Moving over, in this case, is getting traded. The trade will bring back some assets, but not real high ones. I believe that part of the deal of being a placeholder means that Guerin will find that guy a home in a good fit for a fair price. He's not looking to use the guy as trade capital, he's looking to find him a new home and thank him for what he did here. I think that is a fair tradeoff. 

But, for this to happen, Beckman, or any other prospect in the A, has got to clearly win the position. Tie goes to the vet. It's got to be a solid win. The young guys definitely need to show more jump and a well rounded game. Honestly, I think if Hartsy starts off slow, he could be the 1st to give up his spot. 

Can they honestly get a shot and show with DE at the helm? Its all up to interpretation.

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, vonlonster67 said:

Can they honestly get a shot and show with DE at the helm? Its all up to interpretation.

And, this is kind of why I said what I said in the other thread. Is Evason too old for the young 20 somethings? 

When I grew up playing hockey, my favorite thing was to run into people, I'm sure no one is shocked by that statement. Now, I'm finding out that leagues aren't allowing checking until 12-13 year olds. That would be unheard of in my day. 

I guess it's like playing flag football on skates, maybe we take a flag off the forward and they have to go to the corner and count to 5 or something?

No wonder kids don't finish checks consistently, they're not trained to do it early on. Stick flybys are considered defense these days. But also, no wonder kids aren't able to slip checks as well either. Getting through traffic when it's difficult isn't taught anymore, nor standing your ground around the net. 

Would a younger coach more familiar with the youth leagues now be more effective? Someone who is more familiar with their culture? Someone more familiar with their youth training? Someone who knows how to implement all that speed and skill and edge work? 

Maybe these young guys really are ready for the NHL but have completely different skill sets than what Deano's looking for? The thing is, this is how Brackett drafted them, for speed and skill. If you don't have coaches on board with that, it just doesn't seem like a good fit. We haven't drafted for grit, hammerin' and bangin'. We've drafted for "pull them out of their seats highlight reel" stuff. 

I suppose the question now is, who were Billy's teammates who might make good coaches now? You could even include guys he would respect who he played against. 

1 more thing, if you look at our player development guys, why do we have 3 grit guys developing? And all were gritty forwards. Why don't we have a grit guy, a skill guy, a goalie and a defender?

Brackett isn't drafting Bombardirs, Hendricks, and McLeods, we're drafting guys that Modano can relate to. 

In summary, it appears as if Guerin is giving Brackett the go ahead to draft speed and skill. However, Guerin has a player development trio of gritty guys and a coach on the NHL level as a gritty coach. All of these guys are supposed to be working towards the goal of a unified team, yet it's a bit ununified. I'm not saying that McLeod, Hendricks and Bombardir are bad organizational guys either, but are they the right guys for their role? Should we be re-arranging the deck chairs a bit? We've got some skill in the organization, but they're not directly helping with growing the players. 

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[vonlonster67]

24 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

And, this is kind of why I said what I said in the other thread. Is Evason too old for the young 20 somethings? 

When I grew up playing hockey, my favorite thing was to run into people, I'm sure no one is shocked by that statement. Now, I'm finding out that leagues aren't allowing checking until 12-13 year olds. That would be unheard of in my day. 

I guess it's like playing flag football on skates, maybe we take a flag off the forward and they have to go to the corner and count to 5 or something?

No wonder kids don't finish checks consistently, they're not trained to do it early on. Stick flybys are considered defense these days. But also, no wonder kids aren't able to slip checks as well either. Getting through traffic when it's difficult isn't taught anymore, nor standing your ground around the net. 

Would a younger coach more familiar with the youth leagues now be more effective? Someone who is more familiar with their culture? Someone more familiar with their youth training? Someone who knows how to implement all that speed and skill and edge work? 

Maybe these young guys really are ready for the NHL but have completely different skill sets than what Deano's looking for? The thing is, this is how Brackett drafted them, for speed and skill. If you don't have coaches on board with that, it just doesn't seem like a good fit. We haven't drafted for grit, hammerin' and bangin'. We've drafted for "pull them out of their seats highlight reel" stuff. 

I suppose the question now is, who were Billy's teammates who might make good coaches now? You could even include guys he would respect who he played against. 

1 more thing, if you look at our player development guys, why do we have 3 grit guys developing? And all were gritty forwards. Why don't we have a grit guy, a skill guy, a goalie and a defender?

Brackett isn't drafting Bombardirs, Hendricks, and McLeods, we're drafting guys that Modano can relate to. 

In summary, it appears as if Guerin is giving Brackett the go ahead to draft speed and skill. However, Guerin has a player development trio of gritty guys and a coach on the NHL level as a gritty coach. All of these guys are supposed to be working towards the goal of a unified team, yet it's a bit ununified. I'm not saying that McLeod, Hendricks and Bombardir are bad organizational guys either, but are they the right guys for their role? Should we be re-arranging the deck chairs a bit? We've got some skill in the organization, but they're not directly helping with growing the players. 

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

My theory is BG gets it, remember he was the only GM that got KK to sign 2X, he knows what makes these guys tick. Signed Ek to a reasonable contract, probably underpaid. Hartzy to a cheap contract. Signed Boldy to an extension and calling him out at the end of the season. Boldy stayed here all off season.

My theory is the culture, DE is the grit, but BG is the culture and the way he has selected players who want to play in Minny and resign here.

BG inherited DE and he did resign him as things were moving in the right direction, until the playoffs. Remember BG is always three steps ahead. I believe he has a backup plan for DE if things don't work out. That backup plan may be in IA right now as head coach.

In "IBGIT"

Edited September 22, 2023 by vonlonster67

[Protec]

Beckman could be a leader in IA and it won't hurt anybody. Sammy Walker is older and has yet to make a full-time NHL position either. After veteran contracts are up and this season shakes out, the Wild will have young players who can step in.  I wouldn't feel bad if Beckman, Walker, even Rossi played in the AHL and had a dominant season together with the younger players just starting. In my opinion they really have to be effective to win an NHL role. Preseason will be fun.

[vonlonster67]

23 minutes ago, Protec said:

Beckman could be a leader in IA and it won't hurt anybody. Sammy Walker is older and has yet to make a full-time NHL position either. After veteran contracts are up and this season shakes out, the Wild will have young players who can step in.  I wouldn't feel bad if Beckman, Walker, even Rossi played in the AHL and had a dominant season together with the younger players just starting. In my opinion they really have to be effective to win an NHL role. Preseason will be fun.

Walker spent four years playing at an elite level program in the B10 Conference against top flight competition. He is older and I believe he needs to show sooner than Beckman as a 3rd round pick. Rossi as a #1 pick (9) needs to show NOW!

We cant let these guys continue to circle the proverbial drain in IA. These guys need to move somewhere as the next year of talent will influx to IA.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

13 minutes ago, Protec said:

Beckman could be a leader in IA and it won't hurt anybody. Sammy Walker is older and has yet to make a full-time NHL position either. After veteran contracts are up and this season shakes out, the Wild will have young players who can step in.  I wouldn't feel bad if Beckman, Walker, even Rossi played in the AHL and had a dominant season together with the younger players just starting. In my opinion they really have to be effective to win an NHL role. Preseason will be fun.

According to The Athletic:

Quote

 

Rossi came to camp last year at 175 pounds. He came into camp this year weighing 190.

“His vertical jump improved 10 percent from last year. His upper body strength improved 22 percent from last year.”

 

In the Wild's fitness measurement, Rossi finished third overall among the 60 players at camp.

Quote

 

First, of course, was Eriksson Ek, the Wild’s perennial fitness king. Second? Intriguingly, prospect Sammy Walker.

“Everyone’s kind of fighting for second place behind Ekky,” Harder said.

Harder sees Rossi’s improved strength mostly in his chest and shoulders, “but you can see it in his waist and legs for sure.”

The 15 pounds is dispersed throughout his whole body.

“So while looking at him you’re probably not going to see a massive difference. For us, we can notice it quite a bit,” Harder said.
 

Rossi also skated a bunch with NHL players this summer:

Quote

“For Marco, who is a smaller stature guy, putting him out there against actual, true NHL power forwards for those skates was incredibly beneficial. He protects the puck so much better than he did and he is so much stronger than he was at the beginning of last season.”

Ness, their skating coach, also retooled Rossi’s skating stride, after identifying that he was not skating optimally(not loading properly in his skating effort):

Quote

If you load and push correctly, Ness says you will skate with more power and efficiency.

It affected his ability to perform last year in the NHL. This summer, he greatly improved and that improvement was noticeable during the first days of training camp.

 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

In summary, it appears as if Guerin is giving Brackett the go ahead to draft speed and skill. However, Guerin has a player development trio of gritty guys and a coach on the NHL level as a gritty coach. All of these guys are supposed to be working towards the goal of a unified team, yet it's a bit ununified. I'm not saying that McLeod, Hendricks and Bombardir are bad organizational guys either, but are they the right guys for their role? Should we be re-arranging the deck chairs a bit? We've got some skill in the organization, but they're not directly helping with growing the players. 

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

I disagree on this. The team is connected well culturally.

NHL players have to play a tough, gritty game, in order to succeed at the highest levels. Guys who easily played at a high skill level are typically not great at coaching guys up to play like they did, their innate skill cannot simply be passed along for others to emulate. The gritty guys that had to work harder than everyone else, do all of the little things right just to make the league, those are the guys that typically are much better coaches.

The Wild are coaching guys up and getting better team results than most predicted each of the last 2 seasons. Dallas had more healthy skill, but they gave them a competitive series. Let's watch this season, and maybe they can skate into the playoffs with more health this time around.

[vonlonster67]

7 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I disagree on this. The team is connected well culturally.

NHL players have to play a tough, gritty game, in order to succeed at the highest levels. Guys who easily played at a high skill level are typically not great at coaching guys up to play like they did, their innate skill cannot simply be passed along for others to emulate. The gritty guys that had to work harder than everyone else, do all of the little things right just to make the league, those are the guys that typically are much better coaches.

The Wild are coaching guys up and getting better team results than most predicted each of the last 2 seasons. Dallas had more healthy skill, but they gave them a competitive series. Let's watch this season, and maybe they can skate into the playoffs with more health this time around.

Awesome Huck!

[Protec]

The Wild just won't have enough spots to promote all the young players. I think it will be a lot like last season where guys will come up in turns for a number of games each. Based on injuries. There's just no way to get em all in most of the time. I don't think "circling the drain" is quite how to look at it. In the past perhaps, when MN had very few good prospects. The open roster spots to take are coming up as veteran contracts expire. We've been patient waiting for the Wild to rebuild on the fly. No reason to force or rush things now. Keep the cart behind the horse and play another season. 

Personally, I'm not ready to ordain any rookies or extend any veterans until they show it's deserved. Fred did that last year. So did Gus, and Faber. I hope Rossi, Walker, or Beckman can do it this season but if not, next year is just as well. Not playing in the NHL because the roster is full isn't the fault of the young guys or reason to be discouraged. They should take advantage of the time and opportunity they have while they wait for roster slots to open. By next season the urgency will be there along with the need for them to come in. They'll have earned it and the process will pay off. 

More than ever, the Wild will have GMs inquiring and looking for talented young MN players. Guerin might finally trade some.

[mnfaninnc]

14 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Guys who easily played at a high skill level are typically not great at coaching guys up to play like they did, their innate skill cannot simply be passed along for others to emulate. The gritty guys that had to work harder than everyone else, do all of the little things right just to make the league, those are the guys that typically are much better coaches.

I wasn't saying that the skill guys would be the coaches. I was saying a younger guy, probably one of Guerin's former teammates would take on the coaching role. But, in player development, I was saying there should be at least 1 skill guy in that department. 

You're absolutely right about skill guys not being able to pass down ability, but some skill guys can pass down on ice vision and have some better skill drills than the grinders. Grinders did have to work harder, but they also have more of a traditional lanes philosophy. Their PPs would be vanilla. Their strategy would be pretty much like everyone else's. 

Wouldn't you want a little creativity, vision and quick adaptation in the room? Both Keefe and St. Louis were skill guys when they played as well as being young. There were many coaches who were very skilled who failed because they expected their players to be able to do what they could do, and they simply couldn't. But, I would want at least a skilled voice in the room helping the skill players. 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

8 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

But, I would want at least a skilled voice in the room helping the skill players. 

Their power play coach, Jason King, played on a line with the Sedin brothers back in the day. He wasn't elite at the NHL level, but he's played with elites. Not sure why he didn't stick in the NHL. He was a skill player just below the NHL for a while.

He scored 63 goals in 61 games back in 01-02, his last season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, leading the league in goals that year.

He also led his AHL team in goals back in 07-08, his German team in goals in 09-10, and his AHL team in 11-12. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jason King can do for the Wild's power play.

[mnfaninnc]

17 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Their power play coach, Jason King, played on a line with the Sedin brothers back in the day. He wasn't elite at the NHL level, but he's played with elites. Not sure why he didn't stick in the NHL. He was a skill player just below the NHL for a while.

He scored 63 goals in 61 games back in 01-02, his last season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, leading the league in goals that year.

He also led his AHL team in goals back in 07-08, his German team in goals in 09-10, and his AHL team in 11-12. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jason King can do for the Wild's power play.

Nice research and summary!

[Up North Guy]

17 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

In the Wild's fitness measurement, Rossi finished third overall among the 60 players at camp.

Sammy Walker finished second. It looks like Sammy won't be taken lightly. That is a net positive. Also, Ek finished first as usual.

[Mateo3xm]

“On film, Beckman epitomizes the epitome of a scrappy, undersized, offensive winger”

Beckman is listed as 6’2…..

sure he’s 183lbs but who knows when or how often it’s updated.

in what world is that undersized?

Marchand and VT are like 5’9-5’10

this is a bit baffling and it’s mentioned multiple times that he’s undersized.

Maybe he’s a hard gainer but all he has to do is put on 15-20lbs and hes a solid weight for an NHLer

[Mateo3xm]

…

Edited September 25, 2023 by Mateo3xm

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

On 9/22/2023 at 11:22 AM, vonlonster67 said:

Can they honestly get a shot and show with DE at the helm? Its all up to interpretation.

No they can't. BG acquisition of Khaira shows that. Between DE's double standard and BG's love for veteran grinders, I'm guessing we will see a few of our prospects end up playing and have success with other colors on. Sammy and Beckman are both NHL worthy at this point and deserve their shot but they would rather sign some more "grit" and let scorers go elsewhere. Not like we had utterly terrible goals for outside our top 5 players and were under the league average by 19 goals.....

This was suppose to be the time to develop from within during our cap crunch and instead we spend our cap bringing in castoffs and leaving our prospects bottled up in the A. I know Leopold is hungry for a cup, but it is BG's job to explain to him how we get there and show him the vision. Bottom line is we aren't winning a cup with the cap hit restrictions, it is like going for a belt after getting your middle finger on your dominant hand cut off. It is delusional to think we have a reasonable shot at it.

Sell at the deadline, bring up the prospects, look to the future OR we can just stay in middling hell for another 24 years with no real shot at contending.