Article: No More Buyer's Remorse With Marco Rossi

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

Pay Rossi and Faber their money.  They are doing wonders for Wild as cornerstones to build around.  Even if this year goes down the drain, we can point to those two and say, "Not everything went to shit."

[MNCountryLife]

Would sure like to see the lineup changed a bit for forwards.

Kirill, Ek, Boldy

Zuc, Rossi, Hartman

Foligno, Dewar, Duhaime

Maroon,Freddy, Vinni

Notice there is no NoJo in this lineup... Mix the names if you want.  Just leave him out.

[mnfaninnc]

I've been very vocal about wanting Lundell in that draft. And, I'm not ready to change that conclusion at this time. However, in this year, Rossi is out point performing Lundell 10-7-17 to 2-10-12 with Lundell playing 1 less game. 

My point on Lundell was size which is uncoachable, and teaming Lundell and Ek down the middle would have been really good. So, what did Rossi have to do to change his narrative? He had to concentrate on strength addition and skating. 

I have also said all along until this year, that the player we drafted in Rossi was not the player I saw on the ice. I said wait another season before dumping him, but would have traded him straight up for Lundell. 

Rossi has been a pleasant surprise this season. His mind finally looks healed from the myocarditis, and he's moving with tremendous confidence. I don't see him getting bounced around this season. I see him decisive in where he's going and competing hard on the boards. This was the player I thought we'd drafted.

I do think he needs one more offseason like the one he just had moving forward. It also took Ek a couple of offseasons to build himself up. I'm sure glad for the kid that he got this turned around, because he really does care!

As for CS's comment up above, I don't like that plan. 

1. Rossi is playing well in his rookie year here. Definitely a bridge deal is needed, but he has really no leverage. Keep him low until at least the heavy lifting is over. 
2. Faber, I believe, has one more year left on his ELC which gets us through the heavy lifting too. I could see signing him longterm after. He'll probably get 2 nice contracts in his lifetime.

It would be nice to get a young core signed longterm and valued on the back end of the contract. However, the next 2 years cannot be that time.

[Burnt Toast]

I listen to a lot of Wild games on the radio. Rossi’s name is being called out all the time. He’s winning tons of board battles. He doesn’t score on every shot but he also doesn’t miss the net much. He’s only going to get better but I like what I hear already. 

[Luke Sims]

[Luke Sims]

18 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

Would sure like to see the lineup changed a bit for forwards.

Kirill, Ek, Boldy

Zuc, Rossi, Hartman

Foligno, Dewar, Duhaime

Maroon,Freddy, Vinni

Notice there is no NoJo in this lineup... Mix the names if you want.  Just leave him out.

Your fault for expecting him to keep up that (almost) point per-game pace he had with Boldy. 

Read about it:

https://hockeywilderness.com/news-rumors/minnesota-wild/its-time-to-talk-about-marcus-johansson-r29770/?do=getNewComment&d=2&id=29770

[mnfaninnc]

I haven't been that down on Johansson. He's not a guy who puts the puck in the net that often. He has small hot streaks. But what he does do is offer another option to carry the puck in the zone, he uses his speed to do this, and he can add some assists by doing it. Sometimes, just bringing the puck in the zone allows the offense to set up. He may never get a point on the play as they go low to high and then back down low again, but it was his play that made it successful. 

Johansson has never been very physical, nor a great defender. He's making $2m/year. You don't expect PPG performance out of guys like that. He's simply secondary scoring. 

[FredJohnson]

The contrarian view: trade Rossi while his value is high.

(I am kidding - the kid is good and young. He's more valuable to us than to anyone else because he's a Center)

[Protec]

Rossi scoring is pretty balanced. His first assist on the PP the other night was great. He protected the puck and drew two defenders while reserving the option to pass to Faber at the blueline but he bumped it to #97 which was a safe decision since the guy on him doesn't even have his stick on the ice. At that point it's an open-space 3v2 down low and Boldy scores. His goal and second assist were big but this first assist really shows the step he's taken with his strength and confidence.

The Wild need to get these types of plays against the best teams in the league too.