Article: How Do the Wild Clean Up the Mess They've Created?

[wef]

We hear talk about building around KK . My concern is his now short contract my not wait for us because of cap issues. Feels like we're standing in wet cement. 

[Citizen Strife]

I think all we can say right now is Guerin signed off on the extensions thinking the season wouldn't go as balls up as it did.  However, I want to stress that Guerin decided either via mandate or personal choice to drip feed prospects onto the roster rather than open the floodgates.

I don't know what would have been the smarter move.  A lot of injuries to both rosters have muddied either approach anyway.  Would Walker, Khaira, etc not shit the bed on their callups if they were given full and free reign to NHL time?  If they had been good enough, they would have by now.  Guerin gave Addison every chance to not be a one trick pony, but now Addison is slumming it in San Jose.

The options next year are forced, but not as locked down as a lot of recent articles suggest.  Dino and Yurov are the two top forward prospects?  Dewar, Duhaime, and Maroon are replaceable.  There's less room for the Bankiers, Milne's, Haight's etc, but again, injuries and other crap will happen next year too.  

Defense has a few more moving parts, Goligoski, Merrill, Mermis, even Middleton if his asking price to extend is too high.

Foligno is a great defensive forward, Zuccarello was on pace for 90 pts until injuries, and Hartman has utility and peskiness that can be valuable.  A lot of young guys can be run on ELCs until (like Faber and Rossi) they show they are improvements over what we have.  The hope is the new prospects are just as good (if not better) at adapting to the NHL as Rossi and Faber are.  That's all they are at this point: hope.

 

Edited February 5 by Citizen Strife

[Citizen Strife]

Also, my phone just auto-corrected Mermis's name to Mermaid...

[Dango]

Maroon to IR, Beckman up for another  cup of coffee  ,  lets pad that resume .  

[B1GKappa97]

16 hours ago, wef said:

We hear talk about building around KK . My concern is his now short contract my not wait for us because of cap issues. Feels like we're standing in wet cement. 

Yeah I think everyone is, or should be, concerned about whether he resigns. Obviously if he leaves then that takes a lot of wind out of our sails. 

That said, by the time he's due to negotiate on a new deal, we should see guys like Yurov and Khusnutdinov upgrading the top-6. Wallstedt will be up and have multiple years in the league so we'll have a better idea about where he stands as a starting goalie. Its also possible that the 2024 draftee will be playing for us if he's good enough, whether that's in the top-6 or the top-4 of the blueline. 

And, bonus, we should be able to add a big addition or two that offseason as well thanks to getting $13M in cap-space back from the dead-caps reducing. 

Will it be enough to make Kaprizov want to stay? No one will know but it should be our best chance at a cup in the last 3 years if the GM makes the right moves. 

[mnfaninnc]

21 hours ago, Lovehockey said:

The 5 year plan is great but it has some problems. The two key defenders - Brodin and Spurgen wil be 35 and 39. So replacement for them needs to be as good (or better) and there is nothing right indicating that it will be . Kaprisov will be 28 why would he want to wait?  Yrov needs to wait for Hartman 3 years? If he is good as he advertised ( and he is doing very well this year in KHL) why he needs to wait? And this list can continue. There is no success with 5 years plans in professional sport unless you are rebuilding. Otherwise people u think will be there will not be and u start again 

I don't think you quite got my point. Brodin and Spurgeon I did not offset as far as contracts go, but, Hunt will be less expensive on D as will Lambos. All will be playing so there is an offset in cost.

Same thing with Hartman, Foligno, Zuccarello, and Johansson. As their deals go through the cycle, another player, and ELC player will offset the cost to the team. When their deals fall off, that is when it will be time to pay the guys coming out of their ELCs. 

So, if you've got Zuccarello at $4.2 for the next 2 years, if we burn Dino's 1st year this year, you've got Zuccarello + Dino for about $5m for 2 years. With Hartman, you've got him at $4m for 3 years. But, you've got Hartman + Yurov at $5m for 3 years. With Foligno, you've got him for 4 years at $4m. Stramel is likely not ready to even head to the A next year, so he'd be in college likely to sign a PTO at the end of next college season and then his ELC kicks in for '25-26. So, you'd then have Foligno + Stramel at $5m for 3 years. 

If you look at it that way, the team cost is lower even with the extensions. You get the production from 2 players at very reasonable prices. You are also playing with a lot of ELCs which should vastly overperform their contracts. Then, when the others drop off, bridge or longterm deals can come in for the kids. 

It wasn't about waiting for the contracts to drop off, it was more about pairing them together and then seeing the value. Now, a weird sort of anomaly can occur in this cycle: Line 4 could be more expensive than lines 2 and 3 during this period. While line 4 wouldn't exactly be statistically great, they would offer several intangibles and can move up in the lineup if needs call for it. 

[mnfaninnc]

14 hours ago, Dango said:

Maroon to IR, Beckman up for another  cup of coffee  ,  lets pad that resume

Beckman is now healthy. My hope is that he finally breaks through on the score sheet and looks thicker/wins board battles/front of the net battles.

I'd like to see an extended look with him. 

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

And, bonus, we should be able to add a big addition or two that offseason as well thanks to getting $13M in cap-space back from the dead-caps reducing.

The way this is looking, Faber's extension, Rossi extension and Kaprizov extension should eat into this pretty heavily. What we will have left is salary drop off and Cap Inflation. 

Faber's is a nice problem to have. Previously, none of us projected a $9m or so cap hit coming out of the penalties for the player, but, it appears as if he's earned it. I anticipate a bridge deal for Rossi and then if he improves, a healthy extension. And, of course, Kaprizov probably gets a $3m raise. 

On Kaprizov, I don't think that today's roster is going to determine whether or not he stays. I think his projection of our future roster will be the factor, and if we can get Yurov, Dino, Ohgren, Lambos, The Wall, Hunt up to speed, that future looks pretty bright with more assets coming. I really think he'll like playing here.

[raithis]

On 2/5/2024 at 12:18 PM, Lovehockey said:

The main problem is - the prospects need to play. And for the next year as an example Wild will have only 3 spots available for forwards if they decide not sign anyone from the fourth line. And this is what article is indicating - over commitment to average veteran players, holding development of the young players (Rossi) 

How do you figure that?  Just because we've not been able to afford to have players to scratch this year when our roster has been healthy doesn't mean we will have the same problem next year.

If Gaudreau or Johansson are getting outplayed by the youngsters, scratch them.  This assertion that there is no room for Yurov or other prospects assumes that every veteran player on the roster is guaranteed a spot in the lineup.  If players on ELCs are challenging and putting some of the veterans on the bench, so be it.

Unfortunately right now, most of our average veterans are still better than our prospects.  Hopefully that will start flipping the other way as they develop into NHL-caliber players.  The thing is though, you kind of want those average veterans.  You know why?  Because then there is room for the prospects to move past them AND you still have solid NHL players in the event of injury and to keep the prospects (and veterans) working hard for ice time.

[Up North Guy]

17 hours ago, Dango said:

Maroon to IR, Beckman up for another  cup of coffee  ,  lets pad that resume .  

Man that 10 day break must have been rough for Maroon to go on IR. Did he take a jungle tour or what?

[B1GKappa97]

3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

The way this is looking, Faber's extension, Rossi extension and Kaprizov extension should eat into this pretty heavily. What we will have left is salary drop off and Cap Inflation. 

Oh for sure it will. I think Faber and Kaprizov will take up about $20M combined. Rossi, idk, I don't see a lucrative contract in his near future. He's looking much improved but unless his game takes a similar leap next year, I don't imagine he'll be too much of a cap-hit on his next deal. 

Probably closer to $4.5M than Boldy's $7M would be my guess. 

That would still leave us with plenty of cap space to work with to stack the team around Kaprizov. And heck, by the time '26-'27 comes along they can always buy-out Spurgy if he's struggling to stay healthy and get a good chunk of space back again. 

[NC Beach Bum]

1 hour ago, Up North Guy said:

Man that 10 day break must have been rough for Maroon to go on IR. Did he take a jungle tour or what?

they don't want him injured before the trade deadline

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Up North Guy said:

Man that 10 day break must have been rough for Maroon to go on IR. Did he take a jungle tour or what?

CONSPIRACY THEORY WARNING: I'm hoping that this is front office gamesmanship to ensure he's healthy at the TDL.  But i did see that he only played 4+ minutes last game...

[Up North Guy]

5 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

CONSPIRACY THEORY WARNING: I'm hoping that this is front office gamesmanship to ensure he's healthy at the TDL.  But i did see that he only played 4+ minutes last game...

I see that Russo says he was hurt in the last game. That was news to me. i like our version better😎

[mnfaninnc]

19 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

That would still leave us with plenty of cap space to work with to stack the team around Kaprizov. And heck, by the time '26-'27 comes along they can always buy-out Spurgy if he's struggling to stay healthy and get a good chunk of space back again. 

I disagree with going the buyout option on Spurgeon. I think you go the LTIR route and try to get him healthy for a few games + playoffs. He'll still have some value, especially offensively, and dropping him to the 3rd pairing come playoffs should help his body. 

I'd plan for maybe 1/2 a season and LTIR the other 1/2. 

[mnfaninnc]

12 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

I see that Russo says he was hurt in the last game. That was news to me. i like our version better😎

I saw him go into the corner and come out of it rather slow as he skated to the bench. I believe he tried one more shift after that and headed down the tunnel. I have to assume it's his left shoulder.

[mnfaninnc]

20 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Rossi, idk, I don't see a lucrative contract in his near future. He's looking much improved but unless his game takes a similar leap next year, I don't imagine he'll be too much of a cap-hit on his next deal. 

Probably closer to $4.5M than Boldy's $7M would be my guess. 

I agree on these numbers for Rossi, maybe a little lower with his current production this year in his rookie year. But, that still would be an increase of $3.5m which would take a chunk out of the $13m we gain.