Article: What Are the Wild Going To Do With Freddy Gaudreau?

[Luke Sims]

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[Will D. Ness]

He hasn't been the same since the Reaves hit.  I don't know if he is still injured but he just doesn't have it.

[Citizen Strife]

It's a shame, since he was an affordable, dependable, and sneaky glue guy.  All of that is just plain...gone.

[FredJohnson]

Makes no sense that he's eating up TOI when younger, more talented guys are in the press box or on the 4th line.

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

2 hours ago, FredJohnson said:

Makes no sense that he's eating up TOI when younger, more talented guys are in the press box or on the 4th line.

How many times have we heard Guerin spout the earn thier spot routine? How is Gaudreau earning his spot at this point?

[mnfaninnc]

16 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

He hasn't been the same since the Reaves hit.  I don't know if he is still injured but he just doesn't have it.

This is kind of what I was thinking, I wonder if he isn't completely healed yet. Of course we can talk about the concussion, and he apparently passed baseline protocols for that, but what about the point of contact on his body from the blind side? I believe it was Middleton who said he still had a twitch in his shoulder from a Reaves hit when Midsy was a rookie. 

Will an offseason be what Gaudreau needs to recover? 

I'd also like to point out that the Wild have not gone to many shootouts, especially when Gaudreau has been in the lineup. His $2.1m deal was a fair deal, especially when you consider that this is our 3rd shooter in the shootout and he was pretty much money the last 2 years. I remember him having 1 chance so far this year that he missed. 

Since we are not going to shootouts very often, it would seem like his value is diminished because one of his roles is not seen. Even though we're not heading to shootouts, you still have to plan for them, and having a cool as a cucumber 3rd shooter is important. 

Even analytics doesn't capture the shootout role very well, because a goal at 3rd has to be worth 1 standings point at least. But, it probably isn't with the analytics guys. 

So, I would say that at least 1/4 of his contract is for this specialty role, and not seeing it makes us forget that this is part of his contract. I'd say for his regular shifts, he's probably useful as a $1.6m player who can play center in the bottom 6. That's probably a little below average for a player like him. 

I've got no problems paying a guy $500k to be a shootout specialist. You never know when you're going to need that role fulfilled. 

[Pewterschmidt]

Gudreau is NoJo with a heartbeat.   At least Fred looks like he wants to be there, but he’s not an NHL’r.  I will assume that BG didn’t give him a 10 yr extension to appease Deano (then fire Dean a month later).  Just too many unforced errors by Guerin last offseason locking in the apathetic old core.  The can’t miss prospects need to hit at a 75%+ rate for this team to not be the CBJackets in a couple years.  Whispers: when are the can’t miss defenseman prospects going to make the next step? *crickets* 

#freelambos 

Edited February 17 by Pewterschmidt