Article: Wild Closing In On Another Prospect Signing

[Thomas Williams]

View full article

[Protec]

If Peart can model his game and take the torch from Spurgeon, that'd be pretty cool.

[mnfaninnc]

I like that Peart looks at Spurgeon as a model. But, recognizing that Spurgeon is the unicorn not the norm is important. Peart is similar in size to Heidt, and may have grown an inch or 2 in college. I think the same issue is there with him as in Heidt. He currently sits at 5'11" 185 lbs. I think adding 10 lbs. to that makes him a good size for the A, and looking to get to 200 at the NHL level would be good.

Could anyone imagine a Spurgeon at 190 instead of 166? That's a lot of pounding that could be absorbed along the boards. The same holds true for Peart, add the strength/weight, take the pounding better. You can still model your game after Spurgeon's, you just have a little more tools to work with.

Now, I believe that this is Peart's size when drafted. He may be there now for all we know.

[Will D. Ness]

I'm not getting why all of our D prospects in Iowa are doing so bad.  Hunt is the exception and honestly... should have Merrill's spot... but Lambos and ORourke's stats are scary bad.

[Protec]

Sounds like Peart signed. Ek & Brodin practicing. Not Foligno. Those silky mitts and high hockey-play IQ needed a maintenance day. 😃

[Pewterschmidt]

29 minutes ago, Protec said:

Those silky mitts and high hockey-play IQ needed a maintenance day.

Only the end boards glass and Foligno's helmet are breathing a sigh of relief

[Citizen Strife]

Hey now: just when you think the Moose is further away than he appears, he trucks people and then scores a goal out of nowhere.

As for Peart, I'd be ok with another Spurgeon if that's what the Wild get.  Spurgeon's best feature was his well-rounded approach and mobility to work in all facets.  Spurgeon definitely excelled more in defense later in his career though.  I would love to have a younger big guy to balance things out though.

[Pewterschmidt]

17 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

just when you think the Moose is further away than he appears, he trucks people and then scores a goal out of nowhere.

Doing this once every 20 games makes it the exception, not the rule.  This hot take applies to both trucking opponents and executing a hockey play.

#blindsquirreltheory

#unlikeTonyi'llpileonwhentheAAVandTOIdontmatchoniceperformance

[Protec]

Foglino needs to be like a 20 goal, 20 assist guy. Otherwise, I don't think he's making enough of a positive offensive impact. Some positive is nice but you could ask Beckman to run around and fire off hits at the same rate and he'd get the same number of goals/assists or better. I'd like to see a smarter, more focused Flogino. It's not enough. How's he helping the team most right now? Answering the press about tough losses in the Central?

[MrCheatachu]

18 hours ago, Protec said:

Foglino needs to be like a 20 goal, 20 assist guy. Otherwise, I don't think he's making enough of a positive offensive impact. Some positive is nice but you could ask Beckman to run around and fire off hits at the same rate and he'd get the same number of goals/assists or better. I'd like to see a smarter, more focused Flogino. It's not enough. How's he helping the team most right now? Answering the press about tough losses in the Central?

When Moose was on the GrEEF line, which caught lightning in a bottle in the '21-'22 season, we were able to run a shut-down, high checking, frustrating line that could bottle up top lines across the league.  Moose got his 23g/19a that season just absolutely smothering other teams, and wearing their top players down in their defensive zone.

This season, we see him skating with (a clearly injured) FreddyG and rotating cast of Maroon/Ek/Rossi?  No offense to FreddyG, while he's a 'responsible' player, he isnt out-working you with his 'punchable dopey face' like JEEK is.  Rossi aint a banger either, and Foligno's game isn't designed around Rossi's game.

I've also noticed that both Moose and Hartman appear to have been instructed to play it a few steps away from the line this season.  While I appreciate them not taking stupid penalties, some of there effectiveness was in being pests...which they have not done this season.

[mnfaninnc]

19 hours ago, Protec said:

Foglino needs to be like a 20 goal, 20 assist guy. Otherwise, I don't think he's making enough of a positive offensive impact.

Is this the actual stat line, or would you settle for on pace scoring? I ask because it is likely that Foligno's injury history grows stronger not weaker. If he's at 60 games, his stats will need to adjust.

[FredJohnson]

Is he better than Merrill?

[Protec]

I think if your paying Foligno 4M per year for awhile yet, what are you paying for? ~ 40pts? If not, then are you back-paying for good years, hitting, heavy-body, fighting, leadership, aloof-answers for questions about losing? 

Just asking the questions? To me it seems like we'd want a player that does those types of things but scores 30-40pts for 4M per year. 

Perhaps it's right that without good balance, players are not getting to their best. I think Foligno is probably like a 20-30pt guy year to year.

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, Protec said:

Perhaps it's right that without good balance, players are not getting to their best. I think Foligno is probably like a 20-30pt guy year to year.

This sounds about right, but I also think he's a 60 game player at this point.