Article: The Kings May Be Ideal Trading Partners For Minnesota This Summer

[Patrick]

12 hours ago, Need4speed99 said:

I'm not sure what you are saying... the age caught up to them and letting youth play would least show where the team is headed, with the vets we KNOW the ceiling. 

I'm all for letting the youth play. I would have benched nojo and Gaudreau at Christmas.  My only point is the most important players (except Spurgeon) on MN are at or entering their prime. (I don't count Zuccarello because he is only riding KKs coattails and does absolutely nothing on his own. They should trade him he is a dead end)

[Bigreed]

The argument about age isn’t a great one, as the teams that are younger than the Wild didn’t make the playoffs except the Kings and Canucks. Once Fluery retires, they he average age will sink by nearly one year. Next year won’t be that great, however by ‘25 we will be really good and young, for the guys that matter. It’s not like are fourth-line players need to be 21, they won’t see much ice-time.

[Chris]

Thanks for the time and effort you put into the article. Some interesting proposals. However, one thing I think we need to be careful of is the idea of packaging a bunch of players we don't want to another team for some value in return. I mean, if we or the Wild don't see much value in these players, why would other teams see it? I can't see just about any team having any interest in Gaudreau now, at least unless he can show he still has something left in the tank. The same goes for Johansson. Of course, there's nothing wrong with speculating about our favorite team, but the mentioned proposals are not realistic in my opinion

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

On 4/20/2024 at 8:30 AM, Patrick said:

Who? Spurgeon and Zuccarello are the only ones I can think of. That's hardly a lot.

Our players over 30:

Gaudreau, Zucc, Foligno, Spurg, Brodin, Mojo, Bogosian, Merrill, Goligoski, Mermis and Fleury.

Letteri and Hartman are both 29. 

We are not on the right side of the aging curve as a team. 11/25 over 30 is not a great look.

24/25 roster will be 11/19 signed players over 30(barring additions).

[Need4speed99]

On 4/19/2024 at 9:10 AM, Mateo3xm said:

Gabe Perreault had 60pts out of 36 games at Boston college I think he lead all of college in points or close to it. Size is extremely important in the playoffs. Of these so called high profile teams, are any of them highly successful in the playoffs?

So of alot of the skill teams I was speaking of and several are stanley cup winners once or multiple time in the last 13 yrs the height and weight avg was 6'0 to 6'2 although 6'0 and 6'1 were the most common an weight ranging 190 to 205.

23 wild come in at 6'0 193lbs... so I think my point stands. You don't need to be giant anymore to win, skill is everything. Yes you need size but smaller guys can easily become major factors( Brayden point, brad Marchand, johnny g) just to name a few. Ohh and 2 of those guys have either won the Stanley cup or competed in the finals a time or 2 in their careers.

[Mateo3xm]

On 4/19/2024 at 9:34 PM, Need4speed99 said:

Yea the avalanche, early Tampa Bay. The Blackhawks owned us years ago while being smaller but they went with skill over anything.

I would have to look that up. I think all those teams you mentioned were at least in the top half as far as size and weight is concerned. Might even be in the top 1/3. I don’t think they’re as small as you think but I need to confirm.

[Mateo3xm]

On 4/20/2024 at 4:41 PM, Bigreed said:

The argument about age isn’t a great one, as the teams that are younger than the Wild didn’t make the playoffs except the Kings and Canucks. Once Fluery retires, they he average age will sink by nearly one year. Next year won’t be that great, however by ‘25 we will be really good and young, for the guys that matter. It’s not like are fourth-line players need to be 21, they won’t see much ice-time.

I don’t think that’s how it works. Age is definitely a factor. Hockey has definitely become a younger man’s game. It’s actually pretty hard to argue that it isn’t a big factor.

[Mateo3xm]

On 4/23/2024 at 7:47 PM, Need4speed99 said:

So of alot of the skill teams I was speaking of and several are stanley cup winners once or multiple time in the last 13 yrs the height and weight avg was 6'0 to 6'2 although 6'0 and 6'1 were the most common an weight ranging 190 to 205.

23 wild come in at 6'0 193lbs... so I think my point stands. You don't need to be giant anymore to win, skill is everything. Yes you need size but smaller guys can easily become major factors( Brayden point, brad Marchand, johnny g) just to name a few. Ohh and 2 of those guys have either won the Stanley cup or competed in the finals a time or 2 in their careers.

I agree with that somewhat. If you’re extremely skilled and more skilled than most teams then you don’t need to be bigger but still need decent size. If you don’t have the skill as some of these top teams you better be bigger than most (St.Louis). Size absolutely can be an important part of winning in the playoffs. 
the Wild aren’t particularly big or skilled and a large part of their roster is 30 or older. What I’m concerned about is the gap of players that are old and on the end of their career and the amount of players that need to be ready to come in and step up into those positions. Maybe I’m overthinking it but I see a few crappy years coming up until  our prospects start reaching their prime which is usually between 24-26 years of age.

[Need4speed99]

On 4/25/2024 at 12:48 PM, Mateo3xm said:

I agree with that somewhat. If you’re extremely skilled and more skilled than most teams then you don’t need to be bigger but still need decent size. If you don’t have the skill as some of these top teams you better be bigger than most (St.Louis). Size absolutely can be an important part of winning in the playoffs. 
the Wild aren’t particularly big or skilled and a large part of their roster is 30 or older. What I’m concerned about is the gap of players that are old and on the end of their career and the amount of players that need to be ready to come in and step up into those positions. Maybe I’m overthinking it but I see a few crappy years coming up until  our prospects start reaching their prime which is usually between 24-26 years of age.

And I agree with the age portion and your projections on the next few years. I just want to see what kind of skill the prospects have and if they provide a better chance at winning than the vets, regardless of size.

It just seems billy is more concerned with having vets and size than overall skill. 

I know the need for size and grit in the playoffs and we were a much more physical team years ago but the Blackhawks kept bouncing us and just played a skill/speed game we could never match.