Article: Nikolaj Ehlers Has the Speed Minnesota Desperately Needs

[Justin Wiggins]

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[Protec]

No more Euros please.

Never durable, physical, or consistent. I'd rather have guys like Brett Howden or Jack Roslovic for less AAV.

Not dynamic or flashy. The Wild need balance, not more highly-skilled Euros. Probably why Bowness didn't like him.

[Glenn]

No the wild need to get rid of all those old slow players like  17  24 36 46 89 90    we need to get younger and way faster. But Blunder Billy  is so stuck on his GOOD OLD AND SLOW BOYS CLUB I should add always getting hurt to 

[Glenn]

I rather watch young and fast  then old and slow

[Citizen Strife]

A good idea might be to keep what we have and work with it.  Perron etc. on 1-year deals may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they are trade bait if things don't work.  You don't trade for bigger pieces if you don't things are going to work out immediately.  Trading for someone we don't know will work in our system throws away stuff that we know already has some chemistry (i.e. all the Rossi stuff).

Having the buyout noose around the neck is still worth remembering.  You're down a hole, and trading out of it now just throws away easy depth (or maybe better) pieces to give that money to anyway.

Edited May 11 by Citizen Strife

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

I rather watch young and fast  then old and slow

Ehlers is currently 28 and has speed. I'm not sure of your argument here. 28 is not old. 

However, 6' 172 is pretty light. Ehlers has had some good scoring years and is about a career .7 ppg player. However, he is another small player, of which we have plenty.

I don't really care for the idea. Ehlers also has a tendency to disappear in the playoffs, who needs another one of those? 14 points in 37 games and only 4 goals. That tells me that when the intensity ramps up, as well as physicality, Ehlers doesn't adapt well to that. 

Based upon this, I could see Ehlers definitely being available. I've loved his speed and believe he is a dangerous player, but as I look into it, he's got a lot of red flags and is not even an RHS. While on paper, he looks like a definite upgrade over Johansson (and you could say that about most players), he also doesn't have the greatest durability track record either. 

For me, I think we need an RHS, a larger body and a younger guy. I can give a little on the RHS for this player, but we do need to balance that out in another player, and have to have someone who can play in Ovechkin's office. Tkachuk is still the one I'd target and hard. McTavish is another player I'd go hard after especially if Tkachuk falls through.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Sean Monahan might be a decent target. He isn't projected to make a ton in free agency, but has some history of scoring. Perhaps Teravainen, but I'm guessing he would be tougher to get.

[Citizen Strife]

Monohan's lack of games played recently has me leery.  He hasn't played 70 games in over 5 years, and for a team that dealt with everything last year, adding another injury risk doesn't sound the greatest.  Teravainen might be out of the range, but maybe they would take Gus as part of a package back to make it a the money more doable.  He's 50-60 pt potential on a good year...but who knows.

 

Edited May 11 by Citizen Strife

[Citizen Strife]

Edit to above: Teravainen is a UFA this offseason...well, deal Gus anyway, get something back, and his asking price seems a bit more attainable.

As it stands, they are in the $3-4m range with the stuff left to give to Rossi's bonuses, Chisholm and Shaw (maybe one or both), so Teravainen would be one of those "Get rid of a couple people" to take a stab at a $5-6m player instead).

Edited May 11 by Citizen Strife

[mnfaninnc]

6 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Perhaps Teravainen, but I'm guessing he would be tougher to get.

Teravainen plays a small game, I don't think he solves our problems. Necas would be far better.

Teravainen is listed at 5'11" 193. That's not small, he's more of a middleweight. However, he plays a very finesse game, so he plays lighter than he is, kind of like Johansson does. 

He's also quite streaky. There are times where he is in a scoring desert. He doesn't get out of that quickly.

Edited May 11 by mnfaninnc

[mnfaninnc]

Teravainen is a UFA though, so you'd just have to pay him. Necas is an RFA.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

5 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Teravainen plays a small game, I don't think he solves our problems. Necas would be far better.

That's fair, though I was only looking at unrestricted free agents under $6M. Necas is restricted and projected at $7M+, so not sure he fits on the 24-25 Wild roster.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

11 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Monohan's lack of games played recently has me leery.  He hasn't played 70 games in over 5 years, and for a team that dealt with everything last year, adding another injury risk doesn't sound the greatest.

Monahan's injury history is what makes him affordable. He just played 83 regular season games this season, however, and 5 playoff games.

Don't think he's not old enough to be washed up yet. If you could get him on a 1 year deal, he could payoff nicely, but I wouldn't suggest anything long-term.

[Dis-allowed display name]

OMG.  Marcus Johansson  has the speed we desperately need!   How did that work out?

No.  Just no.  Don't care about his speed.  Don't care.  Don't care.  Don't care.

Professional sports has been filled with one dimensional speed players who could not do ****.  Just stop it.

We need size!  We need speed! Trade Rossi, he is too small!  I have fallen in love with one dimension!  

I can't take it.

Next headline:  The Wild should Trade for the Corpse of Maurice Rocket Richard!  The Wild should try to put Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane on skates!

The Wild should dump every overpaid old fart they can.  The Wild should give playing time to their young prospects and see who rises to the top.  The Wild should quit trying to win meaningless games for one-and-out playoff runs and build for the future.

I had season tickets but instead of giving someone with a future a chance, I watched Johansson, Goligoski, Merrill, Gaudreau, and Flower.  It was not worth $105 a game.  It was not worth $20 a game.

Enough already.  Give me multifaceted players with skill who work hard.  I would rather watch a dozen Mason Shaws skate their hearts out than another fast Johansson who could give two ****s.

Edited May 12 by Dis-allowed display name

[Protec]

Nohansson sucks, that's where we agree most. Almost just as much, the need for well-rounded players. 

The bottom line has been the same for a long time. If you can find equally fast, skilled players, your team benefits from bigger players versus smaller. It's also true your team benefits from NA players more than Euros. Hockey is not a pure skill or skating game. Otherwise how would Foligno or Matt Tkachuk ever make >4M in the NHL?

Why are guys like Hanzal, Reaves, or Maroon always deadline acquisitions?Because teams need that for playoffs.

So why not just build your team that way to sstart. MN is now in position to do that. There's assets and money coming up allowing them to get back at even keel with some really good players under contract.

Gus and Wallstedt have a year to prove themselves while Fleury fizzles. Any of MN's picks that wanna make it just have to do a Lundell, Jarvis, Mercer, Johnston, etc. and simply make the team by being that good. Now if Cross-eyed Bill holds them out for Fred & NoJo, then we know he's gone full-retard and all hope is lost.

[mnfaninnc]

9 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Necas is restricted and projected at $7M+, so not sure he fits on the 24-25 Wild roster.

That would mean money would need to go out too. We'd have to trade for him. It would likely be expensive.

[mnfaninnc]

20 minutes ago, Protec said:

Now if Cross-eyed Bill holds them out for Fred & NoJo, then we know he's gone full-retard and all hope is lost.

But, the kids have got to really beat these guys out and climb the ladder above them. There is the business side, and a guy guaranteed $2m can be buried in the A with NTCs. But, if you're going to pay that money down there, the guy coming up has got to be significantly better. 

You can't just nudge out a vet, it's got to be a slam dunk win. And, to do this, a larger body is necessary. How these kids haven't been bulking up in the gym is beyond my comprehension. It's like they don't want a regular NHL job! 

[Citizen Strife]

Also, no reason for that kind of language, Protec.  I'm all for fucks and shits, but saying Guerin that is quite a bit much.

[Protec]

13 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Also, no reason for that kind of language, Protec.  I'm all for fucks and shits, but saying Guerin that is quite a bit much.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that. One naughty word okay, not another don't make no sense.

Bottom line for the Wild, they've got a lot of good UFAs to look at. Various prices and lots of 27-31 age guys. Guerin needs to shuffle the roster and get the ball rolling for 2025-26.

 

[mnfaninnc]

23 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Also, no reason for that kind of language, Protec.  I'm all for fucks and shits, but saying Guerin that is quite a bit much.

Not sure what word you're referring to?

[Citizen Strife]

Retard

 

[mnfaninnc]

On 5/13/2024 at 10:22 AM, Citizen Strife said:

Retard

I think what we're looking at here is a word that was perfectly legitimate as a cutdown in a different era. I'm of that era and just breezed right through the post without thinking anything of it. 

This would be a normal expression that, if said, and people give you dirty looks, at least for me, I'd be like 🤷‍♂️, what happened? This is the extension of my social media dive, I don't really get into all of the things you can and can't say anymore.

There's been such a change of rules in things, I really just don't even recognize things anymore. I don't think Protec was trying to offend anyone with the phrase, but, it is Protec and sometimes he goes over the line.....on purpose. Maybe he wants to re-change his moniker? 1700+ post is probably a record right now! 

Anyway, I have not kept up really on what is acceptable and what isn't anymore. Does it get me into trouble in face to face conversations? Yeah, it probably does. I guess you can have those attitudes, you just can't say them anymore? I'm sure I'll end up doing the same thing at some point, I do hope all will understand I'm old, and have an older person's vocabulary.

[Citizen Strife]

It's more that equating Guerin to a person of stunted development is pretty off-base.  I mean, he runs a professional hockey team that has had one losing season or so in his tenure...labeling him like a disabled person is just a bit much.

It's almost like saying, "He ruined my hockey team, I hope he fucking dies in a fire."  Same deal.  Pretty damn harsh and a bit much because we like sports.

Note: words are words, and that's all they are.  Still, having disdain for a person to that kind of degree says more about you than it does them.  I deal with wrestling fans.  They are hardly the most...logically and reasonable people either.

[Mateo3xm]

On 5/11/2024 at 8:43 AM, Protec said:

No more Euros please.

Never durable, physical, or consistent. I'd rather have guys like Brett Howden or Jack Roslovic for less AAV.

Not dynamic or flashy. The Wild need balance, not more highly-skilled Euros. Probably why Bowness didn't like him.

This absolutely is true in Ehlers case. I had him for fantasy and he was a bandaid. He was hurt often before this year too.

[Mateo3xm]

On 5/11/2024 at 11:20 AM, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Sean Monahan might be a decent target. He isn't projected to make a ton in free agency, but has some history of scoring. Perhaps Teravainen, but I'm guessing he would be tougher to get.

Monahan wouldn’t be bad but Turbo Teravainen is always hurt. When he’s on he’s decent but very inconsistent as well.