Article: Wild Terminating Vladislav Firstov's Contract After Disappointing Years

[Thomas Williams]

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[Protec]

Too bad for Colorado cause Nichushkin had been pretty good recently. The Russian gas or PCP & Muscle-Milk must have been working.

Firstov probably has a girlfriend and prefers his home country where he can still play hockey and get paid. Wish him the best. MN can move on and bring the guys into IA who wanna be there and compete to make the NHL.

[Pewterschmidt]

51 minutes ago, Protec said:

Too bad for Colorado cause Nichushkin had been pretty good recently. The Russian gas or PCP & Muscle-Milk must have been working.

Firstov probably has a girlfriend and prefers his home country where he can still play hockey and get paid. Wish him the best. MN can move on and bring the guys into IA who wanna be there and compete to make the NHL.

This was Fenton's 2nd round pick.  Boldy was the first round pick that year.   Not good for Guerin & Co. as the prospect pipeline was already dry from Fletcher's mismanagement.  Clanking a 2nd rounder off the upright makes a turnaround/rebuild/reboot/fresh-start/talent injection take that much longer.  

Guerin & Co. hoping Yurov is their lightning in a bottle prospect, or this group goes sideways indefinitely (ie 5 yrs). 

[Pewterschmidt]

Haight has potential for offensive upside (ie 20+ goals as rookie) based on the hype.

Stramel, Rasmu, Lorenz project as Foligno 2.0, best case scenario.

That leaves the free agent market for Guerin & Co. to turn this ship around.  Starts this summer brochella.  If this summer he can add a legit middle six who's under 30 years old I'll give Guerin a passing grade for this offseason.  That's how low the bar is right now.

[Pewterschmidt]

And this makes the unnecessary early extensions w/NMC even more incriminating.

Nojo, Foligno and Hartman all could have returned valuable assets at last years trade deadline.  Won't even bring up Fred Evason

#triplepostWednesday

[Willy the poor boy]

Great, now how are we gonna get McDavid...

[mnfaninnc]

I've gotta believe that something else is going on with the Firstov thing. It seems like he put up decent numbers in the K, but why just terminate him? Why not try and trade an asset? Why not make him a sweetener in a deal?

To me, this just doesn't seem like a good allocation of resources, and this comes on the heals of a promising young center not being signed in Servac Petrovsky. At least find a way to get something for them.

With Firstov, this could, indeed be a problem with the 50 contract maximum, though I haven't checked where we're at for next year. Same thing with Petrovsky. But that still doesn't take away the fact that you should be able to convert both into assets, maybe future late round picks. These guys should be getting traded, not just let go for free! And, they are allowed to trade them now.

I look at these moves with severe scrutiny. I believe Shooter needs to try harder. This cost certainty stuff was a mistake and I still don't see him trying to correct the mistakes. I like, for the most part, what Guerin has done for the Wild since he's been here. I've given him some slack on learning on the fly. But, come on, Shooter, you've got to up your game just like the rest of the team needs to up theirs!

[MrCheatachu]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Nojo, Foligno and Hartman all could have returned valuable assets at last years trade deadline. 

Are you sharing whatever you're smoking?

Hartzy probably could have returned something interesting, maybe a contender would have overpaid for him especially on his team friendly $1.7M contract, but Nojo/Moose?  Nah...

What kind of return do you think Nojo would have gotten at the TDL, a 3rd?  

Moose, with his 'core muscle' injury was basically a worthless shell of himself...

[Citizen Strife]

If it's a situation where Firstov wasn't interested in being here, didn't have the stats to justify it, or a little of both, then it isn't any big loss.  Both the Minnesota and Iowa Wild need depth, but there's a point where cuts have to be made.  This still remains a hard sport to earn a place in AND a cutthroat business at the end of the day.

[Sam]

56 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

Great, now how are we gonna get McDavid...

We are gunna get McDavid?!

[Imyourhuckleberry]

47 minutes ago, Sam said:

We are gunna get McDavid?!

Probably have a shot at Connor Mackey or Connor McDonough, but Connor McDavid could be a tough get, in part due to a No Movement Clause.

Could be a chance to coax Cameron McDavid into a contract, but he didn't advance beyond the Ontario Junior Hockey League, Newmarket Hurricanes back in 2011, so probably doesn't have much to offer at age 31.

[mnfaninnc]

In other news, Moose Jaw took an OT game 4-3 to go up 3-0 on Portland. What a weird finals this has been, both in the W and O team are up 3-0 on their opponents. Parker had no points.

 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

In other news, Moose Jaw took an OT game 4-3 to go up 3-0 on Portland. What a weird finals this has been, both in the W and O team are up 3-0 on their opponents. Parker had no points.

Moose Jaw really a surprise there as they seemed like the 5th best team entering the playoffs, based upon record and goals for/against. They did add a few players during the season who are helping them now, Kalem Parker among them.

Matthew Savoie(#9 overall 2022 NHL Entry Draft) seems like the biggest factor among those added.

Denton Mateychuk(#12 overall 2022 NHL Entry Draft) has been with them from the start of the season and is having a huge impact from their defensive units, posting 11 goals and 19 assists in 19 playoff games.

The Moose Jaw goalie has a solid, though unspectacular .909 save percentage in the playoffs, but that's been good enough for 15 wins in 19 games so far. They went to OT 6 of the 7 games against Saskatoon, including all of the last 4 games, coming back from a 3-2 series deficit to make the finals. That had to be exciting hockey!

[mnfaninnc]

Here's an interesting rumor: Landing spots for Sheldon Keefe had Pittsburgh listed as #2. It's no secret that Dubas liked him.

However, that would make Sully expendable. Now, the article said that Sully would make perfect sense for the Maple Leafs, and he probably would. But, he also makes perfect sense for the Wild, and I wonder if Billy can out bid the Leafs for him? 

If so, Sully would likely get his choice on if he wants to coach or start in the front office. Hynes, I believe would stay with the organization and get the job Sully didn't want. I do think a 3 headed monster could be useful here and all have good hockey minds! 

Is it too soon for Sully with this team? Maybe. I see him as their championship coach. But, if you wanted to send Kaprizov a message that you were committed to winning, this would be the hire you would want!

[bisopher]

10 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

To me, this just doesn't seem like a good allocation of resources, and this comes on the heals of a promising young center not being signed in Servac Petrovsky. At least find a way to get something for them.

Could this be a move to clear space and sign Petrovsky? Or has that ship sailed?

[Pewterschmidt]

59 minutes ago, bisopher said:

Could this be a move to clear space and sign Petrovsky? Or has that ship sailed?

I believe the Wild have cut bait on petro

[Protec]

The Wild's Slovak goaltender has been playing pretty good at Worldz. 

Seems like the Wild are ready in IA to bring in the youth and begin under the newest grit-guru GM Matt Hendricks. He probably said nah, we don't need additional Euros and Russians. 

I expect to see a tough brand of hockey in Des Moines with skilled NA players and the big Finn RasKampu.

[mnfaninnc]

12 hours ago, bisopher said:

Could this be a move to clear space and sign Petrovsky? Or has that ship sailed?

Maybe, I think they have until the draft to sign him, maybe it's June 1?

[mnfaninnc]

So, who had Kalem Parker being our prospect representative for the Jrs. cup tournament? Well, he made it as Moose Jaw finished the sweep of Portland 4-2.

However, this is the end of the line for Oshawa as the London Knights in their great looking copies of the '80s North Star unis, blew them out again 7-1. Kumpulainen had no points, wasn't good in the dot, and was a bit overmatched in this series. He's got some work to do on the farm next year.

I haven't followed the Q, to my knowledge, we've got nobody in there, at least not yet. I'm not sure who the 4th team will be competing for the cup, it's usually the host city. I'm kind of hoping Prince George gets an invite.

[OldDutchChip]

16 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Here's an interesting rumor: Landing spots for Sheldon Keefe had Pittsburgh listed as #2. It's no secret that Dubas liked him.

However, that would make Sully expendable. Now, the article said that Sully would make perfect sense for the Maple Leafs, and he probably would. But, he also makes perfect sense for the Wild, and I wonder if Billy can out bid the Leafs for him? 

If so, Sully would likely get his choice on if he wants to coach or start in the front office. Hynes, I believe would stay with the organization and get the job Sully didn't want. I do think a 3 headed monster could be useful here and all have good hockey minds! 

Is it too soon for Sully with this team? Maybe. I see him as their championship coach. But, if you wanted to send Kaprizov a message that you were committed to winning, this would be the hire you would want!

This cycle through old coaches is fun of course, but how about we do a 180 and go the other way! Let's try to get Larionov over here to coach? I know I know politics, but he probably has a villa in Miami and why not have a nice little house on Lake Pepin in Summer time too? New and Different voice, new and different demands. I like it. 

[Pewterschmidt]

13 hours ago, Protec said:

grit-guru GM Matt Hendricks

Brotato chip has some street cred in the grit dept.  He was one tough mofo as an NHL'r.  

#oneofus

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, OldDutchChip said:

Let's try to get Larionov over here to coach?

Great idea! I would file this under an unlikely scenario with Shooter at the helm.

[Mateo3xm]

16 hours ago, Protec said:

and the big Finn RasKampu

That’s about all he is. People keep mentioning him like he’s a high quality player. I don’t think he even scored a point per game in his draft plus one year. He’s got some pretty glaring skating issues so wouldn’t expect the guy to do much and I’m betting he doesn’t make it to the NHL even though I’m rooting for the kid.

[Citizen Strife]

56 points in 58 games in the OHL...so, close enough.  He probably wasn't drafted to be an offensive centerman anyway, but a hopeful 3rd/4th line option in a few years.

[Citizen Strife]

Also, Nic Petan and Sam Steel had some crazy post draft years points wise, but didn't amount to more than "eh, they can show up I guess" NHL players.  You can just never tell.