Luke Sims Hockey Wilderness Contributor Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 View full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen Strife Verified Member Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 I think what the Wild can learn most is patience. The rumors of Rossi or Gus leaving are just rumors (and don't really need to be acted on now). How many times did it take Edmonton to even make the finals with the McDavid/Drai led team? You aren't given cups just because the best players fall into your laps. The Wild team has issues less so with top end talent but depth options. Look what Faber and Rossi were able to do in a year. But also look at what a team $15 mil in the hole had to rely on (Addison/Lucchini/Letteri/Beckman/etc.). An off-season later, you hopefully have Ohgren and Khus (Heidt even) carving out those roles and maybe more. That is asking a lot for new guys all to hit their marks, but the makings of a team are peaking out underneath the depth issues that can be resolved in time. I would be less favorable if Rossi and Faber didn't hit, but they did. *There goes my eternal realistic optimism again* 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will D. Ness Verified Member Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 PK has been huge for the Oilers too. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burnt Toast Verified Member Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 5 hours ago, Citizen Strife said: There goes my eternal realistic optimism again The MN Wild is a team on the rise, plain and simple. How far they will make it the next few years is going to be fun to watch. A lot rides on extending KK and how fast Yurov adjusts. There’s a very good chance he will be a big difference maker from the start. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mateo3xm Verified Member Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 7 hours ago, Citizen Strife said: You aren't given cups just because the best players fall into your laps. The Wild team has issues less so with top end talent but depth options. You sure do have a hell of a lot better chance of winning a cup by getting those top 1-6 picks in the first round but yes you have to do other things right too. Once again this team isn’t going anywhere without those top picks via a proper rebuild. I don’t agree with the top end talent thing. This team doesn’t have enough top end talent. They have 1 very good line and it falls off pretty quickly after that. We have a lot of players that would be playing on the 3rd or 4th line on a cup contender. Look at how much top end talent EDM and FLA have and compare that to our team, it’s an enormous difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen Strife Verified Member Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 (edited) *looks up the stats pages for Edmonton and Florida just in case* The thing to note is that in both Edmonton and Florida's cases, it isn't all just "Top 10 guy this, Top 5 guy that." Yes, you have 1-2, or maybe an extra they grabbed via trade, but in both their top scoring, you had people from 2nd or 3rd round beating out higher ranked people. Middle 1st rounders like Lundell and Tarasenko (via STL) are there too. So it isn't just all top 10 guys everywhere. Edmonton's goalie is from the 2nd round (Bob is undrafted, so take that for what its worth in Florida's case). I've said this before: talent is talent, regardless of where you pick it up. Your point is valid. They do need either 2-3 people to break into that 75-80 point range, or a couple people to go from 20s-30s into the 40s-50s. Either bring up the ceiling or bring up the floor. Main problem with the floor approach (what they are forced to do via the buyouts and Leipold being...EH about the tank idea) is that the defense and goalies must bear the brunt of the offense not competing with the McDavids, Pastrnaks, etc. Well, the bottom fell out last year with Fleury and Gus both sucking wind as Top 55-60...cant win like that. I would say while it would be nice to settle for higher end offensive upside, I'd rather they fix the goaltending and defense. The Wild can win close games. They can't win blowouts. Those 10-8 Vancouver games won't happen more than once a year or so... Edited June 8 by Citizen Strife 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Verified Member Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 9 hours ago, Will D. Ness said: PK has been huge for the Oilers too. Yea you’re right, they just showed a stat for them being at 94%. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredJohnson Verified Member Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 Teams should retain their homegrown centers 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnfaninnc Verified Member Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 (edited) 17 hours ago, Mateo3xm said: You sure do have a hell of a lot better chance of winning a cup by getting those top 1-6 picks in the first round but yes you have to do other things right too. Once again this team isn’t going anywhere without those top picks via a proper rebuild. I don’t agree with the top end talent thing. This team doesn’t have enough top end talent. They have 1 very good line and it falls off pretty quickly after that. We have a lot of players that would be playing on the 3rd or 4th line on a cup contender. Look at how much top end talent EDM and FLA have and compare that to our team, it’s an enormous difference. Let's just say we stay the course. You're right, we do have a lot of players who would be bottom 6 players on a cup contender. But we also have quite a few guys who would be top 6 coming in. They're probably not ready for that role yet, but that's where they're penciled in at. It is much easier to build a team using top 5 picks to do it in a 4 year succession. And then, you probably trade out current guys who are useful and obtain multiple 1st round picks in that time frame. However, that's not the avenue we chose, and these guys we picked are getting close. When comparing the 2 teams, maybe in a couple of years, Edmonton will still be top heavy, we will be a depth team. My hope is that we will be a high end depth team that can score with any line, not just hope to hold opponents even. I also got to watch and see how another really good team was able to shut down that top line for a period last night. Edmonton had those 5 guys going out every other shift, and then 5 other guys just trying to hold down the fort until the 1st 5 regained their breath. It looked like FL was able to roll their lines better and were fresher for it. Edited June 9 by mnfaninnc 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will D. Ness Verified Member Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 On 6/9/2024 at 10:30 AM, mnfaninnc said: When comparing the 2 teams, maybe in a couple of years, Edmonton will still be top heavy, we will be a depth team. My hope is that we will be a high end depth team that can score with any line, not just hope to hold opponents even. Edmonton is kind of screwed IMO. I think they are in worse shape than the Wild. I don't see them blowing it up next year but rather riding 97 & 29 for all it's worth. They are good enough though to contend but it will be hard as we are seeing in these finals. Top heavy will be an understatement, and with all the mismanagement it looks like they will have their version of the Parise/Suter handicap for years. The Wild are going to be more like Florida. Ek/Boldy/KK97 just might be better than Barkov/Tkachuk/Verhaege. Offensively, yes. Defensively, no. Net? Maybe. Depth wise, we can't hold a candle though. Bennett and Lundell are solid. Their whole team is solid. Two years from now, we will still be on the young side... although you know Bennett might be a prime FA target for us after they sign Lundell and he becomes expendable and maybe too expensive for them. (They gotta sign Ekblad and Verhaege) Also - I am going to miss CapFriendly damnit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mateo3xm Verified Member Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 On 6/8/2024 at 6:47 PM, Citizen Strife said: *looks up the stats pages for Edmonton and Florida just in case* The thing to note is that in both Edmonton and Florida's cases, it isn't all just "Top 10 guy this, Top 5 guy that." Yes, you have 1-2, or maybe an extra they grabbed via trade, but in both their top scoring, you had people from 2nd or 3rd round beating out higher ranked people. Middle 1st rounders like Lundell and Tarasenko (via STL) are there too. So it isn't just all top 10 guys everywhere. Edmonton's goalie is from the 2nd round (Bob is undrafted, so take that for what its worth in Florida's case). I've said this before: talent is talent, regardless of where you pick it up. Your point is valid. They do need either 2-3 people to break into that 75-80 point range, or a couple people to go from 20s-30s into the 40s-50s. Either bring up the ceiling or bring up the floor. Main problem with the floor approach (what they are forced to do via the buyouts and Leipold being...EH about the tank idea) is that the defense and goalies must bear the brunt of the offense not competing with the McDavids, Pastrnaks, etc. Well, the bottom fell out last year with Fleury and Gus both sucking wind as Top 55-60...cant win like that. I would say while it would be nice to settle for higher end offensive upside, I'd rather they fix the goaltending and defense. The Wild can win close games. They can't win blowouts. Those 10-8 Vancouver games won't happen more than once a year or so... The easiest way to get those top 1-6 picks is to rebuild. Florida managed to get their top line Center(Barkov) and their top line Dman(Ekblad, who underperformed this past season to injury) via a rebuild. They got the rest of their top 6 picks because players want to go to that location and not get the shit taxed out of them. It doesn’t matter how you get them as long as you get them. That’s what’s going to win you a Stanley Cup. Mn isn’t a desirable destination so you have to draft those types of players. 5 of their top players were picked in the top 6 so what are you talking about that it isn’t all top picks? That’s a huge amount of picks in the top 1-6 lol Florida did phenomenally by signing, drafting and trading for players. Picks on Florida between 1-6 Sam Reinhart Draft: 2014, BUF (2nd overall), 1st round, 2nd pick Matthew Tkachuk Draft: 2016, CGY (6th overall), 1st round, 6th pick Aleksander Barkov Draft: 2013, FLA (2nd overall), 1st round, 2nd pick Sam Bennett Draft: 2014, CGY (4th overall), 1st round, 4th pick Aaron Ekblad Draft: 2014, FLA (1st overall), 1st round, 1st pick Late 1st rounds or lower picks Carter Verhaeghe Draft: 2013, TOR (82nd overall), 3rd round, 21st pick Vladimir Tarasenko Draft: 2010, STL (16th overall), 1st round, 16th pick Gustav Forsling Draft: 2014, VAN (126th overall), 5th round, 6th pick Anton Lundell Draft: 2020, FLA (12th overall), 1st round, 12th pick Brandon Montour Draft: 2014, ANA (55th overall), 2nd round, 25th pick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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