Article: The Wild's Biggest Lesson From Florida's Cup Run? Fortune Favors the Bold

[Luke Sims]

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[Citizen Strife]

ODC and Protec gonna have a field day with this article...

If being bold means dumping Rossi, no thanks.  I get the allure of taking risks, but Fletcher got nothing out of it and the team is STILL paying for it.  

[OldDutchChip]

yes and yes and yes

be bold wild be bold

nothing is impossible and nothing is off the table

look if LA got rid of PLD - i don't want to hear "oh it will never work" 

let's get excited!

[Citizen Strife]

Washington pays for LA's mistake, what dopes.

Eternal reminder: EEK makes $5.25m, while PLD makes $8.5m.  Free Agency and trades can sometimes kill.  Heck, Rossi might outdo PLD's numbers for free.

Edited June 21 by Citizen Strife

[Will D. Ness]

Luck favors the bold... say the lucky.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Quote

The Wild have a good pool of centers, but the Panthers have a deadly trio led by one of the best in the world. There’s a reason one team is trying to hoist the Cup, and the other team is hoisting a cup on the couch.

Florida has a pool of 28-year old veteran players. The Wild have one at 27, another at 22, and another 20 year old that isn't even on the team yet. I suspect Guerin might get bold, but it's a little early in his retooling to do that when he's working with roughly a $73M cap while many teams have a full $88M.

Nobody said to themselves that within 3-4 years of doing the buy-outs for Parise and Suter that the Wild would be hoisting a cup. The Wild have been making moves to build for 25-26, and should have some strong young players when it finally arrives, along with a mix of veteran leadership that good teams need.

Guerin maybe hasn't maximized all assets, like the Stramel pick, but still has a top 12 prospect pool and a team that can compete for the playoffs, when healthy. A lot of that is due to Kaprizov which was not Guerin's pick, but he's made a number to good moves for the future since he arrived.

I'm looking forward to seeing the youth movement in the next 2 years with Johansson and Fleury coming off the books at the end of this season. Yurov and Wallstedt will replace those expiring contracts, and join Ohgren and Khusnutdinov, who will have gained valuable experience in 24-25. The Wild could go from lottery team to competing for home ice in the playoffs in the not too distant future. Lambos might even be ready to help in 25-26.

[Protec]

FL has gotten aggressive and picked up important guys in their ascension to the Cup Finals twice. There were some big moves and South FL makes it easy cause players wanna go there. 

It's allowed FL to acquire veterans and build a mercenary force with top guys for their whole careers coming in to play roles on the 3rd/4th lines or final defense pairings. (Okposo, Tarasenko, OEL.)

Minnesota's penalties are nearly over. They've got young talent. They've got a solid core, and veteran presence. What else do they need, you might ask? Balance and depth. FL & Edmonton have it. Last year, Florida and Vegas had it. Dallas failed this year due to their defense, and special teams, although their scoring slumped somewhat. NYR also had the depth and balance, but bogged down like Dallas. By comparison MN is weaker at center, and depth than these teams with less reliable goaltending, less size, and lesser coaching.

Between those things and the worst PK in the league, MN has to get real. Rossi isn't a game-changer, Kaprizov is. Middleton isn't a 4M guy, when OEL is making 2.3M. Bouchard is making 3.9M. Boldy is solid but not Guentzal, Tarasenko, or Tofolli who have playoffs-proof and Cups. MN's depth is NoJo & Gaudreau + Foligno. It's like the generic version of a contender. Part of it is the penalties, but part of it is the perennial "make more out of average guys" necessity by choice. The Wild are invested in some of the wrong guys or too many of the same kinds of guys. Their coach is average. Their GM got lazy. The prospects are slow-coming. The superstar is losing faith.

I think it's time this Summer to shuffle the deck again. Move on from old baggage. Sorry to Spurge and others, we love ya but I say time for a new chapter.

MN is good but not good enough. They need to

[MrCheatachu]

Not a single mention of Bobrovsky?  Or the wisdom behind locking up a goalie on a 7x$10M aav contract? Dude got shellac'd the past two games, and is still posting a 2.35 gaa, 0.906 sv% this playoffs.  Even the first three games of this series seemed like Edmonton would just be just pushing and pushing and pushing only to run into Bob

This fan base here goes absolutely off the rails when an article about MoJo and his $2M contract, or bonkers when discussing Bogo's $1.2M contract

Yet nobody's going to mention Bob being an absolute anchor on this up run?  Or that he's getting paid more than Moose, Hartzy & FreddyG combined? 

 

[Protec]

25 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

Not a single mention of Bobrovsky?  Or the wisdom behind locking up a goalie on a 7x$10M aav contract? Dude got shellac'd the past two games, and is still posting a 2.35 gaa, 0.906 sv% this playoffs.  Even the first three games of this series seemed like Edmonton would just be just pushing and pushing and pushing only to run into Bob

This fan base here goes absolutely off the rails when an article about MoJo and his $2M contract, or bonkers when discussing Bogo's $1.2M contract

Yet nobody's going to mention Bob being an absolute anchor on this up run?  Or that he's getting paid more than Moose, Hartzy & FreddyG combined? 

 

That looked really bad early and Zito has had to work around it for sure. It will likely cost them Montour and others if they extend Rienhart. 

There are more than one ways to skin a cat, but the point is Minnesota can't just go through the motions waiting for picks to begin carrying water for the team. 

[Burnt Toast]

Florida has an excellent scouting staff, some living in MN BTW. It should surprise no one at the moves they’ve made including the low cost additions. 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

17 minutes ago, Protec said:

There are more than one ways to skin a cat, but the point is Minnesota can't just go through the motions waiting for picks to begin carrying water for the team. 

But didn't Florida start this roster by retooling after 2012, losing a bunch to get the 1st and 2nd pick of the draft in 2014 & 2013, and not advancing in the playoffs until 2022?

Didn't Florida get to the Finals by "waiting for picks to begin carrying water for the team." Their #1 center and team captain, Barkov, came from the 2013 draft. They added Ekblad(who wears an A and plays over 20 minutes per game) to their D corps in 2014. They did not start going all in until those guys were about 25 year old NHL veterans.

They slowly built up the team around them, then went all-in when they felt they could contend. When they started getting antsy in 2022, thinking they were getting close, it looks like they somewhat misfired to add Claude Giroux and 2 other guys who no longer play for them when giving up a 2024 1st round pick and Owen Tippett(#2 in points for the Flyers last season). Claude Giroux had a solid 2022 playoffs for them, but was then gone. Tippett only carried a $1.5M cap hit through this season.

It took Florida several years to get to this place, and it will take the Wild a couple more years until they are possibly in position to contend. Teams that get impatient, then try to accelerate the timing often crash and burn.

[MrCheatachu]

54 minutes ago, Protec said:

That looked really bad early and Zito has had to work around it for sure. It will likely cost them Montour and others if they extend Rienhart. 

There are more than one ways to skin a cat, but the point is Minnesota can't just go through the motions waiting for picks to begin carrying water for the team. 

Agreed 100%.

Hell, the Bob contract looked like a boat anchor last year until he turned it around. If anything this SCF is an interesting case study of building an aggressive, gritty team based on a strong goalie (FLA) vs. putting a cast of characters around the best player in the world and other high end skilled forwards (McDavid/Draisaitl).

[bisopher]

claimed off of waivers when he was 24 years old after bouncing between the AHL and NHL. Now, he’s the defensive anchor on the top pair of a Cup team

The first part of this description of Forsling matches Declan Chisholm exactly.  We can only hope the second part lines up as well... 😃

[Protec]

1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

But didn't Florida start this roster by retooling after 2012, losing a bunch to get the 1st and 2nd pick of the draft in 2014 & 2013, and not advancing in the playoffs until 2022?

Didn't Florida get to the Finals by "waiting for picks to begin carrying water for the team." Their #1 center and team captain, Barkov, came from the 2013 draft. They added Ekblad(who wears an A and plays over 20 minutes per game) to their D corps in 2014. They did not start going all in until those guys were about 25 year old NHL veterans.

They slowly built up the team around them, then went all-in when they felt they could contend. When they started getting antsy in 2022, thinking they were getting close, it looks like they somewhat misfired to add Claude Giroux and 2 other guys who no longer play for them when giving up a 2024 1st round pick and Owen Tippett(#2 in points for the Flyers last season). Claude Giroux had a solid 2022 playoffs for them, but was then gone. Tippett only carried a $1.5M cap hit through this season.

It took Florida several years to get to this place, and it will take the Wild a couple more years until they are possibly in position to contend. Teams that get impatient, then try to accelerate the timing often crash and burn.

True, but that certainly hasn't been an option for MN. Never being bad enough or embracing a full rebuild, it's fair to point out those facts and surmise that rebuilds can work out especially if they win the Cup.

In terms of parallels to MN, it's not really too similar except that MN currently has a core that's age range puts them in the win-now window. If they took a step this Summer and another next Summer, the final year of Kaprizov's deal could be special for MN. That's why some of us are wondering if Guerin is nuts, or if he's gonna make the final moves to position the Wild. Now Beckman's gone, GMBG guys are getting older and showing up. How it's gonna materialize will be fascinating, or not...

[mnfaninnc]

Let's be real about Montour, Forsling, and Bennett. They were accepted off of the scrap heap by teams that were jettisoning them. Bennett was a major disappointment in Calgary. Somehow, Florida gave him an opportunity to thrive. Montour sucks said Buffalo fans, and they weren't really sold on Reinhart either. And Forsling was a great grab and given opportunity. They even traded out Weeger to give him some more opportunity. Each one of these guys came up roses.

They bought extremely low on these guys. But, somehow, they knew they could play. This is the lesson, some players aren't playing so well because the role their teams have them in aren't the right roles. Bennett was clipped down to 4th line C before being traded. 

On that note, Shooter may make some head scratching deals, but he also has a knack for grabbing underrated talent. Some call it lucky, and if that's it, let the luck be bold this offseason! 

On the Rossi front, do you know the enemy of greatness? Good. Sometimes you have to give up the good to get great. I'm not one who discounts Rossi due to size, but if you can trade him to get great, it simply something that needs to be considered. For people who are saying "no, not him" you need to think about this hard. There shouldn't be any "no, not hims" on this roster if it makes the team better. I'm also not talking about the team for '24-25, but overall for the long haul. 

Yes, this even applies to Kaprizov. If Gretzky can be traded, anyone can be traded. But, you'd better get a great player for Rossi. You cannot whiff. And here's where the hard part comes in: Rossi's potential and work ethic could make him great. But, currently, he is in the pretty good category, 1 season at .5 ppg.