Carlton Bloom Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 View full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mateo3xm Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 Not terribly excited about it but a year and a half ago this guy was projected to go first overall. He’s supposedly 5’10 but has some very high talent. I just wish we would have gone with big but this is still fine. We did get another big dmen that was projected to go in the 2-3 round in the 5th round(Soini). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imyourhuckleberry Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 Prospect ratings-wise, it looks like the Wild added a top 10 talent and 2 other top 40 talents. None have elite size, but loads of skill. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 Thank goodness they didn’t go after size over skill/talent. I hate that as a draft strategy. Some things I believe people calling for that are missing: - These guys vary in terms of when they’ll be NHL ready. They’re not all hitting at once (if at all). The current team may need size. How about 3 years from now? - They’ll be coming out of cap hell. It’s easier/cheaper to find guys to play the banger rolls vs. high-end top 4/top 6 players. kaprisov and Faber are going to command big money. -If a logjam develops, you can some pretty serious trade pieces. Drafting a couple small skill guys doesn’t mean we have a small Wild roster a few years down the road, and they’re not a solving short-term issues through in the draft. If you start playing that game. You end up with Stramel instead of Perrault. If they didn’t have room for Perrault right now, who knows what they could get for him in trade right now. It looks like it may take a miracle to get any sort of real value out of Stramel, outside of a 4th liner. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen Strife Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 Beast made my point for me, but I want to add a few things. 1. The team needs to make the playoffs first before the SIZE MATTERS ABOVE ALL grind even comes into play. The Wild have a scoring and defensive depth issue. Obviously, goaltending voodoo also plays a factor. Their talent ceiling AND floor both need fixing. 2. Of all the Wild games I have watched, the only team that ever felt like overpowering them by brute force was the Predators. A lot of teams had a pure skill advantage. I didn't see William Nylander win in OT by crushing a defender into the ground: he waltz past them into the crease and made everyone look stupid. Maybe, just maybe, a bigger guy would change his angle of entry, or maybe, just maybe, he sped right past them because he had that innate speed and skill. I am not as concerned about size like it is some gospel truth. Rossi scored 45 points and played up and down the lineup just fine. That Ryan Reaves guy sure used his size to stop Dallas in their tracks years ago... He made that one guy in Detroit drink through a straw, but I would much rather have a skill player on the ice first. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protec Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 Too many Euros for me. Brackett M.O. is fully established. He loves Euros. I would've rather had Burrows all day. Undersized Euro defenseman who fall 120 places in the draft are not my idea of a great pick. I'd take Mr. Hockey or the big tough defender from Cretin by the time I'm in the 4th round. Statistically it's kinda a roll of the dice anyway, but we grab a Euro-Addison nobody else wants. Injury history and not amazing skater. Good grief, skip the Midwest kids for that, WTF? Boom or bust argument sure, but I just don't like it. I would have rather had any of the bigger seven guys who rounded out the 4th, even the Swede. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbott Administrator Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 50 minutes ago, Protec said: Too many Euros for me. What year do you think this is? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillieGismylover Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said: Beast made my point for me, but I want to add a few things. 1. The team needs to make the playoffs first before the SIZE MATTERS ABOVE ALL grind even comes into play. The Wild have a scoring and defensive depth issue. Obviously, goaltending voodoo also plays a factor. Their talent ceiling AND floor both need fixing. 2. Of all the Wild games I have watched, the only team that ever felt like overpowering them by brute force was the Predators. A lot of teams had a pure skill advantage. I didn't see William Nylander win in OT by crushing a defender into the ground: he waltz past them into the crease and made everyone look stupid. Maybe, just maybe, a bigger guy would change his angle of entry, or maybe, just maybe, he sped right past them because he had that innate speed and skill. I am not as concerned about size like it is some gospel truth. Rossi scored 45 points and played up and down the lineup just fine. That Ryan Reaves guy sure used his size to stop Dallas in their tracks years ago... He made that one guy in Detroit drink through a straw, but I would much rather have a skill player on the ice first. Did you miss the series against Dallas two years ago? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen Strife Verified Member Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 (edited) I saw them constantly giving up quick PK goals though. That's all I wanted to remember. Fix that mess, and the Wild might actually make the playoffs again. Edited June 29 by Citizen Strife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will D. Ness Verified Member Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 I bet the Wild make the playoffs next year. Biggest question mark is goaltending. I'm not worried about defense. Spurg is going to be back doing Spurg things and hopefully this translates into better goaltending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protec Verified Member Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 1 hour ago, Tony Abbott said: What year do you think this is? The year Brackett again picks a guy with zero precedent at the NHL level. Name an undersized Finnish defenseman in history who was decent. Guruism 100%. You can defend the pick if you want. I would rather have an NHL size kid committed to Denver University than smallish, injury-history guy from thousands of miles away. Summer 2027 Hagen Burrows is a better looking prospect, closer to the NHL than Kiviharju. If Burrows had played in the USHL all year his PPG would have had him between John Mustard and Sacha Boisvert. That's putting him amongst guys who went 1st round to very early 3rd round. He could've been ranked closer to 25th for NA skaters. Gimme a break. The larger Finn Soini, okay... Kiviharju was ranked really high. 7th for International skaters on NHL Central Scouting. A guy doesn't fall a hundred spots for no reason. Brackett is trying to be the smartest guy Joe knows on this one. He neglected a great option on a solid trajectory in the backyard. Plus MN always loves a PR opportunity and this woulda been perfect. I'm fine with everything about the draft except the 122nd where they shoulda taken Burrows. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbott Administrator Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 Kiviharju's first words to Guerin: "Let me tell you one thing, man, you made the biggest steal of the draft. I promise you that." That's swag. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbott Administrator Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 12 hours ago, Protec said: The year Brackett again picks a guy with zero precedent at the NHL level. Name an undersized Finnish defenseman in history who was decent. Kimmo Timonen, please play again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protec Verified Member Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 ^^^ Okay, good call. Do you think this kid is gonna turn into the next Timonen? I've read all the details of him playing levels above his age but he's only good in a couple areas IMO. I watched him get lit up like Addison against the USA when Stiga got a hat-trick. Score ya a point for the Timonen example but I'm gonna wanna see a big year from him before I believe. After three rounds, slipping through the cracks can't just be coincidence and I believe it's his speed which isn't good. Smaller and slower is not my idea of what works against MacKinnon, Forsberg, and Hintz. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbott Administrator Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 Sounds like he wasn't too bad in that USA game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbott Administrator Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 No doubt he's gotta rebound, but we're four months away from seeing him in action. We'll see how it goes, but if you give me a choice between a guy who was a highly-touted player in the fourth round and a standard fourth-round pick, let me take the former every time. You can find a fourth-line guy or third-pairing defenseman anywhere. Look at how they got a fourth-line guy for trading down 12 spots in the fourth round. If the Wild strike out here, there's no loss, because they were likely not getting any real impact in that spot anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbott Administrator Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 Like, if he's Sami Vatanen, this pick is a reverse 360-dunk from the three-point line compared to most fourth-round picks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protec Verified Member Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 I'm sure I can warm up to it but I'll go with my assessment on that game. The Wild don't need him soon. A chip on his shoulder will be good, it sounds like. MN got a lot of highly ranked guys. Top 10's with Buium, Gatzke, Kiviharju. Top 10-20's with Ritchie and Soini. Shot in the dark on Leskovar but the Wild racked up the highly rated players 100%. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protec Verified Member Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 19 minutes ago, Protec said: Gatzke, I meant Wutzke* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Verified Member Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 IMO size , strength and length wins. If you have two guys with same talent , I’m taking the big guy . It looks like most of the League agrees with that this draft. They were drafting huge kids. We were drafting are usual small , injury prone players. Maybe that’s why they fell in draft? The hype reminds me of lambos O ‘ rourke , hunt and the Johansson’s . Funny how they are all the same type of d men . Maybe they hit on a little guy but I’d rather have the Chance to hit on a bigger guy. They were in this draft but we avoided them . We need size in top 6 forwards and top 4 d . Faber should be paired with a legit big top pairing d man. In the future if Zeev lives up to the hype he should have a legit big top 4 d partner . I don’t think they have the size to be paired together . Just like Rossi needs size in his wingers if he’s going to be 2 nd center. Billy did nothing to address this . You don’t get big legit top pairing d men for trading your undersized wingers /centers. . Same as you don’t get big legit top 6 forwards by trading undersized average players. Where is the size with talent going to come from? It’s going to be years of little kids getting bullied. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Sims Hockey Wilderness Contributor Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 this comment section is full of Bill Guerin's 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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