Article: The Wild Are Doubling Down On Past Mistakes

[Pewterschmidt]

3 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

Think Shooter McGavin meme with fart sounds instead of laser beams?  If I had Protec's skills I would make it.

Ok so you are being critical of BG’s ability to perform the GM duties

[Imyourhuckleberry]

3 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

I'm not sold on Wall, Ohgren and Hoos yet and they have had a little time here.  There is optimism and potential for all these guys, but writing them in is a fantasy.

Given what they are replacing, I'm not too worried about them. I liked Dewar, but Khusnutdinov will likely be in the same realm of player, if not better. Wallstedt will be replacing a below average goalie in Fleury. Ohgren is probably pushing Johansson out of the top 6, not necessarily because he's a goal scorer, but because he can likely be in the same realm of goal scoring while doing everything else better.

If they can be even average NHL players, which I understand is completely unproven, that could be a big step forward. These were 3 of the top 5 prospects for the Wild leading into the 2024 draft, who have shown themselves to be pretty useful at young ages for their prior teams before reaching the NHL, so it's not crazy to think they may approach average or above average as they gain experience and strength.

Not writing them in as all-stars next year, but the Wild need to develop them at the NHL level. These guys are young and hungry, and the Wild shouldn't be concerned about losing production from the guys they are replacing.

[Dango]

I disagree that were doubling down on past mistakes ,  in the past we would grab guys based on stats  30-40 goal , 30-40 assist vets   thinking we would get those same numbers  . It did work with Stahl , Parise, Suter  the stats proved it  but these newer guys are chosen more for certain roles than any  big stats they previously  put up .   Just my observation  .

[mnfaninnc]

3 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

Yeah the surgeries were major but look how Parise and Kane rebounded from their major surgeries.

But the problem here is that they're both forwards. Defenders take on a lot more punishment. And don't you know a big winger is just waiting to try to see if the surgeries were successful! Someone in the Landeskog class.

[joebou15]

On 7/4/2024 at 8:36 AM, Peter Lemonjello said:

The Wild will have $18ml in cap space next year that includes signing Faber and if they trade Gus that pushes it to $22ml.

They'll have plenty of cap space to sign one to two top 6 forwards.

$11 million of that is earmarked for a Kaprizov extension. 

[Will D. Ness]

3 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Ok so you are being critical of BG’s ability to perform the GM duties

Let's see what he is able to do next year, but yeah it looks like he is going to whiff.

[Will D. Ness]

2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Not writing them in as all-stars next year, but the Wild need to develop them at the NHL level. These guys are young and hungry, and the Wild shouldn't be concerned about losing production from the guys they are replacing.

Fair enough.  Hopefully growing pains are minimal and busts are non existent.  We could use some luck after last year.

[Protec]

15 hours ago, joebou15 said:

$11 million of that is earmarked for a Kaprizov extension. 

This was always going to be the case. Now that MN has good prospects and players internally that are good enough to earn good extensions, it's only getting MN back to level ground with the rest of the NHL. 

At this point Guerin has secured some depth and redundancy in how he rewarded the Fred, Foligno, Hartman group but if after this season he needs to trade a guy like that or Gus, he can. 

At this point the prospects are not forced in for a desperate NHL need. UFAs aren't the Wild's silver-bullet. It's a bigger picture plan and it's just not there yet. Was last season a setback? Yes since MN missed the playoffs but overall, no. 2024-25 has lots of promise and positive potential. My prediction is Guerin will watch and see who performs. He'll look at extensions and cap in a deep-dive. Then the Wild will be able to shuffle the deck again plugging in new players that shape the penalty-freedom window. 

Why trade or sign too many guys before you need to or should? Right now I think the Wild have a great mix of talent at different ages and contract terms. With guys like Rossi, MN can wait and see if that's a player they wanna commit to long-term. Maybe he is, maybe not but MN isn't locked in or screwed on anything yet. Let's see what happens before we draw conclusions and condemn the GM.

[Dango]

are you guys thinking Kaprizov will get his current 10 million and 11 more for 21 million  because Kaprizov already accounts for 90% of 11 million  of his salary .   

[joebou15]

On 7/6/2024 at 7:13 AM, Protec said:

Why trade or sign too many guys before you need to or should?

This has been my point exactly! Those guys Guerin re-signed didn't need to be signed for both the money and term at the time they were signed! Why not let things play out, let contracts fall off the books and come into next season with a roster full of young up and comers that have some experience in the NHL and now you can wheel and deal, or supplement with veteran FAs. But instead, he's locked up roster spots that keep the kids in the lower levels of hockey, and extended guys to a lot of money that goes past their age 30 season when the greatest amount of decline begins. 

Thought the idea was to get younger and faster, and instead he got old and expensive for literally no reason other than he likes the roster, but unfortunately that roster has shown that they are unable to get past the first round of the playoffs.

[Protec]

It's not always as simple as what's on paper or most likely. 

When LA or STL won the Cup, they barely made the playoffs. MN nearly beat Vegas 1st round and FL/EDM went from 1st round outs to becoming Conference Champs.

I'd say the same thing to Kirill which is, Boston or NYR President's trophy is no guarantee either.