Article: Was Yakov Trenin a Chuck Fletcher-Style Misstep From Bill Guerin?

[Tony Abbott]

View full article

[Citizen Strife]

Here's the thing though: were any of those signings done after the Wild's PK was 30th in the league the previous year(which Dewar and Duhaime were part of)?  Was Trenin traded for via a 1st or 2nd?

We could have done that goofy trade for Tanner Jeannot.

For all the "lessons not learned," Guerin learned one thing at least: there can always be worse ways to handle a situation.

Also, do we know for a fact a Person, Tarasenk, etc. would have been interested?  Maybe they'd tack on a mil or two or an extra year instead. Does trading for a glass cannon in Laine offset his injury history BECAUSE GOALZ? Different problems, same boat.

 

 

 

Edited July 10 by Citizen Strife

[Will D. Ness]

What was worse last season... NoJo or PK?

Tough call but Yak does address a high priority need in PK and also might help us get a real forechecking line going.

Besides BG is planning to get a top 6 guy next year that will redeem all criticism...

[Citizen Strife]

That Top 6 guy might be Yurov for all we know.  Could be Ohgren, Heidt, etc.  all internal options the Wild still have.

The thing to consider is "hindsight is 20-20". Was anyone claiming Gaudreau at a solid 3rd-4th versatile forward in 2-3 seasons gonna just plummet due to a coach's firing and an injury?  Were any of us gonna know if Spurgeon was sidelined all year in any of his big contract?

Hell, what if Faber signs for $80 million and then Logan Stanley decides to "accidentally" fall on him and break his leg or something?

A lot of playing GM is making educated guesses.  Guerin hasn't (yet) deviated from his plan to keep Kaprizov, Faber, and (hopefully) Rossi.  He can still do that.

Thing he can't do is pull a Stamkos ripcord like Nashville did.  All good for them...unless he gets injured too.

You just never know.

 

 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

Role players are important when you have the skill on a team to go deep. There is no question there. I understand we had to stock up on less desirable players while the cap hits had us restricted and Guerin and Dean did well to get the best out of said players, and keep us competitive (if that was the goal). 

Looking ahead, things look less certain. We don't have the skill at the moment for a deep run and have signed multiple role players to term pacts with trade clauses. 2025-2026 was the time to come online. To break into the league with young guys put through their paces and ready to compete. That is the plan we were told. Looking at the prospect pool now, we aren't there. We have a few exciting prospects that are a couple years away (Buium, Yurov, Haight, Heidt) coupled with a couple that just got their first taste (Dinov, Rossi and Ohgren). These skilled prospects give me hope for the future but make me nervous about what Kap sees in this team currently. 

I think Guerin pissed away the years we should have been selling and getting younger and now the runway is too long to fit it all together. One of the best things he could have done was get Yurov this year but he pushed that out in favor of contracts to older players. 

[Tony Abbott]

30 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Here's the thing though: were any of those signings done after the Wild's PK was 30th in the league the previous year(which Dewar and Duhaime were part of)?  

If by "part of" you meant "the good part"... sure. 

[Tony Abbott]

8 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

The thing to consider is "hindsight is 20-20". Was anyone claiming Gaudreau at a solid 3rd-4th versatile forward in 2-3 seasons gonna just plummet due to a coach's firing and an injury?

Yes.

[OldDutchChip]

agree with everything written 🍻 billy billy

[Pewterschmidt]

If T-Rex plays angry and physical on a consistent basis he will become a fan favorite right away.  If he becomes T-Bag after a couple months and goes full Greenway on the bit he will be lumped in with Foligno, Fraud and Nojo as players who are stealing a paycheck.  

Your move hot shot.

#SPEED

[Protec]

No way. No mistake. Here's the interview after his signing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfWpoAorQA

Classic Russian guy. No fluff. Straight answers, zero emotion. Russian-machine-esque. Love it. Plays hockey the same way. I don't like emotionless hockey from Suter who blames teammates for goof-ups or NoJo who looks to the rafters in shameful disbelief.

I'll take steady, hard, emotion-free, heavy hockey from big Russians who can fight and score goals any day. For the <4M cap-hit, I think it's gonna be a good fit. As a center, would he fit nicely with Kirill and Boldy. They'd make each other better and equally balanced compared to Ek. Then Ek can center another top line with Ogie perhaps and Rossi on the wing. Now you'd have Hartman, Zuccy, and Foligno. Knudi center's the 4th line and Lauko/Fred/Nojo make up the remaining wings.

Kaprizov and Boldy can make players better. It worked for Hartman, Steel, Ek, all of the centers who played with Kirill. It's possible Trenin could give the Wild better balance if he plays just like Ek. This allows the Wild to achieve two high-level threat lines with Ek centering a line with younger high-end offensive guys like Ogie who has powerful speed and Rossi who has IQ and scoring prowess. The Wild need better balance. This would make their 3rd line with Hartman centering Zuccy and Foligno pretty decent. Then you've got Knudi or Fred to cetner the 4th with remaining wings to be determined. Maybe Heidt/Sop/Clarke or Lauko/NoJo. Maybe MN can get Van Riemsdyk for 1M later this Summer and upgrade on the wing with a short-term deal for the veteran.

Trenin gives MN flexibility and size/toughness. Trenin said himself MN got softer to play against late last season. For me that's the biggest thing about too many smaller skill guys. It's hard to balance and roll four lines when they're all lacking a heaviness. Or you just have one GREEF line and it's not enough by itself. Balance should get much better if Chisholm and Ogie can each take another step to improve the areas MN was deficient last year. Power, depth, and a transition to younger players making an important impact at the NHL level. MN needs these guys to replace the Merrills and NoJos on the roster by forcing them out.

Another thing to consider is the contract hits and when they're up for renewal. Those dates make a big difference. Wallstedt for example, if Gus had been traded last Summer could have had 20-30 games where he might have raised his NHL stock and required AAV by quite a bit. How would that play into the timing of MN's planned signings to come? Just saying, it's complicated and getting the stars to align so to speak means you've gotta build a strong foundation. Trenin, with his age and what he brings to the table is a good thing for MN and worth the cost of what MN was gonna have to pay to Deweys.

[raithis]

I completely disagree with this take:

Michael Russo was more blunt on his "Worst Seats in the House" podcast on July 2: "[The Wild] don't go after Trenin today if all the guys [Guerin] extended last year -- Gaudreau, Hartman, Foligno -- did their jobs last year."

It's hard to say that players aren't doing their job when most of those players (and about a third of the entire team) were hurt for significant portions of the year.

Yes, Gaudreau played most of the season, but he seemed hurt and it seriously undermined his effectivity.  Granted, I think signing him for 5yrs is crazy as he is a decent 13th forward on a team.  Expecting him to be anything more than a 4th liner is  already expecting him to do more than what he will be able to give you.  Expecting him to do it as injured as he seemed is ridiculous.

Hartman did what he usually does.  Yes, he had one crazy season but that it generally understood to be an outlier.  I'd say he actually did do his job last year (and this is coming from someone who doesn't much care for Hartman to begin with).  He could be more consistent and I feel like he gets lackadaisical at times, but overall he was still one of our better forwards.

Foligno was hurt pretty much the entire season.  Even when he tried to come back, it was obviously to soon and he ended up sidelined for the rest of the season.  Saying he didn't do his job because he was hurt tells me Russo is just pandering to the Deans of the world whose view of things is so myopic that they want to point at one thing to explain another rather than look at a broader picture.

Pointing fingers at these specific people as reasons why a team with no depth brought on a player to bolster that depth doesn't make any sense.  Trenin is basically a Foligno-ish player who the coach already familiar with and knows how to use him.  He's got more size and strength than the Deweys and is better than last year's checking forwards of Lettieri, Luchini, and Shaw.  I loved the effort out of some of those guys, but Trenin is just better.  Is he $4M better, not sure, but Hynes must have really thought he would be a good fit.  Considering he knows what he is getting and has a history with the player, I have to presume he knows what he is doing more than anyone else does.

Edited July 10 by raithis

[Dean]

Great article. I agree. I think the hype ballon is going to burst next year. We will see there isn’t a plan . Just because Billy has a few bucks doesn’t mean he will go spend it wisely or will there be a free agent that helps us . 
    Billy thinks Trenin is a great left wing? Like we don’t have enough of them. Billy was brought in to make us better. We suck down the middle an on the back end with size. He doesn’t work on that just more left wingers? What’s every forward we have besides ek basically? A left winger . Just some visionary stuff Billy. 
    The  article talks about the wild would most likely not want the Fred contract.  That’s another sign Billy isn’t doing his job. Buy out Fred !  We’ve already proven Fred and jo Jo don’t help this team yet they still have roster spots. A good gm would get rid of them and find replacements not give them more years to hamper your team . 
    I don’t see us making playoffs with Billy’s run back of the misfits. I don’t see why kappy will be happy after season and resign. I don’t see any plan on getting these prospects into the nhl producing like the players they were drafted to be . All I see is Billy bam bam Guerin pounding on that square peg. 

[Citizen Strife]

Tony should know by now I don't think good and my brain no like fancy stats.  I know big people hit little people and they fall down.  People score goal thing go good.

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Protec said:

No way. No mistake. Here's the interview after his signing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfWpoAorQA

"Go to the net create chaos" was my favorite quote.

If he plays a hard game and does interviews with that 'Russian Machine Never Break' accent, he'll take to top spot for fan favorite.  Come up with a tag line (i.e. What-a-country) and we'll create t-shirts. Bro doesn't look Russian, looks like he grew up in Columbia Heights.

Edited July 10 by Pewterschmidt

[Dango]

And its official ,  Cap Friendly is closed.    Dont know what im gonna do in my spare time now trying to orchestrate trades as a armchair GM  .

[Willy the poor boy]

4 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

 Guerin hasn't (yet) deviated from his plan to keep Kaprizov, Faber, and (hopefully) Rossi.  

It isn't from a lack of trying. He' has been and apparently still is shopping Rossi and it's being circulated he tried to bring Laine in. I can only guess the only thing that prevented that from happening is CBJ would have had to retain more salary then they were willing to retain.

Just more indicators BG is in over his head IMO.

[Dean]

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a gm that makes you say damn how did he pull that off? Or damn that’s a franchise friendly contract?  Or damn how did he get around cap to make that move? Or damn how did he get that guy for Minnesota? 
   Instead we have damn why did he do that? Damn why did he do it when he didn’t need to? Or damn why does he keep force feeding us these misfits? Or damn why did he spend all the money. 
   I just know I’m damn sick of his excuses and the pr department making up fantasies to justifyi them. 

[MrCheatachu]

48 minutes ago, Dango said:

And its official ,  Cap Friendly is closed.    Dont know what im gonna do in my spare time now trying to orchestrate trades as a armchair GM  .

I'm convinced the Capitals purchased Cap Friendly because they were embarrassed at how bad the PLD deal was going to look in a couple years...

But seriously, something will step up to take their place, they clearly created something of value, especially their backend premium tools.  I've read some articles that multiple teams had no other systems/tools in place other than capfriendly which speaks to how good that site was.

[Citizen Strife]

The Ek deal isn't a home run bargain deal? 

[Krotz the Wall]

I like Trenin as a player, and I think he will bring a necessary element to the team. I don’t like the contract, as it’s either too long or too much AAV. Again, though, the issue isn’t any of the individual deals. The problem is the mass of “identity” type players on contracts with too much term and/or value, not to mention also including trade protections, that are typically added to reduce term/or value numbers. The team is old. Slow. Short on elite talent. It has an over abundance of bottom 6 players locked up for at least 4 more seasons, on contracts that aren’t easy to move. So, yes, I like Trenin. I think the team will be worse because of the decision to commit, long term, to a bunch of replaceable players.

[Amaddeo]

There’s always the potential that Trenin brings that grit and adds a bit of offense if he plays alongside a guy like Hartley/Foligno or maybe a rookie hungry to prove themselves. 
 

Here’s to hoping he finds another gear and makes the $3.5m look like a bargain. 

[B1GKappa97]

10 hours ago, Tony Abbott said:

If by "part of" you meant "the good part"... sure. 

Yes they were the better parts of the PK… and yet Trenin is still an upgrade on them in terms of the PK. With better size. 
 

Was it an overpay? Sure. Did we have anyone better available in-house for that role? Definitely not. Bonus points for familiarity with Kaprizov and the HCs system.

Cooke was never anything but a goon who laid dirty hits on guys as the Wilds agitator. Trenin will be a valuable addition beyond his physicality. 

[B1GKappa97]

5 hours ago, Dean said:

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a gm that makes you say damn how did he pull that off? Or damn that’s a franchise friendly contract?  Or damn how did he get around cap to make that move? Or damn how did he get that guy for Minnesota? 
   
   I just know I’m damn sick of his excuses and the pr department making up fantasies to justifyi them. 

Umm… you mean like the Ek deal? Or Hartman’s the last 2 years? Boldy for just $7M?

Or the Fiala trade? You don’t like Faber AND Ohgren for a guy who hasn’t helped the LAK get past round 1 yet either?

Or getting a 2nd for Greenway? Or getting Gus for a mid-30s Talbot? Or, shit, even just getting Kaprizov to finally come stateside?? 
 

Y’all are waaaaay too hung up on the bottom of the roster moves and act like that’s all he’s done or is ever doing.

[Protec]

I'm hoping Trenin will run Suter next season, right off the bat. 

Apparently STL needed a hot-dog spokesman... 

[Patrick]

While I agree with the principal Trenin has more skill than most grinders. I think we will all be surprised by his production.