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Article: The Wild Are Slipping Down the Central Division Rankings


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Suppose Minnesota gets a bounce-back season from Ryan Hartman, Marcus Johansson, and Frederick Gaudreau, plus better injury luck for Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Foligno. Still, does anyone think it would be enough to bridge that 12-point gap and then some? For a team that will likely be a favored dark horse Stanley Cup contender, most likely not.

Yes. It could. That's just 6 more wins. 

If they played closer to the 34-23-6 Hynes record versus the 5-10-4 Evason start, that's a good chunk of your 12 points right there. 

Its funny to me how we love to gang up on Geurin for loading up on 'aging vets' in their early/mid-30s 'who will only get worse' but when the Preds sign dudes the exact same age then its suddenly a great idea that turns them into an immediate contender.. 

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12 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Yes. It could. That's just 6 more wins. 

If they played closer to the 34-23-6 Hynes record versus the 5-10-4 Evason start, that's a good chunk of your 12 points right there. 

Its funny to me how we love to gang up on Geurin for loading up on 'aging vets' in their early/mid-30s 'who will only get worse' but when the Preds sign dudes the exact same age then its suddenly a great idea that turns them into an immediate contender.. 

The players Nashville signed have much more talent than what Guerin has been signing. Nashville was a good team last year and those signings made them a better team, while the Wild's signings have them standing pat at best.

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1 hour ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Yes. It could. That's just 6 more wins. 

If they played closer to the 34-23-6 Hynes record versus the 5-10-4 Evason start, that's a good chunk of your 12 points right there. 

Its funny to me how we love to gang up on Geurin for loading up on 'aging vets' in their early/mid-30s 'who will only get worse' but when the Preds sign dudes the exact same age then its suddenly a great idea that turns them into an immediate contender.. 

are you saying Stamkos and Foligno are in the same league?

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23 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

The players Nashville signed have much more talent than what Guerin has been signing. Nashville was a good team last year and those signings made them a better team, while the Wild's signings have them standing pat at best.

True for the most part, but they have more money to spend AND their window is gonna look different. Greater money dedicated to aging guys than MN with some higher profile guys like Stamkos. Injuries or a bad year could really damage a season there. Not totally different from last season where MN dropped off but NSH and WPG especially were better than projected for the prior off-season. 

Sure it would have been cool to see MN sign Stamkos or Guentzal. I just don't think that is much different than what we're talking about now which is being caught up in contracts for too much. It's like MN puts modest players on a pedestal sometimes, let's not pretend 4M contracts are 7M contracts. It's not that bad other than NoJo cause he's lazy.

It would be cool to add C.Stephenson who we discussed but he had been making around 2M and got 7x6M. From that perspective MN had to budget and select a player to sign. I thought it was smart to get Trenin, I had been saying that for months. 

I think the balance is gonna be better and MN will get back into the playoffs. I have high hopes, based on what I've seen that Buium and Yurov will have a great year. If Heidt goes back to Jr. he'll probably get 100pts again too. The Wild's biggest problem coming up is signing Kirill to an extension. 

Guerin has been a better than average GM so far.(Consensus-wise.) I would have likes Pius Suter better than NoJo if you're goin the Euro route. I would have liked him to fire Dean after the Dallas series. I wasn't a fan of letting Bjugstad go for a middle-six role. I especially didn't approve of 14min TOI for NoJo late last season. Personally, I think he's done way more good than bad with zero, really bad transactions. 

My .02 cents on the Wild's "lackluster' off-season. 

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1 hour ago, Willy the poor boy said:

The players Nashville signed have much more talent than what Guerin has been signing. Nashville was a good team last year and those signings made them a better team, while the Wild's signings have them standing pat at best.

At best? So you don't expect any improvement from a guy like Faber or Rossi or Ohgren or Khusnutdinov? What they were last year is all they'll ever be, huh? 

Guess we better just blow the whole thing up now then. 

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3 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

At best? So you don't expect any improvement from a guy like Faber or Rossi or Ohgren or Khusnutdinov? What they were last year is all they'll ever be, huh? 

Guess we better just blow the whole thing up now then. 

Way to move the goalposts...

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56 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

are you saying Stamkos and Foligno are in the same league?

Not at all, but the Preds don't have a Kucherov for him to play with either. 

I'm just pointing out how we expect our 30 year olds to only decline over the length of their deals but seem to expect their 30 year olds to continue playing at the same level, possibly even better if you consider them Cup contenders, even with entirely new teammates. 

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56 minutes ago, Protec said:

True for the most part, but they have more money to spend AND their window is gonna look different. Greater money dedicated to aging guys than MN with some higher profile guys like Stamkos. Injuries or a bad year could really damage a season there. Not totally different from last season where MN dropped off but NSH and WPG especially were better than projected for the prior off-season. 

Sure it would have been cool to see MN sign Stamkos or Guentzal. I just don't think that is much different than what we're talking about now which is being caught up in contracts for too much. It's like MN puts modest players on a pedestal sometimes, let's not pretend 4M contracts are 7M contracts. It's not that bad other than NoJo cause he's lazy.

It would be cool to add C.Stephenson who we discussed but he had been making around 2M and got 7x6M. From that perspective MN had to budget and select a player to sign. I thought it was smart to get Trenin, I had been saying that for months. 

I think the balance is gonna be better and MN will get back into the playoffs. I have high hopes, based on what I've seen that Buium and Yurov will have a great year. If Heidt goes back to Jr. he'll probably get 100pts again too. The Wild's biggest problem coming up is signing Kirill to an extension. 

Guerin has been a better than average GM so far.(Consensus-wise.) I would have likes Pius Suter better than NoJo if you're goin the Euro route. I would have liked him to fire Dean after the Dallas series. I wasn't a fan of letting Bjugstad go for a middle-six role. I especially didn't approve of 14min TOI for NoJo late last season. Personally, I think he's done way more good than bad with zero, really bad transactions. 

My .02 cents on the Wild's "lackluster' off-season. 

You're not wrong about a lot of that. I've said all along that I think BG has fallen into a lot of luck along the way. My big gripe is how he has gone about a lot of the trades and moves. I think/believe there is a lot of fallacy in the BG legend.

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3 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

are you saying Stamkos and Foligno are in the same league?

Like the NHL?  😛

Preds scored big time with Stamkos.  In the last two years they signed what ROR, Nyquist, Stamkos, Marchesault?  Damn that is good.

Our turn next year.... oh wait.

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A dumb question: a bounceback season from Hartman? Didn't he just have the 2nd/3rd best season of his 8-season career? What's he supposed to bounce back to - to his fluke career year? I wouldn't count on that.

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1 hour ago, Jakub K. said:

a bounceback season from Hartman? Didn't he just have the 2nd/3rd best season of his 8-season career?

Agree.  Hartzy plays with heart and has NHL level skill and finish in my opinion.

I'd say he needs less javalon throwing, less frustration penalties, overall more disciplined veteran play from Hartzy and he's a solid middle 6 NHL'r who can spot fill-in top 6 if necessary.

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