Article: Can the Wild Keep Jared Spurgeon Healthy This Season?

[Kalisha Turnipseed]

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[Citizen Strife]

I remember a report about a week ago.  I forget if it was Russo/Smith or someone else that mentioned the idea that Faber/Chisholm are going to be the likely PP guys, leaving Spurgeon to focus on PK.

I'm all for that.  Spurgeon is a decent offensive threat, but the backend needs all the focus it can get.  I'm also happy Middleton/Spurgeon are back together.  Middleton played his best in that situation, and that leaves Brodin/Faber to shine.

[M_Nels]

7 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

that leaves Brodin/Faber to shine.

One of the best pairings in the league. Watching Brodin and his ability to cover McDavid like no one else can is a thing of beauty.

[Citizen Strife]

I shudder to think how good this defense is if Spurgeon and Brodin stay good for a couple more years, Faber gets better than he is already, and if Buium is as advertised.

Sure, Spurgeon may not be long for the team or the league, but I won't write him off until I see it firsthand.

[Enforceror]

I did some stat crunching the other day as I was curious how the team "would have" performed if Spurgeon had remained healthy last year. Essentially, I took what I figured to be Spurgeon's fill-ins (Merrill, Chisolm and Mermis if I remember correctly), removed their stats and replaced with Spurgeon's 2022-2023 year. Calcs were based on comparable ice time and used a mix of stats such as blocked shots, takeaways, giveaways, various levels of low/high danger goals, etc. All a bunch of voodoo and meaningless numbers without a doubt but when I was done I had arrived at a number of +19 in goals for/against. 

This would have tied us with the Penguins and allowed us to pass the Sabres.

.....yeah I don't have a life, lol.

[Willy the poor boy]

1 hour ago, Enforceror said:

I did some stat crunching the other day as I was curious how the team "would have" performed if Spurgeon had remained healthy last year. Essentially, I took what I figured to be Spurgeon's fill-ins (Merrill, Chisolm and Mermis if I remember correctly), removed their stats and replaced with Spurgeon's 2022-2023 year. Calcs were based on comparable ice time and used a mix of stats such as blocked shots, takeaways, giveaways, various levels of low/high danger goals, etc. All a bunch of voodoo and meaningless numbers without a doubt but when I was done I had arrived at a number of +19 in goals for/against. 

This would have tied us with the Penguins and allowed us to pass the Sabres.

.....yeah I don't have a life, lol.

Maybe the most important number in all of that is #28. Zeev's number.

[Up North Guy]

Hynes should limit Spurgeon's ice time to around 20 minutes per game.

i would try to keep his ice time down to about 16 minutes the first ten games or so.

[Enforceror]

Chisolm has looked pretty solid, Bogo has the needed size.... Middleton actually has pretty good numbers as well as size. So who's the odd man out if Hunt or Lambos continue to climb?

[Burnt Toast]

39 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

So who's the odd man out if Hunt or Lambos continue to climb?

 Barring injury that’s a problem that can wait until next year. If one of the top six hits some kind of unexpected regression that question will answer itself. 

[Enforceror]

20 minutes ago, Burnt Toast said:

 Barring injury that’s a problem that can wait until next year. If one of the top six hits some kind of unexpected regression that question will answer itself. 

Well, looks like Lambos is headed back to Iowa. 

Heidt back to WHL which I think we all knew was going to happen.