Article: Wild Make Significant Deadline Trade For Familiar Face

[Need4speed99]

20 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

After trading the picks for Jiricek, what would be the point in selling off and tanking?  Guerin didn't want to pay whatever price it would take for vaunted "needle movers" if they were even offered.  Playing to lose games would just help Columbus.

Guerin is doing the tightrope walk he's been doing for years.  I've already accepted the team doesn't really have a chance.  I'm willing to ride things out though, because getting to the playoffs and winning games is what a team is supposed to do.

So you try to sound like you know guerin and leipold... that's great, tell the owners fans are sick of mediocre.

Being a contender is what they should do. You are ALWAYS an apologist. 

Some people want results. Why is thus hard to understand.... look at the last 20 years, moves made and get back to me.

[Enforceror]

25 minutes ago, Need4speed99 said:

So you try to sound like you know guerin and leipold... that's great, tell the owners fans are sick of mediocre.

Being a contender is what they should do. You are ALWAYS an apologist. 

Some people want results. Why is thus hard to understand.... look at the last 20 years, moves made and get back to me.

Man, chill.

[Need4speed99]

1 hour ago, Enforceror said:

Man, chill.

Why? If fans are paying their hard earned money why should these owners get a pass? They rely on the people to pay, its not their dollars at risk with everything, they live on the fans revenue.

If he knows them personally(which he makes it sound) bring it up. Why should everyone be OK with mediocre? 

[Citizen Strife]

I don't know them personally, and never even met them.  What I know is what I've heard Guerin say in a couple different interviews.

Line 1: "Tank has never been uttered in our office."

Whether he was told by Leipold to say that, think that, or truly believes it, the Wild have operated under the idea that they aren't doing a Buffalo, Chicago, San Jose route.  They have their star player (for now), and have built the team knowing he's that guy.  They didn't need to fish for 5-10 other stars.  They got Kap, and a few other guys a step below him that are still pretty damn good (Boldy, Rossi, Ek, Faber).

Line 2: Successful teams build through the draft, from the goalie out.

This one is where it gets a bit tricky.  Some players were already Wild lifers (Brodin, Ek), some where recent successes (Rossi, Faber), or they got lucky trading (again with Faber, but Middleton).  Jiricek and Buium are next up.

The main issue here is that I'm still not convinced the team is ready as a top tier team yet.  The depth lines are still filled with middling players held over because of the buyout, or because the better names either weren't good enough yet (Khusnutdinov/Ohgren/Wallstedt) or haven't debuted (Yurov/Buium) and taken over from guys that yes, aren't exactly prime championship players.

I'm not arguing against being people being angry, or me being an apologist.  I'm just being realistic.  This wasn't meant to be the year to succeed.  Even moreso with injuries up the ass.  But there are people so hell bent on seeing that "WIN THAT FUCKING FIRST ROUND ALREADY!" they want to make unrealistic trades that probably aren't even real.  Grasping at things that aren't there.  I'm seeing what's here right now: a team that somehow wins enough despite 2-3 important players at a time having injury plagued seasons being too good to fail.

Guerin's interview yesterday was like (paraphrasing), "A 2nd or 3rd round pick may or may not help in like 5 years.  We can afford making some trades here and there as long as we don't shoot ourselves in the foot later."  Fletcher seemed convinced Parise and Suter were the answer every year when evidence said they weren't.  We have no evidence to say whether or not Rossi, Faber, Boldy are enough to push Kap and Ek futher than Fiala and others did.  They weren't around a couple years ago or weren't as good as they are now.

I'm just the type of person who isn't hung up on the results too much.  This is a lame duck or house money season that's better than it should be given how last year went.  But if people want "2nd round or bust because we're sick of it," that's their choice.  I just think 3-5 years of sustained success is better than trading away some sure footing for a player that may or may not be on the market.  

I would also like to state that for all the good, I'm willing to put people on blast if they aren't good enough.  Khusnutdinov and Ohgren aren't contributers and said as much.  Addison was a dart that misfired pretty damn badly.  I won't ever be an apologist if I don't see anything out of them.  It's up to them to change my mind someday.  Addison went and flamed out of the league.  Khusnutdinov and Ohgren aren't good enough "right now."  That's reality, not apologist talk.

Edited March 4 by Citizen Strife

[Need4speed99]

I can respect alot of what you are saying, some of the rest doesn't make sense. Billy trades too much for a guy he knows and the rest of the moves, signings etc. Make zero sense. 

Ogrehn and marat who knows what they could do if they got the same chances as say freddy or Johanssen... we don't KNOW. We do know what the other 2 are capable of. This sounds like too much liepold interference and the team will be stuck as mediocre.

You honestly think they are contenders? I'm being a realist too and NOTHING leads me to believe they are. End of the day, they are always what they were, mediocre. They don't and even won't after next year if they re sign some guys to actually make a big splash, so what changes?

I'm also a realist been watching this team since the beginning, nothing changes. Billy got a guy he knows, an aging vet. Wouldn't you rather see what some of this "great farm system" can provide? They have followed the aging vets mantra for years and it hasn't worked out. I'm calling for change.

[Need4speed99]

And I've never been about a crazy trade, everything points to them doing that to stay competitive(NOT contender). I'm saying you built in the draft, let some of these kids play. We KNOW the ceiling of a ton of these vets yet they won't look at anyone else less they put them on the 4th line.

[Enforceror]

13 minutes ago, Need4speed99 said:

And I've never been about a crazy trade, everything points to them doing that to stay competitive(NOT contender). I'm saying you built in the draft, let some of these kids play. We KNOW the ceiling of a ton of these vets yet they won't look at anyone else less they put them on the 4th line.

I hear this call. For sure. Yet I know to remain competitive we have to play some of the vets (see ODC's argument regarding showing KK we're in to win). It's an odd balance we're at. Feel like we're right on the verge but.....not quite there. 

[Need4speed99]

On 3/5/2025 at 1:13 AM, Enforceror said:

I hear this call. For sure. Yet I know to remain competitive we have to play some of the vets (see ODC's argument regarding showing KK we're in to win). It's an odd balance we're at. Feel like we're right on the verge but.....not quite there. 

At the same time, we KNOW the vets ceiling, we don't with prospects. The prospects also don't have a chance until they get MEANINGFUL minutes. 

This team isn't a contender but ownership and management do anything to make them barely "relevant". As long as venues are sold out, what do they care? Liepold is still on the city and states ass to publicly fund his renovation.