Article: The Wild Had Better Trade Targets Than Nyquist

[Citizen Strife]

Oh, that.

Kaprizov was hovering around Top 10-20 in scoring for the past few seasons, regardless of injuries.  He started this year super crazy, which was great.  My point was I'm not going to call him "best player in the league" over McDavid, Drai, MacKinnon, Kucherov, etc. because of 20-30 games of elevated play.  If he had not gotten injured, and he kept up in the Hart conversation, he would have earned the distinction outright.

I've already stated he's the best player the Wild has had on many occasions.  It would do the Wild wonders to keep him.  But life doesn't revolve around one player being kowtowed to like he's some god or something.  He's just a hockey player.  The Wild are going to negotiate what they can afford (and it will be a lot) to keep them on board for 5-8 more years.  

If he leaves, that's sucks.  But that's Kap's business.  My life (and my hockey life more pertinently) doesn't hinge on one guy signing a contact.  The team's outlook improves dramatically if he stays.  But there's little I can do: fussing over it won't matter to me.

Edited March 4 by Citizen Strife

[OldDutchChip]

20 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Oh, that.

Kaprizov was hovering around Top 10-20 in scoring for the past few seasons, regardless of injuries.  He started this year super crazy, which was great.  My point was I'm not going to call him "best player in the league" over McDavid, Drai, MacKinnon, Kucherov, etc. because of 20-30 games of elevated play.  If he had not gotten injured, and he kept up in the Hart conversation, he would have earned the distinction outright.

I've already stated he's the best player the Wild has had on many occasions.  It would do the Wild wonders to keep him.  But life doesn't revolve around one player being kowtowed to like he's some god or something.  He's just a hockey player.  The Wild are going to negotiate what they can afford (and it will be a lot) to keep them on board for 5-8 more years.  

If he leaves, that's sucks.  But that's Kap's business.  My life (and my hockey life more pertinently) doesn't hinge on one guy signing a contact.  The team's outlook improves dramatically if he stays.  But there's little I can do: fussing over it won't matter to me.

I guess I can’t change your mind but I stand by my comment that Kap was playing the best out of all players in the league and deserves that recognition.
 

Sometimes it’s not the highest point getter that’s the best player on the ice and sometimes it’s hard to measure intangibles that are not statistically captured. And Kap delivered both better than any other.
 

There is no Draisaitl to help carry the load. No Makar or Ranty. Kap has Zuccy.
 

But even with sub par supporting cast he dominates, leading the league in MVP votes too. 
 

you say, he is just one player - sure. That’s true for any player out there. But he is a special player that our team NEVER had. To say, he walks - he walks - that’s life, undersells him importance. 
 

but to each their own….🍻

 

[Enforceror]

21 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

Sometimes it’s not the highest point getter that’s the best player on the ice and sometimes it’s hard to measure intangibles that are not statistically captured. And Kap delivered both better than any other.

I've often wished we had better metrics for defense. Would be interesting to see how the top 5 rate in regards to each other. I don't watch enough of the other "#1" guys to make an honest assessment. 

Intangibles are definitely not something that is easily captured. I guess hence being intangible....

[mnfaninnc]

Quote

Are you confident that Gustav Nyquist makes the Wild a bona fide contender?

Who promised us a contender? This team even with Nyquist is a competitive team. I don't think anyone has contender expectations. A nice deep playoff run would be nice, but expectations are merely an invitation to the ball.

[Will D. Ness]

4 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

guys who command $3M+ are a different caliber of player than guys surfing around on league minimum.

3M+?  I don't know.  He has had an awful year.

My biggest fear is he does awesome for 20 games and then we sign him for something like 3+ per and he turns into Nojo 2.0.

[Burnt Toast]

10 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

Nyquist will not be around next year. 

He’ll be extended. I’m about 90% sure. We need this guy to make the playoffs, which I think is important this year. He’s a solid player and under the present circumstances certainly worth a late second rounder. Once everyone gets healthy and the team gets the band back together he’ll be a nice addition heading into the playoffs. 

[RedLake]

Hopefully Hartman turns it around tonight with a Gordie Howe hattie.

[Burnt Toast]

3 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

If he leaves, that's sucks.  But that's Kap's business. 

In the last few years a lot of very good star players have chosen to initiate trades to other teams. I mean from very good teams, playoff teams, contending teams. I guess there’s a lot of different reasons why they do, I don’t know. Personally I don’t think the Wild can do much if KK wants to play elsewhere. If he does it’ll be for personal reasons more than likely already baked in for a long time. The Wild can pay him, the GM has added a lot of pieces with more talent on the way. That’s good, but KK could still be planning on moving on for reasons we may never know. If he does it’ll be a bummer, but it’s happening all around the league. 

[OldDutchChip]

9 minutes ago, Burnt Toast said:

In the last few years a lot of very good star players have chosen to initiate trades to other teams. I mean from very good teams, playoff teams, contending teams. I guess there’s a lot of different reasons why they do, I don’t know. Personally I don’t think the Wild can do much if KK wants to play elsewhere. If he does it’ll be for personal reasons more than likely already baked in for a long time. The Wild can pay him, the GM has added a lot of pieces with more talent on the way. That’s good, but KK could still be planning on moving on for reasons we may never know. If he does it’ll be a bummer, but it’s happening all around the league. 

I get all that, but take out the $ and personal reasons and you are left with product on the ice….has Billy did enough or not. We’ll find out

[Burnt Toast]

7 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

Billy did enough or not. We’ll find out

I think we’re headed into uncharted waters concerning BG. This coming year will reveal a lot about the team’s “five year plan”. I have to say I’m very excited. I’m not sure what to expect. Part of me thinks they’re going to make a play for an elite player, even if it means shipping Rossi out. It’s not talked about a lot but the goalie situation next year could be interesting, meaning really fantastic or kind of scary. As CS said good teams are built from the goalie out. 

[OldDutchChip]

10 minutes ago, Burnt Toast said:

I think we’re headed into uncharted waters concerning BG. This coming year will reveal a lot about the team’s “five year plan”. I have to say I’m very excited. I’m not sure what to expect. Part of me thinks they’re going to make a play for an elite player, even if it means shipping Rossi out. It’s not talked about a lot but the goalie situation next year could be interesting, meaning really fantastic or kind of scary. As CS said good teams are built from the goalie out. 

as long as we have our kaptain, heading into uncharted waters won't be too bad. otherwise it will get rocky. 

good teams nowadays win with elite superstars (Helle has been rocky in PO, as have Russian G studs, while volatile Bob and even our own Khudobin!! have been taking the teams much further towards glory....you need elite skill to cut through D and physicality, and that seems to be a bit more important than having All-world goalie. I don't even know who Oilers had in their Goal battling Bob. The days of Goalie being priority 1 may be gone......No more riding Miller for Sabres or letting Hasek steal series after series. it's a game of skill in the PO where you hope your goalie is good enough and that offense does not dry up (or is not injured) 🙂 

so we are doing good right now. we have the goalie in Gus and hopefully Wally becomes something. we also have one elite superstar. let's hope we can keep him and add one more, rather than loose one and be left with none. 

what do i know, we shall see - exciting indeed! 

Go wild and whoop ass today!

[Imyourhuckleberry]

2 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

My biggest fear is he does awesome for 20 games and then we sign him for something like 3+ per and he turns into Nojo 2.0.

I wouldn't worry about that. It's possible they sign him for a couple of years if they deal Zuccarello, but the chances of that likely aren't too high. Guerin intends to aim higher, but if his love of the top free agents is unrequited, maybe a strong finish by Nyquist could get him added for a couple of years even while the Wild retain Zuccarello for 1 more season.

Hopefully the top line has a great game tonight!

[MrCheatachu]

11 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I wouldn't worry about that. It's possible they sign him for a couple of years if they deal Zuccarello, but the chances of that likely aren't too high. Guerin intends to aim higher, but if his love of the top free agents is unrequited, maybe a strong finish by Nyquist could get him added for a couple of years even while the Wild retain Zuccarello for 1 more season.

Hopefully the top line has a great game tonight!

Everything I've seen from Guerin so far is that he doles out contracts with term and protection over market rate to guys who are at the tail end of their career, while shitting all over high end talent.  If you don't have a decade of experience in this league SillyG will turn his nose up.

We've seen this before, 35+ year old player who is in his statistical decline?  That's music to Guerin's ears, because he has some misguided belief that these guys are all going to be Ovi/Pavs/Sid who can be productive well into their late 30's while in reality, more often than not, we get them to sit in the trainers room.  Spurgeon's the same age as GusGus and we've seen first hand what a decade and a half in the NHL does to the durability of a guys body...and Spurgeon's a guy who notably is able to avoid contact well.

Dude had an absolute hate boner for Fiala and seems to despise Rossi, while handing out term and trade protection to: Hartman, Foligno, Moose, Goligoski and also seeking out guys like Bogosian, Reaves, Maroon, etc.

Even this off season, he handed out a fat gift to Trenin because 'hurr durr, do you know how hard it is to get bottom six guys, when they hit the market you GOT TO LOCK THEM DOWN'

[Burnt Toast]

10 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

high end talent

I think Wild Management likes KK. Locking up Faber, Boldly almost immediately I would add to the high end category list as well. I would bet they have a plan in place for Zeev, Yurov and Jiri. All these guys project as high end. BG won a SC with Crosby, he knows having “that guy” is important. I think the Wild made a lot of survival/still build moves but that dynamic has already begun to change.