Article: The Wild Are Where They Need To Be

[Phillip Garrett]

View full article

[Citizen Strife]

Nelson fetched a stupid amount of return and seemingly wanted a ridiculous amount of money.  Some trades have been weird and desperate.

I get that Khusnutdinov "could" be something, but the team as constructed is only going to go so far.

There may be reasons two players were swapped for one: money or opportunity.  No real way to know until Khusnutdinov gets a new contract or we see who gets his spot in his absence.

 

 

[Pewterschmidt]

1 minute ago, Citizen Strife said:

There may be reasons two players were swapped for one: money or opportunity.  No real way to know until Khusnutdinov gets a new contract or we see who gets his spot in his absence.

I cannot make sense of your logic here.

[Citizen Strife]

What I meant was who is going to take Khusnutdinov's spot going forward?  Hinostroza seems like he is signed till next year, but you would think there would be more.

Unless they re-sign Nyquist for cheap, I don't know who Guerin has in mind at those last few forward spots.  Is Nyquist the Mojo replacement?  Yurov has seemed penciled in forever, but is that enough. Ohgren again maybe?

I just don't know why they'd let go of Khusearly unless they have an off-season trade or signing in mind.

Edited March 7 by Citizen Strife

[mnfaninnc]

As I was looking at the standings, something else jumped out at me: The Kings are going backward and not only are we looking at the Canucks and Flames, but they have a better shot at catching the Kings than us. That would be for position 6 or 8. Really, that puts us in a better position than I originally thought.

Right now, St. Louis is the next best in the central, but I expect them to fade and Utah to take that spot. St. Louis just lost Parayko for the season.

[Dean]

This team has all the pieces it needs with Vinnie, Fred and nyquist? That’s some wishful thinking! Col has Nelson and the crazy Russian on 2 nd line . Dal has duchene , Marchment and whatever stud rookie they want on there 2nd line. Winnipeg has nino , perfetti , namistov  2nd line . La has  Danault , fiala , probably kuzmenko 2nd line.  Vegas has a proven big  second line.   
    2 ahlers an a 35 yr old middle six guy is all we need for secondary scoring. To funny.  The wild are one injury away from disaster. They have no center depth to make a run or can there little players take the abuse of the playoffs. They’ll be on the golf course quick once again. 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Quote

With their strong start to the season and two recent wins, the Wild have kept the Avalanche out of reach of the third spot in the Central. As of this writing, the Wild sit two points above Colorado with the same games played. With a good run of games, Minnesota can hold its spot in the standings, but it won’t be easy.

Semantics here, but "Out of reach" generally conveys some distance, unless one indicates "just out of reach".

The Avalanche are currently even with the Wild in standings points and there's only a 1 game difference--Avalanche have played 1 more game now, so 3rd place doesn't seem to be far out of reach. If the Wild lose tonight, Colorado is ahead of them in the standings.

Also, Necas has been significantly more productive than Rantanen since the trade even though ODC told me that Rantanen was far better.

 

[M_Nels]

1 minute ago, Dean said:

This team has all the pieces it needs with Vinnie, Fred and nyquist? That’s some wishful thinking! Col has Nelson and the crazy Russian on 2 nd line . Dal has duchene , Marchment and whatever stud rookie they want on there 2nd line. Winnipeg has nino , perfetti , namistov  2nd line . La has  Danault , fiala , probably kuzmenko 2nd line.  Vegas has a proven big  second line.   
    2 ahlers an a 35 yr old middle six guy is all we need for secondary scoring. To funny.  The wild are one injury away from disaster. They have no center depth to make a run or can there little players take the abuse of the playoffs. They’ll be on the golf course quick once again. 

What REALISTIC big swing could have been done? No way in hell we were getting Ranty. Nelson was a massive overpay by Colorado and was never a good option IMO.

What injury could be any more disastrous than Kap, Ek and Brodin that would derail the Wild at this point? 

The players are little? Well there ya go, we just traded for a 6'6 guy.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

4 minutes ago, Dean said:

The wild are one injury away from disaster. They have no center depth to make a run or can there little players take the abuse of the playoffs. They’ll be on the golf course quick once again.

I like the optimism here. At least you think they'll be healthy enough for the golf course before the end of next month!

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Also, most people would refer to this as 3rd best in goals against average rather than the 30th highest goals against out of 32 teams.

Quote

The Stars are also more challenging to score against than the Golden Knights; they sit 30th in goals against per game (GA/GP) with a 2.57 average.

Feels like some chat bots are being used here from time to time.  Vegas is 7th in goals against average at 2.75, so they are not easy to score against either.

If either Dallas or Vegas are healthy for the playoffs, they will be pretty tough to beat. Of course, one could say the same for the Wild, who have the potential to be much better than the current stats suggest, on both offense and defense, if they have all of their guys healthy for the playoffs for the 1st time in years.

 

[mnfaninnc]

Looks to me like both Dallas and Colorado are trying to make the conference finals based upon their moves. It would be ironic for them to face each other in the 1st round. 

Ranty to Dallas for Stankoven and 2 1sts. Likely late 1sts. 

Scott Laughton to Toronto for a 1st

Brandon Tanev to 'Peg for 2nd rounder

Luke Schenn to 'Peg for 2nd and 4th

Kuzmenko to the Kings for a 3rd from Philly

Beauvillier to the Caps from the Pens for a 2nd

Lots of action going on around the league. Maybe next season Shooter will remember to keep a buffer so he can acquire if needed. 

[mnfaninnc]

And, for the full circle, Petr Mrazek heads back to Detroit with Craig Smith for Joe Veleno. 

[mnfaninnc]

And in a full MN flavor: Charlie Coyle to the Avs for Casey Mittlestadt. I thought that Boston loved Coyle and vice versa. There's a team not afraid to trade their home grown boys.

Is Wyatt Johnston worth 5 x $8.4m? Dallas shelling out the cash as Ranty also got extended for 8 x $12m.

Edited March 7 by mnfaninnc

[M_Nels]

6 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Is Wyatt Johnston worth 5 x $8.4m?

I'm saying every bit of it, that was a heck of a bridge deal done by the Stars GM. 

[mnfaninnc]

1 minute ago, M_Nels said:

I'm saying every bit of it, that was a heck of a bridge deal done by the Stars GM.

So, do you say Johnston is better than Boldy or is that just the inflation part? Both deals end about the same time.

[mnfaninnc]

Marchand to the Panthers. Apparently the trade deadline at 3 pm is just like the voting booths. If you're in line (on the phone) by 3 pm, you're in. So we should have some late moving deals. Are the Wild one of them?

Russo says no, they're done.

Edited March 7 by mnfaninnc

[M_Nels]

6 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

So, do you say Johnston is better than Boldy or is that just the inflation part? Both deals end about the same time.

I wouldn't say he's much better than Boldy but he's not worse either. It's a bargain of a bridge with the cap going up like they say it's going to.

[mnfaninnc]

Brandon Carlo to Toronto. Looks like the Bruins have sold hard this deadline. Are they going full rebuild? 

[mnfaninnc]

Luke Kunin headed to CBJ for a 4th. CBJ had tons of cap room to add too.

[Dean]

Johnston is better than bolds . He plays big bolds plays small . 
  I don’t get why the wild  won’t do anything to upgrade center. What free agents are they going to get next year? The big names are gone.  Two division rivals just cemented there playoff runs for next few years . We still think Rossi , Hartman , Fred  and ahler shore is center depth for a Stanley cup team. Ridiculous. 
   Dal has    Hintz , duchene, Harley , steel . Col  Nate m , Nelson, coyle and face off specialist drury. . Vegas.  Winnipeg , la , Edmonton all have legit center depth . We think another 4 th liner is the answer.  It isn’t this year or next. How are they going to upgrade center depth? The kids are nowhere close. The Russian hasn’t played in the nhl yet. Why would kappy sign here when he looks around the division. There are good gm s in our division and it isn’t our gm. Money is better in other states with no tax . We aren’t a destination our do we have anything close to cup contender. We are  as we always are pretenders.  Billys done great at keeping us mediocre.  

[OldDutchChip]

4 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Nelson fetched a stupid amount of return and seemingly wanted a ridiculous amount of money.  Some trades have been weird and desperate.

I get that Khusnutdinov "could" be something, but the team as constructed is only going to go so far.

There may be reasons two players were swapped for one: money or opportunity.  No real way to know until Khusnutdinov gets a new contract or we see who gets his spot in his absence.

 

 

my only counter to this is we would be in the exact spot had we not traded for anyone and stood pat. neither Nyquist nor this boston dude is going to move the needle much. this is a move just for the sake of moving. to look busy. we were going to make PO either way. so now we got rid of few more picks and youth for nothing. results are the same. PO and out. we ain't winning a round.....and that was a must. if PO was more important (disagree - it had to be R1 victory) then he should have rewarded the team and players that got the team there and not sold them off for scraps. 

before you say - lets make PO first....Faber, Boldy and Rossi and captain and all the other Billy Boys who are not injured (all of them) should be enough to not loose 20 games straight. otherwise there's a whole other issue there. but whatever - it's done. 

 

[mnfaninnc]

7 minutes ago, Dean said:

Billys done great at keeping us mediocre.  

I'd have to say Shooter has delivered on his promise. During the heavy buyout years he has promised us a competitive team. In 4 out of 5 years, he's delivered that, and last season injuries (much like this season) derailed the team. He did a good job in fixing that from happening again this season, and we've been just as challenged, maybe even more challenged with Kaprizov being out so long.

I think the definition of mediocre would be ranked somewhere in the low 20s in points. We've been above that, but if the comparison you're making is we are not contenders, well, this is true and it was never suggested that we would be at this point in time. 

Shooter's got his guys and mostly who he wants to go to battle with over the next 5 years. Now he has to fill in those gaps. I believe Yurov will get a shot at center, Buium and Jiricek at D and finally seeing The Wall up for a full season. I also think OgZ will be up for a full season. That's 5 rookies and not, exactly something you hang contender on. But, these guys will be pretty seasoned in professional hockey (except Buium). 

I still think the future looks bright here. Now, as for Dallas and what they've got, I'm not so sure we're playing Dallas. To me, I think the Avs catch and pass us and we are headed for WC1. I believe the Kings, Flames, and Canucks are battling it out for spots 6 and 8. The Canucks sold, the Flames stood pat, and the Kings grabbed Kuzmenko. 

Tonight is a big game. For us, it's a knock out game for the Canucks as we would position ourselves likely too far out to catch with 20 games left. It would be nice to hit 80 points early next week. Our team needs to play hard at home and figure that out to finish out the season. 

If I were Shooter and Heinzy, I'd be sending scouts to view VGK quite a bit. And, if Shooter thinks VGK is our 1st round, then acquiring Breezers was a good, needed move. 

[mnfaninnc]

Fully healthy, does this look like our lines?

• Zuccarello/Rossi/Kaprizov
• Boldy/Ek/Nyquist
• Trenin/Hartman/Foligno
• Breezers/Freddy/Vinny
• Johansson eating nachos

Can that hang with Vegas?

[OldDutchChip]

4 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Fully healthy, does this look like our lines?

• Zuccarello/Rossi/Kaprizov
• Boldy/Ek/Nyquist
• Trenin/Hartman/Foligno
• Breezers/Freddy/Vinny
• Johansson eating nachos

Can that hang with Vegas?

no my friend. 

[AKwildkraken]

3 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Fully healthy, does this look like our lines?

• Zuccarello/Rossi/Kaprizov
• Boldy/Ek/Nyquist
• Trenin/Hartman/Foligno
• Breezers/Freddy/Vinny
• Johansson eating nachos

Can that hang with Vegas?

I was just thinking the same thing.  Hang with Vegas, absolutely.  Beat Vegas, maybe?  Win a series with a hot goalie? Possible.  

But I don't think it makes them a better team than Vegas.  Our ok still sucks