Article: Bill Guerin's Future Is Rooted In the Present

[Dango]

36 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

well shit man, forget Brady Tkachuk - we are set! 

I think both Brady and Tuch would be great players to have but to say BG doesnt have a plan i dont agree with that ,     All three of Faber , Rossi and Boldy are very good players  and getting better so i think their value keeps increasing .    My opinion is that if we upgrade other areas that might be enough  to get it done .    

[OldDutchChip]

1 minute ago, Dango said:

I think both Brady and Tuch would be great players to have but to say BG doesnt have a plan i dont agree with that ,     All three of Faber , Rossi and Boldy are very good players  and getting better so i think their value keeps increasing .    My opinion is that if we upgrade other areas that might be enough  to get it done .    

but what is the plan? even now, there are teams from the cellar moving up and our fellow contenders are much more prepared than us. the free agent out look is nothing impressive and we are likely to be giving contracts to minnesota sons returning home after their peak is long gone. this doesn't even mention kaprizov - who i fully believe will NOT sign this july. so how is this all working out? i really want to see the good side of this plan 6 year in.....

[SkolWild73]

2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Yes, next year's pick, which is likely to be around pick #18-20 for a pretty well developed 2022 draft top 10 pick that may just need a summer of work with the Wild skating coach in order to be fully ready for major NHL minutes.

Also, let's not pretend that Jiricek is doing nothing just because he isn't getting into games. He has pretty solid hockey instincts and offensive skills, but needs skating work. They can do skating work outside of games and insert him into games when they aren't playing top scoring opponents.

Now, I wouldn't hate seeing Jiricek get more AHL minutes, but given how the Iowa Wild are performing, doing skating work with the NHL coaches might be just as good for his development as playing 20 minutes/night for the Iowa Wild.

Yea, my point exactly to the original poster, just in a few less words.🙂

[Need4speed99]

13 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Time will tell on Khusnutdinov (and Ohgren still).  But Khusnutdinov was nowhere close to beating out Gaudreau on the depth chart. If Ohgren or Yurov are anything, they will beat out 7 pts in 55-60 games.  I don't like keeping Hartman over Khusnutdinov to open a Yurov slot, but such is life.

Jiricek just has to be patient.  Merrill will be gone, so there is Buium's slot.  The decision over Chisholm is what decides Jiricek's fate. Chisholm has been a good soldier, but you don't give up all that stuff to ride the bench.

 

 

 

Ahh yes and going with benchmark freddy is better? For a team thar needs poi to and talent let's run with bottom six guys with little talent and ZERO upside. 

BUT, we can say that based off a bottom vet and 1st yr rook because... ohh freddy has gotten 2nd line minutes and marat has been 4th line....

I sometimes wonder about most fans.

[Patrick]

Kaprizov currently makes 9 million a year. His next contract may hit 14. That's an increase of 5 million a year. 22-5=17 million in cap space for the Wild...

[Protec]

8 hours ago, OldDutchChip said:

well shit man, forget Brady Tkachuk - we are set! 

Tkachuk might be tired of Canada's Capitol. 

Dallas moved a young Stankoven for Raanttennen. A young player who had some highs and lows but with good potential. You gotta give something to get something. MN moving on from Knudi and Lauko and not getting back a 1st round pick is not a surprise. MN needed size redundancy and with Ek & Kaprizov the balance to better utilize Brazo will make it look better in my opinion. At the same time, Knudi and Lauko weren't moving the needle. At the moment, neither is Ogie. 

Bottom line is, Guerin didn't do buyouts with no plan. It's ridiculous that anyone says he has no plan. They aren't gonna wait five years with all the timing building to this off season and then blow things at the deadline just before. Come one everybody, we might not agree on all the moves or results but the Wild ARE moving in a better direction with a team that has been very good despite injuries. A playoff team AND with nice prospects for the future. 

I would love for the Wild to get Tkachuk. Not sure what the cost but keep #97 and get #7 would be great! Then people can complain about those players being traded and forget about Knudi who could be pretty okay one day but wasn't gonna fit in MN after all.

 

[MacGyver]

6 hours ago, Patrick said:

Kaprizov currently makes 9 million a year. His next contract may hit 14. That's an increase of 5 million a year. 22-5=17 million in cap space for the Wild...

Given OCL statement about no one will out bid us on Kaprizov and knowing his agent Kaprizov will come in at more than $14.  Given the fact he is not even skating yet is quite concerning. I believe it was Yanni Gourde who had the same surgery (sports hernia) and is back playing after five weeks I think. Kaprizov is showing a bit of a tendency to be a injury liability. I understand all players get injured but it is also a fact some players have more of a tendency to get hurt and recover more slowly than others. 

I don't think we will ever see the same Ek his injuries have just taken their toll. Could it be the same with Kaprizov?  

[RedLake]

Tuch Tuck Tuck.

[MNCountryLife]

12 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

If they can get healthy, they could be a tough playoff opponent from either the 7th seed or 8th seed.

I would like to believe that... but our PK is still really bad.  Whoever we play only has to turn things into a special teams matchup and we are an easy out.  Fix the PK and we could compete.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

19 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

I would like to believe that... but our PK is still really bad.  Whoever we play only has to turn things into a special teams matchup and we are an easy out.  Fix the PK and we could compete.

It has been pretty bad, but Vegas and Edmonton have been around 70% in 2025 as well, and the PK should be a little better when Gus is getting all of the games. Fleury has a .783 save percentage on the PK this season, which is outside the top 60 for goalies with at least 12 games played this season.

Gus is a bit below average and the defense deserves plenty of blame. They need to be better too, and Brodin coming back couldn't hurt there. Merrill is serviceable as a 3rd pairing guy, but clearly it would be best if he doesn't need to get PK minutes.

[Pewterschmidt]

4 hours ago, Protec said:

They aren't gonna wait five years with all the timing building to this off season and then blow things at the deadline just before. Come one everybody, we might not agree on all the moves or results but the Wild ARE moving in a better direction

I'm down with Spider Mask on this one.  I hindsight the Nyquist and Brazo add's are good non-moves at this years deadline in an attempt to add some insurance against sliding out of the playoff picture.  Holding on by our fingernails waiting for the cavalry to return (97, Ek).  We'll absolutely be able to second guess bill for not playing the LTIR Mark Stone game but we can wait on that.

[Scalptrash]

13 hours ago, Protec said:

You complainers are a joke, giving F-grades while full-rebuilders aren't any closer to a Cup and big-swingers are striking out with newly-signed Stamkos, Big-Apple Blunders, or Vancouver's vanquished playoff chances. 

I'm not a complainer, I'm a realist. How many years are you going to give Guerin to win a cup? I don't want to hear about buyouts and waiting until we have more cap space. That was Guerin's choice and he put the team in that predicament. There were other ways to deal with that. Suter could have easily been kept and disciplined until he fell into line. They had to pay him either way and if he wanted to waste the rest of his career sitting in the press box, that would be his choice.

This is the Wild's 25th year in the NHL and they have never sniffed a cup. Other teams are consistently playing for cups and new teams, like Vegas, went to the SCF their first year and won it year six. Ownership, management, and leadership matter. Having a ho hum attitude about those things won't win championships. Guerin has done way more harm than good trying to string along mostly washed up veterans trying to make the playoffs every year. That is Leipold's directive and Guerin has done a good job of that. But...he has not built a championship team and the Wild are more than a few players from getting there. This offseason, when there might be a few dollars to spend, is just the beginning of the rebuild. It will be another 3-5 years before the Wild smell the cup...if they are very fortunate and Guerin doesn't trade away their future for more old veterans with no trade clauses.

In my personal opinion, the Wild will never win a Stanley Cup under the current ownership. He won't do or allow what is necessary to build a championship team from the ground up. He only cares about butts in seats and consistent revenue. Chicago will win a cup before the Wild do, watch. 

I would like to see a new owner, a proven GM and a proven coach. No more tryouts or fill ins, it's the only way. If you're content defending mediocrity, then I don't know what to tell you.

[SkolWild73]

To all those that are giving Billy such a bad grade as GM, do you think we would have been a better team if we did not buy out Parise and Suter?  Going back to that year, we saved $10M in cap space.  If everyone remembers, later that same summer is when we resigned Kap, only 2 days before training camp for his $9M AAV contract.  There was a fear since he was a RFA, that he would go back to Russia if we could not come to an agreement.  We also resigned Fiala that same year after the buyouts for $5M and signed Goligoski for $5M.  Obviously, we would have been able to sign Kap had we not done the buyout but would have not gotten Goligoski (no harm there) and probably lose Fiala.  Fiala had 85 points in 82 games that year.  Granted his performance wasn't there in the playoffs, probably the reason we lost in 7, but would have we been better with Parise and Suter instead of Fiala and Goligoski?  Parise had 18P in 45 games and Suter had 19 in 56 their last year.  The next year Fiala had 85P in 82 games and Goligoski had 30P in 72 games.  I can't see how we would have been better that year.

Fast forward a year and we are able to flip Fiala for Faber and a 1st, same year we drafted Ohgren and Yurov.  If we didn't do the buyouts, we don't make that trade and are also minus Faber and probably Yurov. 

In the whole scheme of things, would this team have been better the last 4 years with Parise and Suter, or without them?   In the last 4 years, we have had our best regular season ever in 2021/2022, our 7th best ever in 2022/2023, and so far, our 6th best season this year. Our second-best season was in 2020.2021, Parise and Suters last season.  I get it that there wasn't any post-season success, but we hadn't got out of the first round with Parise and Suter since 2015.  

For me, I still give our GM an incomplete.  Too many unknowns at this point.  We do not know how this year will turn out yet.  We do not know if Kap will resign yet.  Even though Billy has built a top ranked prospect pool, we need to see them play.  We do have a young core, and some good vets signed to good contracts.  To me the future looks good if Kap signs and the prospects come in and do well.  Time will tell.

[OldDutchChip]

1 hour ago, SkolWild73 said:

To all those that are giving Billy such a bad grade as GM, do you think we would have been a better team if we did not buy out Parise and Suter?  Going back to that year, we saved $10M in cap space.  If everyone remembers, later that same summer is when we resigned Kap, only 2 days before training camp for his $9M AAV contract.  There was a fear since he was a RFA, that he would go back to Russia if we could not come to an agreement.  We also resigned Fiala that same year after the buyouts for $5M and signed Goligoski for $5M.  Obviously, we would have been able to sign Kap had we not done the buyout but would have not gotten Goligoski (no harm there) and probably lose Fiala.  Fiala had 85 points in 82 games that year.  Granted his performance wasn't there in the playoffs, probably the reason we lost in 7, but would have we been better with Parise and Suter instead of Fiala and Goligoski?  Parise had 18P in 45 games and Suter had 19 in 56 their last year.  The next year Fiala had 85P in 82 games and Goligoski had 30P in 72 games.  I can't see how we would have been better that year.

Fast forward a year and we are able to flip Fiala for Faber and a 1st, same year we drafted Ohgren and Yurov.  If we didn't do the buyouts, we don't make that trade and are also minus Faber and probably Yurov. 

In the whole scheme of things, would this team have been better the last 4 years with Parise and Suter, or without them?   In the last 4 years, we have had our best regular season ever in 2021/2022, our 7th best ever in 2022/2023, and so far, our 6th best season this year. Our second-best season was in 2020.2021, Parise and Suters last season.  I get it that there wasn't any post-season success, but we hadn't got out of the first round with Parise and Suter since 2015.  

For me, I still give our GM an incomplete.  Too many unknowns at this point.  We do not know how this year will turn out yet.  We do not know if Kap will resign yet.  Even though Billy has built a top ranked prospect pool, we need to see them play.  We do have a young core, and some good vets signed to good contracts.  To me the future looks good if Kap signs and the prospects come in and do well.  Time will tell.

To all those that are giving Billy such a bad grade as GM, do you think we would have been a better team if we did not buy out Parise and Suter? 

Well that depends on what action is taken next? The issue here is not just the buy outs but the culmination of all other events that took place, with last of which being trading two young players and a pick for a unplayable big guy. So you can't just look at it from simply buy out standpoint. First - you have to just stop with using it as an excuse. Second - you could have assessed the situation with logic and not emotion and maybe buy out only ZP.  Of course that would have it's own repercussions so that would be impossible to predict the outcome. 

Going back to that year, we saved $10M in cap space.  If everyone remembers, later that same summer is when we resigned Kap, only 2 days before training camp for his $9M AAV contract.  There was a fear since he was a RFA, that he would go back to Russia if we could not come to an agreement. 

He was going to play in NHL and with Wild no matter what. That is a route that all players have to take. The buy out helped, but we could have adjusted - perhaps unloaded Dumba. The hold up was not related to money primarily, it was more important to Kap to get the term - so he waited until we caved and took a year off and settled at 5. remember we wanted 8 and he wanted 3 if i recall correctly. 

Fast forward a year and we are able to flip Fiala for Faber and a 1st, same year we drafted Ohgren and Yurov.  If we didn't do the buyouts, we don't make that trade and are also minus Faber and probably Yurov. 

thinking like that will always prove one side right. what would you say that if Bill does not sign Trenin and does not trade for Jiricek and Nyquist, that we could have used the picks and money to absorb Rantannen's contract?

Even though Billy has built a top ranked prospect pool, we need to see them play.  We do have a young core, and some good vets signed to good contracts.  To me the future looks good if Kap signs and the prospects come in and do well.  Time will tell.

we have a young and unproven prospect line. Ohgren and Wally are not ready. Let's wait and see on Zeev and Yurov. Some good vets.....who exactly? Freddy? Harty? Foligno? Trenin? Bogo? MJ? Nyquist? Zuccy?

Kap out / Nelson in. Yes!

[SkolWild73]

21 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

To all those that are giving Billy such a bad grade as GM, do you think we would have been a better team if we did not buy out Parise and Suter? 

Well that depends on what action is taken next? The issue here is not just the buy outs but the culmination of all other events that took place, with last of which being trading two young players and a pick for a unplayable big guy. So you can't just look at it from simply buy out standpoint. First - you have to just stop with using it as an excuse. Second - you could have assessed the situation with logic and not emotion and maybe buy out only ZP.  Of course that would have it's own repercussions so that would be impossible to predict the outcome. 

Going back to that year, we saved $10M in cap space.  If everyone remembers, later that same summer is when we resigned Kap, only 2 days before training camp for his $9M AAV contract.  There was a fear since he was a RFA, that he would go back to Russia if we could not come to an agreement. 

He was going to play in NHL and with Wild no matter what. That is a route that all players have to take. The buy out helped, but we could have adjusted - perhaps unloaded Dumba. The hold up was not related to money primarily, it was more important to Kap to get the term - so he waited until we caved and took a year off and settled at 5. remember we wanted 8 and he wanted 3 if i recall correctly. 

Fast forward a year and we are able to flip Fiala for Faber and a 1st, same year we drafted Ohgren and Yurov.  If we didn't do the buyouts, we don't make that trade and are also minus Faber and probably Yurov. 

thinking like that will always prove one side right. what would you say that if Bill does not sign Trenin and does not trade for Jiricek and Nyquist, that we could have used the picks and money to absorb Rantannen's contract?

Even though Billy has built a top ranked prospect pool, we need to see them play.  We do have a young core, and some good vets signed to good contracts.  To me the future looks good if Kap signs and the prospects come in and do well.  Time will tell.

we have a young and unproven prospect line. Ohgren and Wally are not ready. Let's wait and see on Zeev and Yurov. Some good vets.....who exactly? Freddy? Harty? Foligno? Trenin? Bogo? MJ? Nyquist? Zuccy?

Kap out / Nelson in. Yes!

I said some good vets, not all.  Ek, Brodin, Kap for now are good vets.  Zucc at $4.125M for one more year I say is good.  Can't say they are too many players that produce at that level with that contract.  Foligno serves a role that every team needs.  Freddy is borderline, but at $2.1M I can live with it.  i know many hate on Spurg, but he is a good vet, probably overpaid now, but still a good vet.  Midds isn't bad either.  Yes, there are some rough ones, but you have to admit there are some good ones on this team.

As far as Kap resigning in 2021, there were reports that he had a contract to go back to CSKA Moscow.  Probably a bluff from his agent, but it got him what he wanted.  Also thought he wanted 4 years at 10AAV.  

Never in my comment did I use the buyout as an excuse.  I simply asked if everyone thought the team would be better off if we had not done it.

I also said time will tell on the prospects.  Ohgren may not be ready for the top two lines, but good bet he is on the team next year if he isn't traded, same as the Wall.  We have no idea if he is ready until he gets a bunch of starts up here playing behind a good D.  

I gave Billy an incomplete because you can't judge this season yet until it is over.  Same goes with what happens this offseason and the next two years, we don't know yet.  All I know for sure is we have had three of our top seven regular seasons in the Billy regime.  Post Season success has not been there.  Whether we could have been better or not with different moves or no buyouts, we will never know.  Will be more than willing to give him an A, C or F in a couple of years when the "plan" plays out.  There will be no more excuses after that.  I am willing to give it more time because it does take time to build a winning team.  MacKinnon started in 2013, and it wasn't until 2019in his 6th season before the Avs advanced past the first round.  McDavid started in 2015.  They made it out of the first round his second season, then missed the playoffs for two and finally advanced past round one in 2022 in his 7th season.  Kap is in year 5.  Will see how this year, next year, and hopefully 8 more with him on the team play out.

[punch_cut]

It is amazing how people can say a team is going no where when they were near the top of standings when the team was healthy.

 

Trenin (clearly hasn't worked) signing was part of all the players saying they were small and easy to play against during exit meetings. He was also supposed to be a good penalty killer. 

 

Dino maybe ends up back in Russia if he spent time in the AHL. He was pretty terrible the whole time. He looked good skating, but never accomplished anything. Probably should have been down in the A half the time.

[OldDutchChip]

17 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

I said some good vets, not all.  Ek, Brodin, Kap for now are good vets.  Zucc at $4.125M for one more year I say is good.  Can't say they are too many players that produce at that level with that contract.  Foligno serves a role that every team needs.  Freddy is borderline, but at $2.1M I can live with it.  i know many hate on Spurg, but he is a good vet, probably overpaid now, but still a good vet.  Midds isn't bad either.  Yes, there are some rough ones, but you have to admit there are some good ones on this team.

As far as Kap resigning in 2021, there were reports that he had a contract to go back to CSKA Moscow.  Probably a bluff from his agent, but it got him what he wanted.  Also thought he wanted 4 years at 10AAV.  

Never in my comment did I use the buyout as an excuse.  I simply asked if everyone thought the team would be better off if we had not done it.

I also said time will tell on the prospects.  Ohgren may not be ready for the top two lines, but good bet he is on the team next year if he isn't traded, same as the Wall.  We have no idea if he is ready until he gets a bunch of starts up here playing behind a good D.  

I gave Billy an incomplete because you can't judge this season yet until it is over.  Same goes with what happens this offseason and the next two years, we don't know yet.  All I know for sure is we have had three of our top seven regular seasons in the Billy regime.  Post Season success has not been there.  Whether we could have been better or not with different moves or no buyouts, we will never know.  Will be more than willing to give him an A, C or F in a couple of years when the "plan" plays out.  There will be no more excuses after that.  I am willing to give it more time because it does take time to build a winning team.  MacKinnon started in 2013, and it wasn't until 2019in his 6th season before the Avs advanced past the first round.  McDavid started in 2015.  They made it out of the first round his second season, then missed the playoffs for two and finally advanced past round one in 2022 in his 7th season.  Kap is in year 5.  Will see how this year, next year, and hopefully 8 more with him on the team play out.

I said some good vets, not all.  Ek, Brodin, Kap for now are good vets.  that was 4-5 years ago.....

zuccy has been a good pair, but the construct of that top line is not designed well enough to optimize kap (and sure as hell does not protect him) so i think sticking with same old - is a fail. he should have brought someone here already that could provide more physicality and deterrence than zuccy + rossi. 

Kap wanted the shortest term and Bill wanted the longest. The team gave a little and settled for "mid" ground. All this other issues are noise. He was going to play here, it was a matter of how long. And he stuck to the shortest term so that he can see where we are at. 

Never in my comment did I use the buyout as an excuse.  I simply asked if everyone thought the team would be better off if we had not done it. then i mis interpreted, but when you asked about what could have been done, i thought you meant that buy outs were the best option - and that is very unlikely. and even so, should not be an excuse - not directly to you - but all billy's fans who DO use it as an excuse. 

I gave Billy an incomplete because you can't judge this season yet until it is over. fair enough, but one can predict our trajectory. and combine with outcomes from his full tenure get - 

• NO round 1 wins
• After first 5 year plan expired, we have seamlessly merged into yet another five year plan
• There are NO Free agents available to plug into top line with Kap and Kap will continue to be asked to drag this team on his back, all while getting cross checked and sat on

those are facts. to me D- is VERY generous

 

[OldDutchChip]

8 minutes ago, punch_cut said:

It is amazing how people can say a team is going no where when they were near the top of standings when the team was healthy.

 

Trenin (clearly hasn't worked) signing was part of all the players saying they were small and easy to play against during exit meetings. He was also supposed to be a good penalty killer. 

 

Dino maybe ends up back in Russia if he spent time in the AHL. He was pretty terrible the whole time. He looked good skating, but never accomplished anything. Probably should have been down in the A half the time.

Dino is playing in Boston right now. and we had a player named Kaprizov who played for us. He was good. 

[SkolWild73]

10 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

I said some good vets, not all.  Ek, Brodin, Kap for now are good vets.  that was 4-5 years ago.....

zuccy has been a good pair, but the construct of that top line is not designed well enough to optimize kap (and sure as hell does not protect him) so i think sticking with same old - is a fail. he should have brought someone here already that could provide more physicality and deterrence than zuccy + rossi. 

Kap wanted the shortest term and Bill wanted the longest. The team gave a little and settled for "mid" ground. All this other issues are noise. He was going to play here, it was a matter of how long. And he stuck to the shortest term so that he can see where we are at. 

Never in my comment did I use the buyout as an excuse.  I simply asked if everyone thought the team would be better off if we had not done it. then i mis interpreted, but when you asked about what could have been done, i thought you meant that buy outs were the best option - and that is very unlikely. and even so, should not be an excuse - not directly to you - but all billy's fans who DO use it as an excuse. 

I gave Billy an incomplete because you can't judge this season yet until it is over. fair enough, but one can predict our trajectory. and combine with outcomes from his full tenure get - 

• NO round 1 wins
• After first 5 year plan expired, we have seamlessly merged into yet another five year plan
• There are NO Free agents available to plug into top line with Kap and Kap will continue to be asked to drag this team on his back, all while getting cross checked and sat on

those are facts. to me D- is VERY generous

 

As I said, time will tell.  Why I love to watch hockey more than any other sport is you never know come playoff time.  In the last 4 years, two teams with the worst point total of the playoff teams made the cup finals.  Florida in 2023 and Montreal in 2021.  Nashville also made the final in 2017 when they were tied for least points with 94.    Tampa in 2022 and Dallas in 2020 made the final as three seeds in their division.  Tampa won in 2021 as a 3 seed as did St. Louis in 2019.  Maybe we can add the Wild to one of these lists after this year!!

3 wild card teams in the last 8 years have made the final.  You have to go back to 2013 for the last time the team with the best record made it to the final.  The Blackhawks did it that year and won the cup.  Gotta love playoff hockey.  If anyone here is a betting man, don't take the team with the most points.

[SkolWild73]

53 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

• NO round 1 wins
• After first 5 year plan expired, we have seamlessly merged into yet another five year plan
• There are NO Free agents available to plug into top line with Kap and Kap will continue to be asked to drag this team on his back, all while getting cross checked and sat on

those are facts. to me D- is VERY generous

Some facts about some other general managers.

Joe Sakic, Colorado (2014-2022)- Missed playoffs in first three years.  Lost round 1 in year 4.  Made it to second round years 5-7.  Won cup in year 8.

Jim Nill, Dallas Stars (2013-present)- First 5 years, missed playoffs 3 times, lost first round once, advanced to second round in second year.  Advanced to round two in 6th year and won the cup in 7th year.

Kevin Cheveldayoff, Winnipeg (2011-present)- Missed playoffs 5 out of first 6 years, no first-round wins. Lost conference final in year 7. Next 6 years, missed playoffs once, lost first round 4 times, advanced to second round once.  Will see what happens this year.

Not a lot of success in the first 5 years of these guys either.  Which is why I am willing to let it play out.  Time is ticking though.  All three of the above made it the conference finals or won a cup by year 8.  

[OldDutchChip]

50 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

As I said, time will tell.  Why I love to watch hockey more than any other sport is you never know come playoff time.  In the last 4 years, two teams with the worst point total of the playoff teams made the cup finals.  Florida in 2023 and Montreal in 2021.  Nashville also made the final in 2017 when they were tied for least points with 94.    Tampa in 2022 and Dallas in 2020 made the final as three seeds in their division.  Tampa won in 2021 as a 3 seed as did St. Louis in 2019.  Maybe we can add the Wild to one of these lists after this year!!

3 wild card teams in the last 8 years have made the final.  You have to go back to 2013 for the last time the team with the best record made it to the final.  The Blackhawks did it that year and won the cup.  Gotta love playoff hockey.  If anyone here is a betting man, don't take the team with the most points.

i hear ya! but it's also nice to be prepared and not hope we can luck out a round 1 win. time will tell. 🍻

[OldDutchChip]

3 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

Some facts about some other general managers.

Joe Sakic, Colorado (2014-2022)- Missed playoffs in first three years.  Lost round 1 in year 4.  Made it to second round years 5-7.  Won cup in year 8.

Jim Nill, Dallas Stars (2013-present)- First 5 years, missed playoffs 3 times, lost first round once, advanced to second round in second year.  Advanced to round two in 6th year and won the cup in 7th year.

Kevin Cheveldayoff, Winnipeg (2011-present)- Missed playoffs 5 out of first 6 years, no first-round wins. Lost conference final in year 7. Next 6 years, missed playoffs once, lost first round 4 times, advanced to second round once.  Will see what happens this year.

Not a lot of success in the first 5 years of these guys either.  Which is why I am willing to let it play out.  Time is ticking though.  All three of the above made it the conference finals or won a cup by year 8.  

which one had Kaprizov on their team? what was at stake? what happened before? other variables to consider. we run on our own unique schedule - we have a superstar that can sign this July. so we had to get a winning product to have a shot. maybe we luck out a round 1 win. or maybe we loose in R1 or fail to make it. maybe we get another star or instead sign nelson and nyquist. that is yet to play out but it doesn't look too good....

[Pewterschmidt]

2 hours ago, OldDutchChip said:

After first 5 year plan expired, we have seamlessly merged into yet another five year plan

This is bill's genius.  Career Management.  I'll guess he whipped the hockey ops (hockey lodge, sponsors, etc) into shape and that earned him his promotion.  

Edited March 13 by Pewterschmidt

[SkolWild73]

1 hour ago, OldDutchChip said:

which one had Kaprizov on their team? what was at stake? what happened before? other variables to consider. we run on our own unique schedule - we have a superstar that can sign this July. so we had to get a winning product to have a shot. maybe we luck out a round 1 win. or maybe we loose in R1 or fail to make it. maybe we get another star or instead sign nelson and nyquist. that is yet to play out but it doesn't look too good....

Well, Colorado had McKinnon that entire time, so I would say that is a fair comparison as far as playoff success goes.

[SkolWild73]

1 hour ago, OldDutchChip said:

i hear ya! but it's also nice to be prepared and not hope we can luck out a round 1 win. time will tell. 🍻

Well, if we are not healthy, we will need a minor miracle to get out of round 1.  Fully healthy, I like our chances.