Article: What Do We Make Of Matt Boldy's Down Season?

[Tony Abbott]

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[SkolWild73]

Great article.  I saw a stat during one of the last couple of games about Boldy’s shooting percentage in the last month and a half and it was around 4 percent.  For whatever reason he isn’t finding the back of the net.  I hope that turns around just in time for the playoffs. 

[Burnt Toast]

Boldy’s a talented forward. That being said he needs to practice his shooting. 

[AKwildkraken]

It's hard to soar when you're surrounded by turkeys.  

Boldy looked pretty good during the 4 nations and also at last year's world's tournament playing with Brady Tkachuck on his line.  I know the world's hockey tournament isn't super intens, but the 4 nations was.  When you add Ek and Kaprizov back to this team it will take the competition's focus off just Boldy and Rossi.  

Boldy also might be tired from playing in the 4 nations.  The Capitols didn't have anybody in that tournament and it will be interesting to see how they look in the playoffs.

[Citizen Strife]

I read nothing into it.

Boldy is a quality forward, but not the Kaprizov tier.  He and Rossi held up their end as first liners in spite of nobody but Zuccarello and Johansson as help pretty much all year.

They are paying Boldy as a "guy below Kap" and he's giving them that.

[MrCheatachu]

Quote

His SPAR for the season is just 0.7. In his first three seasons, he was fourth, fourth, and second on the Wild, respectively. Now? He's 13th on the Wild, sitting between Jake Middleton (0.8 SPAR) and Jon Merrill (0.6 SPAR). As much as folks have buyer's remorse on the Yakov Trenin deal, he's out-SPARred Boldy, delivering the Wild 1.2 points in the standings. 

Woof...I've been one to question how we interpret the alphabet-soup of hockey metrics, but in this case I'd rather see Boldy in the top half of the team rather than the bottom half of the team in terms of SPAR.  

I've complained that Boldy has disappeared this season, and is putting up numbers comparable to MoJo for long stretches, and am met with the response that MoJo is the problem not Boldy, and we should fire MoJo into the sun.

Quote

His most common linemates are Marco Rossi (43.3% of his 5-on-5 minutes), Zuccarello (35.3%), and Eriksson Ek (33.3%), and those are three talented players. Are they the right match for Boldy, though?

So what does Boldy need then?  Ekker is a much different type of center than Rossi (FYI - anybody know what Rossi's SPAR this season is?  He's been a ghost the second half here), and Zucc has proved himself to be a capable forward, so what does Boldy need? 

Please don't say it's Kaprizov, because Kaprizov has made the likes of Ryan Hartman and Calen 'Struggling to find footing in the AHL' Addison look like productive NHL players.

The most frustrating part, to me anyways, is that during 4-nations Boldy looked like a different player.  He was visible and driving the play and was rewarded with a deflection goal for using his big frame in front of the Faber shot.

He has had flashes this season of being great, only to regress to 'meh'

Edited 12 hours ago by MrCheatachu

[Pewterschmidt]

22 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

Calen 'Struggling to find footing in the AHL' Addison

this was another bill blunder.  He hand picked this guy as an asset he wanted to add.  P-Put/Call Ratio, has bill made good moves?  Yes.  Middzy, GUS, Faber were solid.  offset by mojo, apathetic old core extensions, and 2025 TDL adds to name a few.  His moves are net neutral at best.  And that's not going to get it done in this league full of savvy GM's.  Clock is ticking on your 10-year plan bill.

Edited 12 hours ago by Pewterschmidt

[OldDutchChip]

One of the two will likely be traded this off season by Billy

If that’s the case - it should be Boldy

but - it will be Rossi 

I’d trade the trio (Faber, Rossi, Boldy) but I sadly don’t make decisions and Billy can likely do one thing at a time, so multi player deals are out of question 

 

[WildRam]

Talent wise Boldy has the ability to be a top 10-20 player in the league, whether he will or not is up to him and the Wild right now. He’s young and as said above, needs to spend a summer like Fiala did shooting the puck. If he can nail down the back door one timer he adds 10 goals to his season. He is worth the time to see how good he can be. While the organization has never had a Kap… we haven’t had many Boldy’s either. Not sure whether to blame him, coaching, the organization… but similar to Marat, he’s not someone you trade at his age with their underlying talent. 
 

It was laid out in a previous thread the age and increase in production for many high producers is in front of him if he can seize it. 

[MrCheatachu]

7 minutes ago, WildRam said:

needs to spend a summer like Fiala did shooting the puck

Nah, Boldy's summer is pretty booked:

https://www.pgatour.com/player/65820/matt-boldy

[MrCheatachu]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

this was another bill blunder.  He hand picked this guy as an asset he wanted to add.  P-Put/Call Ratio, has bill made good moves?  Yes.  Middzy, GUS, Faber were solid.  offset by mojo, apathetic old core extensions, and 2025 TDL adds to name a few.  His moves are net neutral at best.  And that's not going to get it done in this league full of savvy GM's.  Clock is ticking on your 10-year plan bill.

I don't particularly look at the Zucker trade as a wholesale blunder...look at what Zucker did after leaving MN:

Year    Salary    Team    Games    Goals    Assists    Points    PIM
 2024-25    $5,000,000     Buffalo Sabres    58    19    26    45    55
 2023-24    $5,300,000     Nashville Predators    18    5    2    7    23
 2023-24    $5,300,000     Arizona Coyotes    51    9    16    25    58
 2022-23    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    78    27    21    48    47
 2021-22    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    41    8    9    17    15
 2020-21    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    38    9    9    18    21
 2019-20    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    15    6    6    12    2
 2019-20    $5,500,000     Minnesota Wild    45    14    15    29    19
 2018-19    $5,500,000     Minnesota Wild    81    21    21    42    28
 

Frankly, jettisoning that contract and getting Addison and the 1st rounder (Lambos) seems like a move that had to be made. 

Don't forget that selling Zucker allowed us the space to sign Fiala to his $5.1M contract as an RFA which allowed us to keep him another year (and trade him for Faber + 1st)

Edited 11 hours ago by MrCheatachu

[Scalptrash]

Boldy has been streaky his entire career, including college. He obviously can't handle being "the guy", he is who he is.

[SkolWild73]

1 hour ago, WildRam said:

e’s young and as said above, needs to spend a summer like Fiala did shooting the puck. If he can nail down the back door one timer he adds 10 goals to his season.

I found it strange how his shooting percentage has dropped to 9.1% this year.  His previous worst year was 12.2%.  IF he was averaging that this year, he would be at 28 goals instead of 21.  Not sure what that would do to his SPAR.

I wonder why this number has dipped so much this year.  Is he taking that many more shots but less high danger shots?  Puck luck?  Trying too hard with Kap being out to make the perfect shot?  Of the top 50 players in shots this year, where Boldy is ranked 5th, he ranks 49th in shot percentage.  Interestingly, MacKinnon ranks 46th and B. Tkachuk ranks 45th.  Last year, Boldy was 45th is shots, but he ranked 23rd out of those top 50 in shot percentage.  Since the 4 nations he has 1G on 39 shots for a 2.6 shooting percentage.  Prior to that, he had 20 goals on 192 shots for a 10.4 shooting percentage.  He averaged 3.4 shots per game prior to 4 nations and 3.25 after, so it is not like he isn't shooting, just not scoring.  Hopefully it turns around.  I guess I am not ready to give up on him based on his shooting percentage the last 12 games, but he does need to get hot soon.

[Enforceror]

I'd like to see how many times he's hit the post. I know it's quite a bit.

[Patrick]

Frankly its much more reasonable to conclude SPAR is a limited stat AT BEST than it is to conclude that Boldy's play has significantly declined.  Remove Merrill from the team and we would be better.  Remove Middleton from the team and we stay approx the same.  Remove Boldy from the team and we are completely toast. SPAR can be a useful metric but it can also be completely misleading. Advanced Hockey stats should ALWAYS be taken with a grain of salt.

[Pewterschmidt]

2 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

I don't particularly look at the Zucker trade as a wholesale blunder...look at what Zucker did after leaving MN:

Year    Salary    Team    Games    Goals    Assists    Points    PIM
 2024-25    $5,000,000     Buffalo Sabres    58    19    26    45    55
 2023-24    $5,300,000     Nashville Predators    18    5    2    7    23
 2023-24    $5,300,000     Arizona Coyotes    51    9    16    25    58
 2022-23    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    78    27    21    48    47
 2021-22    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    41    8    9    17    15
 2020-21    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    38    9    9    18    21
 2019-20    $5,500,000     Pittsburgh Penguins    15    6    6    12    2
 2019-20    $5,500,000     Minnesota Wild    45    14    15    29    19
 2018-19    $5,500,000     Minnesota Wild    81    21    21    42    28
 

Frankly, jettisoning that contract and getting Addison and the 1st rounder (Lambos) seems like a move that had to be made. 

Don't forget that selling Zucker allowed us the space to sign Fiala to his $5.1M contract as an RFA which allowed us to keep him another year (and trade him for Faber + 1st)

We dealt an asset with market value for absolutely nothing.  Maybe Lambdzy becomes a #7 dman, but only time will tell.

[Thatoneguy]

49 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

We dealt an asset with market value for absolutely nothing.  Maybe Lambdzy becomes a #7 dman, but only time will tell.

Definitely not a win of a trade for Billy. 

[MrCheatachu]

26 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

We dealt an asset with market value for absolutely nothing.  Maybe Lambdzy becomes a #7 dman, but only time will tell.

Zucker → 'Top' defense prospect + 1st round pick

Fiala → 'Top' defense prospect + 1st round pick

🤷‍♂️

Addison was heralded as the top prospect out of an admittedly weak penguins farm program, but we don't get to use our magical butts and evaluate the trade with hindsight.  Shame on BillyG for being balls deep as the GM of the WBS Penguins and maybe having blinders on to what Addison is but turning a winger that we couldnt afford into a top prospect + draft pick seems to be reasonable return for me.

I mean, what did you want from Zucker besides a top prospect & first round pick?

[Pewterschmidt]

2 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

turning a winger that we couldnt afford into a top prospect + draft pick seems to be reasonable return for me.

Then bill shares the blame with Brackett.  bill gets blame for Addison who clearly is not an NHL player, Brackett get blame for klanging the 1st round pick off the upright.

Zucker for a 1st + prospect isn't necessarily expert GM'ing at the TDL.

We paid a 2nd for a 53 year old Nyquist.  (not ready to bring up Nyquist's play this year, but he's looking like an addition to the billy blunder trade ledger)

[Pewterschmidt]

5 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

Addison was heralded as the top prospect

The lesson here is you shouldn't always believe the hype.  Gotta use your brain to cut thru all the bullshit out there

[MrCheatachu]

32 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Zucker for a 1st + prospect isn't necessarily expert GM'ing at the TDL.

Want him to get an additional 3rd rounder that we could whiff on too?

Zucker wasnt a rental either, he was in year 2 of a 5 year deal getting paid $5.5M a year.  He ended up putting together a TOTAL of 83 points over his 3 full seasons (one covid shortened) for a pace of a whopping 0.6 PPG (including the post TDL).

Do tell, what do you think a the return for an overpaid winger who was allergic to scoring should have gotten the wild?

[mnfaninnc]

51 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

Addison was heralded as the top prospect out of an admittedly weak penguins farm program

Yes, he was, and Guerin got a lesson in that size really does matter. He looked at Spurgeon and thought "anyone can do it." Fact is Spurgy is in a league all his own. 

I've seen some different things from Boldy this season that he didn't do before. One of those things is throwing guys around to get through them. He's done that at least 3 times that I can remember, and he's starting to realize how big and strong he really is. But then, you see him on the PP trying to take over Kaprizov's spot where he consistently shanks one timers into the corner. Let's remember he is a top level golfer, not tournament ready, but can really snap a ball. How does he not have the hand/eye to pummel one timers? This is a mystery and it should be priority #1 this offseason. In fact, this is more important than getting stronger.

My comparison of Boldy to other players would not be for an Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner. Putting up huge volume of points is not his value. His value is more like an Anze Kopitar on the wing. He should be playing in all situations and seeing similar icetime to Kaprizov, yet he'll get PK minutes in this. I believe Ek is a better center for Boldy as they both have that offense/defense combo. His problem is the other wing. Somehow, I'd like to see Vinny get a chance there. 

I believe a perfect fit to that is coming next season in Yurov. While most peg him at center, I think the better thing to do is put Rossi with Kaprizov and fill that other wing in free agency. Could OgZ be that guy? He could play that type of game too. I still believe that Yurov will be a great top 6 fit from the get go, but likely a line 2 guy. I also don't know where to put Zuccarello in this. I'd like him to get sheltered minutes as much as possible, but he puts up top 6 type numbers, and is more dangerous feeding on the PP.

I really think we're going to have to trade out some of our value guys just for roster spots. At this point right now, who would you want on your 4th line, because it's looking like we're going to have 3 lines that can score.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

6 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

Frankly, jettisoning that contract and getting Addison and the 1st rounder (Lambos) seems like a move that had to be made. 

Don't forget that selling Zucker allowed us the space to sign Fiala to his $5.1M contract as an RFA which allowed us to keep him another year (and trade him for Faber + 1st)

I liked Zucker, but with Brodin aging, Lambos could become a really solid player right when the Wild need him and Faber/Ohgren might be vastly superior to Fiala(worst +/- on the Kings roster this year) in the near future. Zucker did struggle a bit for a while after the trade as well.

Zucker's having a solid season with Buffalo, but I'm more concerned/excited about the team the Wild have been building for 2025 and beyond than worrying about what Zucker could have done to help them along the way.

I know Lambos has mostly been under the radar in his development, but he seems to be quietly having a decent year despite the Iowa Wild struggles. In his draft profile, he was described as follows -- “A defender with no glaring weakness, Lambos is a powerful skater who can contribute in all three zones.”  We might be seeing him contribute for the NHL team as soon as next season.