Article: Vancouver Canucks 'Very Interested' In Wild's Marco Rossi

[Scalptrash]

On 6/9/2025 at 9:30 AM, mnfaninnc said:

I read an interesting piece that said there was a potential deal last summer of Marner going to Vegas for Karlsson. Toronto also asked for Theodore. Here's the interesting part, this trade was nixed by Karlsson who has an M-NTC. It looks like players want no part of playing in Canada and that the report on that was accurate. 

I believe that players are paid in $, not C$. But, Canada takes them to the cleaners in taxes, so most players just simply keep Canadian teams on their list. Since MN is a higher tax state, one could glean from this that they may not be much of a destination either. 

Looking at this through the player's eyes, I saw another national article last week on a problem in Minneapolis. I didn't read the article, but just that headline is negative coverage for Minneapolis making an out of towner wonder what is wrong with the community there. 

I can't remember who it was who defended Minneapolis and their taxes, essentially saying that the national articles were blown out of proportion, which they probably are, and that south Minneapolis has great schools, houses selling above asking price, and is wonderful. The national perception since the George Floyd death has not been as kind to the city. And, if a guy is potentially coming into this market which has a 9.85% state tax rate for his salary, what is he getting out of it? This is more of a national PR problem than anything else in my eyes. But it is likely also the way a potential athlete sees the community. 

Many M-NTC contracts are 10 team. Some are 15. While I think the 7 Canadian teams + Buffalo, Columbus are on that list, maybe NJ is #10? Where does MN fit on this list? Would they be in the top 15? I think this is truly possible, and something that Shooter is going to have to overcome. This typically translates to overpayment. 

Minneapolis is a shit hole compared to what it used to be. It's surprising that so many Wild players choose to live downtown Mpls.

[raithis]

22 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

What I'm concerned about here isn't truth, it's perception. Regardless of where the articles show up, it is out there for out of towners, and will hit on a simple google search. Would a player google search an area if he had a clause? Or would he ask a teammate from the state if it's a nice place to live? What would the teammate say? Does the friend say it's great as long as you stay out of Minneapolis? 

Of course, if you look hard enough, probably every city with a hockey team will have crime pop up. 

That's just it though.  People have to do more than a Google search. 

Perception comes from the type of media one consumes.  Everything shows you more of what it thinks you like.  That, and negative stories and dramatic headlines get clicks so it's going to be presented worse than it is.  By population density, it's far less of an issue than a lot of teams in the league, and teams who fare worse in those categories are able to attract talent.

I think people over-simplify it.  The reasons players do or do not tend to sign for a team are far greater than crime rates or taxes.  Maybe someone (or their spouse) prefers the weather in an area.  Maybe they've always wanted to live on the East Coast.  Or maybe they have family in the area.  Or maybe they prefer as smaller cities where they can go a little ways and get out into nature.

Overall, I think hockey players don't care about most of those things.  They typically have the money to take more vacations in the off-season or all-star/Olympic break if they want to.  They can afford to fly their family in to visit if they want.  They have the means to afford almost anything they want, taxes or no taxes.

The whole reason they play is to win right.  Yes, I'm sure some know that there's probably no chance they ever get to touch the cup and are just happy to get to do that for a living, but I'd have to think that majority of the players in the league want to win and tend to opt towards teams that give them the best chance of doing so.  All of those other things are secondary.

So far, we've not been that team, but I do believe we are progressing in that direction.  Slowly, but I think we will get a lot more interest from free agents in 2026, especially if some out prospects can live up to the hype.  Well, at least to the hype that isn't outlandishly unrealistic.

 

[mnfaninnc]

When I hear "very interested" in trading for Rossi, to me that sounds like we will hear of trade deals that indicate "very interested." Not "ok, we'll take him off your hands" types of deals. 

"Very interested" has to be followed with a "very interesting" offer. Dangling #15 in this year's draft, Hoglander, Bluegger, or Lakkerimaki does not look at all appealing. 

There are a couple of players I do find appealing but am not sure how this would work. Thatcher Demko and Tom Willander. 

Demko is the kind of 'tender who could be lights out for the Wild. He would need an extension but would immediately upgrade our goaltending from average to elite. Goose would have to be included in the deal, but a Demko/The Wall battery could be a wow factor.

Willander is a 20 year old LHD who played 2 years at BU. He's 6'1" 191 as listed on the BU site, similar to his draft numbers. He had 2 pretty good years there and is a #11 overall pick in '23, a very good draft class. There would need to be a sorting out of our D, probably moving Brodin and Spurgeon and they'd be pretty young....but really good...and inexpensive for the time being. Willander would be the 6th possible rookie to join the roster.

Of course, this doesn't help at all with our forwards.

Another possible answer could be dealing with Seattle and I've heard they have interest in Rossi. Shane Wright would be my target there, and I'd think Seattle would need to add something to the deal. Wright, I believe, sits right about at where Guerin's timeline would be. He's in the last year of his ELC but is 6' 198 at this time. Wright is part of the '22 draft, which would be a nice get if building the team with that draft. He's on a similar trajectory with Rossi in terms of development, just a couple of years behind with no health scare and a bit larger. He's also an RHS center which we really could use. I would lean heavily towards a 1 for 1 swap here, and this would be my 2nd choice behind a Rangers' deal.

[mnfaninnc]

17 minutes ago, raithis said:

The reasons players do or do not tend to sign for a team are far greater than crime rates or taxes. 

I think their agents and financial advisors do care about the tax rates and will advise them as such. So, already in one ear there will be chatter.

18 minutes ago, raithis said:

The whole reason they play is to win right.  Yes, I'm sure some know that there's probably no chance they ever get to touch the cup and are just happy to get to do that for a living, but I'd have to think that majority of the players in the league want to win and tend to opt towards teams that give them the best chance of doing so.  All of those other things are secondary.

So far, we've not been that team, but I do believe we are progressing in that direction.  Slowly, but I think we will get a lot more interest from free agents in 2026, especially if some out prospects can live up to the hype.  Well, at least to the hype that isn't outlandishly unrealistic.

So, am I right to believing that your solution here is to start winning more? Did being 1st in the league in mid December move the needle any? Does having the cap penalties mostly falling off change the perception? Does "getting to play with Kaprizov" help? Or, for that matter, anyone else on this team?

I thought your response was very well thought out.

[raithis]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

I think their agents and financial advisors do care about the tax rates and will advise them as such. So, already in one ear there will be chatter.

So, am I right to believing that your solution here is to start winning more? Did being 1st in the league in mid December move the needle any? Does having the cap penalties mostly falling off change the perception? Does "getting to play with Kaprizov" help? Or, for that matter, anyone else on this team?

I thought your response was very well thought out.

I think all of those things help and is partly why I think free agents will start to be more interested.  Up till now, most of the interest in signing with the team has come internally, which is another reason why a lot of the veteran players we have were re-signed. 

We were winning, but not enough. 

We had a huge chunk of our salary cap unavailable. 

We had a prospect pool that had to be re-stocked. 

We had a player in Kaprizov that was showing he was a star, but maybe not enough at a national level that would draw players in since the Wild fly below a lot of people's radars.

All that is changing - not fast, but it is.  So if some of the prospects can live up to the hype and we can build more on our progress, we have a real chance to attract free agents in 2026 that probably would have looked past us in years before.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 07:36 PM by raithis

[MrCheatachu]

58 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I think their agents and financial advisors do care about the tax rates and will advise them as such. So, already in one ear there will be chatter.

I think it's a bit more of a complex picture about tax rates etc.  I think the entire COL/QOL has to come into the discussion.

Sure, the Cost of Living might be higher in Minnesota, but a number of players consider the Quality of life to be worth it. 

Also, be wary of the number of people who've crawled out of the woodwork to shit on Minneapolis in this thread.  The team is located in St. Paul and not Minneapolis. Their motivation might be to parrot a perception of an undesirable location due to the reputation of being a progressive city.  If a progressive city is desirable and a nice place to live, that crushes their narrative.

To paraphrase Middleton when they had their kid, they liked Minneapolis and were planning on staying there instead of moving with 'the rest of the families to cake-eater country (Edina).'

[mnfaninnc]

3 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

The team is located in St. Paul and not Minneapolis. Their motivation might be to parrot a perception of an undesirable location due to the reputation of being a progressive city.

Why do so many choose to then live in Minneapolis and their suburbs like Wayzata, Edina, Minnetonka, instead of choosing to live in the St. Paul suburbs like a Woodbury? It seems to me that Minneapolis is definitely in the equation.

If anyone remembers my earlier posts, I had suggested that the Twin Cities area was an excellent place to raise a family. That a guy like Kaprizov probably enjoys not constantly being harassed but gets to have a lot of private time. But the UFAs that would consider that are more likely the older married ones with kids, not the 27 year olds just getting their UFA status. I also said that perhaps things have changed and I'm not in tune with what's changed?

If you're going to sell a free agent on the area, or a recently traded guy with a year left on his deal to re-sign, what are the selling points to get him to stay? Florida, Nashville, Dallas, Tampa Bay can all sell no state taxes and a warm climate. Nashville is a bit colder but has the music industry. What is the COL/QOL that seals the deal for a destination place? 

Someone mentioned the Vikings not having trouble signing free agents. Many Vikings move here from other areas and decide to stay after retirement. The same is true about many hockey players staying after retirement. Can we attract the stars, or not? Is it really only about winning? 

On a different post, I mentioned going after Chris Kreider. He had a down year mainly due to vertigo and an ear infection. He doesn't want to leave the Rangers. What would convince him he'd be happier here? 

[mnfaninnc]

3 hours ago, raithis said:

All that is changing - not fast, but it is.  So if some of the prospects can live up to the hype and we can build more on our progress, we have a real chance to attract free agents in 2026 that probably would have looked past us in years before.

As I read this again, 1 thing truly stands out: We've got to play the kids. Having a team with 5 rookies or more is tremendous turnover. Even more, the team could have several other very young players. Can Ek, Spurgeon, Foligno and Kaprizov hold this team together if they went full transition?

[MacGyver]

Been a Minnesotan all my life. Out state for the last 40 years. Yeah the land of cows and rocks as our governor refers to us. I have a solution. A two state system. Lets draw the line at say Hinckley or maybe even Pine City. We could fund ourselves just off of the out state fishing and hunting licenses.  I drove through Minneapolis this past weekend. The encampments are wonderful to look at. Lots of great people hanging out. 

South Minneapolis is Huntington Beach compared to much of the rest of it. 

 

[Will D. Ness]

13 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

If it somehow relates to hockey, it should be alright. We are trying not to be political here, but sometimes policy and hockey overlap.

Honesty, I don't want to hear anyone's take on politics at all.  It's not like there is a billion other places on the internet that y'all can vent instead of here.

[AKwildkraken]

6 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

To paraphrase Middleton when they had their kid, they liked Minneapolis and were planning on staying there instead of moving with 'the rest of the families to cake-eater country (Edina).'

Doesn't this contradict that the team is in St. Paul?  Minneapolis and St. Paul will always be tied together as they are the Twin Cities, even though they are separated by a river.  

Also, for the record I think the Twin Cities metro area is an appealing area to live for hockey players, but personally, I'd prefer a more rural area.  

[Dango]

Millionaires want to buy new things or remodel their homes to make it theirs instead of buying a 110 year old home ,  or they want to move into the high rise condos you see on the river near the old mill  on the river , the stone arch bridge area has  inside parking, security desk ,  onsite maintenance  workers etc ,  Thats where most of them live  ,  But most of MPLS has old 110 year old homes with old plaster wiring etc major work to remodel   last one i worked on was about 6 million remodel project   right off Harriet   lots of those people have 2-3 houses 1 here 1 there 1up north  or west suburbs  etc , Garnett had 2 or 3 places .   i think sports owners own multiple properties located in the area in case they trade for a player  in season they have a home for them available and dont have to look for one right away  so they have them nearby the arenas / stadiums  ,   training camps off 494 cedar etc  .   many times they get a local convienient place at first  until they find the final house,    if the Wild played in Morehead MN thats were they would live .

[Pewterschmidt]

11 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

Honesty, I don't want to hear anyone's take on politics at all.  It's not like there is a billion other places on the internet that y'all can vent instead of here.

WDN wins the Internet today!!!  

[MrCheatachu]

11 hours ago, AKwildkraken said:

Doesn't this contradict that the team is in St. Paul?  Minneapolis and St. Paul will always be tied together as they are the Twin Cities, even though they are separated by a river.  

Also, for the record I think the Twin Cities metro area is an appealing area to live for hockey players, but personally, I'd prefer a more rural area.  

I guess my point is that when given a choice (something something free market) that players are overwhelmingly choosing Minneapolis when they're young and single, then moving to Edina (off the top of my head, athletic player profiles have mentioned Spurgeon, Foligno, Hartman, MoJo as living there, Suter and Parise also recently sold their homes there) when it's time to start a family.

Overwhelmingly, Fox News is going to paint a picture that Minneapolis is a hell hole that no person is safe going to, yet when the young single guys get a couple of bucks in their pocket they flock there overwhelmingly rather than the more rural options (or even across the border into Hudson).  Thats not to say anybody who makes that choice to move more rural making the wrong choice, if it works for them that's great.  However, when given the salaries that these pro athletes make, they are overwhelmingly making different choice.  At one point I believe the CEO's of Target, Medtronic, Ecolab and 3M all choose to live in Minneapolis...

That said, Minneapolis is not some sort of universal utopia, there's a huge difference between the Fulton vs. Fowell neighborhoods or Linden Hills vs. Lind-Bohannon neighborhoods...

[mnfaninnc]

This is a bit off topic, but do the middle/high schools still have metal/wood/plastic shops in them? Just wondering if that was still a thing.

[Up North Guy]

8 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

This is a bit off topic, but do the middle/high schools still have metal/wood/plastic shops in them? Just wondering if that was still a thing.

Depends on the school district but if I had a guess, I would say these are few and far between these days. But fairly sure that would go for most states.

[B1GKappa97]

On 6/9/2025 at 9:34 AM, mnfaninnc said:

Also I perused the Bleacher Report article. What difference does it make how high a kid can jump in hockey? Is he jumping through the home plate area to screen the goalie and get missed by a shot? 

It seems to me that the NHL Combine needs a little revamping of relevancy. Make them do stuff that translates! I'm sure a goalie doing a vertical jump is extremely useful 🙄

Its just a metric to measure explosiveness. Burst. That kind of thing. If you can jump high, you've got a lot of fast-twitch muscle. That's what they're getting out of that. 

On the topic of the Canucks being interested in Rossi, the idea of getting #15 and Lekkermekki is definitely underwhelming. Now if they wanted to move Elias Petersson and his $11.7M cap-hit off their books, THEN we would be getting somewhere...

Pettersson + Kaprizov would be some magic and gets Kap his potential C1 I'm sure he's been aching for. Bonus, Elias is a Swede and Billy seems to love adding those. Also, it moves Ek firmly into a second line C role and helps spread out the scoring. 

Maybe Boeser decides to come over on a sweet discount too? A top-6 of Zuccy-Pettersson-Kaprizov/Boldy-Ek-Boeser would be pretty ideal and very much like Christmas...