Article: Yakov Trenin Can Help the Wild Unleash Joel Eriksson Ek

[Kalisha Turnipseed]

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[Pewterschmidt]

Well holy crap, a Google search confirms that Center is T-bags natural position.  Ummm why didn’t we see him skate a shift at center last year.  Was it his lazy unmotivated play thru 82 games that made Hynzy say no to Center.  4th line wing was his ceiling last year…if we can motivate him to be a functional 4th line center next season that would be a coup for bill.  

[GPort]

No way can Trenin be a quality option at Center.  He is slow & sluggish and barely held onto his spot in the lineup during the season as Winger so he would be even more exposed as a Center.  Only the Guerin/Hynes preference for veterans and big bodies kept him in the lineup last season despite anemic production.  For this coming season, I think the Wild should give him one more chance (Wing only) with better linemates in 25-26 season (better than Shore, Brazeau, Marat, Lauko).   If he excels then great, otherwise move him at the deadline to playoff team desperate for physicality even if it is for a 7th round pick.  He either needs to step up or open a space in the regular lineup for a young player.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

4th line wing was his ceiling last year…if we can motivate him to be a functional 4th line center next season that would be a coup for bill.  

Pretty sure he played 3rd line wing a significant amount. He had a bunch of games where he was on the ice for over 14 minutes, including a dozen where he was on the ice for over 15. 4th line rarely sees 15+ minutes.

While I understand that some of this was due to injury, some of those games happened early in the season when the Wild were pretty healthy. I'd put his ceiling at 3rd line. He can play C, but it's certainly not his main NHL position.

[WildNotMild]

Maybe the Wild should consider moving Ek to the 4th line.  After all, unlocking the scoring potential of the 4th line wingers is a solid strategy to winning games, especially in the playoffs.  This would allow him and Trenin to play together.  This would also allow Gaudreau to move up another line which half of the people on this forum have justified really hard. (Heavy sarcasm).

[Dean]

Fred g will be back to 1st or 2nd center next year. Ek will be hurt, Hartman suspended, Rossi traded for a 15 th overall which will turn into a 5’5 left winger  that fell down draft for some unexplainable reason. (Size ) and the so called top prospect pool will be losing in Iowa or enjoying life in press box. So Fred and Jo Jo can  waste another year of kappy if he signs and the kids can continue to not develop. 
  The hockey writers give Fred g an A- for his season last year. Haha. I guess he was a wizard in reg season and great in postseason, even though he had no points and couldn’t win faceoffs. They say he helped in other ways. Haha. The worst analytical playoff player did good in playoffs yet every stat says otherwise and the eye test was an utter failure. Wow Billy has some ball licking media pushing this idea Billy knows what he’s doing. . 

[JRR]

What a silly article Trenin is a stone handed slow useless unmotivated 4 th line piece there is no way he has the ability to enhance Eks game.  Absolutely Ridiculous.   Why would the Wild break up one of the most productive lines in the league Kap, Boldy Ek.  Makes zero sense but that is par for the course w the inept Hynes at the helm

 

[mnfaninnc]

I'm with JRR here. This is absolutely a ridiculous article. Trenin may be listed as a center as Pewter points out, but he is not fast enough to be that player. Sure, he could be on a shutdown line, but he is not a guy who's taking over Ek's assignments. 

Here's the evidence: When Ek was injured last season for a lengthy period, did the team ever try to just plug Trenin into Ek's spot? NO!

I thought Trenin had a nice playoff series. And, perhaps that was why he was signed. However, his 82 game regular season left myself and many other's here scratching our heads as to what Guerin was thinking. 

If it were easy to look within to find Ek's replacement, then we'd have found him somewhere within the organization last season. Since they did not find that guy, we will need to look on the outside to find him. 

If you want to buy a center who can do what Ek does besides score, Kotkaniemi is where you go look. He's listed at 6'2" 201, but I think he's bigger than that. He's signed for the next 5 years at $4.82m cap hit. He's only 24. He's 3.5 years younger than Ek which was also about the time where Ek started figuring out how to score. 

A Trenin-Kotkaniemi-Foligno line would be a fierce 3rd line. Why does it look like Kotkaniemi is on the 4th line? Because Carolina has 2 3rd line centers in Jordan Staal and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. That's a lot of money to pay a 4th line C. Staal is still effective at 36, and his brother showed they can play later in their 30s. 

Adding Kotkaniemi solves the problem of help for Ek. Wow, but can he win faceoffs? Yes, he's been at 51.x% over the last 4 seasons. Do we have anything that Carolina might want? I'm just spitballing here, but I would think if a team was going to take a shot at an older defender like Spurgeon, Carolina would be one of those teams. Spurgeon could thrive playing next to Slavin, much like he does here. He would be an upgrade over Burns who really looked old this season.

I'm sure that there are other players like this out there, but Ek is a different type of player. Many teams do not have this type of guy, so I would recommend Shooter give Tlusky a call. Carolina has a ton of cap room too.

 

[Dis-allowed display name]

I can't wait for Trenin to get a goal off a lucky bounce in next year's first round exit so BG can extend him another couple years.