Article: The Freddy Gaudreau Trade Is About What Comes Next

[Tony Abbott]

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[Imyourhuckleberry]

Gaudreau wasn't a dynamic player, but he was solid.

He assisted on both of Ohgren's goals last season, both in 4-0 wins for the Wild. One of those was against the Kraken in the latter half of March.

 

[bisopher]

Didn't see that coming, but im not sad it happened. Best of luck in SEA, Freddie.

Do you suppose this means Billy has "seen the light" regarding the quality vs. cost proposition of the centers available, and has decided too keep Rossi and essentially give Freddie's spot to Yurov?

[Pewterschmidt]

2 minutes ago, bisopher said:

Didn't see that coming, but im not sad it happened. Best of luck in SEA, Freddie.

Do you suppose this means Billy has "seen the light" regarding the quality vs. cost proposition of the centers available, and has decided too keep Rossi and essentially give Freddie's spot to Yurov?

Yes I do.  Less likely scenario is we get Tavares.  One of the two will be true imo.  If you’re in the “journey men vets are blocking the kids” camp, Fred is at top of that list.  Bring on the kids.  
#kidlover-M.Scott

[TCMooch]

12 minutes ago, bisopher said:

Didn't see that coming, but im not sad it happened. Best of luck in SEA, Freddie.

Do you suppose this means Billy has "seen the light" regarding the quality vs. cost proposition of the centers available, and has decided too keep Rossi and essentially give Freddie's spot to Yurov?

Billy don’t strike me as that smart

[MNCountryLife]

I wish Freddie the best going forward.  Was great having you on the Wild and watching you play. 

We have room for those ELCs now.  Now keep it going... I see Vinnie was sent down to IA on Puckpedia.  That puts us at 10 signed forwards.  Now move Zuc and we would have $21.8M in cap space to properly build that 2nd line.  

[bisopher]

[Didn't get a chance to edit my first comment, so adding on here:]

Or, is Billy trying to free up $$$ to exchange Rossi for someone who will be 5% better for the next 1-2 years, while Rossi gets 10-20% better (to PPG level) over the next 10+ years?

Scary thing is, his demonstrated preference for veterans and extended contracts implies that this is the more likely option...

[MNCountryLife]

28 minutes ago, TCMooch said:

Billy don’t strike me as that smart

Maybe not.  But keeping Mojo on at $800K as the 13th forward, moving Freddy to clear the way for Yurov, getting Yurov to the states and moving Vinnie down to IA were all good moves to prepare us to bring in players properly.  BG set the stage pretty well.  I would still like to see him off load Zuc to give us $21.8M in cap space.

Let's see if he can build us that 2nd line properly.  I'm cautiously hopeful.

[MNCountryLife]

I see we made another minor league trade.

We sent Brendan Gaunce to Columbus.

Wild received Cameron Butler. 

Basically a swap of two really big forwards.  The difference is Gaunce is 31 and Butler is only 23.  

[bisopher]

3 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

Basically a swap of two really big forwards.  The difference is Gaunce is 31 and Butler is only 23

Hmm. Another sign of Billy making the team younger for equivalent talent?  Encouraging. 

[MNCountryLife]

I have to pose this question:

Everyone has been claiming that Rossi was intentionally devalued when BG placed him on the 4th line center role in the playoffs.  Reducing his value on the trade block.

Is the opposite true as well.  Did BG increase the value of Freddy making his $2.1M/AAV contract appear more valuable when they moved Freddy up in the lineup?  Did it increase the odds of BG being able to trade Freddy? If the logic is true for one it should be true for the other as well.

If that is actually true and BG did that intentionally for the reason of removing Freddy, Perhaps BG is a better GM than we give him credit for?  

[FredJohnson]

Man, imagine how high of a pick NoJo is going to fetch in a trade! (Sarcasm)

[Patrick]

Hmm. I'm starting to hope the Wild are making a play for Pettersson....

Pettersson, Ek, Yurov, Hartman as our center group is pretty sweet!

[nomlandjon]

3 hours ago, bisopher said:

Didn't see that coming, but im not sad it happened. Best of luck in SEA, Freddie.

Do you suppose this means Billy has "seen the light" regarding the quality vs. cost proposition of the centers available, and has decided too keep Rossi and essentially give Freddie's spot to Yurov?

Guerin commented on the trade by saying this was something that had been in the works for a few weeks.

[Willy the poor boy]

2 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

I have to pose this question:

Everyone has been claiming that Rossi was intentionally devalued when BG placed him on the 4th line center role in the playoffs.  Reducing his value on the trade block.

Is the opposite true as well.  Did BG increase the value of Freddy making his $2.1M/AAV contract appear more valuable when they moved Freddy up in the lineup?  Did it increase the odds of BG being able to trade Freddy? If the logic is true for one it should be true for the other as well.

If that is actually true and BG did that intentionally for the reason of removing Freddy, Perhaps BG is a better GM than we give him credit for?  

Absolutely not. If he did he should be fired. You don't fight to get to the playoffs to screw around showcasing players for trades. 

 

[mnfaninnc]

3 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

Basically a swap of two really big forwards.  The difference is Gaunce is 31 and Butler is only 23.

Butler isn't the English name for Voronkov is it?

[mnfaninnc]

I think Tony's right on target here, this is about what's coming next. IMO, Freddy was one of the bottom 9ers who needed to go. I look at Zuccy's game and feel like maybe he could be the 2nd to go, but I'm not sure with an NMC that Zuccarello is interested. Shooter has to learn his lesson, after 35 only give 1 year deals with a handshake of another one if the player continues to play well. 

My thought here is that Guerin has gotten us through the buyout days with the promise of being competitive. Now comes the expectation of moving to a contender. To be able to do this, Guerin must include the youth he drafted. Most importantly his 1st rounders in '21 & '22, including the one he traded for. By marinating them a little longer, supposedly they have improved themselves so as to not be overwhelmed by the N. If this, indeed, happens, he will need money at the deadline to improve this team. Let the kids play and learn. Bring that strong group together with little brother Zeev. 

I suspect that Chisholm will be QO'd, but if Lambos has a great camp, they may trade Chissy to a better situation for him. If many of the kids have great camps and can pass some roster players, I anticipate Guerin having to find them new homes too. I think we're a year behind going in this direction, but it has to happen sooner or later. 

If Guerin's plan is going in this direction, which to me makes a ton of logical sense, then we should advertise the change visually. I've been banging this drum for a couple of years now, but sometimes change needs visual reminders and changing up the jerseys is exactly the reminder that is needed. Gone should be the Forest Green and Iron Range Red. The North Stars jerseys were really well designed, but that design goes with many different color combinations. It's time to change the colors. It doesn't have to be Kelly Green and Yellow, but we've got to get out of the expired colors we've had since just looking at them shouts boring defense first hockey. 

Several others have commented that it's the same old Wild. They haven't done anything for 25 years except in '03. That is what I'm saying here, we need a visual reminder that this team is different, and I'd suggest some flashier colors to make Kaprizov look like an MVP candidate!