Article: Wild Offered Sabres Marco Rossi for JJ Peterka, Were Rejected

[Beast]

Billy G. screwed the pooch on this one, among other things.

He thinks so lowly of the guy that they demoted him to the 4th line in the playoffs.  They trusted him less than a guy they just salary dumped ($2M salary) for a throw away pick.  He’s also fairly desperate to offload him because they don’t feel he can play playoff hockey, and it’s not a well kept secret.

Then, with a straight face, he tries to convince teams he’s worth a big return on the trade market.  He’s asking teams to trade high end assets THEN have to extend the guy for $7-8 mil per year.

Now, he’s left with no free agent center options and a young promising center for which teams will likely give him pennies on the dollar.  He’ll probably end up paying him more than he should, along with someone like Boeser who will stink here for the next 6-8 years.

Some of the lowest IQ GMing you’ll ever see.  I don’t know that I’ve seen a GM box himself into a corner like this.  Zero foresight.  It’s time for him to go.

[Beast]

5 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Also a known fact that myocarditis is caused by Covid and other viruses of a similar nature. There are known cases of people dying from exertion following COVID that did not get vaccinated and there wasn't anything I've found that suggested he was vaccinated prior to his health situation.

What was reported is that Rossi was diagnosed with COVID-19 in November of 2020, and continued to feel fatigued for several months. Vaccines were not available until at least December.

You are correct that it was not Guerin's fault that Rossi had myocarditis or that he lost a bunch of weight and strength, and delayed his hockey development for at least a year. There are plenty of other health concerns that delay or derail prospects entirely. Rossi still has plenty of development potential and may become a much better player than he has shown to date.

Hang on.  You’re coming on here and speculating that Rossi only developed myocarditis because he did not receive the experimental unvetted “vaccine” (they had to change the definition of vaccine to call it a vaccine)?

A “vaccine” that we still have no long-term safety testing on, and probably never will because an absolute lack of transparency and outright fraud surrounding the very limited to no safety testing that was performed?

A “vaccine” that the experts were so unsure of, at best, that they had to codify immunity from liability to its manufacturers/distributors?

A “vaccine” that the guy who was a pioneer in the research of MRNA treatments said was too unstudied and potentially volatile to be distributed en masse?  After which comments he effectively lost his license, for some reason?

Even though you’re not sure whether he was vaccinated or not, with a “vaccine” we know positively also causes/caused myocarditis among other things, and didn’t actually prevent anyone from getting COVID after we were assured it did for 2 years?  To the extend that it was just removed from the recommended vaccine schedule for children?

In other words, blaming Rossi for not getting the “vaccine,” and that he’d be a better hockey player right now if he had, and the Wild wouldn’t have this problem?

Just want to clarify.

 

[Willy the poor boy]

13 picks in and 10 centers picked. It's almost like centers are important on ice hockey teams...

[Imyourhuckleberry]

4 hours ago, Beast said:

In other words, blaming Rossi for not getting the “vaccine,” and that he’d be a better hockey player right now if he had, and the Wild wouldn’t have this problem?

Just want to clarify.

I'm not sure if you took a masterclass in misrepresentation or if you simply lack the reading comprehension in your current state to follow along with the timeline before you blast some narrative, so I'll restate it for you.

Rossi got sick BEFORE a vaccine was released. Why would I blame him for that???

My coworker's sister, an athletic woman under 30 years old, contracted Covid from a wedding in early 2021 and died while on a run about a week later. I only found out the details from running into a former coworker at a concert who was cousins with them. Now, that coworker's wife listened to Rush Limbaugh essentially every day, so you can perhaps guess how they leaned in their views. With all of the misinformation out there, I don't blame her either.  In any case, he said it was the saddest funeral he'd ever been to with a bunch of young kids weeping for their friend after they'd all celebrated a wedding with her just a couple weeks earlier.

I have relatives in Western MN who listen to the conspiracy news that you likely do and my Aunt died of Covid. My dad told me she was fine one week that he saw her, and the next week, he heard she was sick with Covid and within 10 days, she was dead. She wasn't young, but she wasn't on death's door before that either.

To get back to the point of me responding to you, I haven't consumed a single piece of actual news that confirmed from Rossi that he had or had not been vaccinated, but it was confirmed that he got sick prior to a vaccine being released.

And yes, we should all pretend to be shocked that a vaccine for children recommendation has changed under the watchful eye of an anti-vaxxer that someone put in charge. And I'm also shocked that children are dying from measles in the United States again after having essentially eradicated it from the country over 20 years ago. Well, maybe not shocked, but it's fairly sad.

To clarify, since it was perhaps not readily apparent from my first post, I don't blame Rossi, anyone who is part of the Wild, anyone in the hockey community, or anyone on this blog for Rossi getting sick with a highly communicable virus and suffering complications, particularly prior to a vaccine existing for it.

At no point in Rossi's communications of his ordeal did he ever indicate or suggest that he was vaccinated and had issues following a vaccination. I've only ever heard that suggested here, numerous times without any proof.

[Mateo3xm]

15 hours ago, Beast said:

Hang on.  You’re coming on here and speculating that Rossi only developed myocarditis because he did not receive the experimental unvetted “vaccine” (they had to change the definition of vaccine to call it a vaccine)?

A “vaccine” that we still have no long-term safety testing on, and probably never will because an absolute lack of transparency and outright fraud surrounding the very limited to no safety testing that was performed?

A “vaccine” that the experts were so unsure of, at best, that they had to codify immunity from liability to its manufacturers/distributors?

A “vaccine” that the guy who was a pioneer in the research of MRNA treatments said was too unstudied and potentially volatile to be distributed en masse?  After which comments he effectively lost his license, for some reason?

Even though you’re not sure whether he was vaccinated or not, with a “vaccine” we know positively also causes/caused myocarditis among other things, and didn’t actually prevent anyone from getting COVID after we were assured it did for 2 years?  To the extend that it was just removed from the recommended vaccine schedule for children?

In other words, blaming Rossi for not getting the “vaccine,” and that he’d be a better hockey player right now if he had, and the Wild wouldn’t have this problem?

Just want to clarify.

 

Thank you Beast for this comment. Outstanding job explaining this.

 

[Burnt Toast]

On 6/27/2025 at 10:14 AM, Pewterschmidt said:

up and to the right as the Wild have an appreciating asset it can trade

Are you suggesting a second Shooter? 

[mnfaninnc]

On 6/27/2025 at 2:11 PM, Imyourhuckleberry said:

What was reported is that Rossi was diagnosed with COVID-19 in November of 2020, and continued to feel fatigued for several months. Vaccines were not available until at least December.

It was reported that he was vaccinated before he played for Austria in whatever championships he was playing in. After the tournament, he showed up for his Wild physical and they caught it. But, you're right, Covid also could have caused it and I believe it was something like February when he played in the tournament. 

The difference between the 2 is that side effect myocarditis tends to last longer in a person than covid myocarditis. But I shouldn't have just assumed that it was from the vaccine since, as you say, he was diagnosed with it in November, 2020. In fairness to myself, I had triple bypass in November of 2020 and was pretty much off the grid during that time. I do, however, have fond memories of watching the mystery of Oak Island on the History channel. I think I saw the whole thin on a marathon. 😎

[mnfaninnc]

14 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

At no point in Rossi's communications of his ordeal did he ever indicate or suggest that he was vaccinated and had issues following a vaccination. I've only ever heard that suggested here, numerous times without any proof.

This is where I do believe he reported that he had taken the vaccine offered in Austria which I believe was a requirement for the tournament. If you'll remember, there was also another hockey player from Austria who unexpectedly dropped dead from a heart issue. I don't believe this kid had the same ability, but it hit home for young Marco. He certainly had a lot to deal with as a late teenager. 

And based upon this, I can certainly understand a reluctance to get that heart pounding at full capacity. I've always thought the mind is the last part to heal. 

For those who don't know, after a heart patient has been done with surgery, it is a highly encouraged thing for the patient to be enrolled in Cardiac Rehab. At least, that's what it's called here. They hook you up to machines and monitor your heart as you exercise. Ours has you meet with a nutritionist and someone to help with stress, and they also teach you about the heart. The exercises take about 30-40 minutes. 

One of the hidden benefits of this is that as you feel a little different, you know that someone's watching your exercise and the mind feels more comfortable with that. By the end of the classes, going full throttle for your age should help the mind get the signal that the heart's ok. The mind works like this from a variety of different injuries where sometimes a player coming back simply has to get knocked around a bit and then check to make sure everything's intact. I would speculate that this is what happened to Spurgy early in the season.

Has Rossi's mind completely healed from the issue? I'd say he's at least above 90% in that way.  

Also, my hope was not to start a vaccine argument here. For that I'm sorry I went down that rabbit hole.

Edited June 28 by mnfaninnc

[PNW Wild]

On 6/27/2025 at 11:14 AM, Pewterschmidt said:

Fair point.  Rossi's market value is likely closer to 7M than 5M.  But Rossi ain't Peterka (even though their age and stat lines are similar) as evidenced by BUF's thanks but no thanks.  Best case scenrio is a 2X$6+ where Rossi continues up and to the right as the Wild have an appreciating asset it can trade (if it want's) at future TDL's.  

I don't know Peterka well, but it sounds like he has defensive deficiencies, plays a less important position as well. It seems like the league rates him higher than Rossi, but that might be group think. 

A big part of why Buffalo didn't take the Rossi trade was that they wanted a right shot D, and had a slew of players/prospects with similar profiles to Rossi. 

[NoJoSux]

On 6/27/2025 at 4:45 PM, Willy the poor boy said:

If Buff wanted a big right handed D man the Wild should have offered them Jiricek. It doesn't help with the cap, but they should've been able to figure something out there.

Billy and Brackett had a boner for Jiricek. Ignoring the injuries and struggles, they're like a woman who is gonna fix the man they want despite himself. 

[Will D. Ness]

6 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Also, my hope was not to start a vaccine argument here. For that I'm sorry I went down that rabbit hole.

There is only vaccine misinformation, so it's not really an argument per se.  

Anyways, the illness probably did set back Rossi a year or two but it's time to take the next step for him.

[DennisIN]

There are a couple of things I don't understand:

Some people are justifying paying Rossi less than Peterka due to his lack of work ethic using his weight as indicator. There seem to be different numbers out there but Puckpedia and Eliteprospects list him at 192 lbs. That is a fairly strong weight considering his size. Funny that some people are suggesting signing Ehlers as UFA. He is 20 lbs lighter.

Rossi battled back from career threatening illness and improved year over year. He will get even better.

Furthermore, Boldy received 7m p.a. when he was on pace for 60 points and the salary cap was at 83.5m. Where is the logic? Using the same cap ratio Rossi should receive an offer of 8m!

Lastly, why am I reading everywhere that it was GMBG to put him on the 4th line? Is this decision not completely up to the coaching staff? If I where head coach, I would not want the GM to dictate the lines.

 

[DennisIN]

6 minutes ago, DennisIN said:

There are a couple of things I don't understand:

Some people are justifying paying Rossi less than Peterka due to his lack of work ethic using his weight as indicator. There seem to be different numbers out there but Puckpedia and Eliteprospects list him at 192 lbs. That is a fairly strong weight considering his size. Funny that some people are suggesting signing Ehlers as UFA. He is 20 lbs lighter.

Rossi battled back from career threatening illness and improved year over year. He will get even better.

Furthermore, Boldy received 7m p.a. when he was on pace for 60 points and the salary cap was at 83.5m. Where is the logic? Using the same cap ratio Rossi should receive an offer of 8m!

Lastly, why am I reading everywhere that it was GMBG to put him on the 4th line? Is this decision not completely up to the coaching staff? If I where head coach, I would not want the GM to dictate the lines.

 

One more thing, Rossi is actually heavier than Peterka, at least according to Puckpedia

[Dango]

The covid shot supposedly takes 2 weeks before it becomes effective but they treated it as though the second you took it you were good to go  so it was more of a symbolic gesture  ,  people who took it were smart people who didnt were dumb  "media propaganda" ,    thats like saying if you wear a motorcycle helmet youre smart and if you dont youre dumb  not knowing that the guy wearing the helmet drives 105 mph doing wheelies down hwy 100 during rush hour .

[mnfaninnc]

7 hours ago, DennisIN said:

Funny that some people are suggesting signing Ehlers as UFA. He is 20 lbs lighter.

Rossi battled back from career threatening illness and improved year over year. He will get even better.

Furthermore, Boldy received 7m p.a. when he was on pace for 60 points and the salary cap was at 83.5m. Where is the logic? Using the same cap ratio Rossi should receive an offer of 8m!

Ehlers has not been on my radar. He probably helps us a lot in the regular season, but in playoffs he's really only had 1 good year, but it was this past year. Yes, that weight does scare me as I don't think he'll slip through the defense in the playoffs.

Boldy was a far more complete player from my eye test than Rossi is at this time. Apparently he was offered a big deal at 5  x $5m during the winter which I'll take as January/February and turned it down. He was on pace for more than 60 points, but the way he finished up the season left question marks, both from a stats point of view and from an eye test point of view. 

I don't think Rossi should receive $8m or even $7m. I think he's got some holes that need fixing in his game and he needs another big offseason to do that. I think if it were me in Rossi's shoes, I'd be signing a 1 year deal and going forward next year trying my hardest to impress. This would be considered betting on myself. He's had 2 years of playing a full season. At 23, it's probably a good bet for him. After next season, he'd have arbitration rights, and he still could be traded. 

 

[Willy the poor boy]

Well, if Jiricek is considered big, I don't think you can really call Benak small. The stat sheet said he was 5'-6" 160# Jiricek doesn't look that much bigger.