Article: Which Teams Should Wild Fans Root For To Become Deadline Sellers?

[Tony Abbott]

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[1Brotherbill]

Tuch and O'Reilly would be interesting adds.  

[0 Stanley Cups]

I would love to see Tuch back in Minny, that was so regrettable losing him and Haula to protect others, but the Wild took a shot and couldn't get past STL.  It'll interesting to see if hometown guy Tuch re-signs with Buffalo, the main piece of the Eichel trade got screwed without trade protection by VGK, or does he hit UFA and finally get to sign with a contender.

[ArizonaWildFan]

Nice piece, Tony. Some really interesting potential names ahead of the TDL.

Hypothetically, and of course this could never happen, but what if the Wild struggle and are not in the playoff picture in early March. Are they sellers? If so, who are they peddling?

[B1GKappa97]

Wow no mention of the Oilers?

Think of the haul they could get for McDavid as a rental!! 

[Will D. Ness]

Rangers are primed for a flop.  Panarin is my #1 target.

[B1GKappa97]

13 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Tuch and O'Reilly would be interesting adds.  

A 3rd line of Foligno-ROR-Hartman is playoff hockey incarnate. Gritty, greasy goals nearly every game. Sounds like exactly what Billy would want to build. 

Since we added Tarasenko and plan on playing him on 2nd line wing, idk that they'd be too interested in adding Tuch though, unfortunately. Probably only if Tarasenko is a bust. 

Still even getting only ROR would potentially give us:

BEEK

Zuccy-Yurov-Tarasenko

Foligno-ROR-Hartman

Ohgren-Rossi-Trenin

for the playoffs, which looks a lot better than last year's team..

 

[mnfaninnc]

For me, I think it is Duck season (not Wabbit season). I'd like to add both Mason McTavish and Chris Kreider to the lineup. But, reality shows that we also need some subtractions, mainly in the bottom 6 where the kids will take over. 

Kreider is exactly the type of player that Guerin likes and would remind him of himself. McTavish is the kind of center that takes weight off of Ek's shoulders. 

Of course, I wouldn't mind acquiring Tuch too, but from what I've read, he is very happy in Buffalo. 0SC is right on target with his assessment of Tuch. To me, that was a fireable offense from Fletcher who panicked and didn't really know how good Tuch really was.

[Scalptrash]

CBJ would NEVER trade Marchenko, especially at his current salary and being an RFA. Voronkov (RFA 2027) would be a better target and he's a beast!

They have four good young Russian players, so I don't see any of them wanting to leave to come play with Kaprizov.

[1Brotherbill]

10 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

A 3rd line of Foligno-ROR-Hartman is playoff hockey incarnate. Gritty, greasy goals nearly every game. Sounds like exactly what Billy would want to build. 

Since we added Tarasenko and plan on playing him on 2nd line wing, idk that they'd be too interested in adding Tuch though, unfortunately. Probably only if Tarasenko is a bust. 

Still even getting only ROR would potentially give us:

BEEK

Zuccy-Yurov-Tarasenko

Foligno-ROR-Hartman

Ohgren-Rossi-Trenin

for the playoffs, which looks a lot better than last year's team..

 

I think ROR would be on one of the top lines being that he can win a draw where others have an issue with that aspect of the game. 

[B1GKappa97]

12 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

I think ROR would be on one of the top lines being that he can win a draw where others have an issue with that aspect of the game. 

Maybe, but I think he fits as a 3rd liner better than a 2nd at this stage of his career. 

And of course I forgot that we added Sturm. So if we add ROR it probably means Rossi's been traded. Or Yurov. 

[1Brotherbill]

11 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Maybe, but I think he fits as a 3rd liner better than a 2nd at this stage of his career. 

And of course I forgot that we added Sturm. So if we add ROR it probably means Rossi's been traded. Or Yurov. 

Can never have an excess of centers.  St. Louis won a cup with 5 and 6 centers on the roster. 

[ArizonaWildFan]

How about adding the Penguins to the list? Crosby has two seasons under contract at $8.7M AAV, he's 37 and maybe wants to make another Cup run. If Pittsburgh's rebuild isn't working this season and the Wild look like potential contenders, would he see himself as the missing piece in Minnesota?

I read somewhere that in the history of the NHL, only 127 players have spent their entire career with one team. Last season alone there were over 850 players that suited up for at least one NHL game. Maybe The Kid is considering another Cup ahead of being #128?

If Crosby wanted out of Pittsburgh one would assume that his wish would be granted. Guerin must have some familiarity with Sid and obviously with the Penguin organization. Could he make that happen without selling the farm?

If Pittsburgh is rebuilding, they would be looking for youth. The Wild would have to be careful not to give up assets that derail their contender status. Rossi, Buium, Faber, Yurov, Ohgren and Jiricek would all have to be on the table along with draft picks. What would it take and what should the Wild be willing to part with?

Crosby being a center makes Rossi a good piece, center for center. The Wild would probably have to add more and I would lean towards Buium or Jiricek, depending on how they look this season. Get rid of one of them before we get too attached as fan favorites and/or contractually.

It would certainly be a win now move. Would it work? Would it be worth it? There's only one way to find out.

[raithis]

I feel like the trade deadline is going to be kind of dull.

The main reason that teams trade star players is because they can't afford them in the next year.  The other reason teams get rid of star players is because the team is trending in the wrong direction and so they jettison older star players to focus on younger players they hope to develop into stars.  Even then though, the cap is typically a huge reason why a team goes that route.

We saw that with the cap going up, more teams and players wanted to re-sign their star players.  And with the cap going up more and more in the next few seasons, it's likely to stay that way because teams will tend to hold onto those players for longer.

I get the feeling that we might see more huge trades in the next few years since teams will have more to work with, but there will be less star players heading to free agency like this year.

It will be more the star player wanting to move on from the team than the team wanting to move on from the star player since the team can find a way to keep the star player more easily than they would have been able to the last few years.