Article: Wild Could've Made Mistake In Marco Rossi Trade

[Thomas Williams]

View full article

[Citizen Strife]

I get the need for solving the offense problem.  The Wild definitely lack top end scoring behind Kap and Boldy, but Rossi's point totals aren't so demonstrably different while also being solid defensively.  If Peterka was a 75-80 pt scorer, that'd be a tougher thing.

[mnfaninnc]

I was never on the Peterka bandwagon. I'm glad we didn't bite and kept Rossi. 

However, I am on the Mason McTavish bandwagon, so I'd be open to a deal there.

[Scalptrash]

The Wild should have tried to get him w/o giving up Rossi. THAT would have been a nice Christmas morning present. Would you rather have Peterka or Tarasenko in your top six? Of course, Billy's only goal was to get rid of Rossi any way possible, so that never would have happened.

Now that Rossi has a very trade friendly contract (intentional), they should try to trade him for McTavish. He fits much better in Billy's mold and I'm sure he would pay him what he's actually worth.

Edited Friday at 02:02 PM by Scalptrash

[MrCheatachu]

There's this gem from the Russo article, straight from the horse's mouth:

Quote

Guerin considered trading Rossi throughout June, but the only offers he got were for futures, including mid-to-late first-rounders and roster players he had no interest in. Guerin refused all those offers as he did not want to make his team worse. He wanted a center or winger back who could bring similar production.

Interesting that Russo mentions that the timeline he considered trading Rossi was 'throughout June' and that he only had offers for 'roster players he had no interest in' which seems to suggest that Peterka might not have been in play.

It's still really fascinating to me that none of the other 32 teams wanted to pony up a package for Ross-Vegas, every team seems to be improving this season, and the free agent class has been abysmal...why wouldn't you put together a package for a guy who looks to be a legit 2C in the league?  What am I missing here?

[Imyourhuckleberry]

My favorite part of this news/rumors section is the back to back comments from Scalptrash and MrCheatachu.

Scalptrash:

Quote

Billy's only goal was to get rid of Rossi any way possible

MrCheatachu:

Quote

Guerin refused all those offers as he did not want to make his team worse.

Only 1 of those statements can be true.😎

[MrCheatachu]

11 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

My favorite part of this news/rumors section is the back to back comments from Scalptrash and MrCheatachu.

Scalptrash:

MrCheatachu:

Only 1 of those statements can be true.😎

I was quoting Russo quoting Billy...you know, the best part of being an internet commenter is to not form your own opinion 😉

That part, making a team 'better' or 'worse' is more subjective than 'cheaper' or 'younger' or 'taller' or 'heavier'.

If I was a gambling man, I'd reckon that Marco Rossi's name is never going to be on SillyG's list of 'untouchables.'  I'd also reckon that Rossi aint going to be moved for a bag of pucks at this point.

Compared to last off season, this off season we've not seen any huge trades and/or big free agency swings.  Seems like the majority of the teams are either in 'run it back' mode rather than 'retool on the fly' mode, and with the cap rising, nobody seems to be in a rush to move assets since everyone seems to have money this off season.  Over half the teams have over $4M in free cap space, and 25% of them have >$9M in cap space.  And who's left unsigned?  Jack Roslovic?

[Will D. Ness]

We did good to not overcommit.  Our options and opportunities are still open which hopefully leads to something really good (Panarin).

[Imyourhuckleberry]

4 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

We did good to not overcommit.  Our options and opportunities are still open which hopefully leads to something really good (Panarin).

Boston tied for the lowest points in the East last season despite rostering a 100 point scorer. If they end up struggling again, maybe they'd part with Pastrnak?

Obviously, Panarin could be solid too.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

The Athletic's(Joe Smith) guess for how things might start:

Kirill Kaprizov	Joel Eriksson Ek	Mats Zuccarello
Matt Boldy	Marco Rossi	Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Foligno	Danila Yurov	Ryan Hartman
Marcus Johansson	Nico Sturm	Yakov Trenin
Liam Ohgren

Quote

One question is whether a strong camp by Ohgren will push someone out. That would probably be a guy like Johansson. Vinnie Hinostroza, who played in 25 games for the Wild last season, is still under contract, so he’ll compete as well. And there are other camp hopefuls, including Riley Heidt and Hunter Haight.

Also, Zeev Buium has added 10-12 pounds of muscle since playoff time, and Jiricek has been in Minnesota working with the Wild since August 3rd, arriving one week after Buium.

[Citizen Strife]

I'm really curious how Yurov and Ohgren play.  The defensemen have mobility up the lineup, but nowhere near what the forwards could get.  The team is "good," but not so good that you can't beat out some in the lineup.

[mnfaninnc]

On 8/29/2025 at 10:00 AM, Scalptrash said:

The Wild should have tried to get him w/o giving up Rossi. THAT would have been a nice Christmas morning present. Would you rather have Peterka or Tarasenko in your top six? Of course, Billy's only goal was to get rid of Rossi any way possible, so that never would have happened.

What would have been a successful trade to gain Peterka without giving up Rossi? As things played out, Peterka is making $3m more than Tarasenko this coming season. 

Which roster player could have gotten this done? I assume you would have included futures, but had the Wild done this and had they extended Peterka at, say $7.5m long term, they only would have had about $6.XXm to defend against a Rossi offer sheet. 

I think the Wild would have needed to part with someone like Hartman in order to get this deal done, just from a cap perspective for the team. Would Hartsy have gone to Buffalo? My gut says that would be one of his teams on the M-NTC no trade list. 

I suppose Trenin could have been that cap dump, but how much value does Trenin actually have? Maybe he shines in Buffalo? Who knows, maybe Shootah had to outbid Buffalo for him? But, that would make the cap hit about the same as just taking Tarasenko outright. Personally, I think Trenin might be part of the trade, but has no trade value, so it would have been merely a cap dump. 

Buffalo said it wanted an RHS defender. Could Spurgy have been part of the deal? I think he would have helped the Sabres and might have been successful in helping them get to the playoffs. Buffalo has the cap space to take him on, but, with his age, this is merely a short term fix and Buffalo is probably on his 10 team no trade list. Out of all the American franchises, Buffalo is probably the most blocked team. 

I think our "chip" outside of pure futures was Rossi, and Buffalo is desperate to get to the playoffs once again. They weren't looking for futures. They needed something that would help now. And they are somewhat handicapped in trading for players because outside of Tuch, most players do not want to go to Buffalo. 

 

[Willy the poor boy]

5 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

What would have been a successful trade to gain Peterka without giving up Rossi? As things played out, Peterka is making $3m more than Tarasenko this coming season. 

Which roster player could have gotten this done? I assume you would have included futures, but had the Wild done this and had they extended Peterka at, say $7.5m long term, they only would have had about $6.XXm to defend against a Rossi offer sheet. 

I think the Wild would have needed to part with someone like Hartman in order to get this deal done, just from a cap perspective for the team. Would Hartsy have gone to Buffalo? My gut says that would be one of his teams on the M-NTC no trade list. 

I suppose Trenin could have been that cap dump, but how much value does Trenin actually have? Maybe he shines in Buffalo? Who knows, maybe Shootah had to outbid Buffalo for him? But, that would make the cap hit about the same as just taking Tarasenko outright. Personally, I think Trenin might be part of the trade, but has no trade value, so it would have been merely a cap dump. 

Buffalo said it wanted an RHS defender. Could Spurgy have been part of the deal? I think he would have helped the Sabres and might have been successful in helping them get to the playoffs. Buffalo has the cap space to take him on, but, with his age, this is merely a short term fix and Buffalo is probably on his 10 team no trade list. Out of all the American franchises, Buffalo is probably the most blocked team. 

I think our "chip" outside of pure futures was Rossi, and Buffalo is desperate to get to the playoffs once again. They weren't looking for futures. They needed something that would help now. And they are somewhat handicapped in trading for players because outside of Tuch, most players do not want to go to Buffalo. 

 

They wanted a big right handed D man. I would have offered Jierechek.

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Also, Zeev Buium has added 10-12 pounds of muscle since playoff time, and Jiricek has been in Minnesota working with the Wild since August 3rd, arriving one week after Buium.

I love hearing about Buium adding the weight, he needed to. I am curious as to why Jiricek waited so long to get here to work with the Wild and Andy Ness. Perhaps Ness gave him "homework" that he could do in Europe? 

I don't like thinking about Ohgren as the extra forward and I think Smith is wrong about this. It is important for the rookie to play and not sit in the Prossbox. Johansson can do that just fine. He's better when coming in from time off. 

If I were penciling guys in, I'd want Ohgren playing with Foligno, and bumping Hartsy down to line 4. And, by doing that, I'd be giving Hartsy the 1st shot at filling in on line 1 to rest Zuccy and manage his minutes better. 

[Will D. Ness]

16 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Boston tied for the lowest points in the East last season despite rostering a 100 point scorer. If they end up struggling again, maybe they'd part with Pastrnak?

Obviously, Panarin could be solid too.

I like the chances for Panarin because he is expiring.  He has a NMC but he might just want to come play with KK97.  He will cost some capital but not too much.

Pasta would be incredible, but I think he is locked up with a pretty good contract.  I'm thinking the cost is going to be sky high from Boston.

[mnfaninnc]

3 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

They wanted a big right handed D man. I would have offered Jierechek.

Why so quick to get rid of Jiricek, the guy we paid a king's ransom for? It might have gotten the job done, even though Jiricek is unproven at this time, but then what do we backfill with? Adding Peterka for Jiricek opens up a new whole at RHS defense, and rids us of a shot threat from back there. 

It's not just that I didn't like Peterka, but an RHS defender like Jiricek is not worth a wing who only is really good in the offensive zone. Jiricek is also a possible candidate to take on the Ovechkin office role on the PP. Do you really want to lose that? Those guys are a lot harder to find. Sure, Buium QBs the PP, but Jiricek is the kind of shooter that makes teams have to honor the other side of the ice.

I would say short term that might have some benefits. Long term you've just shot yourself in the foot. Jiricek likely gets bridged very affordably in the next few seasons too. 

[Willy the poor boy]

4 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Why so quick to get rid of Jiricek, the guy we paid a king's ransom for? It might have gotten the job done, even though Jiricek is unproven at this time, but then what do we backfill with? Adding Peterka for Jiricek opens up a new whole at RHS defense, and rids us of a shot threat from back there. 

It's not just that I didn't like Peterka, but an RHS defender like Jiricek is not worth a wing who only is really good in the offensive zone. Jiricek is also a possible candidate to take on the Ovechkin office role on the PP. Do you really want to lose that? Those guys are a lot harder to find. Sure, Buium QBs the PP, but Jiricek is the kind of shooter that makes teams have to honor the other side of the ice.

I would say short term that might have some benefits. Long term you've just shot yourself in the foot. Jiricek likely gets bridged very affordably in the next few seasons too. 

It likely really just comes down to you're higher on J than I am.

[Citizen Strife]

Jiricek has a chance to be something the Wild haven't had since pre-injury Dumba, plus possibly being a hard guy to move due to sheer size.  You have a couple years of Spurgeon's remaining years to let him develop.  Signing Peterka gives you a Fiala type player back, but for a LOT of money and years.  I think having options open for roster flexibility is a smart play.

[mnfaninnc]

29 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

It likely really just comes down to you're higher on J than I am.

That's probably it. I factored in the extra time it takes a larger defender to get his feet under him. Smooth skating large guys do not come around all that often, they're usually quite choppy in their draft year. Jiricek is only 21, so he's still kind of ahead of the curve. 

I know I've been crying for our Parayko for years, and we've finally got him, so I'd be very guarded in trading him out. I project him as a top 4 defender where Faber gets the harder defensive assignments. Jiricek's defense has a lot to do with physicality and canceling out offensive players. This is different from the way most of our other defenders play, and it took Midsy some time to adjust to that. My hope is that Midsy and Jircek can go back to playing a very rugged defender type of role punishing guys standing in front of our net. But Jiricek offers that offensive upside Midsy just doesn't have.

[mnfaninnc]

Do we have any internal options that can turn into a Peterka?

[Willy the poor boy]

35 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Jiricek has a chance to be something the Wild haven't had since pre-injury Dumba, plus possibly being a hard guy to move due to sheer size.  You have a couple years of Spurgeon's remaining years to let him develop.  Signing Peterka gives you a Fiala type player back, but for a LOT of money and years.  I think having options open for roster flexibility is a smart play.

 

18 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

That's probably it. I factored in the extra time it takes a larger defender to get his feet under him. Smooth skating large guys do not come around all that often, they're usually quite choppy in their draft year. Jiricek is only 21, so he's still kind of ahead of the curve. 

I know I've been crying for our Parayko for years, and we've finally got him, so I'd be very guarded in trading him out. I project him as a top 4 defender where Faber gets the harder defensive assignments. Jiricek's defense has a lot to do with physicality and canceling out offensive players. This is different from the way most of our other defenders play, and it took Midsy some time to adjust to that. My hope is that Midsy and Jircek can go back to playing a very rugged defender type of role punishing guys standing in front of our net. But Jiricek offers that offensive upside Midsy just doesn't have.

Mostly what I'm saying is if the Wild wanted Peterka  I would have given up J way before I'd offer up Rossi.

[Scalptrash]

On 8/30/2025 at 10:00 AM, mnfaninnc said:

What would have been a successful trade to gain Peterka without giving up Rossi? As things played out, Peterka is making $3m more than Tarasenko this coming season. 

Which roster player could have gotten this done? I assume you would have included futures, but had the Wild done this and had they extended Peterka at, say $7.5m long term, they only would have had about $6.XXm to defend against a Rossi offer sheet. 

I think the Wild would have needed to part with someone like Hartman in order to get this deal done, just from a cap perspective for the team. Would Hartsy have gone to Buffalo? My gut says that would be one of his teams on the M-NTC no trade list. 

I suppose Trenin could have been that cap dump, but how much value does Trenin actually have? Maybe he shines in Buffalo? Who knows, maybe Shootah had to outbid Buffalo for him? But, that would make the cap hit about the same as just taking Tarasenko outright. Personally, I think Trenin might be part of the trade, but has no trade value, so it would have been merely a cap dump. 

Buffalo said it wanted an RHS defender. Could Spurgy have been part of the deal? I think he would have helped the Sabres and might have been successful in helping them get to the playoffs. Buffalo has the cap space to take him on, but, with his age, this is merely a short term fix and Buffalo is probably on his 10 team no trade list. Out of all the American franchises, Buffalo is probably the most blocked team. 

I think our "chip" outside of pure futures was Rossi, and Buffalo is desperate to get to the playoffs once again. They weren't looking for futures. They needed something that would help now. And they are somewhat handicapped in trading for players because outside of Tuch, most players do not want to go to Buffalo. 

 

I was thinking Spurgeon and a prospect, maybe Spacek or Lambos.

[Scalptrash]

On 8/30/2025 at 11:02 AM, mnfaninnc said:

Do we have any internal options that can turn into a Peterka?

The best hope is Ohgren.