Article: The Wild May Have To Learn From the Matthew Tkachuk Trade's Mistakes

[Tony Abbott]

View full article

[0 Stanley Cups]

Worst case scenario, if Kaprizov is not here next season, the Wild have Boldy, Rossi, Faber, and the rookies Zeev, Yurov, and Ohgren that will be in their early to mid-20's to build around.  Unfortunately, the Wild would then have to trade and capitalize on selling off the current vets to contending teams and the next 2-4 seasons would be pretty lean and we would definitely not be a playoff team.

[MNCountryLife]

KiriIl Perspective: Is Kirill thinking about his age and his name on the cup.  The money is enough.  Sign a 3x$15 with the Wild and see if MN can produce the contender.  If they fail Kirill moves on and probably signs a 5x$15 in his hockey twilight years fighting for a SC on a contending team.

BG Perspective: wants a longer contract.  3 years limits BGs window to convince Kirill to stay and more difficult to sign players that want to play with Kirill.

My perspective: I thought I read a few weeks ago that money was not the sticking point.  It was the years.  Let's not forget that Kirill is 28 years old.  I would much rather have a 5x$15 contract than a 8x$16.  8 years is a long time to have a player.  Especially one that has peaked (and yes, at 28yo Kirill has peaked) and likely will regress a bit in 5 years.

[MNCountryLife]

If Kirill does decide to move on and refuses to sign, that would catastrophic.  That would definitely be a sign that the best players in the league don't have the confidence that MN can ever win a cup.  BG would have to concede that a top heavy team isn't going to happen.  He would need to go the other route of having a very deep team with no superstars.  A 100% commited defensive mentality would be required.  Yuck.

[Burnt Toast]

1 hour ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

Unfortunately, the Wild would then have to trade and capitalize on selling off the current vets to contending teams and the next 2-4 seasons would be pretty lean and we would definitely not be a playoff team

Pretty lean years with high draft picks. It’s a sellers market so getting top value by offloading vets has its own silver lining. If your Plan A goes off the tracks it’s time for a bold Plan B. Win Win.