Article: Keeping It Boring Is Key To the Wild Turnaround

[Tony Abbott]

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[MNCountryLife]

Hunt has really stabilized the D pairings and seems to work well with Buium.  Spurgeon and Mids are back to being comfortable.  I would not say that Brodin is back to being Brodin.  But even a lesser version of himself is still an adequate top 4 player.  Faber has looked good.  Box outs and goal side play by all 5 players on the ice is working.  I'm not seeing the shots coming from the slot anymore.  

I would still get Jiricek on the ice.  He is a part of that future core.  As well as Hunt is playing I don't think he comes out of the lineup either.   Perhaps a 50/50 game split between Mids/Jiricek would be the way to go.  No wag BG does this though.  We are getting points.  He won't change it while that is happening.

[Citizen Strife]

Most important: Foligno and Trenin are just wrecking faces.  A lot of the Wild's success and energy last night was in no small part to laying into Vegas hard.

This team will probably never be a track meet team.  If the first part of the season is any indication, they shouldn't try.  It led to them stumbling really hard.  Hynes talked about "identity" a lot. Punching one of the highest scoring teams in the mouth and keeping the last 4-5 opponents to 2 goals or less is what Wild games are.

Hunt for Jiricek also made a huge difference.  One day, Jiricek may be better, but results never lie: Hunt is a better fit.

[Scalptrash]

Good 'ol MN sports fans. More of the same please.🥱

[Patrick]

Kaprizov is tied for 66th in 5v5 scoring.  He 3rd in 5v5 ice time amongst forwards. 

Doesn't exactly scream 17 million a year. 

Hopefully he can get going because the rest of the roster is doing their jobs.

 

[Pewterschmidt]

12 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Kaprizov is tied for 66th in 5v5 scoring.  He 3rd in 5v5 ice time amongst forwards. 

Doesn't exactly scream 17 million a year. 

Hopefully he can get going because the rest of the roster is doing their jobs.

 

Kempe signs 8x$10.6M…yah 97 is going to wear that contract around his neck possibly for the whole term.  At least for the next few years until cap rises and some players catch up to him.  Nice work Guerin. 

[Will D. Ness]

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Kempe signs 8x$10.6M…yah 97 is going to wear that contract around his neck possibly for the whole term.  At least for the next few years until cap rises and some players catch up to him.  Nice work Guerin. 

I hope it isn't the cause of KK97 not playing up to snuff.   It is going to be a burden I think to be paid so much more than similar players.  (Kempe isn't really comparable)

I wish players wouldn't trust their agents like they do.  Both Rossi and KK97 got bad advice this off season.  KK97 had all the leverage and Rossi had none but the bigger picture isn't always the amount of money.

[Dango]

The way i look at it is Kaprizov  was probably worth 12 million a year this current contract and was paid 9 million so if you subtract 3 million from his next 17 million contract and put it onto his current contract thats 12 million, averages out to  13 million a year for 10 years then gets another 4 milliion raise his last 3 years  .  

[raithis]

3 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Kempe signs 8x$10.6M…yah 97 is going to wear that contract around his neck possibly for the whole term.  At least for the next few years until cap rises and some players catch up to him.  Nice work Guerin. 

I feel like Guerin had to play with the cards Leipold gave him.  Theofanus is known for getting the largest contract he can and Leipold basically gave him a blank check and said we'd pay anything to keep him.  It's hard to point the finger at Guerin in that situation.

I think you are probably right though that Kaprizov is going to have a lot of scrutiny on him until other players are in the same range.  Hope he can handle it. 

Part of me gets the feeling that he regrets signing that contract, and not because he doesn't want to be on the team.  He always wants to focus on hockey, and now he's got all that baggage dogging him wherever he goes - whether it's the media, opposing teams, or his own teammates in the locker room.  Maybe the improved play on the team overall is partly due to that dying down a bit.

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Will D. Ness said:

(Kempe isn't really comparable)

Here are their stats for the 22, 23 & 24 season's (not counting this season so far)

Kempe ($10.6M) total pts = 215.  Total goals = 104

1C Eichel's ($13.5M) total pts = 228.  Total goals = 86

97's ($17M) total pts = 227. Total goals = 111

97 makes 60% more than Kempe and 26% more than Eichel.  Someone's getting screwed here.  I think it's the Wild fans who's team has ~ $4M less than it should given it's GM's dumbfuckery.  Maybe it doesn't matter because he'd just go get another Trenin with the cash.

(Eichel has missed a bunch of games too like 97.  but I'd argue three season's is a large enough sample size to not cherry pick injury free seasons.  Injuries happen, but not really to Kempe.)

[Up North Guy]

5 hours ago, Scalptrash said:

Good 'ol MN sports fans. More of the same please.🥱

You must be a lot of fun at parties😎

[mnfaninnc]

4 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Kempe signs 8x$10.6M

P-Money, would you consider this contract over, under, or pretty right? 

For me, I would think this is a little inflated. Looking at his stats, he seems like a pretty healthy player who chips in about 70 points. I don't think he's a particularly good driver of a line, but he's got some real good finishing ability. My eye test, and I'm not a Kings watcher so they would be games vs. Wild, believes we've shut him down pretty well on the ice. 

I would have thought him to be in the $9m category before Kapflation™️

[Will D. Ness]

26 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Here are their stats for the 22, 23 & 24 season's (not counting this season so far)

Kempe ($10.6M) total pts = 215.  Total goals = 104

1C Eichel's ($13.5M) total pts = 228.  Total goals = 86

97's ($17M) total pts = 227. Total goals = 111

97 makes 60% more than Kempe and 26% more than Eichel.  Someone's getting screwed here.  I think it's the Wild fans who's team has ~ $4M less than it should given it's GM's dumbfuckery.  Maybe it doesn't matter because he'd just go get another Trenin with the cash.

(Eichel has missed a bunch of games too like 97.  but I'd argue three season's is a large enough sample size to not cherry pick injury free seasons.  Injuries happen, but not really to Kempe.)

I agree with you on the overpay, but the P-diesel of old definitely wouldn't compare Kempe to KK97.  Kempe to Boldy is even a hard comparison since Boldy is playing like the best player on our team right now.

I mean if you are going on proportional value then fucking Nojo is the greatest player to ever live.😀

Kempe is a really good player but he is not KK97 tier in terms of skill.  Bolds is much closer but I would give the nod to Bolds even.  Kempe at 10M is a pretty good deal considering all the inflation going around these days.

My problem is that KK97 is definitely looking less than KK97 this year.  I don't think he is hurt but something isn't right.  Is it the contract?  It could be a heavy crown.  

[Will D. Ness]

24 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

P-Money, would you consider this contract over, under, or pretty right? 

For me, I would think this is a little inflated. Looking at his stats, he seems like a pretty healthy player who chips in about 70 points. I don't think he's a particularly good driver of a line, but he's got some real good finishing ability. My eye test, and I'm not a Kings watcher so they would be games vs. Wild, believes we've shut him down pretty well on the ice. 

I would have thought him to be in the $9m category before Kapflation™️

I think we are on the same page on this one.  Bolds can drive a line I think and is a better finisher.  Although Kempe would be a perfect fit for us in the top 6 IMO.

[Scalptrash]

45 minutes ago, Up North Guy said:

You must be a lot of fun at parties😎

Sheeple.

[Pewterschmidt]

40 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

P-Money, would you consider this contract over, under, or pretty right? 

Good question.  I’m a kempe fan as he’s a player that’s always in attack mode. Always making plays.  Always finishing.  It seems.  And he’s got swagger which is good for a team.   Is 97 160% the player kempe is?  As great as 97 is its not even close imo. So one of those two aav’s is not in line with market values.  I’d guess kempe contract looks more reasonable than 97’s in a year when there’s more comparables.  And Eichel puts a bit of a lid on contract escalation mania for next few years

[Pewterschmidt]

25 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

the P-diesel of old definitely wouldn't compare Kempe to KK97.

To be clear these two are not necessarily apples to apples.  But sort of oranges and tangerines.  The point totals prove they’re not far apart. 97 is the more dynamic play driver.  But this exercise is about relative value for the aav

[MacGyver]

We over paid 97 in a big way I don't know how that could even be argued, and it's the owners inability to comprehend even the most basic, low level tactics of negotiating. The only one negotiating was Theofanus and he finally stopped squeezing OCL's balls out of mercy. He could have gotten more because OCL told him he could but even Theofanus must have thought things were getting a little gross and allowed OCL to save a little face.  

I think everyone who signs a contract who isn't McDavid and it's far below #97's that crown gets heavier and finally slips down around the neck and becomes an albatross.  If this team goes in the dumpster this year even the albatross will want to fly the coop. 

[mnfaninnc]

I'm with the guys up top who mentioned Hunt. Isn't it an interesting coincidence that as soon as Hunt was inserted into the lineup, everything on defense calmed down. Even when Buium played a couple of games with Faber, there were no fire drills. He even made Jiricek's minutes look calm.

On offense, getting Zuccarello back has been real good too, allowing wings to drop down a line. That seems to have helped balance the top 2 lines. We're playing stingy, and beat 2 pretty good offensive teams this weekend. 

Unfortunately, Hynes' whole perspective to coaching winning hockey is low event hockey. That's what he loves. This team will have serious structure when the next coach comes in. If we can grab a coach with a little more offensive creativity, yet keep the defensive structure, perhaps we'll get better results. I thought that helped when Boudreau took over. 

[mnfaninnc]

5 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

To be clear these two are not necessarily apples to apples.  But sort of oranges and tangerines.  The point totals prove they’re not far apart. 97 is the more dynamic play driver.  But this exercise is about relative value for the aav

Is that the right comparison? I would think that the Kings are a little more free wheeling than the Wild. Is Kaprizov's point totals being punished due to the structure he plays in?

[Pewterschmidt]

1 minute ago, mnfaninnc said:

Is Kaprizov's point totals being punished due to the structure he plays in?

I’d say the 40+ games he missed last year.  But when comparing relative value, over seasons it’s not a pt per game played analysis but a contribution over multiple successive seasons

[mnfaninnc]

Just now, Pewterschmidt said:

I’d say the 40+ games he missed last year.  But when comparing relative value, over seasons it’s not a pt per game played analysis but a contribution over multiple successive seasons

So, in this exercise, you're saying that availability is a +. But what about difference in systems?

[Pewterschmidt]

5 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

So, in this exercise, you're saying that availability is a +. But what about difference in systems?

That’s above my pay grade

[Will D. Ness]

32 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

To be clear these two are not necessarily apples to apples.  But sort of oranges and tangerines.  The point totals prove they’re not far apart. 97 is the more dynamic play driver.  But this exercise is about relative value for the aav

Points are fluffy indicators IMO.  But I think we are pretty much in the same boat otherwise.  

[Will D. Ness]

42 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

And Eichel puts a bit of a lid on contract escalation mania for next few years

Just to stir the pot... who played better last game?  KK97 GWG vs ?