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If I were Guerin I'd think long and hard about a 7 x 7 range. In as little as a year that could be considered a bargain with the cap expected to increase at a high rate.

If memory serves it took Boldy until his 3rd playoffs to perform. I don't get the Rossi can't play in the playoffs premature especulation.

I’ve posted this before but maybe you didn’t see it.. “He is in the 75th percentile for top skating speed and the 89th percentile for skating distance. The Austrian native is only 23 and is already faster than 80% of the league. Along with his skating, he excels in taking accurate shots. He's in the 86th percentile for shooting % and is in the 85th percentile for goals scored.” -Jordan Manny Preds line

It was all to devalue him so they could resign him cheap. He still performed admirably, being tied to two oafs.

That validates the point that Rossi "wasn't himself" in the playoffs. Was it the shot he took in the knee late in the season, just overall fatigue, or ???

Guessing he was looking at his regular season stats and not his postseason stats like you used. His regular season stats are this: Top Speed (mph) 22.81 22.18 75 22+ mph bursts 1 3.7 Below 50th 20-22 mph bursts 99 72.8 69 18-20 mph bursts 505 325.6 75

This undersized is such a myth . Rossi will have 200lb soon and is very strong with his legs and lower body. And if someone is 5.9 or 6.1 makes not much difference if the player does have the same weight

I have been wondering why they didn't move Hartman to wing on the 2nd line and put Rossi up there in the middle. Hartman's versatility is part of his value. A Foligno-Rossi-Hartman line would be solid defensively, would be able to play physically (in spite of Rossi) and add solid scoring. And you can keep the Boldy-Ek-Kaprizov line together.

Danielson might become a really good player but Billy has been pretty clear that he isn’t doing a trade that will make the team worse this year. Trading for a prospect with zero nhl experience for Rossi probably won’t happen.

Rossi will not get more than a 2 year $4.5mm deal from the Wild, then be traded by midseason if he does sign. If he wants more it will have to be from someone else. Look for Rakell from Pitt, Zacha from Boston, Anderson from Calgary, Terry from Anaheim (no to Mctavish). Each one of these guys will cost Rossi plus pick or prospect. His value is not what people think. A fair trade would be from Detroit for Danielson straight up for Rossi. Danielson is a promising risk but worth it. Sometimes as a GM you have to take a risk to get a 1C

This is just low hanging fruit. The Wild want to keep Rossi just not at his agents price tag. It's all good and fine for Rossi and his agent to want more money but at the end of the day they have to sign a contract either with the Wild or sign an offer sheet. Since the teams that have compensation picks haven't offered Rossi an offer sheet that means that nobody else is willing to pay the money Rossi wants. What that money value is we don't' know. I'm thinking Rossi wants more than 7 million. So who can afford that and has the picks to give as compensation. 12 teams can offer Rossi more than 7.021 million to 9.360 million a year, Anahein, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, LA, Detroit, Montreal, Nashville, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Utah, and Philadelphia. Of those teams listed above only, Chicago, Anaheim, Calgary, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Nashville have money to pay Rossi over 7 million. And Pittsuburgh and Detroit have full contact allotments. So, we are down to four teams that can sign Rossi and give the picks to Minnesota as compensation, Chicago, Anaheim, Calgary, and Nashville. Chicago and Anaheim are probably not going to go that route being the three picks they would have to give up are probably going to be high in the round. Nashville is probably looking to rebuild being the great experiment from last year was a disaster. That leaves Calgary as the only team that will give Rossi an offer sheet. Since it hasn't come it probably won't come. That means the Wild can sign Rossi to the Qualifying offer sheet or negotiate a longer contract. Even if Rossi takes the one year Qualifying offer sheet he is still a RFA next summer and this all will happen again because he is under control until the summer of 2029. Rossi should ask for a three year deal at 6 million a year. Play out the contract and then go into his Free Agency period. If he performs he will get paid what he wants. If he doesn't well that is on his. The Wild appear to want to pay him 5 million, which is fare for a young RFA. At the end of the day he has to deal with Minnesota or not play in the NHL this year. Even with that he is still under control by Minnesota until the summer of 2029.

There is something else at play and it is the Guerin factor. Guerin let it be known that he would match whatever offer sheet Rossi got. Any teams considering it immediately backed away because there is no point. Guerin has the cap space to match so why would another team waste their time. It was a smart but cutthroat move on Guerin's part. Rossi was hoping to leverage an offer sheet and Guerin made it pointless for anyone to do so. The amount of money it would take for Guerin to start second guessing is more than people want to pay for a guy that played forth line minutes in playoffs (whether it was deserved or not.) I foresee Rossi needing to cave to the 5X5 offered and giving Guerin the middle finger once he hits UFA unless Guerin pays big. Guerin's plan works in the short term but if Rossi develops into something better or even stays consistent, he's going to have no taste for a team friendly deal.

Offer sheets can happen at any time starting on July 1st at noon. The last three were in August, but the 7 before that were in July, with most of them being in the first ten days. But my point is, other good players have not signed offer sheets either.

Yeah, because Zuccarello centering Brazeau/Trenin sounds like a wet dream...

You are not wrong. His stat value puts him in that $7M range. BG definitely has him over a barrel. But there is something else at play here. Rossi has not received a single offer sheet. Just a total guess here... but I think it's because at $7M you expect a player in that range to stand out. Rossi does not. He does a lot of little things really well and he is well disciplined at both ends of the ice. But rarely does he make a play where you look and think "WOW"... GMs want that before they cut that kind of paycheck. I could be way off here.... only the GMs truly know what is turning them off to Rossi... I just don't buy into it that it is purely a size thing. There is a business side of this game that is hard nosed. You can't let off ice issues run your career. That's a quick way to find yourself out of the game completely. If Rossi signs lower than he wants... he should let his internal spirit/drive prove everyone wrong and play like a $9M dollar player. Then let the cards fall where they may.

I think he'll want to get to UFA status. 4x$6 to 6.5M is my prediction.

If that's really the case, Guerin needed to be fired yesterday.

Not a question of whether Rossi can be an effective NHLer. He already is... the question is what value he brings. I've read comments and articles from $4.5M to $7.5M a year. Personally I think he comes in at 3 years for $5.5M/year. It's a good contract and a lot of money. It also sets him up for a big contract during his prime years if he continues to show improvement.

Truth. If only he was an inch or two taller, all of this unnecessary drama wouldn't exist. I also wonder if Billy holds a grudge after Rossi's issues with covid, thinks he's weak. Which would be really sad, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Middleton is an interesting thing. The Wild trade Devon Dubynk to San Jose for a fifth round pick and Ryan Donato. Later the Wild traded Kappo Kahkonen and the fifth round pick from San Jose back to San Jose for Jake Middleton. Basically two starting goalies for Middleton. Would say the Wild got the better end of that deal. Middleton is solid as a defenseman. Makes few mistakes and blocks a lot of shots. Which ties into his injury last year which before the injury is was scoring at a career high level after not so much. Is he the future of the defensive core? It appears that the Wild want to move on from Spurgeon, Brodin and Middleton in the next few years and develop Lambos, Faber, Buium and Jiricek as the top four. Which on paper looks a lot better offensively, defensively it will be a work in progress.

A lot hinges on how Buium takes to 5-on-5 in the NHL. If his offense is so strong to be denied, or he isn't a black hole defensively, giving him top-4 minutes would allow Middleton to slot into 3rd pair quite nicely. The only time he didn't fair well was when he and Bogo had no choice but to play 1st line minutes with nearly everyone else hurt. Middleton is a great complementary defenseman, and will still be valuable until we know for sure what Buium and Jiricek are.

This article mostly aligns with where I'm at. Brodin has been such a key piece, I'm hopeful that he gets healthy early in the year. If they have all of the defensemen healthy, I'd like to see them play each pairing fairly equally with Spurgeon and Middleton paired frequently. Spurgeon's play and leadership likely deserves top 4 minutes, so I could see them putting Brodin with him(at least for portions of games), but Brodin seems like he is Jiricek's ideal pairing, so I keep coming back to rolling with the young 2-way players(Buium/Faber) as pairing #1, and trying to keep Middleton and Spurgeon together due to their history together. Both rookies get an experienced linemate rather than throwing them on the ice together. I could see a lot of mixing and matching this season, particularly in the first half of the year. For 3rd periods, they could choose to mix things up and limit minutes for guys they deem to be weaker with defensive play, but try to play fairly even minutes in most games, especially in the first 2 periods. Obviously, they could go Brodin/Faber and Buium/Spurgeon as well, when healthy, pairing up Middleton/Jiricek in a reduced 3rd pairing role, but does that wear out the top 2 pairings when they lean on them heavily like they have with Faber the last couple of years? And would Middleton/Jiricek have the speed and defensive acumen to be an effective pairing for all 3 periods each night? I think I'd favor the balanced approach when healthy.

Last season Midsy had 157 blocks, and 99 hits and only played 67 games as a result of the abuse. Even playing 67 games, he was 4th on the team in time on ice (1465:35, second among D behind Faber) You dont have a guy like Midsy on your team because of the points he produces, he's out there to throw his body around, eat up minutes, and absorb some pucks. Midsy aint going to turn into an offensive power house, but he's going to always be the big guy you can pair with a little guy to prevent the other big guy from taking liberties against your little guy.

I remember when Boldy got this contract, there were many that thought it was too much. It was a gamble that looks like it will pay off huge dividends. I know I might be in the minority here, but that is why I feel locking up Rossi on a long-term deal is worth the risk. If they were able to get Rossi on at 7 years and $6.5M AAV, this could be a bargain contract also in a year or two. I also do not feel it would be an untradable contract if we did decide to move on from Rossi in a couple of years if we need the money for Yurov, Ohgren, Buium and Wallstedt, unless he completely regresses. We have the space for this year and next at that term. I think it is worth the gamble. If we sign a bridge deal of 2-3 years and he keeps improving his game, then we will be stuck paying a lot more.

I still would have drafted Lundell in that position. But, I believe that Guerin is not much of a draft guy. He was able to hire Judd late in the process in 2020 and we don't know how many notes Judd actually had on players (how much did he have to relinquish when leaving the Canucks?) I do believe that Guerin pretty much stayed out of the 2020 draft and let Judd run the table. I really don't think he got involved much until 2023 when I believe he took over the table for Stramel and Kumpulainen before handing it back to Judd who took Heidt. Judd was known for taking undersized guys. He also seemed to like droppers and at the time Rossi seemed like a dropper. However, nobody planned on Rossi having the health issues which set him back at least 2 seasons. Judd drafted a 5'9" kid who was a very good player in jrs. He was also 185. If Guerin even signed off on it, he's looking at a kid who will fill out another 10-15 lbs. with age, picturing a stocky kid who's hard to knock off the puck. The health challenge changed this. It changed it really big. It was no fault of the team and no fault of the player. I still would have chosen Lundell just based upon size and style of play, I think he would have fit in here better. However, the expectations for Rossi shifted the moment he dealt with myocarditis. What would be interesting is to see what would have happened had that never happened to Rossi. What kind of player would he be now if he didn't lose that time?

More national news on the Rossi front: An offer sheet, in fact, is likely not coming at all, according to a report we shared recently from insider Frank Seravalli. "It’s almost like Guerin, who vowed to match any offer sheet, was playing a game of chicken to show Rossi’s camp that he didn’t buy that this threat was a real threat. And to this juncture, at least, he’s been right," write Smith & Russo. AFP Analytics has projected the 5'9" center to command a seven-year deal on his next contract with a $7.4M AAV. That might be a little high, and the Wild have no intentions of going there. A short-term bridge deal, suggests the analytics firm, would likely run two years at $4.5M per. Here's the thing, Rossi has demands, Shooter has demands. Shooter played this right by not doing anything. He doesn't need to do anything. He hasn't spoken since June because there's nothing to talk about. He doesn't believe Rossi is worth 7 x $7m at this time, and so far, the offersheets are proving him right. There also is no incentive for Shooter to budge. Without an offersheet, Rossi has 1% leverage (holding out) which would torpedo his NHL career. The very best thing that Rossi can do is also wait until right before training camp, bulk up to the point where Shooter can trust him, and come back into negotiations willing to take the 2 year bridge which will be south of $5m. From Shooter's perspective, he can try to convince Verbeek to trade McTavish for Rossi or just wait for camp. But, the puck is in Rossi's corner for a deal now.

He and his agent probably have to deal with it. Marco is a good player but not yet the irreplaceable piece the team cannot live without. Those players are Kap, Ek, Boldy, Faber, and Brodin/Spurgeon (for a couple more years anyway). I'm also starting to lean towards keeping Gus over Rossi if money gets tight. There is reason to be annoyed for both sides: Rossi has proven a lot, but he is at best a complementary star on a good team who gets opportunistic offense. There's no shame in that, but until he either gets 70-80 points like Boldy or finds an Ek level gear defensively, there's reasons to quib Le about handing out star money to a fringe star.

They draft best available with every pick, if for nothing else than trade assets. They are still drafting small players every draft. The size argument has gotten completely blown out of proportion. Kirill and Zuccarello are the same size as Rossi and nobody says they are too small. Granted, you want your centers to be bigger than smaller, but there have been several successful centers in the NHL that are Rossi's size. You could argue that weight and strength are more important than height. A lower center of gravity is a benefit. These are not quarterbacks that can't see over their linemen!

The Wild should do what the twins did with a few players. Rossi, Spurgeon, Brodin, Zucc, Trenin. Teams a shakeup. Not close to a contender with what they have.