Are the Wild Heading Towards A Time Share In Net?

Goaltending has to be the most weird position.  The Wild were supposed to have three, but Gus was great.  Fleury was kinda meh, and Wallstedt had a cup of coffee while battling things in Iowa.  Now, Fleury is "ok, but good enough," while Gus is struggling, and Wallstedt is hurt.

The only thing predictable about Minnesota sports is unpredictability.

I was wrong about the Wild extending MAF. It’s a good thing that they did. I thought he’d regress big time this year. He looks good and his stats are solid. The puck can jump around, ricocheting in unpredictable ways. Some nights it can make a goalie look pretty bad. Gus has definitely had a few nights like that. When Gus is 100% on and dialed in he’s tough to score on. I’m counting on him to be that guy down the stretch. 

1 hour ago, Burnt Toast said:

I was wrong about the Wild extending MAF.

BT, I don't think you were wrong. MAF has put together some good games, mixed with a couple of bad ones, but the time that The Wall is missing in the N is delaying his progression. He needed to see NHL caliber shots.

Don't think for a minute that the immediate demotion to Iowa did not have a dramatic affect on The Wall's mental state. Confidence and mental stability is most important in a goalie. He didn't even get a game before having to report to Iowa due to injuries up here. Maybe nobody bothered to explain to him that this is how it works.

Think about this for a second. We, here, are used to a 23 man roster. We know when guys have to be sent down for cap purposes and roster limits. This is not how it works in the A or in the SHL leagues. They can carry more guys. We cannot assume that the foreign players know that this is always the case when their whole lives have had teams, maybe 3 goalies, on the team and 2 suit up. Perhaps, he didn't know these rules and assumed or thought from what he was told that the Wild would be carrying 3 goalies this season.

The Wall hasn't really taken a step back either, he's just been misused. He had earned the callup here to play, and he was ready. There was little more to learn in Des Moines. He needs more challenging shooters at this time. 

So, we signed MAF to influence The Wall. To share a mountain of experience with the young 'tender, and help him maybe overcome pitfalls. Instead, what we have here is MAF blocking a spot for him. The main thing The Wall needs is playing time, and playing time in the N. Next season, as we look at the back of MAF's horse riding off into the sunset, The Wall will get his learning chance....a year late. We could have had an extra $1.5m to play with (though I'm sure with the injuries it would have been eaten up) had The Wall been the backup. 

But who cares about little things like mental states and confidence? Does it really matter? Ask the guys who hold their sticks extra tight when slumping. But most of all, ask a goalie what the most important thing about goaltending is. It's confidence. When confident, a goalie sees a beachball coming at him. When not, it looks like a marble. When confident, the goalie trusts his defenders to be there for him, when not, he overslides to make up for the defender maybe not being there. When confident, the puck always seems to hit the center or outside of the post, when not confident, the puck always seems to go post and in. 

The landscape of the Western conference certainly changes a bit with Rantanen going East. It will be interesting to see what other moves are in store for Colorado and other teams competing with the Wild for the playoffs.

I'm not as worried about the goaltenders. They are a curious lot and go through hot and cold stretches. My bigger concern was the sputtering offense that showed up against the Preds and Utah. With and without KK they looked listless and appeared to be wearing concrete skates. 

10 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

The Wall hasn't really taken a step back either, he's just been misused.

I feel this has been a much ignored problem. The Wild just don't seem to be able to develop players properly. Year after year we get to hear all the prospect hype and they never seem to live up to it. They can turn into decent NHL'ers but never quite live up to the billing. The most success seems to be when players come up and go right to the big stage like Faber and bypass Iowa.  The Wild are always caught in that good enough to be competitive but can't risk playing the prospects and lose games. Thus they get their cup of coffee and then head south on I35. 

Arrested development.

Could Gustav Nyquist be in play for a playoff push again for the Wild?

He's a guy the Wild could likely fit into their cap in exchange for someone like Chisholm. The Wild have both Buium and Lambos as possible Chisholm replacements in the future and Merrill currently can fill that role if the rest of the Wild defense is healthy.

1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

if the rest of the Wild defense is healthy.

That's a pretty big "if," Huck.

I am absolutely floored by the Rantanen deal, or should it be the Rantanen/Hall deal?

ODC has talked about moving the chips to the center of the table and just going for it. Carolina, essentially, did just that. It is reported that Rantanen and Aho are best friends, so I would believe a Rantanen extension is coming. Carolina also has a nice tax climate as well as a pleasant weather climate. They've got a lot of cap space next year and a very competitive team. Goalie is now their biggest concern.

Necas was a hard give up, but not everyone in Carolina (FO) were that enamored with him. He's tall, fast, but pretty weak. I'm not so sure he will be great in the West, but maybe. 

The big difference here is that Carolina had cap space to work with. They added $2.4m with the deal and got a couple of playoff type players for it. Our issue is we could do something like this too, except we don't have the cap space to add a dime. So, while Rantanen and Hall go to Carolina, I think we might be able to squeeze in a Tuch on a similar type of thing. I highly doubt a Miller would work with $8m unless Vancouver took half and CBJ took another 25%, and I'm not even sure I like Miller enough to do it.

I'm still thinking we need to wait another year, and that next year, with the influx of Buium, Yurov, a more seasoned Ohgren, and The Wall, we will have enough room to make one of these types of moves. I feel like we've been saying "Winter is Coming" for 5 seasons now, and it feels weird that it's not here yet, but next season it arrives. 

Does this weaken Colorado enough that they might be a 1st round target? They've shored up their goaltending, and created more speed at the subtraction of grit. Have they made the right moves? With Necas on board, that 1st line is sure going to be fast with MacKinnon.

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

I'm still thinking we need to wait another year

This postseason and into next year, with near 100% freedom from the buyouts, gives time to see where our biggest needs are. It’s going to depend on how JW progresses as well as a couple other incoming players. Carolina is adding big pieces at just the right time for their window. 

3 hours ago, Burnt Toast said:

This postseason and into next year, with near 100% freedom from the buyouts, gives time to see where our biggest needs are. It’s going to depend on how JW progresses as well as a couple other incoming players. Carolina is adding big pieces at just the right time for their window. 

They also have Alexander Nikishin coming at the end of this year or next year so they are going to be really scary. He’s everything you could want in a defenseman. I think he’s going to be the second coming of Shea Weber. I wish we could have got him.

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/514652/alexander-nikishin

6 hours ago, Mateo3xm said:

so they are going to be really scary

They have 9 forwards on the roster making $3M or less AAV. Not many really big contracts on top end either. They have a good team buy in.