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  • The Wild Are A Big Tree That Falls Hard


    Image courtesy of Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
    Tom Schreier

     

    The Minnesota Wild were feeling good about themselves as they rolled into Ottawa. They had shut out the Montreal Canadiens, 4-0, giving Marc-André Fleury a heartwarming victory in his final homecoming. The Wild were a league-best 20-5-3 on the road and about to face the 28-20-4 Ottawa Senators, who haven’t made the playoffs since the 2016-17 season. 

    “We’re just rolling right now,” said Marcus Foligno, “and it’s fun to see.”

    John Hynes had called them out after the former Arizona Coyotes clubbed them 4-0 at home, and they didn’t respond when Rasmus Andersson punched Fleury in the Calgary Flames’ 5-4 win in St. Paul. The Utah Hockey Club and Calgary are non-playoff teams, but the Wild are 11-12-1 at the Xcel Energy Center’s unfriendly confines. 

    They had meaningful conversations on the road, which drove winning in Chicago, Toronto, and Montreal. 

    “A few things were said,” offered Filip Gustavsson. “We had a meeting before (and after) the Calgary game, and we said some things. … We take it to heart when we get called out, and we just went back into the Chicago game to show the coaching staff that we’re willing to do it.”

    However, the Wild were short on words after losing 6-0 in Ottawa.

    “It’s unacceptable start to finish,” said Brock Faber. “We’re better than that. We have more pride than that.”

    “Embarrassing,” added Mats Zuccarello. “Outworked. Outskilled. Terrible.”

    “I don’t want to really comment on it right now,” Hynes said when a reporter asked how they move past the game.

    The 2024-25 Wild are a big tree that falls hard.

    They only suffered one regulation loss in their first 11 games, then the Los Angeles Kings beat them 5-1. The Kings also beat them 4-1 on the road. 

    Minnesota has played last year’s Stanley Cup finalists. The Florida Panthers beat them 6-1, and the Edmonton Oilers won one of their matchups 7-1.

    The Wild’s Central Division opponents also have blown them out. The Winnipeg Jets have beaten them 4-1 and 5-0. The Colorado Avalanche beat them 6-1 after Minnesota had won six of seven games. The Wild also gift-wrapped the Nashville Predators a 6-2 victory on January 18.

    As surprising as Minnesota’s loss in Ottawa was on Saturday, it wasn’t unprecedented. Forty-eight hours after the shorthanded Wild beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime, the Senators beat them 3-1. Ottawa has improved this year, but they’re still a middle-of-the-pack Eastern Conference team.

    Injuries have been a factor in Minnesota’s inconsistency this season. Still, they alone aren’t the reason the Wild have swayed in the wind and occasionally topple. Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon were healthy for the 4-0 loss to Utah. 

    The Wild are a tree with lush leaves, a flimsy trunk, and no roots. 

    From the forest canopy, we see the fall colors. Kaprizov, Brock Faber, Marco Rossi, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonas Brodin, and Jared Spurgeon are a strong core. Occasionally, they’ve been missing some leaves this year. Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, Brodin, and Spurgeon have periodically been out with injuries. Still, the tree looks healthy at the top.

    However, the trunk consists of older, lumbering players. Bill Guerin was a 6-foot-2, 220-pound physical forward who played better as he aged. He has built the Wild in his image, complementing his stars with large players on the wrong side of 30. As a result, the trunk is heavy and rotting. 

    Many of the veterans he signed have regressed. On Saturday, the officials assessed Ryan Hartman with a match penalty, and he’s due for a lengthy suspension. He’s in the first year of a three-year, $12 million extension the Wild signed him to last offseason.

    “We’ll see what the league has to do about that,” Foligno said in response. “There’s going to be bigger battles in the playoffs, so I don’t know if that’s too serious.”

    If I’m reading that right, Foligno isn’t sure how the league will punish Hartman. However, he feels there will be “bigger battles in the playoffs,” either meaning games against better teams or more violent actions. If it’s the latter, that’s concerning coming from a 33-year-old player on a four-year extension whose reckless play hurt the Wild the last time they were in the postseason.

    Minnesota’s trunk may be fraying, but the roots may be more concerning. Rossi has become a No. 1 center despite the Wild’s odd handling of his development. They traded for David Jiříček in December, and he played well in late January. However, he’s spent most of his time in Des Moines. Most concerningly, Jesper Wallstedt has a 0.871 save percentage on an Iowa Wild team that has won 36% of its games.

    The question with the Wild shouldn’t be how they fell from competing with Winnipeg for the Central Division title on Thanksgiving to hovering near a negative point differential after getting blown out so many times. Instead, it should be why they haven’t built a better core around a team with star power.

    Minnesota’s occasional falls shouldn’t be a surprise. They’re inevitable.

     

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    Getting that out of my system: the Wild still have a chance for a 4-1 road trip.  Consistency is probably an issue, but you could say that about every team except Winnipeg and Washington at this point.  There are a LOT of teams that are still trailing the Wild after all the shit they've dealt with.

    They were completely out of it this time last year.  I'm still banking on more internal improvement next season.  Just have to wait for those "rotten limbs" to fall off the tree.

    Who knows, one of those (Hartman) might fall off on its own.

     

    Edited by Citizen Strife
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    Surprisingly, The Athletic's Scott Wheeler, in reverse order of last to first, has gotten to team #6 in his prospect rankings without mentioning the Wild, so he apparently believes they are top 5 in their prospect pool. Definitely anxious to read what he has to say on the Wild when it's released later this week.

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    IMO BG has been building a team under a mandate from OCL. Management answers to the owner. Taking into consideration “We gotta make the playoffs” driven priority, having resigned the Vets to some degree then makes sense. It’s a bit of a stretch to say BG is somehow so uninformed as to believe he is adding players like “himself” blindly. Some fit that mold but others don’t. I think the Wild are adding players that want to win. (Mostly). I’m waiting to see what kind of moves they make going into next season. 

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    Sad but true. We let Nyquist walk because we wanted Hartman. The truth is the Wild are the same old middle of the pack team they have always been. The only difference is Kirill Kaprizov elevating them to another level.  What did BG have to do with KK. Almost nothing. Hopefully BG can learn from his mistakes.

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    1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

    Yawn, old veteran contracts ruining the team: Guerin's fault...

    I agree.  Another article about the contracts after a bad loss.  Even though we have managed 6 points so far on the road trip where I was hoping to get 5 in a best case scenario and I am an eternal optimist.

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    The Wild could use a guy like Tom Wilson " minus the bad hits "    6-4-  220  I think  atleast 45-65% of his point production comes via his size  ,   Even if he never fights it would help a team like the wild to have a guy like that  .   "minus the bad hits unnecessary roughing "

     

     

     
    GP G A PTS +/- PIM SOG SPCT PPG PPA SHG SHA GWG TOI/G PROD
    82 3 7 10 1 151 0 4.8 1 0 0 0 0 7:56 65:05
    67 4 13 17 -1 172 0 5.1 0 0 0 0 0 10:56 43:06
    82 7 16 23 3 163 0 7.1 0 1 0 1 1 12:54 46:02
    82 7 12 19 9 133 0 7.4 0 0 0 0 0 12:55 55:46
    78 14 21 35 10 187 0 11.4 0 1 1 0 1 15:59 35:37
    63 22 18 40 11 128 0 16.9 3 2 2 0 2 18:08 28:34
    68 21 23 44 -3 93 0 13.6 5 2 1 1 5 18:16 28:14
    47 13 20 33 1 96 0 15.7 4 4 1 0 4 16:32 23:33
    78 24 28 52 13 98 0 15.9 4 6 2 1 5 18:34 27:52
    33 13 9 22 -13 78 0 15.9 4 1 0 0 1 17:37 26:25
    74 18 17 35 -19 133 0 10.7 5 5 2 0 3 18:06 38:16
    52 21 17 38 12 50 0 17.9 9 3 0 1 3 18:49 25:45
    806 167 201 368 24 1482 0 12.4 35 25 9 4 25 15:12 444:20
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    I have to agree with the analogy Tom puts forth here. It's a good one, but one that needs to be explained a bit further. Tom has taken some depth readings and he has seen a lack of root structure. Oh, there's some roots, but not those big deep ones. They were extracted, 2 of them, 5 years ago. The aging vets we now have do not have that much of a root structure because they are placeholders, not deep players with a history, like a Koivu. 

    Now, our root structure consists of players like Eriksson Ek, probably the deepest root, Kaprizov, Boldy, Faber. Brodin and Spurgeon also are deep roots but not so strong anymore. But, your Hartmans, Trenins and those guys just don't have those deep roots. Even Foligno's just isn't that deep, though he's been here a long while. 

    This happens with turnover. This happens with rebuilding. When we bought out Suter and Parise, let Koivu head to free agency/retirement, and sent Staal packing, we got rid of our deep roots. It's time for new ones. If Kaprizov resigns, he will be one of our deepest roots. Getting Rossi bridged and then long termed may be another one. Buium, Yurov, The Wall, Jiricek should all lay down some deep roots but that takes time. 

    Quote

    Ottawa has improved this year, but they’re still a middle-of-the-pack Eastern Conference team.

    One of the best indicators of a playoff team is simply team +/-. I can't remember where we were in mid December, but right now we're a +3. This suggests that we are the 7th best team in our conference. Calgary and Vancouver are behind us with -11 and -16. 

    The Ottawa team that just waxed us was a +2 going into that game. That was good enough for 7th place in the East. They didn't have a very good start to the season, but lately they have been playing like beasts in the East. Sometimes it doesn't matter who you play, it's when you play them. Hopefully we catch Boston on a downswing. They are currently a -26.

    37 minutes ago, Patrick said:

    We let Nyquist walk because we wanted Hartman.

    This is a completely false statement, sorry Patrick. Hartman had 1 more year left on his deal. We chose Johansson instead of Nyquist. I actually believe we could only afford a $2m contract and both were offered the same deal, 1st one to take it got it. I have no evidence of this. Nyquist bet on himself and was worth probably more than what he got. 

    Again, I'm not agreeing with the resigning of Hartman, I think we should have let him walk, but I also think he had a handshake deal with Guerin, that if he performed well at $1.8m where we needed value contracts, Guerin promised to take care of him. While most do not see value in honoring those types of things, I do. It makes you the type of GM that players can play for. These types of things get talked about around the league, and players know which GMs they can trust and which ones they can't. 

    But like some have suggested, I do think that this is the last year we have Hartman in the lineup. I thought we might bet on a bounce back for next season, but after the Stutzle incident, I have to wonder if the expiration date is flashing.

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    21 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

    I agree.  Another article about the contracts after a bad loss.  Even though we have managed 6 points so far on the road trip where I was hoping to get 5 in a best case scenario and I am an eternal optimist.

    I thought the article was more about when we lose, we lose big. When we win, we don't usually win so big. The underlying theme of deep roots, though, really hit me. I don't know that I really mind, so much, getting killed when we lose but winning all the tight ones. 

    Say for instance, we get Colorado in a playoff series. What if the series was tied at 3 and our wins were 2-1OT, 3-2OT, and 4-3. Theirs were 6-1, 5-0, 7-2. What happens in game 7? The ghost of Nino arises!

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    5 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I thought the article was more about when we lose, we lose big. When we win, we don't usually win so big. The underlying theme of deep roots, though, really hit me. I don't know that I really mind, so much, getting killed when we lose but winning all the tight ones. 

    Say for instance, we get Colorado in a playoff series. What if the series was tied at 3 and our wins were 2-1OT, 3-2OT, and 4-3. Theirs were 6-1, 5-0, 7-2. What happens in game 7? The ghost of Nino arises!

    Most of it was, but of course it had to mention the bad contracts for aging veterans that seems to pop up in a ton of articles here.

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    12 minutes ago, Dango said:

    The Wild could use a guy like Tom Wilson " minus the bad hits "    6-4-  220  I think  atleast 45-65% of his point production comes via his size  ,   Even if he never fights it would help a team like the wild to have a guy like that  .   "minus the bad hits unnecessary roughing "

     

     

     
    GP G A PTS +/- PIM SOG SPCT PPG PPA SHG SHA GWG TOI/G PROD
    82 3 7 10 1 151 0 4.8 1 0 0 0 0 7:56 65:05
    67 4 13 17 -1 172 0 5.1 0 0 0 0 0 10:56 43:06
    82 7 16 23 3 163 0 7.1 0 1 0 1 1 12:54 46:02
    82 7 12 19 9 133 0 7.4 0 0 0 0 0 12:55 55:46
    78 14 21 35 10 187 0 11.4 0 1 1 0 1 15:59 35:37
    63 22 18 40 11 128 0 16.9 3 2 2 0 2 18:08 28:34
    68 21 23 44 -3 93 0 13.6 5 2 1 1 5 18:16 28:14
    47 13 20 33 1 96 0 15.7 4 4 1 0 4 16:32 23:33
    78 24 28 52 13 98 0 15.9 4 6 2 1 5 18:34 27:52
    33 13 9 22 -13 78 0 15.9 4 1 0 0 1 17:37 26:25
    74 18 17 35 -19 133 0 10.7 5 5 2 0 3 18:06 38:16
    52 21 17 38 12 50 0 17.9 9 3 0 1 3 18:49 25:45
    806 167 201 368 24 1482 0 12.4 35 25 9 4 25 15:12 444:20

    I've been wondering about Trent Frederic and happened to stumble across this just now:

    According to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, the Capitals are one of three teams rumored to have interest in Boston Bruins forward Trent Frederic. They are reportedly joined in their interest by the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild.

     

    https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2025/02/03/capitals-boston-bruins-trent-frederic-trade-deadline-rumor/

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    2 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

    Yawn, old veteran contracts ruining the team: Guerin's fault...

    Tom's articles always seem to be variations on saying pretty much the same thing over and over in different ways.

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    Quote

    Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon were healthy for the 4-0 loss to Utah

    You can make a case for Surgeon being healthy (though he still seems to be working his way back to form and certainly isn't playing like he was before he was slew-footed into the boards), but that was also Kaprizov's first game back after a lot of games missed and it's been reported that the reason he was seeking surgery is because he was out there playing at 60%.  Saying both of these players were healthy to make your point is completely laughable.

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    The Wild are the NHLs version of the Vikings. Both teams have over achieved this season. Both teams are missing key components to get them over the hump and be able to beat the elite teams. I don’t think anyone was expecting the Wild to be in the position they are in this year. Especially with the injuries they have had. Will anyone trade for Hartman while he’s on a suspension? He doesn’t fit in our future plans.

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    11 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

    I've been wondering about Trent Frederic and happened to stumble across this just now:

    According to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, the Capitals are one of three teams rumored to have interest in Boston Bruins forward Trent Frederic. They are reportedly joined in their interest by the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild.

     

    https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2025/02/03/capitals-boston-bruins-trent-frederic-trade-deadline-rumor/

    Frederic could be an okay pick up.  Not sure how I feel about it.

    I didn't like it when hurt Kaprizov a couple seasons back, but it didn't seem like a particularly dirty play. 

    I guess I'd rather have players that play hard and are hard to play against than players like Hartman.  Not that I think we can trade Hartman out for him, but Frederic would be worth exploring.

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    31 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    We chose Johansson instead of Nyquist. I actually believe we could only afford a $2m contract and both were offered the same deal, 1st one to take it got it. I have no evidence of this. Nyquist bet on himself and was worth probably more than what he got.

    “Gustav Nyquist is signed to a 2 year, $6,370,000 contract with a cap hit of $3,185,000 per season, currently playing for the Nashville Predators. His contract was signed on July 1, 2023, and expires at the end of the 2024-25 season, when Nyquist will be 35 years old.” https://puckpedia.com/player/gustav-nyquist

    I recall this contract was more than we could have handed out so Gustav went to the Perds and we settled for NoJo.

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    35 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

     

    We chose Johansson instead of Nyquist.

    Sigh.  

    We could have had Nyquist but we must have needed to save a few dollars.  So that we could have Trenin on a long term deal.  

    Sigh.

    Edited by Dis-allowed display name
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    16 minutes ago, FredJohnson said:

    “Gustav Nyquist is signed to a 2 year, $6,370,000 contract with a cap hit of $3,185,000 per season, currently playing for the Nashville Predators. His contract was signed on July 1, 2023, and expires at the end of the 2024-25 season, when Nyquist will be 35 years old.” https://puckpedia.com/player/gustav-nyquist

    I recall this contract was more than we could have handed out so Gustav went to the Perds and we settled for NoJo.

    I believe Nyquist was expecting $4M, and Guerin didn't want to wait for that price to come down. He took the early deal for Johansson to have price certainty and retain a guy who had some recent success for the Wild. The Wild locked in the contract with Johansson, and set about their offseason plans, long before Nyquist's deal came about--NoJo's contract was signed on May 2, 2023.

    Between the 2, I strongly preferred Nyquist, but $2M per year for a top 6 player could have been a really good deal if Johansson was even half the player he pretended to be that season after the Wild traded for him. As good of a run as Johansson just had with the Wild, I was about 100% certain that his reasonably low $2M meant Nyquist could not be retained.

    I hoped for the best, but wasn't shocked that NoJo's play returned to the level of a guy who could simply be a press box guy on a contending team.

    As I've mentioned before, I'd love for the Wild to trade for Nyquist and insert him into Johansson's role now. Nyquist's cap hit remaining for this season is only around $1.125M, so if the Wild gave Nashville a pick/prospect to help them retain $1M of that, the Wild could add Nyquist to their roster.

    Edited by Imyourhuckleberry
    Corrected the cap hit estimate for Nyquist.
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    3 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    I'd love for the Wild to trade for Nyquist and insert him into Johansson's role now.

    I think this is a real possibility. Maybe the best we can expect upgrade wise this TD.

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    Great article.  It’ll prove itself in the playoffs when this washed up core with there bad clauses makes fools of themselves again .  You can’t take this team seriously when Freddy g is playing 30 min a night. . I’m sick of the Freddy era . I’m sick of moose. Hartman , Jo Jo , Freddy and probably Trenin if I watched enough wild this year . Why waste 3 hours watching Freddy do nothing year after year.  This idea your going anywhere in the playoffs with 3 tiny centers is funny .  The wild can’t play playoff hockey with this roster of little people and they can’t do much about it will Billy’s dumb contracts.  If you can’t get to the middle or defend the middle you aren’t going anywhere. Watching these weak wimps play against real teams is pathetic and embarrassing to watch. . It impossible to be a fan of the Freddy g weak wild . Everything i hate about hockey. Weakness and whining with lots  of excuses .  That’s billy g hockey . 
       

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    24 minutes ago, Dean said:

    Great article.  It’ll prove itself in the playoffs when this washed up core with there bad clauses makes fools of themselves again .  You can’t take this team seriously when Freddy g is playing 30 min a night. . I’m sick of the Freddy era . I’m sick of moose. Hartman , Jo Jo , Freddy and probably Trenin if I watched enough wild this year . Why waste 3 hours watching Freddy do nothing year after year.  This idea your going anywhere in the playoffs with 3 tiny centers is funny .  The wild can’t play playoff hockey with this roster of little people and they can’t do much about it will Billy’s dumb contracts.  If you can’t get to the middle or defend the middle you aren’t going anywhere. Watching these weak wimps play against real teams is pathetic and embarrassing to watch. . It impossible to be a fan of the Freddy g weak wild . Everything i hate about hockey. Weakness and whining with lots  of excuses .  That’s billy g hockey . 
       

    Other than that the team is doing pretty well this year...

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    1 hour ago, FredJohnson said:

    “Gustav Nyquist is signed to a 2 year, $6,370,000 contract with a cap hit of $3,185,000 per season, currently playing for the Nashville Predators. His contract was signed on July 1, 2023, and expires at the end of the 2024-25 season, when Nyquist will be 35 years old.” https://puckpedia.com/player/gustav-nyquist

    I recall this contract was more than we could have handed out so Gustav went to the Perds and we settled for NoJo.

    That's exactly the way I remember it too. However, Johansson was signed before 7/1/23. I believe Nyquist bet on himself and took it to free agency. We had his rights before that so he could have signed with us before hitting UFA status. 

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    Guess we made our big trade for the year 😜

    Minnesota Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin today announced the National Hockey League (NHL) club has traded forward Sammy Walker to the Utah Hockey Club in exchange for future considerations.

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    21 minutes ago, Dean said:

    get to the middle

    It’s possible Charlie Stramel and Jiricek are  heading to the Wild to address this issue. I’m not sure what year we’re in, aka the 5 year plan. The coach also is encouraging steps in this direction. There’s always a chance to make a run but assuming the Wild resign KK, 2027 looks like “A very good year”. I’m basing 2027 on moves the Wild started making a couple of years ago, which I don’t really want to reiterate at the moment. 

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