What Will Be On the Wild (Actual) Christmas Wishlist?

“The Wild can bring Christmas to fans, who need a miracle on West 7th Street.”

~ Nice! 
 

If this wish list gets filled, we’ll be looking good and in a position to be buyers at the trade deadline. Still hoping we can pull off a deal for McTavish at some point.

This isn't a shock.  Reality is that even if they won the cup last year all these things need to happen.  

A lot of hopes and dreams in this article. Basically everything needs to be the same or better than last year. The odds of that are astronomical. Gus is due for a let down season, if he follows trend. Jiricek better be way better than a third pair for what they gave up for him. They also have no choice to play the young guys (finally!), after getting rid of some vets and not directly replacing them. If Johansson becomes a regular in the top six, I'm watching a different team.

One thing the Wild are, if not successful, is entertaining. That is exactly what Leipold wants. Just keep the fans watching (and spending money) and they don't have to win shit.

1 hour ago, Scalptrash said:

A lot of hopes and dreams in this article. Basically everything needs to be the same or better than last year. The odds of that are astronomical. Gus is due for a let down season, if he follows trend. Jiricek better be way better than a third pair for what they gave up for him. They also have no choice to play the young guys (finally!), after getting rid of some vets and not directly replacing them. If Johansson becomes a regular in the top six, I'm watching a different team.

One thing the Wild are, if not successful, is entertaining. That is exactly what Leipold wants. Just keep the fans watching (and spending money) and they don't have to win shit.

⛔TRUTH BOMB ALERT⛔

As long as Hynes lets the rookies (yurov, ohgren, buium, jiricek, and wally) get adequate ice time this year. 

BG has made some decent low risk moves over his tenure, but has yet to swing big on a trade for another difference maker or center.  At some point he has to give up a quality asset or two to get this team better.

On 7/16/2025 at 10:12 AM, Pewterschmidt said:

⛔TRUTH BOMB ALERT⛔

Hardly.

A lot of the roster is returning.  Considering last year (and the year prior) the Wild had a lot of injuries to key players for significant portions of the season, producing similar or better results is actually more likely than it is unlikely unless we again have a lot of injuries to key players.  And while we do not yet know how some of the new players will produce in the NHL, those players have a higher ceiling than the players they replaced.  The odds are certainly not astronomically against the Wild doing as well or better.

As far as Gustavsson having a letdown season...really?  One subpar season the season before last establishes a trend.  Wow.  If that's the case, maybe we should have kept Gaudreau because he won a lot of games for us in the shootout a couple years ago.  You know what, maybe the odds ARE astronomically against us because we gave him up.  

Jiricek will likely be better than third pair in a couple years.  The cost high draft picks/prospects is high, and those players don't always play top minutes right away, but it doesn't mean he needs to do that this season in order to justify the cost.  If he does well enough to keep Bogosian on the bench after Brodin is back, then Jiricek likely gets 2nd pairing when Spurgeon inevitably gets hurt.

Also, they had a choice not to play the young guys.  They could have easily re-signed Shore, etc and kept Gaudreau, but the prospects appear ready to really challenge for those spots.  They weren't at that point before now - and in some cases, weren't even in North America.  For all the comments about not letting prospects play, every prospect who has shown they can play well at the NHL level has been given time to do that, cap permitting.

Johansson probably will play top six at some point if players get injured.  And you know what, that's okay.  I hope it doesn't end up being for long, but I'd rather have that than be calling up career AHLers who won't make an impact.  Johansson's impact is less than ideal, but he's a better fill-in than what we've had in the last few years.

Every NHL owner wants their team to be entertaining and generate revenue.  There isn't a single owner in the league that doesn't want that.  Even Buffalo's owners don't want to lose money each year.

Calling any of this a truth bomb is ridiculous.

34 minutes ago, raithis said:

Hardly.

A lot of the roster is returning.  Considering last year (and the year prior) the Wild had a lot of injuries to key players for significant portions of the season, producing similar or better results is actually more likely than it is unlikely unless we again have a lot of injuries to key players.  And while we do not yet know how some of the new players will produce in the NHL, those players have a higher ceiling than the players they replaced.  The odds are certainly not astronomically against the Wild doing as well or better.

As far as Gustavsson having a letdown season...really?  One subpar season the season before last establishes a trend.  Wow.  If that's the case, maybe we should have kept Gaudreau because he won a lot of games for us in the shootout a couple years ago.  You know what, maybe the odds ARE astronomically against us because we gave him up.  

Jiricek will likely be better than third pair in a couple years.  The cost high draft picks/prospects is high, and those players don't always play top minutes right away, but it doesn't mean he needs to do that this season in order to justify the cost.  If he does well enough to keep Bogosian on the bench after Brodin is back, then Jiricek likely gets 2nd pairing when Spurgeon inevitably gets hurt.

Also, they had a choice not to play the young guys.  They could have easily re-signed Shore, etc and kept Gaudreau, but the prospects appear ready to really challenge for those spots.  They weren't at that point before now - and in some cases, weren't even in North America.  For all the comments about not letting prospects play, every prospect who has shown they can play well at the NHL level has been given time to do that, cap permitting.

Johansson probably will play top six at some point if players get injured.  And you know what, that's okay.  I hope it doesn't end up being for long, but I'd rather have that than be calling up career AHLers who won't make an impact.  Johansson's impact is less than ideal, but he's a better fill-in than what we've had in the last few years.

Every NHL owner wants their team to be entertaining and generate revenue.  There isn't a single owner in the league that doesn't want that.  Even Buffalo's owners don't want to lose money each year.

Calling any of this a truth bomb is ridiculous.

If you're assuming the old core that's one and done'd since their existence will find another gear as they approach 35 years old collectively AND the unproven, untested new young core will jump into an NHL lineup and contribute (see: Khuz, Ogz, Rossi, etc in their first years) immediately then you sir are ridiculous.

Anybody think either of these two players is worth a shot for the Wild, Kuznetsov or Chinakhov?  Would be cheap contracts.

HockeyBuzz.com - Eklund - Who wants a Russian? Evgeny Kuznetsov and Yegor Chinahkov Can Be Yours.

2 hours ago, SkolWild73 said:

Anybody think either of these two players is worth a shot for the Wild, Kuznetsov or Chinakhov?  Would be cheap contracts.

HockeyBuzz.com - Eklund - Who wants a Russian? Evgeny Kuznetsov and Yegor Chinahkov Can Be Yours.

Nah I'd pass unless Chinahkov wants to play in Iowa.

7 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

Nah I'd pass unless Chinahkov wants to play in Iowa.

He is cheap and has averaged about 1/2 point a game when he has played.  If it was cheap might be worth a shot, but doubt Columbus will give me away.  Maybe Nojo for him straight up.  Evanson might want that…

5 hours ago, SkolWild73 said:

Anybody think either of these two players is worth a shot for the Wild, Kuznetsov or Chinakhov?  Would be cheap contracts.

HockeyBuzz.com - Eklund - Who wants a Russian? Evgeny Kuznetsov and Yegor Chinahkov Can Be Yours.

Not at the risk of someone offersheeting Rossi.

On 7/17/2025 at 1:53 PM, Pewterschmidt said:

If you're assuming the old core that's one and done'd since their existence will find another gear as they approach 35 years old collectively AND the unproven, untested new young core will jump into an NHL lineup and contribute (see: Khuz, Ogz, Rossi, etc in their first years) immediately then you sir are ridiculous.

I'm not assuming that at all. 

I'm simply believe that we are advancing forward. I see an equation of diminishing returns of the aging/ineffective players + turnover of those players to less aged and/or more skilled players, and I don't see that making the team worse.  

That doesn't require all of the prospects to do well.  It doesn't require players like Tarasenko and Sturm to be more than what's reasonable to expect them to be.  It only requires all of the newcomers to collectively do better than the players they replaced and for younger players that have already made it to NHL and shown they are capable (Boldy, Rossi, Faber, etc) to continue to progress to offset the diminishing returns on the older players.  

That's not all that ridiculous. 

What you called a truth bomb was an assertion that the Wild could not do the same or better than last year (a 7th place wild card).  This team is absolutely capable of doing the same.  Whether they do better depends whether the team again has a lot of lengthy injuries to key players and how well the prospects adapt.

2 hours ago, raithis said:

I'm not assuming that at all. 

I'm simply believe that we are advancing forward. I see an equation of diminishing returns of the aging/ineffective players + turnover of those players to less aged and/or more skilled players, and I don't see that making the team worse.  

That doesn't require all of the prospects to do well.  It doesn't require players like Tarasenko and Sturm to be more than what's reasonable to expect them to be.  It only requires all of the newcomers to collectively do better than the players they replaced and for younger players that have already made it to NHL and shown they are capable (Boldy, Rossi, Faber, etc) to continue to progress to offset the diminishing returns on the older players.  

That's not all that ridiculous. 

What you called a truth bomb was an assertion that the Wild could not do the same or better than last year (a 7th place wild card).  This team is absolutely capable of doing the same.  Whether they do better depends whether the team again has a lot of lengthy injuries to key players and how well the prospects adapt.

 

I really wanted to double rec this one. Thanks