Wild Start Free Agency By Walking Away From Some RFAs

Sad to see Shaw go, but maybe some other team will take a chance on him.  

A little surprised the Wild gave Sammy Walker the qualifying offer, but not Mason Shaw. Mason Shaw seems like the more useful player for them.

Perhaps they could still sign Shaw as an unrestricted free agent at the minimum rather than the slightly higher qualifying offer amount.

48 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

A little surprised the Wild gave Sammy Walker the qualifying offer

Agree. I thought maybe they’d seen enough from Walker after his short stint last season.  Maybe the plan is to have him be the de facto captain of Iowa Wild giving some guidance to the newbies

Kane gone already (re-signed with Detroit, 4.5m+2m bonuses I think).  Other rumored names (Vlad, Perron, Duclair, etc) haven't moved yet.  Kane's bonuses were out the Wild's range. 

Be interesting is there is anyone worth while with around 6 mil in space. I don't know how much you want to keep on reserve incase of injuries and all of that but maybe you will find someone for a cheaper prove it deal that can help for the year.  Pie in the sky dream, finding ways to unload a freddie g or nojo type contract. Possibly open up 2 mil plus is gus is traded away. Not expecting much this off season but we may be surprised.

I hope Shaw get's back to pre injury form and finds success.  The guy showed more heart and desire and gave us the ability to roll that 4th line with confidence.  I think we just have too many young guys that need a shot.

Teravainen and Bertuzzi both going to the Blackhawks, while the Preds might get both Stamkos (already done) and Marchessault.  Chicago trying desperately not to look like an AHL team, and Nashville (maybe) getting help.

Hey tankers and doomers, you just might get your wish...teams in the division aren't doing nothing.

We got Yakov Trenin according to the Athletic. Billy G adding some size and snarl to the bottom-6 to replace the Du-Dew twins.

207 hits last year?  Works for me.

3 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Sad to see Shaw go, but maybe some other team will take a chance on him.

I don't think he's done yet. I don't think he'll get a 1-way deal with another team, and will circle back for a 2-way deal here, likely starting again in Iowa.

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Agree. I thought maybe they’d seen enough from Walker after his short stint last season.  Maybe the plan is to have him be the de facto captain of Iowa Wild giving some guidance to the newbies

I'm thinking he still had usefulness as a potential callup. Contract will be cheap on the NHL side, maybe a little more on the AHL side.

5 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I don't think he's done yet. I don't think he'll get a 1-way deal with another team, and will circle back for a 2-way deal here, likely starting again in Iowa.

If the idea is a $1-1.2m deal for Shaw to stay as 13th forward, I'm ok with this plan.  I know flashy ass offense is important, but that PK was just fucking abysmal.  They can use all the defense they can get.

4 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

If the idea is a $1-1.2m deal for Shaw to stay as 13th forward, I'm ok with this plan.  I know flashy ass offense is important, but that PK was just fucking abysmal.  They can use all the defense they can get.

I'm thinking league minimum in the NHL and $500k in the AHL. I love Shaw's heart, but we have to face objective facts: He was slower last season after ACL #4. He may require more time than a rehab stint in the A will allow. 

The other idea is Heidt or even Ohgren might stay and be 2nd line scorer/13th forward instead of Shaw, and that's why they might have paid a premium on Trenin as Foligno insurance.  If Heidt doesn't exactly light the world on fire, he goes back another year and Hartman/Ohgren stay as the best 2nd line options.

I don't think the Wild want to overspend and end back up in the "No money for callups" problem again.

1 hour ago, B1GKappa97 said:

We got Yakov Trenin according to the Athletic. Billy G adding some size and snarl to the bottom-6 to replace the Du-Dew twins.

Paid wayyy too much for him @3.5m. We love to spend money on beef.

I thought they were looking for a short term add. 4 years is right into the window but at least he is less than 30

Yeah like always it seems the term is one year too long with BG.  I'm cool with going out and getting a PK guy all things considered.

3 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

I hope Shaw get's back to pre injury form and finds success.  The guy showed more heart and desire and gave us the ability to roll that 4th line with confidence.  I think we just have too many young guys that need a shot.

Looks like they want to replace him with bigger guys who can play PK and hit.

Trenin has rated pretty solidly on the PK and was one of the top hitters for Nashville in his time under Hynes. Put in a few playoff goals as well(in a 4-game sweep by Colorado).

Maybe Trenin's better than I gave him credit for in the other comments section.

I looked up things to make sure.

20-21st in GF/GA (around 250 each way)

10th in PP% (22.7%)

30th in PK% (74.5)

Trenin, Spurgeon and Foligno returning, and hopefully a bounce back from Gaudreau.  Goalie voodoo might be the real reason...but holy balls.

I like the Trenin deal cause it's a guy I've been saying would help give the Wild balance. He's not too old, adds the Russian toughness factor and redundancy if Foligno is out. He's getting a little more than before which is deserved but I would have liked it to be less AAV. Not crying about it though. If Foligno really falls off or is hurt, Trenin fills that role easily.

I have been calling for guys like this since he was still in NSH. Has GMBG been reading the comments? Now MN didn't get DuClair and Dakota Joshua signed again in Vancouver for 3.25M. 

Now if MN can dump NoJo, I'll have gotten my way on everything off-season except the No-Euro draft distinction. 

33 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Goalie voodoo might be the real reason

Fleury's save% of just .813 certainly wasn't helping, by far the worst of his career.

Fleury's save% against short handed teams was even worse, putting his special teams save% down at .806.

I'm definitely against trading Gustavsson as I'm not expecting a major bounce back from Fleury at 40 years old.

Gus had an .879 save percentage against PP shots, with significantly more shots faced, and .883 for all special teams situations. Fleury was a bit better even strength than Gustavsson, but Gus performed better overall on the year, and was significantly better the prior year.

21 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Fleury's save% against short handed teams was even worse, putting his special teams save% down at .806.

I was wondering if we should rethink the 4 forwards PP strategy and go with 2 D? Specifically doing this on PP2 might be a good idea. 

1 minute ago, mnfaninnc said:

I was wondering if we should rethink the 4 forwards PP strategy and go with 2 D? Specifically doing this on PP2 might be a good idea. 

Well, they certainly don't need to get Johansson out there, so I could agree with that to some degree. Gus only let in 2 shorties on 26 shots against(.923). I have no idea the difference in high danger shots between him and Fleury on those(and they are small sample sizes), but the save percentage difference was staggering.

After the upcoming season, when they can have Faber on one of the PP units, and Buium on the other, that may also produce better results.

6 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

After the upcoming season, when they can have Faber on one of the PP units, and Buium on the other, that may also produce better results.

Yet, Chisholm also showed competence on the PP unit. That could be 3 defenders. Spurgeon certainly could run one. I wouldn't put Middleton or Brodin or Bogosian on a unit.

If only we could transplant NoJo’s legs on Shaw…

1 hour ago, Gritty.Not.Pretty said:

If only we could transplant NoJo’s legs on Shaw…

Or transplant Shaw's heart and spine into Nojo's body.  Don't even donate nojo's heart and spine for research.  destroy them with fire.