Wild GM Bill Guerin Speaks on Marco Rossi Trade Rumors

2 hours ago, MacGyver said:

I don't think for one minute Billy does not have his fingers on the roster line up and players minutes particularly in the playoffs. Which is how his emotional support pet MAF got to play 5 games against the Blues before throwing Talbot under the train. My guess Rossi feels his being choked off in the playoffs came at Billy's discretion. Another broken player relationship that is at the feet of Billy. 

The coaches might talk through options with Guerin, but the coaches still have to coach the team and I don't believe Guerin is dictating any minutes or lineup allocations for the playoffs. I don't agree with all the coaching decisions in those 2 playoffs, particularly the Talbot situation, but if the coaches are making choices against what they truly believe gives their team the best chance to win(in the playoffs), then they should be replaced with better coaches.

The coaches can be influenced by GM conversations, but at this level, no coach should be limiting minutes for guys who they think give them a better chance to win. That decision should be on Hynes. Rossi did greatly improve the chances for line 4 to score, so that change did work to some degree, but Hynes could have given Rossi some shifts with Zuccarello or swapped him for Gaudreau for a full game to give him more total shifts if he preferred his overall game.

Freddy is a decent team player, but he should probably be the line 4 C if he's with the Wild moving forward.

2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Freddy is a decent team player, but he should probably be the line 4 C if he's with the Wild moving forward.

Agreed 100%.  

The Wild hold all the cards in the Rossi situation.  And they are playing them correctly.  

One Rossi is a RFA which means he plays for the Wild or he signs an RFA deal with someone else.  We can just start there.  

Two Rossi will make at least 7 million on whatever RFA deal he signs.  What does that mean.  If he signs an RFA deal at 7.02 million to 4.65 the Wild get a 1st and a 3rd for compensation.  Anything over 7.02 million they get a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in compensation.  If it is over 9.3 it gets even crazier. 

Three The trade avenue comes into play that the Wild would rather have a NHL player and a 3rd at least.  Which is ideal as long as the player is a first round level player.  

Four the bridge deal.  If a low RFA deal comes in, which is still a possibility, the Wild can sign Rossi to the 5 million deal for three or four years and he has to play.  If he leaves at the end of the deal then so be it they have him at a lower price and he played to get the higher paycheck at the end of it.   

So Rossi can only sign and play with the Wild unless someone gives him an offer sheet which the Wild will more than likely take the picks and run, unless they get an NHL level player and some picks back in a trade.  If non of that happens he still is on the roster with motivation to get a big pay day at the end of his bridge deal. 

Just package Rossi, Faber, a pick, and a prospect for some talented top 6 grit with talent. I know a few players that would open the ice for Kaprizov. Rossi isn't the answer. Replace Faber with Buuim and Jiricek. Jiricek should be the number 5 guy next year with PP1 and PP2 ice time. He also kills penaltys and fucks people up when it presents itself. 

18 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I don't love it either, but Ohgren actually has a higher salary than Johansson now, so I'm not thinking it ensures that he plays above Ohgren. If Ohgren isn't traded and is healthy the whole season, I could see him getting more ice time for the Wild than Johansson.

You're talking like a rational person without bias. You have to add bipolar Bill to the equation. And yes, Billy does decide who plays and who sits. This is exactly why he brought Hynes in, so he has total control over the team and ALL decisions.

Either that or Billy will get rid of all of the prospects so Hynes has no choice but to start veterans.

Rossi for Rasmus Anderson straight up then find a team that will take Spurgeon and Brodin.  Then go get a couple more top 6 Fwds.  Flames need a top 2C badely and Rasmus is a great and mean player that irritates other teams.  He dominated us when we played against them end of last year.  We could use some meanness on the blue line 

Noah Cates just signed 4x$4M for a lot less production than Rossi, so BG is stuck in the past if he thinks Rossi is only worth 5x$5M

Just now, 0 Stanley Cups said:

Noah Cates just signed 4x$4M for a lot less production than Rossi, so BG is stuck in the past if he thinks Rossi is only worth 5x$5M

But he is 6'1" so that makes it ok

3 hours ago, Scalptrash said:

You're talking like a rational person without bias. You have to add bipolar Bill to the equation.

Apparently you also need to add yourself to that equation because every word is dripping with bias and assertions that border on the irrational.

I don't disagree that Guerin has flaws.  Tact definitely isn't always his strong suit, and he isn't always the most level-headed person. 

That said, I also think he's far less of a control freak than you paint him out to be.  To some extent, I think there's enough evidence to say that there's an element of that in his personality, though it's blown out of proportion about how much or pervasive it is.

If he was that much of a control freak, the players and the locker room morale wouldn't be as high as it is.  Players wouldn't want to re-sign.  Players like Goligoski wouldn't still be affiliated with the team after not getting the time on the ice he probably thought he should be getting before he retired.  Yet, by most accounts many of the players on the team seem to like it here.  Tell me, why would they want to be here if Guerin was as bad as you say?

7 minutes ago, raithis said:

Tell me, why would they want to be here if Guerin was as bad as you say?

Simple, job security. They get paid well, only have to give 90% most of the time (if that), don't have to move/start fresh somewhere else, and don't have to worry about being traded.

The players know better than anyone that this team isn't going to compete for a Stanley Cup anytime soon. They are just on cruise control, collecting paychecks. The Wild have become the Arizona Coyotes, where players go to hide.

22 hours ago, Scalptrash said:

Simple, job security. They get paid well, only have to give 90% most of the time (if that), don't have to move/start fresh somewhere else, and don't have to worry about being traded.

The players know better than anyone that this team isn't going to compete for a Stanley Cup anytime soon. They are just on cruise control, collecting paychecks. The Wild have become the Arizona Coyotes, where players go to hide.

The evidence is to the contrary.

Yes, there are probably some players who don't put in the effort at times, but if it was a widespread problem throughout the roster, the ones who have high compete level wouldn't be too happy with the team.  Kaprizov wants to play and win every game.  He wouldn't be even thinking about re-signing if the team is like you portray it.

Furthermore, I'm seeing most of the team buying into a defensive system that blocks a ton of shots.  They were 10th most in the league this last season.  That's a little less than I thought it would be, but still it takes effort to stay in front of a shooter when he's trying to shoot around you.  A team can have a good defensive system, but it still requires that the players execute it.

If the bulk of the team was only giving 90%, why did the Wild still win as many games as they did without Kaprizov and Ek for so many games.  They had a lot of injuries to significant players and they still gutted out wins in more games than they should have.  They had to play AHLers for most the season.  Are you insinuating that the teams they were playing against were putting in even less effort each game so that we could still string together enough wins to make it into the playoffs?

No, again you are letting your own biases distort the situation by seeing tired players who were playing more than they typically would because of injuries to other players, and interpreting that as a lack of effort. 

If you want to point out specific players, okay.  There are definitely a few that seemed like they weren't being overused and had another gear that they just weren't getting to.  However, saying the whole team isn't putting effort to justify why they would put up with Guerin being the control freak you present him out to be doesn't just hold any water.

51 minutes ago, raithis said:

The evidence is to the contrary.

Yes, there are probably some players who don't put in the effort at times, but if it was a widespread problem throughout the roster, the ones who have high compete level wouldn't be too happy with the team.  Kaprizov wants to play and win every game.  He wouldn't be even thinking about re-signing if the team is like you portray it.

Furthermore, I'm seeing most of the team buying into a defensive system that blocks a ton of shots.  They were 10th most in the league this last season.  That's a little less than I thought it would be, but still it takes effort to stay in front of a shooter when he's trying to shoot around you.  A team can have a good defensive system, but it still requires that the players execute it.

If the bulk of the team was only giving 90%, why did the Wild still win as many games as they did without Kaprizov and Ek for so many games.  They had a lot of injuries to significant players and they still gutted out wins in more games than they should have.  They had to play AHLers for most the season.  Are you insinuating that the teams they were playing against were putting in even less effort each game so that we could still string together enough wins to make it into the playoffs?

No, again you are letting your own biases distort the situation by seeing tired players who were playing more than they typically would because of injuries to other players, and interpreting that as a lack of effort. 

If you want to point out specific players, okay.  There are definitely a few that seemed like they weren't being overused and had another gear that they just weren't getting to.  However, saying the whole team isn't putting effort to justify why they would put up with Guerin being the control freak you present him out to be doesn't just hold any water.

Agree to disagree. We'll see what plays out over the next year. Expect another season without a cup and still perfectly content fans. "But golly gee, they sure tried hard and blocked a lot of pucks." 

When you hire a frat boy to run your team.

1 hour ago, Scalptrash said:

Agree to disagree. We'll see what plays out over the next year. Expect another season without a cup and still perfectly content fans. "But golly gee, they sure tried hard and blocked a lot of pucks." 

When you hire a frat boy to run your team.

 

One could argue this is the same marketing team who elected to do a "Grit Video" before the Wild got spanked by Dallas and looked like a bunch of babies. 

At the same time, Guerin has made Minnesota relevant compared to where they were under Fenton. I don't see that he's significantly improved the team for a while now. Maybe for the future, but not so much currently. Cannot count net-loss Nojo. 

Since he picked up Chisholm for free, his more recent acquisitions and transactions have been very ho-hum. This Rossi conclusion including the draft is gonna be pretty interesting. We hear the GMs saying, "deals happen at the draft." You'd have to think MN will wanna get back into the first round. Rossi and Chisholm are both NHL players who have room to grow. That's where I think it will happen cause the GM wants to look at free agency as another phase. Better to know what you're working with ahead of July 1st.