Wild Hit Bye Week In Bad Form

We're back in the top-6 on tankathon. Seems like good form to be in to me! 😄

Scott Wheeler just threw out his top-64 ranking and says that half of his top-12 are defensemen so we should be able to land a blue-chip defensive prospect with our 1st rounder if they hold their current position.

Imagine landing a two-way top-line stud to pair with Faber for the next decade! 

Saying this every chance I get: 6'7" defenseman

38 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Saying this every chance I get: 6'7" defenseman

So many good defensemen at the top, it seems.

You can get a dude with crazy size and physicality in the 7' Silayev, there's legit all-around talent in Levshunov, there's top-notch offensive upside with Zayne Parekh and Sam Dickinson is another great skating defenseman with sneaky offensive skills a la Faber. 

They should be able to land a guy with top-pairing skill and 6'2''/200+ lbs size if they're picking inside the top-8. Which sounds like exactly what our blueline could use in the near future! 

Iowa Wild are really bad without Wallstedt, but Mason Shaw was able to net a few goals over the weekend. If he gets his game back near where it was before the injury, perhaps he'll get back to the NHL later on this season.

Will Butcher got in his first game with Iowa as well.

I thought I'd just drop these in

1. Heidt hits 80 points
2. Dino with a 3 point night! Perhaps he's auditioning for his ELC over here?

The 2 guys I'm rooting for in this draft are Anton Silayev and Cayden Lindstrom. Silayev could be Faber's partner, though I'm still believing that will be Lambos. At 6'7", he's only 211 right now, so he needs to add muscle. This is not surprising for a 17 year old prospect. 

Lindstrom is a 6'3" 210 lb. center who knows how to use his size. While he's likely beating up on guys 30 lbs. under him, I like the mentality and think he'd be a great center for this team. 

Sam Dickinson would be a consolation prize, but at 6'3" 204, the London Knights defender has dropped in the rankings (something Judd likes to pick up on). I've seen him as high as 3rd on rankings. 

Ivan Demidov and Konsta Helenius are interesting talents to watch. Neither has much as far as size goes, but they are extremely talented. 

Silayev is probably being scouted pretty well by the Wild. He plays on the same team as Firstov, and if I were the Wild, that would be a guy I'd want to be keeping an eye on right now. Either for trading or coming back to NA. Since Silayev plays there, I'm sure our scouting department has kept an eye on him too. For me, he needs at least 20 lbs. of muscle. 

1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Iowa Wild are really bad without Wallstedt, but Mason Shaw was able to net a few goals over the weekend. If he gets his game back near where it was before the injury, perhaps he'll get back to the NHL later on this season.

Will Butcher got in his first game with Iowa as well.

If someone like Maroon or Dewey1 get traded I could see Shaw replacing them.

2 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

If someone like Maroon or Dewey1 get traded I could see Shaw replacing them.

He'd have to be signed to an NHL deal, right now Shaw is A only. I would suspect that is possible as we had 46/50 spots taken last I looked. But, if prospects come back and we want to sign college free agents, maybe that hinders this move.

I do believe next season Shaw gets an NHL deal, and I have no idea how long it is supposed to take for him to get his timing/game strength back.

Well.. I'm curious.  As the rebuild commences ... what is your vision once the 24/25 season ends?

Definite Keepers: Ek, Kirill, Boldy, Rossi, Faber, Brodin, Middleton, Gustavsson.

Definite Exits: Zuc, Freddy, Marcus J, Maroon, Bogasian, Alex G, Merrill, Fleury

Expected Prospects:  Wallstedt, Lambos, Yurov, K-nov, Ogren

Unknown:  Spurgeon, Foligno, Hartman, Duhaime, Dewar, Shaw

1 hour ago, MNCountryLife said:

Well.. I'm curious.  As the rebuild commences ... what is your vision once the 24/25 season ends?

Definite Keepers: Ek, Kirill, Boldy, Rossi, Faber, Brodin, Middleton, Gustavsson.

Definite Exits: Zuc, Freddy, Marcus J, Maroon, Bogasian, Alex G, Merrill, Fleury

Expected Prospects:  Wallstedt, Lambos, Yurov, K-nov, Ogren

Unknown:  Spurgeon, Foligno, Hartman, Duhaime, Dewar, Shaw

 

Bogo has played great.  I would give him another year.  I would sign Dewar too.

But... no protections for either.

Here's what I'm expecting, barring anything crazy

Kaprizov-Ek-Boldy (Three best forwards right now, with some previous experience)

Yurov-Rossi-Zuccarello (Mojo is gone, one more year of Zuccarello after this, but with some leeway to see how a lot of forwards, namely Ohgren, develop)

Ohgren-Khus-Foligno (Again, spots are dependent on Ohgren and Khus's first years)

Gaudreau/Shaw/Hartman (Duhaime, Dewar, and Maroon are pretty much gone)

Beckman/Raska/insert 13th forward here (at this point, it's just a warm body)

You would hope that by 25-26, Heidt, Kumps, and Stramel would be in Iowa already.  If people like Milne, Haight, etc are any good, they can fight for the 13th forward and 4th line roles.  I still want to give Shaw a chance.  He fought his ass off, and should be given every opportunity to stay healthy.  If not, then he's at least Iowa's heart and soul. 

Brodin or 24 draft pick/Faber (I still think Brodin has some years in tank, but it will depend on the quality of pick)

Lambos or Brodin or 24 draft pick/Hunt

Middleton/Spurgeon

O'Rourke/Spacek/etc as 7/8

A lot really depends on how Lambos and Hunt take to higher responsibility.  There's more leeway to have moving parts than forwards.  I like the idea of Middleton and Spurgeon riding out things in reduced minutes as Spurgeon ages.  It really depends what Middleton wants as a contract.  There should be more than enough opportunity to find a 6-8D than the forward core.  Heck, maybe the guy they just picked up on waivers impresses and sticks with the Wild.  Won't know until it happens.

Gustavsson

Wallstedt

This part is really easy.  Gus has a little more time with the organization, and you give Wallstedt time as a backup to see if he takes over as the #1 guy as the hope suggests.  Either way, if the defense in front of them does its job, this is a tandem that should suffice.  Gus and the Wild could quibble over new contracts, or Wallstedt might prove he's better on a bridge deal.  

I think a lot of the Wild's problems are defensively.  You can win NHL games with a solid defense, even if Kaprizov is your only gamebreaker.  Ek is a hell of a goal scorer these days, and Boldy and Rossi should be fine.  But you can't win if you can't trust your defense to not let in 3 or more likely 4 a game.  I think the forwards get figured out after the defense stops being dogshit.  Brodin is going to age like Spurgeon will, but here's hoping the new guys are even half as good as Faber is.  If Lambos or a top 10 pick ends up as a Mermis...that's not good enough.

This is to say we don't know what ELCs or any raises to Kaprizov (hopefully), Faber (good god the raise he's going to get), and Rossi (not as high as Faber, but still strong money) do to burn that $15m.  If the Wild find their new defense is curdling like cottage cheese, then break the bank for someone from free agency if possible.  Same deal if Yurov/Khus/Rossi aren't those blowaway center options behind Ek.

Wild want taxpayers to pay 2 million for the planning of renovations on the excel. How about they trade Freddy’s 2 million and pay for it themselves. Billionaire Craig can buyout Zach , Ryan and Dean. . Bill can give bad extensions and contracts but Billionaire Craig can’t pay for planning. The taxpayers are supposed to fund another 25 years of grifting for an organization that has no clue about hockey. Just scamming Minnesota s culture of hockey.  These clowns can’t even put an effort in for the fans that pay outrageous prices . Now they want to charge more and deliver less.  This organization has a huge culture problem. Bill hasn’t solved it ! Only made it worse with  entitlement and complacency  . 

Note: all of my speculation above is without looking into potential free agents or noting every single contract year for each player right now.  I will say I want the Wild to fix its problems from inside first, rather than pony up money for an unknown free agent looking for a payday.  Get enough good players made internally, you give THEM the greenlight first.

18 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

Definite Exits: Zuc, Freddy,

I would think these 2 players might be harder to move due to term. If we're headed to rebuild, though, I could see Zuccarello asking to move to a contender. 

Some might say, well wouldn't Kaprizov do that? I don't think they are the same scenario. Kaprizov has plenty of time left, this is likely Zuccarello's last 2 seasons.

15 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Brodin or 24 draft pick/Faber (I still think Brodin has some years in tank, but it will depend on the quality of pick)

Lambos or Brodin or 24 draft pick/Hunt

Middleton/Spurgeon

I think it was done on purpose, but for the forwards, you've got 5 lines. For the defenders you've got a mysterious character named 24th draft pick. Are you projecting a Brodin trade? Are you projecting that this is where we draft with our pick this year? That would be quite a projection as we'd have to get to the semi-finals to be up that high (which would be 29th pick). 

It's an excellent look at the transition to the kids, though. I do think Brodin ages better than Spurgeon, simply due to size. Both are really smart players, but I'd suspect in a couple of years, Brodin will need to start winding down the minutes, more around 22 a night. It would probably escalate if there are injuries.

15 hours ago, Dean said:

Wild want taxpayers to pay 2 million for the planning of renovations on the excel. How about they trade Freddy’s 2 million and pay for it themselves. Billionaire Craig can buyout Zach , Ryan and Dean. . Bill can give bad extensions and contracts but Billionaire Craig can’t pay for planning. The taxpayers are supposed to fund another 25 years of grifting for an organization that has no clue about hockey. Just scamming Minnesota s culture of hockey.  These clowns can’t even put an effort in for the fans that pay outrageous prices . Now they want to charge more and deliver less.  This organization has a huge culture problem. Bill hasn’t solved it ! Only made it worse with  entitlement and complacency  . 

Dean, I understand your frustration, and to be clear, I am not really on the side of taxpayers funding stadiums/arenas, especially to downtown areas to "create" traffic for businesses. I really value a quick, efficient way to get in and out of a stadium/arena, and believe it is best suited near a freeway intersection. 

But I have to ask, who owns the X? Most owners rent their facilities and don't own them. If the city or state owns the X, then the team owners really have to ask them for renovations. Of course, they could go into a partnership to renovate, but, the 1st step is asking for the renovations, and for the owner to do that. Then it gets negotiated. 

So, what shape is the X in? From the tv screen, it looks like a fantastic arena. What are the renovations that OCL deems "necessary"? I guess $300m simply doesn't go that far anymore. Some of these renovations might also be great for hockey, but isn't the X a multiuse arena? How would that affect the other events? There's a lot more here than just a greedy billionaire. 

I would recommend some sort of partnership agreement where the Wild owner and the owner of the X actually split the bill. However, if it turns out that OCL also owns the X, I would have to conclude that all renovations should be on him. If the city/state owns the building, yes, the city/state are on the hook for renovations, if they see they are necessary.

*Couple of corrections for MNFanInc*

Raska/Beckman etc. are meant to be the 13th forward, not a 5th line.  It probably would have been easier if I'd listed the lines that way...can't edit it now, oh well.

Also, by 24 pick, I mean 2024 pick, not the spot they are picking from.  If the Wild pick from as high a spot as it is looking, it is entirely possible they are NHL ready within the timeframe of a season, if not from the jump.  I am not seeking a Brodin or Spurgeon trade for any reason.  They are the longest tenured defenseman, and you only shunt them down the lineup if someone (say Brock already) has proven to be better.  Brodin can definitely stick with Faber for a season or two, but if Lambos, Hunt, or a high draft pick are better options, put them with Faber.  Brodin's earned top line distinction, but he doesn't strike me as a guy who cares what line he's on.

1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

*Couple of corrections for MNFanInc*

Raska/Beckman etc. are meant to be the 13th forward, not a 5th line.  It probably would have been easier if I'd listed the lines that way...can't edit it now, oh well.

Also, by 24 pick, I mean 2024 pick, not the spot they are picking from.  If the Wild pick from as high a spot as it is looking, it is entirely possible they are NHL ready within the timeframe of a season, if not from the jump.  I am not seeking a Brodin or Spurgeon trade for any reason.  They are the longest tenured defenseman, and you only shunt them down the lineup if someone (say Brock already) has proven to be better.  Brodin can definitely stick with Faber for a season or two, but if Lambos, Hunt, or a high draft pick are better options, put them with Faber.  Brodin's earned top line distinction, but he doesn't strike me as a guy who cares what line he's on.

Thanks. I'm trekking with you now!

3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Dean, I understand your frustration, and to be clear, I am not really on the side of taxpayers funding stadiums/arenas, especially to downtown areas to "create" traffic for businesses. I really value a quick, efficient way to get in and out of a stadium/arena, and believe it is best suited near a freeway intersection. 

But I have to ask, who owns the X? Most owners rent their facilities and don't own them. If the city or state owns the X, then the team owners really have to ask them for renovations. Of course, they could go into a partnership to renovate, but, the 1st step is asking for the renovations, and for the owner to do that. Then it gets negotiated. 

So, what shape is the X in? From the tv screen, it looks like a fantastic arena. What are the renovations that OCL deems "necessary"? I guess $300m simply doesn't go that far anymore. Some of these renovations might also be great for hockey, but isn't the X a multiuse arena? How would that affect the other events? There's a lot more here than just a greedy billionaire. 

I would recommend some sort of partnership agreement where the Wild owner and the owner of the X actually split the bill. However, if it turns out that OCL also owns the X, I would have to conclude that all renovations should be on him. If the city/state owns the building, yes, the city/state are on the hook for renovations, if they see they are necessary.

The Wild do not own the X. They are the major tenant. I am not sure if the city owns it or some sort of sports facility organization owns it so politicians can keep their reputations away from it. I think i read that a big part of the reno is a new ice plant to meet the federal emission standards. The plant is probably at its life cycle end at any rate. We are facing the same thing here in my hometown for two of our arenas. 

21 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

But I have to ask, who owns the X?

It isn't just who owns the Arena.  It's about money.... always is.  The cities that have professional teams reap big rewards in taxes, businesses that want to be there because of tourism, etc.  The flow of money is massive whenever a pro sports team is involved.  Teams know it... and they let cities and states fight for the right to host their team.  If they won't pay... the team will leave.  People can complain about the cost the taxpayers pay... but the tax income that is earned by the cities and states is way higher than the output.  I think it is fair that if the City wants to reap the rewards they should have skin in the game.

2 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

If they won't pay... the team will leave.  People can complain about the cost the taxpayers pay... but the tax income that is earned by the cities and states is way higher than the output.  I think it is fair that if the City wants to reap the rewards they should have skin in the game.

This may be one of the reasons why the team owners prefer to rent rather than own the stadium/arena. If they are owners of the venue, it makes it a lot harder for them to pick up and move if they don't get what they want. 

But, for the city/state to have skin in the game, while the primary tenant is the team, there are other events that the city can bring in to fill the calendar. So, because of this, they have to be involved in the planning, whereas if something looks great to the team, but the city/state says, well what about when someone comes in for a concert? 

I do like the comment about the ice plant. While I'm not huge on the emissions standards, if the life cycle of it is ending, yes, that is a must replace. I assume that the reputation of the X is having some of the best ice in the NHL.

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

This may be one of the reasons why the team owners prefer to rent rather than own the stadium/arena. If they are owners of the venue, it makes it a lot harder for them to pick up and move if they don't get what they want. 

But, for the city/state to have skin in the game, while the primary tenant is the team, there are other events that the city can bring in to fill the calendar. So, because of this, they have to be involved in the planning, whereas if something looks great to the team, but the city/state says, well what about when someone comes in for a concert? 

I do like the comment about the ice plant. While I'm not huge on the emissions standards, if the life cycle of it is ending, yes, that is a must replace. I assume that the reputation of the X is having some of the best ice in the NHL.

Couldn't agree more.  I would guess some owners are fully committed to a location and would refuse to move.  They are likely owners of the stadium since they would enjoy the extra revenue.  But then extra revenue for the team likely means they put more skin in the game.  Same with the City/State.  It is definitely a battle of control over who pays and who benefits.