Wild Terminating Vladislav Firstov's Contract After Disappointing Years

41 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

think Oskar Sundqvist??

This is a possibility.

I still have quite a few doubts about Brackettt and Cross-eye Bill. I think you mentioned Dallas a few times and so have I. Their guy was with Detroit while they selected Datsyuk, Franzen, Filpuula, and won Cups four times before joining Dallas. They've got quite a few good ones since then in Dallas. MN has a long way to go before they're even close to as good as McDonnell has been for the Stars.

I've been saying this for years but MN is way down over the last decade through the draft. It's gonna need to go super hard the other way to make up for that but it's kinda not. We're always waiting to confirm.

Listen to what he says about drafting for position. Then consider they got Johnston while the Wold picked for position. That's as far as my comparison goes for now but looks kinda lousy.(optics)

https://www.nhl.com/stars/video/2023-nhl-draft-joe-mcdonnell-345140402

3 hours ago, Protec said:

 

Listen to what he says about drafting for position. Then consider they got Johnston while the Wold picked for position. That's as far as my comparison goes for now but looks kinda lousy.(optics)

https://www.nhl.com/stars/video/2023-nhl-draft-joe-mcdonnell-345140402

Johnston (23rd), Harley (18th) and Stanky-leg (47th) and all playing regular shift on a top 8 (top 4?) nhl team.  Guerin needs to catch some of this lightning.  Come on Lambos and o’ rourke!!!!

19 hours ago, Mateo3xm said:

That’s about all he is. People keep mentioning him like he’s a high quality player. I don’t think he even scored a point per game in his draft plus one year. He’s got some pretty glaring skating issues so wouldn’t expect the guy to do much and I’m betting he doesn’t make it to the NHL even though I’m rooting for the kid.

He hovered at the PPG level last season pretty consistently. He had a late season slump that put him below that mark. He wasn't even close to that in the playoffs, but wasn't bad on draws until this past series. 

Kumpulainen's skating is obviously something that will need to be worked on and this is typical for a larger body at this age. Some work with Ness is in order, in fact, if he can come and stay in St. Paul and visit him regularly (along with the gym), we could see some real improvement on that aspect. 

I like Kumpulainen's trajectory as a bottom 6 C, who is good on draws and hard to play against. I could see him teaming up with Stramel on the same line. I haven't really seen Kumpulainen play, but for some reason he just reminds me of Martin Hanzal in style. Hanzal was effective....until he got here. Hopefully, the Wild figure out how to feed the guy some meanness. 

17 hours ago, Protec said:

I've been saying this for years but MN is way down over the last decade through the draft. It's gonna need to go super hard the other way to make up for that but it's kinda not. We're always waiting to confirm.

We're just in the 1st year of seeing any kind of fruit from the 2020 draft, Guerin/Brackett's first one. I'd say it's too early to tell on this. 

But, the pendulum has got to swing in the other direction, pretty hard, to make up for the poor selections we've had prior. We've gotten some, but starting with Kunin, we've got a 3 year window of nothing.

14 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Johnston (23rd), Harley (18th) and Stanky-leg (47th) and all playing regular shift on a top 8 (top 4?) nhl team.  Guerin needs to catch some of this lightning.  Come on Lambos and o’ rourke!!!!

Wait a minute, let's pump the brakes here a bit. Johnston was chosen 23rd, yet we too The Wall at 20. Dallas already had their franchise goaltender with Oettinger taken a couple of years earlier.

They got Harley at 18 in '19, but we took Boldy. I'd say that's worked out well for us.

They got Stankoven at 47th. Now this is more of an incomplete, since Peart decided to go to college, and Lambos hasn't appeared yet. It is well known that defenders take a little longer to develop.

Your critique on O'Rourke is spot on. He was supposed to be here by now as a rugged 3rd pairing defender. You just can't be "rugged" at a buck 90. Mr. O'Rourke, you have a lot of work and soul searching to do this summer. Do you want to be an NHLer or not?

#iearnedmytriplepostbadgetoo

On 5/15/2024 at 7:25 AM, Pewterschmidt said:

This was Fenton's 2nd round pick.  Boldy was the first round pick that year.   Not good for Guerin & Co. as the prospect pipeline was already dry from Fletcher's mismanagement.

Better than the Philip Johansson pick. Fenton was improving! Never had a chance...

On 5/15/2024 at 8:25 AM, Pewterschmidt said:

This was Fenton's 2nd round pick.  Boldy was the first round pick that year.   Not good for Guerin & Co. as the prospect pipeline was already dry from Fletcher's mismanagement.  Clanking a 2nd rounder off the upright makes a turnaround/rebuild/reboot/fresh-start/talent injection take that much longer. 

Let's also remember that Hunter Jones was a clank off the other upright too in this draft. I believe he was a traded for 2nd 2nd round pick.

3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Wait a minute, let's pump the brakes here a bit. Johnston was chosen 23rd, yet we too The Wall at 20. Dallas already had their franchise goaltender with Oettinger taken a couple of years earlier.

They got Harley at 18 in '19, but we took Boldy. I'd say that's worked out well for us.

They got Stankoven at 47th. Now this is more of an incomplete, since Peart decided to go to college, and Lambos hasn't appeared yet. It is well known that defenders take a little longer to develop.

Your critique on O'Rourke is spot on. He was supposed to be here by now as a rugged 3rd pairing defender. You just can't be "rugged" at a buck 90. Mr. O'Rourke, you have a lot of work and soul searching to do this summer. Do you want to be an NHLer or not?

#iearnedmytriplepostbadgetoo

To clarify my post was not a side by side comparison from each draft year.  I was pointing out Dallas' ability to consistently draft contributing players (not placeholders) on a very good team (not a mushy middle team where Nojo and Fred skate 15+ TOI per night).   If Stanky Leg went into the Octagon against Nojo+Fred I'd put my money on the Tiny Stank to leave the ring on his own power.  

47 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

To clarify my post was not a side by side comparison from each draft year.  I was pointing out Dallas' ability to consistently draft contributing players (not placeholders) on a very good team (not a mushy middle team where Nojo and Fred skate 15+ TOI per night).   If Stanky Leg went into the Octagon against Nojo+Fred I'd put my money on the Tiny Stank to leave the ring on his own power.  

Fred and Nojo would be carried out of the ring in Nojo's breezers

On 5/16/2024 at 2:48 PM, Pewterschmidt said:

think Oskar Sundqvist??

That would be nice but I don’t even know if he’ll be that good. Time will tell.