Wilderness Walk: Daemon Hunt's Turn In Minnesota

IF Merrill is indeed hurt and out for tonight hopefully Hunt can show out and block Merrill's return to the lineup. These are the chances the young guys have to take advantage of, Walker could not and made the trip south on I-35. 

Let the revolver door from Iowa spin.  Let’s find out what we have in Iowa

I believe we are still under the emergency provisions for fielding a team since we had to play short in Montreal. This is a good time to find out a lot about Hunt. We should put Merrill on the IR for his "banged up" status. I don't know if we can carry any extra bodies to our upcoming road trip. 

If Hunt captures the spot, we can send Merrill down when he's healthy. I'd think that would open up a little cap space too, maybe enough to get some of the richer ELC guys here for a cup of java.

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

I believe we are still under the emergency provisions for fielding a team since we had to play short in Montreal. This is a good time to find out a lot about Hunt. We should put Merrill on the IR for his "banged up" status. I don't know if we can carry any extra bodies to our upcoming road trip. 

If Hunt captures the spot, we can send Merrill down when he's healthy. I'd think that would open up a little cap space too, maybe enough to get some of the richer ELC guys here for a cup of java.

It doesnt look like we ever officially (according to cap friendly) placed Boldy or Spurgeon on IR to free up a roster spot.  I heard Boldy is traveling with the team, but being on IR allows the player to travel, practice etc. only limitation is they cannot play.  It can also be done retroactively if the team needs to free up either of their roster spots.  It would be better to retroactively place Spurgeon/Boldy on the IR because there's a min length of 7 days.

Also, sending Merrill down isnt as easy as he'd have to pass through waivers.  Mermis cleared waivers on Oct 5, so he's pretty close to the 30 day window where he'd have to pass back through.

Also, they slapped Leterri with the Emergency Callup rather than Mermis...something to consider as the emergency callup gives 30 days waiver exemption from time of callup, rather than the 30 days since last time through waivers (Oct 5)

Hunt is currently on ELC so he's waivers exempt

Walker's one game isn't necessarily any kind of indictment either. The Wild did this last year swapping AHL guys in and out early. The team isn't in mid-season form obviously. The Wild need to get wins from the larger group or from their main guys. It's pretty clear there's gonna be a fair amount of shuffle going on til players get healthy or prove themselves.

48 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

It would be better to retroactively place Spurgeon/Boldy on the IR because there's a min length of 7 days.

They didn't even place these 2 guys on regular IR? That seems odd.

What I was thinking was the emergency call up situation. My belief is that they can fill out a roster to get to 20 but not have any extras, isn't that true?

So, with Merrill out, wouldn't that indicate that someone needed to go on IR? To even qualify for the emergency call up, wouldn't they have to be placed on IR?

28 minutes ago, Protec said:

Walker's one game isn't necessarily any kind of indictment either. The Wild did this last year swapping AHL guys in and out early. The team isn't in mid-season form obviously. The Wild need to get wins from the larger group or from their main guys. It's pretty clear there's gonna be a fair amount of shuffle going on til players get healthy or prove themselves.

So, last season, what was it that Mason Shaw did to earn a roster spot?

....Well according to Russo, Merrill is in tonight as long as pregame skate goes alright. DOH! Was really wanting to see Hunt (for better or worse) than see Merrill trot out there and struggle again.

38 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

So, last season, what was it that Mason Shaw did to earn a roster spot?

Shaw was a late cut in preseason.  If memory serves, when Duhaime was injured early in the season, Shaw was the first call-up kind of like Walker just was.  The difference being that Shaw outhustled people and made himself noticeable from the start.  Then he just kept outhustling people to stay here and didn't give his spot up until he was injured.

Yeah, that's all I'm saying. Nothing is set in stone yet. Whole group is a little lost so far. 

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

They didn't even place these 2 guys on regular IR? That seems odd.

I'm not sure the benefit of the NHL IR list is other than opening up another roster spot, which the Wild couldnt afford anyways.

Additionally, both IR and LTIR can be applied retroactively, meaning both Boldy and Spurgeon would have already met the 7 day minimum requirement should the team need to free up a roster spot.

Quote

What I was thinking was the emergency call up situation. My belief is that they can fill out a roster to get to 20 but not have any extras, isn't that true?

The emergency callup comes when you can't complete an 18+2 roster (18 skaters, 2 goalies) after skating a game short you get a league min + $100k.  I'm going off cap friendly, but with Mermis called up, Goose, Boldy and Spurgeon down they were not able to get to 18 skaters so they get the emergency callup position.

What's super confusing to me, is that CapFriendly is calculating the LTIR cap space used to be $322k ($2M - $75k - $775k (Lettieri) - $828k (Hunt) = $322) but has Lettieri tagged as an Emergency Callup.  I'm guessing the Wild are using that in order to not make him pass through waivers once he gets sent back? 

I'm honestly not sure how they are still eligible to use the Emergency Callup tag while the salary is going against their LTIR cap relief space

I hope he plays tonight.  Negligible risk IMO as Merrill has been stinking it up.

6 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

I hope he plays tonight.  Negligible risk IMO as Merrill has been stinking it up.

According to Russo, Merrill is in tonight as long as nothing flares up in pregame warmups. Guessing ol Johnnie is afraid of his spot being taken.