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  • Wilderness Walk: Is There Room For Sammy Walker?

    Image courtesy of © Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    The Minnesota Wild often enough build from the bottom of their lineup and focus on getting those physically gifted players as the foundation for some of their more skilled guys. Well, that has now led to not a whole lot of room for someone making an immediate impression in the preseason.

    Sammy Walker has been electric almost every time he has stepped on the ice wearing a Wild sweater. From his regular season appearances to the recent preseason matches, the college free agent signing has been doing the most imaginable in all three zones on the ice -- and is scoring goals! So, in saying that, the Wild don't really have a spot on the lineup available. 

    If we're penciling in a rough lineup, we're probably seeing Brandon Duhaime, Connor Dewar, and Patrick Maroon form the fourth line; Marcus Foligno, Marco Rossi, and Frederick Gaudreau form the third, and then the usual suspects in the top-six. It just seems like a logjam has been forcefully created so that none of these skilled, young forwards are able to establish themselves as NHL players.

    That's Wild

    • Is Matt Boldy ready to make "the leap" from very good player to elite player? He is slowly building his reputation at a young age, but can he possibly be equal to one Kirill Kaprizov in terms of offensive threat? [Hockey Wilderness]
    • Multi-time champion Pat Maroon is ready to prepare for another run at the Stanley Cup. [Pioneer Press]

    Off the trail...

    • Patrick Kane is still an unrestricted free agent and isn't attending any team's training camp for a tryout. But what he is doing is sending training highlight videos to the public through his agent. [NHL dot com]
    • The Calgary Flames re-signed key center Mikael Backlund to a two-year contract and not just that, but named him team captain at the same time. [DailyFaceoff]
    • How much should fans really read into the preseason? We've seen our fair share of AHL-destined players suddenly turn into prime Wayne Gretzky during exhibition games, so should we really take them to heart? [The Hockey News]
    • Uh oh! Top 2024 NHL Draft prospect Cole Eiserman has decommitted from the University of Minnesota, and has opted to play closer to home at Boston University. [DailyFaceoff]
    By Thomas Williams  

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    TheGoosesAreLooses

    We have backed ourselves into a corner with the offseason signings. We don't even have cap space to make a call up to start the season without putting a player on LTIR. The Khaira signing really made me scratch my head. What kind of message does that send to the guys competing for a spot at camp and in preseason?

    Our secondary scoring was an issue last year. A third line with both Sammy and Rossi could be a ticket to a highpowered bottom six with all three being extremely responsible as 2 way players. No room for that now, regardless of how well they show in camp...

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    MrCheatachu

    Are we talking about Cap room?  Because, if that is the case, the wild don't have enough space for Walker.

    Walker is making $855k. With 12 forwards on the roster (assume Khaira who capfriendly has as 13th forward doesnt make the roster) the wild only have $793k in cap space.

    The only guys on the roster who are waivers exempt are Boldy (first 20 games), Rossi, and Faber.  Even if Khaira doesn't make the roster, the Wild are going to have to do some cap gymnastics (paper moves to bring boldy/rossi/faber to AHL to bank some cap) for them to fit Walker into the show.

     

     

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    Protec

    To me, it says GMBG wants to have size and experience along with depth. They don’t think the young guys have it outright. 
     

    Faber, yes. Beckman, Rosssi, Walker, etc. might just have to wait in the minors. I wouldn’t be surprised either to see a Guerin make a trade before Christmas. Plus Khaira has a two-way deal. If he goes cold, and Walker is hot, there’s a switcheroo option.

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    Protec
    4 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

    Are we talking about Cap room?  Because, if that is the case, the wild don't have enough space for Walker.

    Walker is making $855k. With 12 forwards on the roster (assume Khaira who capfriendly has as 13th forward doesnt make the roster) the wild only have $793k in cap space.

    The only guys on the roster who are waivers exempt are Boldy (first 20 games), Rossi, and Faber.  Even if Khaira doesn't make the roster, the Wild are going to have to do some cap gymnastics (paper moves to bring boldy/rossi/faber to AHL to bank some cap) for them to fit Walker into the show.

     

     

    Assuming Rossi is with the Wild right?

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    TheGoosesAreLooses
    13 minutes ago, Protec said:

    Assuming Rossi is with the Wild right?

    Moving Rossi and writing him off as a bust would be the worst thing Minn could do. He's 22 and 5 days, lost a year of development and has only played a total of 21 NHL games. He's completely committed to the program and improving as evidenced and observed by coaches up and down his current career and him staying in Minn in the offseason just to train. 

    Do you want trade regret? Because this is how you get trade regret!

    download.jpg

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    vonlonster67
    11 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

    Moving Rossi and writing him off as a bust would be the worst thing Minn could do. He's 22 and 5 days, lost a year of development and has only played a total of 21 NHL games. He's completely committed to the program and improving as evidenced and observed by coaches up and down his current career and him staying in Minn in the offseason just to train. 

    Do you want trade regret? Because this is how you get trade regret!

    download.jpg

    That would be worst case scenario to move him and could happen if he has another year like last year where he is dominant at AHL and unable to transition and be a consistent element for the Wild's 2nd or 3rd line. It could be he needs another team/line/system that would best accommodate his talents if they cant fit here. 

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    Pewterschmidt
    3 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

    The Khaira signing really made me scratch my head. What kind of message does that send to the guys competing for a spot at camp and in preseason?

    It's the opposite of a vote of confidence.  BG is not worried about hurting anyone's feelings.  Priority one for BG is putting a quality product on the ice and keeping his job.  Bringing in a big journeyman center just before camp speaks volumes about what he thinks of the center's currently in the stable (grizzle thru Rossi)

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    vonlonster67
    1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

    It's the opposite of a vote of confidence.  BG is not worried about hurting anyone's feelings.  Priority one for BG is putting a quality product on the ice and keeping his job.  Bringing in a big journeyman center just before camp speaks volumes about what he thinks of the center's currently in the stable (grizzle thru Rossi)

    I would have to agree with you PS.  I listen to BG all the time and his message is very clear, be consistent, compete, earn it and do it again!

    The Khaira signing had me questioning more the cap flexibility during the year, but I would guess they definitely have a plan and Khaira brings something we didn't have for cheap and weren't going to find in IA or 3 months down the road if we have an injury.

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    vonlonster67
    2 hours ago, Protec said:

    To me, it says GMBG wants to have size and experience along with depth. They don’t think the young guys have it outright. 
     

    Faber, yes. Beckman, Rosssi, Walker, etc. might just have to wait in the minors. I wouldn’t be surprised either to see a Guerin make a trade before Christmas. Plus Khaira has a two-way deal. If he goes cold, and Walker is hot, there’s a switcheroo option.

    That's a viable option, just have to warm up the Des Moines shuttle, I'll take that job!

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    mnfaninnc
    3 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

    The only guys on the roster who are waivers exempt are Boldy (first 20 games), Rossi, and Faber.  Even if Khaira doesn't make the roster, the Wild are going to have to do some cap gymnastics (paper moves to bring boldy/rossi/faber to AHL to bank some cap) for them to fit Walker into the show.

    Any idea if we have a cap guru?

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    mnfaninnc
    3 hours ago, Protec said:

    To me, it says GMBG wants to have size and experience along with depth. They don’t think the young guys have it outright. 

    The Maroon and Khiara signings should signal the young guns that they had better take the gym very seriously and bulk up. Some of these kids are just simply too thin. What is a mystery to me is how this message has not come across in the past?

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    Protec

    I'm not saying give up on or trade anyone too hastily. Just that the last roster spots should be earned all the way. When Khaira and Walker are scoring every game and other guys aren't, I don't think we should be penciling anyone in 100%.

    As hard as Rossi worked this off season, I would sound the alarm bells if he still can't make an impact or earn the spot over Khaira or Walker. That might indicate an issue not in the fitness or strength category. Gerry Mayhew was an AHL stud, never went full gritard. I'm hoping Rossi can have a big game this evening.

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    MrCheatachu
    20 hours ago, Protec said:

    Plus Khaira has a two-way deal. If he goes cold, and Walker is hot, there’s a switcheroo option.

    Khaira, even though is on a two-way deal, needs to pass through waivers to send him down.

    Boldy (first 20 games), Rossi, and Faber are still waivers exempt.

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    mnfaninnc
    40 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

    Khaira, even though is on a two-way deal, needs to pass through waivers to send him down.

    I highly doubt we are starting the season with 23 on the roster. We will probably carry 23 with us to Sweden, but we're going with 22 most of the way.

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    MrCheatachu
    1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I highly doubt we are starting the season with 23 on the roster. We will probably carry 23 with us to Sweden, but we're going with 22 most of the way.

    Khaira would be the 13th forward (7d, 2g) making him the 22nd player on the roster right now.

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    mnfaninnc
    4 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

    Khaira would be the 13th forward (7d, 2g) making him the 22nd player on the roster right now.

    You're right! I don't know how I miscounted?????

    In other news 3 defenders got sent down today, Spacek, Masters and Johansson. Pavel Novak was also on that list.

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    vonlonster67
    3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

    You're right! I don't know how I miscounted?????

    In other news 3 defenders got sent down today, Spacek, Masters and Johansson. Pavel Novak was also on that list.

    Lambos remains, for how long?

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