Wilderness Walk: Minor Wild Representation At NHL Awards

The 31'st and 37'th picks in this years draft for Alex Newhook? What are they smoking in Montreal?

This is what I've been saying, which is that the atmosphere and position some teams are in will create opportunity. Montreal liked the guy, they're willing to pay a nice price. Newhook is a popular player in Canada. I guess MTL didn't value those picks too highly compared to a young NHL center ready to play now.

I've stated, I'd like to see MN do something like that but the options are Foligno, Zuccarello, Duhaime, Walker, Dewar, Shaw, Steel, and those types of guys.

Dangit! COL gets two picks in between the Wild's first two giving them assets from early in this draft.

Al is a center which adds value, but if he's worth that you would think Addison would be worth close to that. shrug

Toffoli to NJ for, essentially, nothing. Looks like Calgary is going to start to blow it up. PLD heads to LA Kings for a bag of young players. They don't give up Byfield either. 

I sure hope we're in the mix to get another 1st or 2.

I know some of you are Twins fans that come on here too. I just got back from watching Joe Ryan get shellacked tonight. Seeing the game in person is a lot better than watching it on tv. My takeaways were:

1. Joe Ryan has had a really good year so far. However, the Braves hitters had him well timed and were all over him from the beginning. Was it just a bad Joe Ryan start? I don't know, but I do know the Atlanta hitters looked like they knew what and where the ball was being pitched. They rarely missed.
2. I thought our outfield was supposed to be something special defensively. It isn't. Atlanta's outfield was very active and good defensively outplaying the Twins. Specifically, I thought Kepler was a reputation fielder and wasn't that good. I'd look for him to be traded soon.
3. We sure do swing and miss alot. You'd think that hitting coaches would be doing contact drills. Some of it is likely chasing, and we've got a lot of young hitters in the lineup that are still learning. What was a 6-2 game was frustrating to watch because we stranded opportunities. 
4. Buxton and Correa are our 2 stars. They've simply got to be better. They stranded several runners. 
5. It seems to me that we are swinging for the fences a lot instead of playing situational baseball. We're not making sure to advance runners, being aggressive on the basepaths, and doing the little things that matter to win the inning. 

In conclusion, they were outplayed on the pitching rubber, outplayed defensively, and outplayed at the plate. Simply put, I expected a better performance, and certainly more hustle.

I heard Barbashev is looking for long term, 6M. I could be off on that but I wouldn’t want MN to overpay. I would rather they sign Ryan Graves if Barbashev is too expensive. Signing Euros & Russians long term historically carries risk similar to the draft. I think Barbashev would be great in MN but only if he’d take Ek numbers. Some other team can afford to overpay which is probably what will happen since Barbashev is so hot right now. 
 

Barbashev, Nosek, Graves, and Soucy, are my guys I like in free agency. I think it’s realistic and would greatly help the Wild in terms of upgrading the LD position. That would also add size and face off wins down the middle. The mix of defending with a little offense is much better than the Merrill or Addison option but you pay a little more. Are the Wild in the mix for Lindholm I wonder?

I don’t see any reason why the Wild shouldn’t consider upgrading some forwards and defense now while there’s action. Does saving Zuccarello, Addison, Foligno, or a redundant bottom-six energy guy til the deadline give you an advantage somehow? Is it wise to love the idea of Kaprizov and the Norwegian Hobbit forever? Is Foligno worth a draft pick from a team now? Would they wanna extend him beyond this coming season? If yes, and he’d sign cheap okay. If not, then when is the best time to move on? After the contract expires, now, or around the trade-deadline? There sure seems to be an opportunity now to work with other teams in various stages of their up & down cycles.

12 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

I know some of you are Twins fans that come on here too. I just got back from watching Joe Ryan get shellacked tonight. Seeing the game in person is a lot better than watching it on tv. My takeaways were:

1. Joe Ryan has had a really good year so far. However, the Braves hitters had him well timed and were all over him from the beginning. Was it just a bad Joe Ryan start? I don't know, but I do know the Atlanta hitters looked like they knew what and where the ball was being pitched. They rarely missed.
2. I thought our outfield was supposed to be something special defensively. It isn't. Atlanta's outfield was very active and good defensively outplaying the Twins. Specifically, I thought Kepler was a reputation fielder and wasn't that good. I'd look for him to be traded soon.
3. We sure do swing and miss alot. You'd think that hitting coaches would be doing contact drills. Some of it is likely chasing, and we've got a lot of young hitters in the lineup that are still learning. What was a 6-2 game was frustrating to watch because we stranded opportunities. 
4. Buxton and Correa are our 2 stars. They've simply got to be better. They stranded several runners. 
5. It seems to me that we are swinging for the fences a lot instead of playing situational baseball. We're not making sure to advance runners, being aggressive on the basepaths, and doing the little things that matter to win the inning. 

In conclusion, they were outplayed on the pitching rubber, outplayed defensively, and outplayed at the plate. Simply put, I expected a better performance, and certainly more hustle.

Your observations on the Twins are spot on in my opinion.

12 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

In conclusion, they were outplayed on the pitching rubber, outplayed defensively, and outplayed at the plate. Simply put, I expected a better performance, and certainly more hustle.

Almost like fundamentally sound, and simple strategies work in sports. Big players need to be the ones to play those roles too.