Alexandron

I agree - its not like last year. I think this drafting season has a much more promising future than 2018 year. And Boldy definitely is a much better choice than we had last year. I also liked that we drafted 5 forwards having more tendencies towards a scoring mentality instead of a defensive style of play which is intriguing me more and creating more interest. Also present an interest that in at least last 3 years we are getting more Russians including this year into our team (this year 3 forwards(1 of them was born in Brooklyn, NY). This way we could improve team's mentality, because they are not following much veterans and usually playing with their own mentality to win every game. Last 4 years Stanley cup winners had Russians in their teams. Probably , next week we will see at least 6 Russians prospects during the training summer camp, which never happened before in a Wild history. Regarding a goaltenders I liked that we have got 2 goaltenders including an interesting goaltender from Finland. Well known that their Finnish very responsible goaltenders are the best around the world. And we have 2 already among our prospects. Regarding a left or right handed players, I sincerely do not pay too much attention, because statistically among left handed players presents more talent than among right handed. Some days we will get right handed players too. Its still sad for me that Arthur Kaliyev was taken pretty fast by LA Kings during a round#2 (#33 overall). But any way, despite of our long-term prospects presence, some good optimism still remain for me regarding the Wild team.

LIG , What do you think about 2 Minnesotans : according to NHL Central scouting ranking #17 forward Bobby Brink and #36 a high-scoring defenseman Jackson LaCombe? It seems they could be a pretty promising prospects for us if available.

Hope, he will not trade Jason Zucker at all, who is having a tough time regarding his mom's battle against the cancer. Too serious unpredictable disease. It will be too cruel for him to do that, especially now. Here is a link to read about it: https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/jason-natalie-zucker-king-clancy-061919/c-307905970

I think the team will be a better motivated to make a solid deep playoffs 2019-2020 season.And maybe to win the 1st place at Central Division(so far a dream only) during the regular season then. I just could not believe how fast is time running - 20 years of the 21 Century will be gone next year as well as we (fans and the Wild organization) should celebrate 20 years of the Wild team's existence, because still it is our team with all its pluses and minuses; with all its successes and problems. They better should make the nice playoffs next year, otherwise , I have feelings that both - coach and GM will be gone too with those 20 years of our team's existence.

I do not think that Kaliyev will be available for us and, probably, he will be taken before ours #12 pick. He is just 17 y.o. kid (still has some room to grow physically and mentally; able to learn more). And played not bad this year for the USA U18 team(3 goals;3 assists) in 5 games at Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He also is a gold medal winner in OHL for the 2017-2018 season. Ranked #7 by NHL Central Scouting; #11 by eliteprospects.com. For many years I am dreaming about a second Marian Gaborik for our team, capable to put consistently for years more than 30 goals per season. That brings more interest/more show/more attraction to the team instead of watching our mainly defensively minded boring style of play. I looked through the 31 top prospects this draft season and only 4 of them had 100 points and more(100-112) last season including Kaliyev. He also is having a pretty good size(6'2";190 lbs) in comparison to other 3. I do not know who is going to be a 1st lucky prospect for the Wild, but like I said before, I really do not want that our Wild organization will pick as #1 or a defenseman or a goaltender.

I agree with IllaZilla that Peyton Krebs, unfortunately, is not worth for the #1 draft for us, because even a partially sliced tendon is not healing as well as bones do, but usually creates a scar tissue in a place of breakage and always will be a concern on his traumas in that area. We need a healthy, smart, fast and a good size kid capable to read well a hockey game and capable to score a lot.

Thanks LIG for posting and the video highlights too. From that list I still would chose Arthur Kaliyev - 102 points(51 goals;51 assists) in 67 games. He is single player on this list who played in OHL and played for a pretty good team Hamilton Bulldogs. According to the presented video the most important part for me in his character is a valuable play-making instincts.

Perhaps today is a final game for the Stanley Cup title and hope for the Blues first one on their home ice. Interesting that yesterday Carolina organization celebrated its first Calder Cup title, when their minor club Charlotte Checkers made a tremendous success as a #1 team this regular AHL season (51 wins;110 points in 76 games) as well as in a playoffs 2018-2019 season, which is for me a very rare event. Interesting rare fact for me was too, that both teams (Charlotte Checkers and Chicago Wolves) in a final game had ZERO penalties. I do not remember that for a long period of time.

Congratulations to the Carolina organization as well as to the Charlotte Checkers organization and their fans for the winning yesterday their first Calder Cup title!!! against Chicago Wolves team which my Iowa Wild team was not able to pass in a Central Division playoffs finals. Especially I am impressed for the event that the number#1 team(right from the beginning) during this regular season(51 wins;and the most 110 points) Charlotte Checkers have got that Cup this 2018-2019 season. Usually, that not happening very often because it is a very rare event in a professional hockey. Like I said before the Carolina organization having a solid potential in their young prospects these days so far. Also would like to mention that their young team is very successful and competitive at the Traverse City tournament for years too. I am still thinking if the Carolina Hurricanes or Tampa Bay Lightnings had a goalies like Tuuka Rask or Binnington then both teams would be much more successful during the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.

According to Michael Russo tweet, our prospect "Kirill Kaprizov named Best Sniper of the KHL after scoring 34 regular-season and playoff goals this past season for champion CSKA".

Wild acquires rights to a Russian defenseman 20 y.o. Fedor Gordeev, who played before in OHL. It seems he is having a pretty good size (6'7"; 224-pound player) and some nice future promise for the Wild. Here is a link to read about him: https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/minnesota-wild-acquires-rights-to-fedor-gordeev-053019/c-307614870

And Blues did it. 4 goals; 38 shots on goal towards Boston's net - pretty acceptable numbers for that win.

I agree more and more with our fans opinion that the trades Nino-Granlund-Coyle to Rask-Fiala-Donato were not equal and made our team even weaker. So far I am impressed with Coyle performance at the Stanley Cup playoffs. He is having already 8 goals there which is, personally for me, comparable with 10 goals of a real scoring forward Tarasenko.

Not only to stay out of penalty box, but they need to produce more goals also. In three games Blues were able to put practically 2 goals per game, which is not enough against Bruins. They just won once in OT by putting the 3rd goal in that game. And Bruins were able to put 11 goals in 3 games respectively.

I was more impressed with how the Blues were able to put initially 2 goals in a row into the Rask's net in a road game. And still, surprised that no one voted a Bruins sweep in our poll.

Completely agree about this opinion regarding Blues. I have same strategy for years - do not change team's chemistry during the trading winter time, because it is a too short period (about 2 months or even less) for building a new one before the crucial end of the season. I still believe, if the Wild will not made a multiple trades in February this year than we will be in playoffs this season. In my opinion, better to make most trading during the summer time and build a new chemistry since.

As a Wild fan I would like to say regarding the perennially boring Wild too. It sounds kind of slightly diminishing for me. We were involved into the last 6 out of 7 playoffs seasons and sometimes we played not boring at all and had a nice drive during the games too, especially through the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons. 2018-2019 season - maybe it was mostly boring, but definitely destructing because of our results.

An interesting and a very speedy World Championship this year. You can watch many full time games by looking on YouTube. Many surprises/results I have seen from most teams there. I am still thinking that the motivation to get any medals(especially gold) in these tournaments is extremely/superbly high. And it does not matter too much how professional are the players, because the motivation there is helping to move mountains. Same happened with USA team in 1980 when they able to beat a tough USSR team. And now at this IIHF World Championship same happening with a Finland team, which able to beat a very nice Russia team in semifinals (with a score 1:0) and winning now with a score 3:1 over a super professional Canadian team 3 minutes before the end of regulation. Team from Russia have got a bronze medal in a very difficult game today against a Czech Republic in SO with a score 3:2. Even without medals I would like to mention nice teams from USA, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Slovakia. Congrats to a Finland team, which have got a gold medal this year in a very tough tournament.

Let’s make an agreement from our disagreement . Let’s put this way – Central Division from the Western Conference is so far a tougher Division than the Pacific Division. For years that Division is the smallest (7 teams) one, but multiple times that Central Division is providing 5 playoffs spots to a Stanley Cup. Maybe I am wrong , but it seems for me for years Metropolitan Division is a tougher Division than the other one from the Eastern Conference. In general, for me, Eastern Conference this year was much more attractive and stronger than the Western Conference. But the winning finalist will be just one or from the Eastern Conference or from the Western Conference. At the end we will find, which Conference was better and lucky this strange 2018-2019 season. So far I am already surprised that on this(72 replies) topic we have more than 1,700 views. An interest for the final outcome is too high.

Same opinion. He needs a really smart young and fast helpers for his better production. I do not remember that Boudreau tried to combine him with Kunin and Donato as a 1st line. As a routine for the Wild organization the older and much slower players should be moved down because of the current level of the modern professional hockey. No any exceptions should be done for the old love buds/love pets.

I really would like Blues to win(put their win in 7 games), because I would like to see a new Stanley Cup winner. Blues never won a Stanley Cup in their kind of long history and really merit that title with their talented young goaltender. Agree, it is mainly will be a battle between Binnington and Rask. The most toughest one will be the winner. I realize that Boston is more experienced hard team to play against, but still wish the best to Blues.

Draft season is coming soon. After watching and analyzing the link about the 10 worst #1 overall draft picks of all times, I am thinking more that the Wild organization should always look for number #1 draft (overall or not overall it really does not matter) exclusively for the most promising highly scoring available forward player, but not a defenseman or a goaltender. Last year it was a huge surprise for our fans what did we picked as a #1 draft – a defenseman, who disappeared from any hockey world radars – NHL, AHL, and from a Sweden league. Here is link below about the 10 worst #1 overall draft picks of all times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbkpLbXBtmU

It seems Kaprizov did pretty well there. I am glad that he received a good experience around those Russian NHL stars. Congrats to the all fans from Finland as well as to Lonkkis and to you Lynxrattle – today your team was able to beat a nice Russian team in an extremely tough game in semifinals with a score 1:0. From my observations for decades a Finland team is always bringing surprises. This tournament was not an exception too - they were able to win over a Canada team during the 1st game and over a Russia team in semifinals. And it seems it does not matter at all in those championships if the team was built from exclusively or NHL,KHL,AHL or from other leagues players. Probably an extreme motivation to win and to get medals(especially gold) is the main part in those surprising tournaments results. Nice examples were the teams last year from Switzerland during the World Championship and a Germany team during Olympics. Both teams got a silver medals respectively. A second semifinal game between a Canada and a Czech Republic teams just started recently. So far score is 1:0 for a Canada team.

Agree.They all(Fiala,Kunin, Kaprizov) did pretty well there. Interesting that Nino after Stanley Cup playoffs joined Fiala with a Switzerland team and played against a very competitive Canada team in quarterfinals. Fiala and Nino had assists in that tough game, but unfortunately lost in OT. Fiala had 4 goals and a couple assists in that tournament. Kunin played hard too with USA team against Russia team in a quarterfinals , but lost with a score 3:4. Kaprizov put one goal for the Russia team in that game and having so far 2 goals in that World Championship.

Same opinion. I put Blues in 6. It seems Binnington is a better goalie than Jones and who, probably, will be a huge part of Blues team's efforts against Tuuka Rask and the Boston team in finals.