Alexandron

Three players (Greenway,Dewar,Lodnia) out of the Wild prospect roster which participated at the Traverse City Tournament were included so far into the 1-st pre-season game against Winnipeg. Hope, the line Sokolov, Khovanov and Shaw will be included into the 2-nd or 3-rd pre-season games. I do not think any messages being sent to Sokolov as well as to other promising players - Khovanov, Shaw, Fitzgerald. Just hope a coach strategy. LIG is right - too many players for the pre-season tryout are giving too many puzzles for the coach.

Still not sure if we had a chance to play and win in finals against Columbus. That team was superbly motivated for the win at this 2018 Tournament. It was nice to read today - the Wild General Manager Paul Fenton announced that 19 players out of the Wild team which finished 3rd at the 2018 Traverse City Tournament were invited to the training camp this coming Friday. Those players really merit that invitation. No doubt our team this year was a lot better in comparison to the last year as well as years before, when they did not show much character then.

4Check, Here is nice link regarding a multiple for years Columbus Blue Jacket's success at the Traverse City Tournament. Hope, some day we will repeat our 2010 year success there. I am still thinking that the Wild's 3rd place was valuable this year and may be that is just a beginning of our future success for the big Wild club: https://www.nhl.com/bluejackets/news/traverse-city-championship/c-300062336

https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/news/three-things-comeback-falls-short-3-2-to-wild/c-300062338 https://www.secondcityhockey.com/2018/9/11/17848256/blackhawks-prospects-wild-results-final-score-2018-traverse-city-tournament-third-place-game

The 2018 winner of the Traverse City Tournament is a Columbus Blue Jackets team who won all 4 games after beating a Detroit Red Wings in a final game with a score 7:3. Interesting that Columbus is the lone team who won that title 5 times: 2005;2006;2014;2015 and 2018. Last year they also clinched the final game but were not able to pass Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago was very upset on the loss this year for the 3rd place against us. They had few articles regarding that disappointment.

Congrats to all our fans!!! We won a THIRD PLACE!!! An interesting fact said commentators during the game tonight that last time we won a Traverse City Tournament in 2010 when Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon were playing for our team. Since 2010 we never got above 4th place. And now we were able to beat this year a defending last year champion Blackhawks for the 3rd place with a score 3:2; shots were 21:25. That was a first Baribeau(our goaltender) victory at these tournaments. I think he played pretty solid game against Chicago. And Khovanov did a lot of hard work again tonight too. He reminding me a Parise’s play around the net, smart thinking, very tough guy, got pretty bad hits but able to withstand that and played after. I would like to thank all our team’s players involved into that tournament and especially, Greenway, Sokolov, Kahkonen, Khovanov, Fitzgerald, Shaw, Belpedio, Menell, Lodnia, Baribeau, and a productive 4th line(twin brothers Pilon-Pilon-McLain). Without the entire solid effort from all our players we were not able to win 3 games out of 4 at this difficult tournament and get a 3rd place for the first time in 8 years. I am getting excited that we have a promising future for the team’s toughness. A special thank you to the team's coach - Tim Army.

3:0 Minnesota after 2 periods, shots 14:15. We had only 2 shots during a 2nd period but we did lots of PK. So far Baribeau stopped all shots, rarely had any rebounds which is good. Like his play tonight. The 4th line(based on 2 twin brothers Drake Pilon – Darian Pilon- Mitch McLain) is very noticeable and was able to score again (Minnesota native Mitch McLain from the assist of Drake Pilon). Interesting that Drake Pilon is a right handed player and his brother Darian is a left handed.

So far so good during the first period – score for us is 2:0; shots 12:5. We had one goal on a 2nd minute from our invitee Drake Pilon and one from Fitzgerald (his 3rd at this tournament) 7 minutes later. Baribeau is in the net . Unfortunately, Lodnia is not playing today. Do not know why?

Last year my biggest pleasant surprise was Mason Shaw- good tough smart thinking player, who ,unfortunately, got an injury during the final game and who proved his character this year at the Traverse City Tournament too. For this year so far were as a pleasant surprises for me 3 players – Khovanov, Kahkonen and Fitzgerald. One timer of Khovanov from a superb assist of Knutson was just a beauty. In the NHL or AHL future I still would prefer to see Sokolov-Khovanov-Shaw together as well as Greenway-Lodnia-Fitzgerald, because of a better chemistry. So far our most promising sniper Sokolov had a goal in each game (2 on a power plays and one in a shootout). Fitzgerald has 2 goals and 3 assists. Lodnia, Belpedio and Menell looked pretty solid too. Sorry, I did a mistake in spelling of two good invitee players, because of my miss-understanding of commentators pronunciation. It should be Foget instead of Haugen and Knutson instead of Knudsen.

Thanks Fargo. An interesting challenge will start in a few minutes– we are playing at 5:30 p.m. for the 3rd place against of a solid Chicago team (a last year Traverse City Tournament winner). Last year we also played for the 3rd place but against of a Carolina team( the previous 2016 year Traverse City Tournament winner) and we lost it with an embarrassing score 0:5. Our team did not show any character for that game then. We will see if the team will be able to fight for the still important 3rd place today. Why is that important? Because we need to build a future team capable to have a strong winning mentality through the whole tournament as well as to build a toughness for our promising NHL prospects for the big club.

Good news!!! - Wild won an extremely tough today's game against Dallas in a shootout with a score of 5:4, shots were 28:43 in regulation. Menell, Khovanov, Fitzgerald and Haugen put 4 goals for our team in regulation. Haugen did it in a last minute when we played 6 on 5 without our goaltender in the net. It was a very exciting overtime period but scoreless. Kahkonen despite of losing 4 goals in regulation did a tremendous job as in regulation(also was able to take nicely a penalty shot) , as well as had a solid play in overtime and in a shootout(he did not lose any goals in OT and SO). He was the best player of the team, according to the commentators opinion as well as mine. I liked him a lot. Both Russians Sokolov and Khovanov did a perfect job for us in a shootout after putting goals to the opposing net and gave us a valuable win. Greenway was a healthy scratch just to give to other players a chance to play, but had a pretty nice play in a previous 2 games. Shaw was playing in that line instead of Greenway together with Lodnia and Fitzgerald. Sokolov and Khovanov were playing with Knudsen. Defenseman Belpedio was noticeable too who played with Menell that game. Overall team showed a character, played all 60 minutes and personally for me, it was an almost like a playoffs style game.

Did anyone on our board watched today's game? So far was not too good after 2 periods against Rangers 1:3. First 30 minutes was a complete domination, a complete puck control for Rangers with a score of 3:0. We had lots of positional mistakes as well as not able to manage the puck well. Commentators said that our team looked tired, had lack of energy after the yesterday game. Finally in a last 10 minutes of the second period we were able to score from a power play. Sokolov put kind of nice tricky for the goaltender goal from the assist of Mason Shaw. Sokolov-Kovanov-Shaw line was noticeable as well as Greenway-Lodnia-Fitzgerald in a last 10 minutes of the second period and through the entire third period. Both lines had lots of playing time and built a solid chemistry, which I liked it. Greenway was able to put a nice goal too from the assist of Fitzgerald during the 3rd period. We had few chances , especially when playing during PP 5 vs 3, but did not finished. Baribeau was today in the net and missed 3 goals. The 4th goal against us was an empty netter. Final score for our team was 2:4 with same 26 shots for each team. Next game is on Monday at 2:30 p.m. vs Dallas.

Did anyone watched just ended a Wild game against Detroit Red Wings at Traverse City Tournament? The Wild won it with a score 4:2. It was a pretty nice and a speedy game. Our defense and a goalie looked pretty good too. Kahkonen stopped 28 shots; Sokolov had a power play goal; Lodnia had a goal; Fitzgerald had a goal and assist; Greenway had 2 assists and a few chances to put a puck; Damien Jiroux put an empty netter from a second attempt to nail a winner goal; as well as Khovanov, Belpedio and Shaw had nice chances to put goals too. Tomorrow is a game against of New York Rangers at 5:30 p.m. Central time. It is simple to watch - go to the main Wild page and look for a live watch Traverse City Tournament when our team is playing. Rangers lost today with a score of 5:7 against Dallas, and probably will play tomorrow exclusively motivated against us.

Here is a nice recent article regarding a managing and coaching vision to Iowa Wild team for 2018-2019 season giving to Iowa Wild fans last week. The main goal of it is to make a playoffs this season: https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/wild-executives-give-vision-for-2018-19-nhl-and-ahl-seasons-at-iowa-wild-town-hall-meeting

Wild organization announced our roster for the Traverse City Tournament 2018 as well as schedule. Here are the links : https://nhl.bamcontent.com/images/assets/binary/299905268/binary-file/file.pdf https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/minnesota-wild-prospect-tournament-roster-schedule-083018/c-299904856 I was right on guessing that both Johanssons will miss that tournament. It will be interesting to see a new coach Tim Army there, his team structure and his team final results. It is nice that Belpedio, Greenway, Shaw, Lodnia, Khovanov and Sokolov are included into the team, because it seems that those players will take a part of our future team’s core. Also present an interest 3 more players in our roster according to their statistics - Connor Dewar, Anderson MacDonald, and Damien Giroux. These tournaments are really helping to build earlier the nice chemistry among our promising prospects. Last year result was not bad at all. We will see if they will make more progress for this year too, and hope, without injuries.

Just found on a YouTube a pretty fresh interview with a coach of a defending champion team Blackhawks at the Traverse City Tournament of the last year : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DeTM0_u0pM We are still waiting for the announcement of the Wild roster there. Most teams did it already. Also from my understanding, our defenseman Simon Johansson it seems is not going to play for the Wild team during that tournament, because the players who are planning to play for European teams this year are not supposed to participate at the upcoming Traverse City Tournament. Probably, as well as Filip Johansson too.

Those funny but sour nicknames sound too depressively pessimistic. For me so far among all our drafts, Zucker stays second in a row after Gaborik, especially in gradually making a steady progress in production. In general, our team during the last 2 seasons is still among the top teams in our Western Division. Look how Chicago team fell last season despite having so good superior stars, as well as a good St.Louis team did not make playoffs either. Probably, the last 2 regular seasons were best in a Wild history in overall points and production during the regular seasons. The Wild team still need to find out the way how to fight successfully with a more difficult animal - Stanley Cup playoffs and to be more creative in youngsters scouting and their insertions into the big club in a consistent but flexible matter tryout.

Last weekend it was a U20 Four Nations Tournament in Sweden. Our prospect Simon Johansson who was drafted this year by the Wild was named the best defenseman at that tournament. Here is a link to read about him and watch a video how he put one of his goals for Sweden team during this tournament. It seems he has a pretty nice shot. https://dobberprospects.com/prospect-ramblings-u20-four-nations-tournament-in-sweden/

New York Rangers announce 2018 their Traverse City Tournament roster. They are in same Division as we are and going to play against us on September 8 next week. Here are a couple links to it: https://www.nhl.com/rangers/news/rangers-announce-2018-traverse-city-tournament-roster/c-299868722 https://www.blueshirtbanter.com/2018/8/27/17787968/rangers-announce-2018-traverse-city-tournament-roster

Me too.

Here below is a schedule for up coming soon a Traverse City NHL Prospect Tournament. We are in a Ted Lindsay Division against of pretty good teams. Interesting who is going to play for our team this year? Last year we played not bad at all. I think in general we had a good pretty solid team. We lost only one last game then. Kunin, Ek, Greenway, Sokolov, Lodnia, Mason Shaw, Soucy as well as other players from Iowa Wild played there too. Unfortunately, Mason Shaw was badly injured(ACL tear) during that tournament and missed the entire season after. Hope, Khovanov will play this tournament together with Sokolov. I liked that's pair chemistry after development camp this summer, may be because of their better communication, which is important too. Hope, also to see Belpedio and both Johanssons . Those tournaments bring lots of heart plays, which I like it for years. https://www.centreice.org/page/show/483955-nhl-prospect-tournament

We have reached today 3000 posts on our Wild forum which is a 6th place among other posts of other teams forums. The most impressive part of it, that we did reach that level in about 3 months. Our leaders continue to be the same - LIG, Rotty,and KA.

Let's say 2 full seasons (164 games). I think one season definitely is not enough to determine a significant draft success.

It is a very good question IllaZilla– What is significant means for a hockey player and for a fan watching that player’s play? How to determine right his significance for the team and for the fans as well? I think significant means the real value, the real production, the real influence for the team in helping to advance to the top of Stanley Cup. I do not think the significant means how many games and how many minutes the player played in NHL, because even he played lots of games there he still could present a weak significant ballast/ be very unnoticeable for the team during that time.

I was thinking a lot where to put this message - at the prospects topic or at the free agent signings topic? I chose in favor of prospects. WHY? I never understood for decades why we need to sign every year lots of free agent signings? I just understand maybe 1. They usually mainly old-ish, not productive , not flexible, not perspective used material stuff to work with. Very rare when we got a treasure (for example, Eric Staal,which is a hard working machine). Why we signed so many of them this year? Why we wasted so much money of our cap to sign them instead of saving for our new promising prospects? In my opinion, we should build attentively our team from the best selection to chose out of our NUMEROUS prospects( I am always believe that we can find/or even to build a treasure out youngsters we have) like from a new flexible scratch instead of choosing every year from the old stuff by creating multiple puzzles of who is who and how to use this who with whom. I think it is going to be a tough one for the Boudreau this year and looks like few free agent signings will sit on a press-box bench, because we do not have much room for them.