Lonkkis

1 hour ago, Hockey-78 said:

Fiala? Do you think that's a good top line, two rookies?

In the future, yes. Next season? No, don't be silly. 

I don't have any particular expectations for the Wild next season because of the major shakeups with the roster this off-season. Heck, I doubt GMBG is even finished tweaking the roster.

Was pretty shocked to see Rossi available when Wild was up. Great kid, and like the fact that he has trained since March on his physical strength and skating explosiveness.

And according to several scouts, he and Lafernierre are the two most NHL-ready picks in the draft.

Kaprizov - Rossi - insertsomeonehere anyone?

Wild is going to sign another goalie as insurance going into the expansion draft. 

Guessing Guerin tries to get a No.1 center with Dumba. If he doesn't get what he wants,  I can see Wild going 8 players + 1 goalie route in the upcoming expansion draft, only to protect the top-4 D's.

Chuckie!

9 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

I've seen these rumors that Koivu is going through a divorce, and am wondering if that played a part in him not waiving his NMC (if the rumors are true). Who knows. He'll be gone in another couple months anyways. Providing Guerin doesn't get all mushy cookies and broken hearts and give him an extension...

The rumor is true, his ex-wife-to-be confirmed it last week to pretty much every news station over here in Finland.

2 hours ago, TonyOday said:

 

The future Wild stars turned out to be overrated. Zucker is going to be good and he was good here but he is not a number one option so he will be great being third or 5th in the Pens. Nino is and will always be streaky. Granny, is he still in the NHL? Coyle solid third line center that costs more than Ek. 

 

Next we will have to trade away Dumba to get rid of Doobs. Brodin for a Center, sounds like for Vincent Trocheck and a piece. Hopefully we can get Staal and Koivu to waive no movement clauses to get some more pieces. 

 

Looks like Galchenyuk, when he is playing fast, is a good player. I have no idea if it is motivation or what but he seems big enough to play and can shoot, would love him on a cheap deal. Kaprisov, hopefully, is coming over That is a hell of a top line if we have Fiala, Kap and Trocheck. Second line with Zuccarelo, Kunin and Donato. Third Line with Greenway, Ek, Foligno. Fourth Line use as a scoring line because the third line can do both check and score. Add in an NHL goalie that can actually make a real save and steal a game and we do not look too bad. 

Trocheck has been underperforming big time the last two seasons after his ankle injury. Lost a step after that. Currently a middle six center at best.

56 minutes ago, Freddy the 13th said:

This is total BS.  Bruce is a great coach and I think their GM wanted his own hire.  Just take a look at Bruce’s win/loss ratio in the nhl.  He knows how to win.  It’s sad these coaching jobs have a 5 year ceiling.

He's a great regular season coach. Playoff coach? Not so much, as his 42-48 record shows. The coaches that won the cup the past decade all have over 50% winrate in the playoffs.

5 minutes ago, lynxrattle said:

From the article about Boudreau's firing:

 

And, from a hockey perspective, it just felt to him that Guerin had been distant with him lately and not including him in hockey decisions. Guerin was also starting to voice his displeasure after losses with some of Boudreau’s deployment of players and lineup decisions and Boudreau said “it’s quite possible” the decreased ice time amidst the development of players like Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek, Luke Kunin and Jordan Greenway were rubbing veterans the wrong way.

“But I dismissed all that as nothing out of the ordinary,” Boudreau said. “Maybe that was my naivety.”

 

That to my ears sounds the strongest hint we'll ever get, that the vets really seem to have influence over TOI. We're in deep s... and we can't get ever get rid of 11 and 20, because of the recapture penalty EJ0226 wrote about.

LTIR is really the only salvation at this point.

Can't really say for sure that Koivu had anything to do with the firing, barely over 9 minutes of playtime last game, of which 2 minutes from PK. 

10 hours ago, Antti_Laxative said:

Fricken Zoooker has two markers vs us tonight after two stanzas

Not surprised, PIT playing an uptempo game and then there's Crosby as linemate.

12 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

Doug Weight does not inspire a lot of confidence.

 

Was named Islanders interim head coach after Jack Capuano was fired in 2017 and over 40 games went 24-12-4 and missed the Playoffs. The following year he was named head coach and over 82 games went 35-37-10, missed the Playoffs and was subsequently fired.

Guerin also has a history with Gallant from his Islanders days

And I doubt Evason gets promoted from interim status, considering he's been in charge of the special teams, and we know how they've been this season.

Kinda hope they hire Gallant, he's a good coach who's able to get the best out of younger players. Laviolette is good too but he tends to lose the lockerroom after a few seasons for whatever reason.

2 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

But is that entirely on him?  Was he saying to the players?  Oh when you're out there on the power play...just throw the puck on the boards...just skate around ok?  No, of course not.  So now you boot the coach?  If the threat of dealing players for quitting was a threat to kick them in the arse, then what message does firing the coach send?  It says we're screwed.  For what?  For going 7-3-1 in their last 10 games?  That's stupid.  

 

You don't want Bruce around, sure...but wait for the season to be over.  Evason isn't going to inspire this team any better, most likely it will be worse.  His last few seasons in Milwaukee were terrible.  

 

For all of the positive mojo he created with the Zucker trade, he certainly threw that down the shitter with this move to dump Bruce.  I think most fans could tell it wasn't his fault.  

 

As long as #11 and #20 are there, the culture will be whatever they wish it to be.  Doesn't matter who the bench boss will be, those two will have veto / i.e. coach canning authority anyways.  

 

Yeo

Torchetti

Boudreau

 

Let me guess...Suter almost laughs as he says Bruce, "is a great guy"

Oh, don't get me wrong, like I mentioned I expected Bruce to be gone but after the season. The blame of this firing goes to the severely underperforming vets. But as it has been said by people many times before; in this business, it's easier to fire the coach than the players (especially those with multiyear NMC contracts). Sad but true.

Now there's talk that this firing was done just so we won't reach the playoffs, only to drop out in the first round. It's certainly possible.

Expected this to happen, though not this soon. Not that BB lost the room or anything but he didn't seem to have any solution to the lategame crashing this team constantly suffers from. Among other small things.

Wondering who BG is going to pursue to hire as the next Wild head coach.

4 hours ago, EJ0226 said:

Stuff like this just makes you go, "wtf are the Wilds Scouts doing/seeing?" It's pretty clear that this guy is a bust whose speed just isn't good enough for the NHL. Sounds like he will work hard but it seems like the skill just isn't there so why did we bother to pick him up? All you can do is shake your head.

Wild wanted the prospect and the pick. Chuckie tagged along because Pens needed the cap space to fit Zucker in. They have like 900k cap space now after they got Zucker.

Anyone got the number to Granny's skating coach?

13 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

...  IMO, the exact kind of move we hoped last year from Fenton...and why we were mostly disappointed that he insisted on 'hockey trades.'  

Imagine if we would've gotten that from the Granlund trade.

One or two young top-6 centers is what this team needs the most. Train our goalie prospects. We're a few years away from being contenders anyway.

Trade Dumba or Brodin for a top-6 center, that's what I'd do.

Looking more at what they say about Addison and watched some clips, seems like there's a chance he might become the next Spurgeon. Though it may be a few more years before that happens.

Looks to me this trade was about getting the prospect and the 1st rounder, Chuckie just tags along for the ride (who still could be flipped for more prospects before the deadline).

Ugh. Chuckie is pretty much Vanek lite. Good PP player but floats a lot without the puck. Frustrated the hell out of me when he played for the Habs.

Atleast we got a prospect and a conditional too so it ain't bad that way.

Gonna be interesting if Buff and Jets go through with the mutual contract termination. They're probably going to come after Dumba if that's the case.

And Foligno scores 

Allen in net. It's a loss, since he's a hot goalie. 

NMCs can't be placed on waivers without consent.