4Check

Source?

Looking forward to the onion being peeled (probably very slowly) to find out the real reason for the firing. Hard to believe it's their recent play (7-3-1) It's been suggested that Guerin and Boudreau were not on the same page. LOVE to know the specifics on that! And would also love to know if short term team success is of any concern to Guerin.

Wouldn't be shocked if Guerin moves Galchenyuk before the deadline. Addison got a lot of game (Canada WJC PP QB). While his defensive play has improved, it's still a question mark. Like the first in a deep draft. Would be interesting if their is a possibility to package the two firsts to move up.

He'll be just fine.

ABOVE Foligno Soucy Brodin Hunt (but fading) Parise (barely) AT Staal JEE (but rising) Rask Suter Stalock (At plus) Fiala AT MINUS Kunin Hartman Zucker (injury a factor) Zucc BELOW Dubnyk Spurg Greenway Koivu Donato Dumba

I really enjoyed your analysis. I believe you correctly put Sturm higher than some hockey "experts" have him slotted. My only disagreement is on Boldy. Yes, he's off to a miserable start at BC. But, IMO he has too much size and skill, combined with his solid work ethic to not eventually get back on track.

Galchenyuk is failing with his third team. While o k at times at forward, deemed horrible at center in both Montreal and Arizona. Kerfoot IMO, is a third line forward. Just for the fun of it....I'll give you some IMO, young 2C's who MAY be or who were previously available (based on news reports in the past year) Nylander, Trochek, Dvorak, D.Strome, Schmaltz, Kadri, Drouin. Of those 7 quickly from off the top of my head, I would assume Kadri is the one that would least likely currently be available.

No question, if a #1 center is critical (and I believe it is) the Wild could load up a too good to pass up package. My only point, was that Dumba, IMO straight up would not fetch a young #1 C. Maybe a potential #1 like Glass. But basically, I'm not too sure that teams around the league see Dumba as a top pairing D.

My circular thinking starts with, yes I would trade Dumba for a young number one center. But, IMO no one is going to trade a young number one center straight up for Dumba. So, it ends up a case, for me of illogical wishful thinking.

Please provide your source on "Suter loves to lose",

We can only hope!

Please....not Spezza. Rapidly declining 36 year old. Good guy, but the Wild already lead the league in 30 somethings.

Appreciate your passion!

Honest question? Do you think Parise and Suter still run the show with Guerin now at the helm? I'm guessing. But I bet that ship has sailed.

I was encouraged by several things about Boldy. Most notably that Wroblewski said that his edge work is the best he's seen at USA hockey and that his lateral skating and speed are excellent. Edge work, IMO is critical. As an example, Jeff Skinner has been able to overcome average speed with his outstanding edge work ability. The concern for Boldy is his first two steps. IMO, that is often times correctable. Charlie Coyle is an example. And the fact that Boldy's labeled as an excellent athlete furthers that optimism. Overall, a huge plus, is his move to center. For me, it's a glimmer of hope that both Boldy and Khovanov are potential top 6 C's.

If Khovanov can improve his skating (especially separation), IMO he becomes a very intriguing prospect.

I agree on the difficulty of getting a 1C. But Dreger was referring to a 1C or 2C. I don't think it's inconceivable that a 2C (or potential 2C) could become available.

I hope so!

Travis Zajac is 34 Chara is 42.

Well, if you want to add to your already abundant collection of mid 30's age centers. Personally, I think the Wild need to get younger. If it was my druthers, they wouldn't add a center older than 26, younger if possible.

The Minnesota Wild are looking for a top-six center according to Darren Dreger of TSN, who explained what new GM Bill Guerin is looking for on the latest edition of Insider Trading:

Are you suggesting that Fenton is stalking Russo in his favorite tropical hangout?

WILD WILDLY OVERPAY SPURGEON! IMO, Not really. Subban 9M Ekman-Larsson 8.3M Ekblad 8M Letang 7.3M Vlasic 7M And all of the above signed their contracts in lower cap years Add Trouba's 8M as an RFA, IMO makes Spurgeon's 7.8M pretty close to fair market value. Now I do wish the term could have been a bit less.

Yeah, the cupboard is pretty bare, but hopefully Kaprizov, Boldy, Khovanov and maybe Firstov and McBain will someday be NHL caliber.

I agree. With Hunt able to play either side, Bouramman was the 8th RHD in the system. With two undersized defensemen ahead of him at Iowa and the two RHD Johansson's in the pipeline, IMO, it didn;t make a lot of sense to use one of your 50 franchise roster spots for him. All that said, you remember when Torchetti back in 2015 mentioned how much he loved Bouramman? He thought his puck moving skills could fast track him to the NHL. Unfortunately, his lack of size and defensive game has him, to this point, a borderline AHLer.