4Check

Interesting additional possibility suggested by Custance's article in the Athletic. His former coach David Quinn said his best position in the NHL likely would be center. Looking forward to the future, I'm not sure any of them are #1 centers, but between JEE, Greenway, Kunin and Coyle, you'd think it would be easy enough to fill the 2C & 3C positions. Hopefully Greenway surprises and ends up as a #1C. Doubt JEE is a future #1 and am virtually certain Coyle and Kunin are not.

Interesting discussion on Koivu. IMO, who Koivu was and who he is now is significant. If the Wild have any chance of advancing in the playoffs, they better hope JEE is ready to be at very least 2B center, and if not, BB should move Coyle to center. Koivu had an awful lot of playing time, particularly on the PP to end up with only 45 points. What I like about Koivu....is his defensive compete level. What I like less. The NTC and Russo's intimation of Koivu's need to be recognized as the #1 center. Both, IMO...... are failures in management leadership.

Thought Belpedio was solid in all zones. Kahkonen was good, although credit the D collectively for keeping rebound opportunities to a minimum with good positional and stick play. Greenway was real good at times. The Detroit first line Zadina, Rasmussen and Veleno was dominant 5 X 5. Hope the Wild don't regret passing on Veleno. Excellent speed with decent vision. Looked bigger than his listed 6'1 195.

I think using a parade metaphor on a Wild message board is mean spirited!

The Johansson (Simon) that was named MVP was the Wild's 5th round pick, not the Johansson (Filip) picked in the first round.

It looks like he tried "A" (Nino & Zucker) to AZ. I assume "A" would have allowed "B". My guess? He was going to flip Domi.

No, you're right, Suter couldn't make up for the no show Wild forwards. But clearly, while Seeler was alright, the rest of the left side D (Brodin and Soucy) struggled (to put it mildly).

While frustrated with Suter's off ice antics and power trip personna, I have to disagree with the point that Suter wasn't missed in the playoffs. Maybe not on the PP, but after the Jets series, I came to the conclusion that Brodin does not have top D pairing ability. I would argue Suter does....although IMO, not top 10 in the NHL

With the rest of the development forward group being IMO mostly so-so, I found myself focused on Sokolov. I agree that his skating is improving. Surprising first step coming off the boards to the net. And man, gotta love his quick shot release and soft hands. Still, while I find myself hoping for a Tarasenko, my expectations remain.... is he simply another Pulkkinen?

Considering they took Sokolov completely off the ice in a previous development camp to focus on conditioning, training & nutrition and it apparently is still an issue obviously makes you wonder. Hopefully it's simply a maturation issue, assuming some day he will eventually mature.

Looking forward to it!