CreaseAndAssist

Pretty close to what most of us were saying. 3 years is a bit longer than I was expecting, but it also gives Jesper Wallstedt time to season both in the minors and as an NHL backup before he's given that chance to assume the #1 role. Also buys the team some time to draft and develop Wallstedt's backup too if they choose to go that route.

If the team hadn't bought them out and Parise retires they would've gotten hammered even harder than the buyout cost. But because of that, they didn't have to be worried about being ambushed that way. It really was a Catch-22 for the Wild as soon as that rule was put in place. And that should answer the question to any dolt you come across that thinks the team would've been better off not buying them out. The 'early' retirement punishment would've happened whether chose to retire as a member of the Wild or wherever they continued their NHL careers. Gustavsson's arbitration hearing is up this week. It will be interesting to see how fast the Addison deal gets worked out after Gus signs whatever it ends up being. I'm still guessing at a 1-year or 2-year deal at about $3.5M.

Interesting. On the flip side, did you see that Wheeler felt the Wild should've drafted Anton Lundell at #9 instead in his 2020 re-draft article. Alexis Lafrieniere was re-drafted 5th Overall instead of 1st Overall.

We'll probably sign him before that unless he really is giving us a feeling he's not going to re-sign.

If it happens, as long as its part of a trade rather than just seeing him go via free agency I'd be fine with it depending on the return.

Will Kirill want to stick around? Or will he seek a championship elsewhere?

You want to see him leave the Wild?

(shrugs) I think they will keep saying they're not making excuses to only make excuses because they know the sheeple will buy it. The team doesn't want to buy out the coach, especially as it still is in a cap crunch. I don't think his promotion makes one ounce of difference; Guerin was able to do as he pleased even before he was named President of Hockey Ops. Now he's his own boss...accountable to probably the owner and that's about it.

Woopty doo. This is a total non-story. His role doesn't really change and it doesn't do anything to improve the team on the ice. He just gets a fancier title and a bigger paycheck. Good for Bill, but for the team...meh. The only real takeaway from it is it proves Craig Leipold is buying ANYTHING that Bill Guerin is selling him. If you're happy with that great...if not...well that's the world the Wild are living in now.

Yea, it seems like a meh return in a supposed deep draft.

Adam Beckman was able to play more in a Top 6 role last year compared to the Bottom 6 role he played the season before in Iowa. Not only did he produce more offensively, but you could see his confidence grow as the year went on. That was about the opposite of his first pro season where he shot the puck a ton and didn't find the back of the net very often. I don't care what # Beckman wears with the big club as long as he can contribute in a meaningful way. Goals, hits...show us you are not just a warm body on a line and I'm probably happy.

Anyone see Wheeler's article grading the 2023 draft classes? Basically the Wild reached too early in the draft and other than the Riley Heidt pick which is a high risk possibly high reward he seemed to think most of our guys are long shots to make it and that the grade would've been near the bottom instead of 'overtime losers' as he had them rated.

I agree, there has been enough 'soak' time on some of these young players to see whether they will actually make an impact or that it was just a but of hopes and / or hype. Other than the fact Bill Guerin seems to like Dean Evason, I don't see a particularly skilled tactician. I see a guy who mostly just runs the same stuff and hopes it works. With all of these back to backs this season, you can bet that might really make Evason hesitate to have the team practice under the guise that rest is more valuable. I too hope its a Come to Jesus moment for the organization and they finally just are bad and we can get a few players that can actually move the needle for this organization from a one-&-done dud into something that can actually contend.

I agree. Yea that was a pretty obvious contradiction. I still think its odd he mentions its season four for Dean Evason etc, so what? How many more seasons does he need to learn from before he finally learns enough to be able to coach a team beyond the 1st round?

I agree with the idea of giving opportunities for Iowa players on the bottom lines. I'd rather see the kids get experience.

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoyed the interview. It was certainly a fun conversation to have! He's a great guy!

$1.1 million for Duhaime. Meh. Although his physical dimension is what sets him apart. Neither Sammy Walker or Adam Beckman are going to match those physical tools Duhaime has; however...even though the team has just spare change left...its not like even saving a few hundred thousand dollars would matter that much. My only hope is Duhaime is supremely motivated as he's playing on a 1-year deal.

Episode #19: Dan Whenesota In this episode, @MNSOTA and I are joined by Minnesota sports author Dan Whenesota. We discuss Dan's journey into writing / making documentaries about Minnesota sports as well as the Minnesota Fighting Saints, the Minnesota North Stars and which current (male) pro sports team in Minnesota is closest to a championship. Check it out!

Hopefully he can work the gliding and lazy shifts out of it.

True, but that should make him a bit of a trade asset at the deadline. Especially if he plays well with the Wild prior to that, but if he looks disinterested it probably won't yield much. But overall, you are right. We have been a soft team. But we haven't drafted a lot of grit either; either at forward or on the blue line. Guerin's interview stated that Hartman needs to play his game and not try to be something he's not (i.e. try to be a skill guy like Kaprizov or Zuccarello). So I think the organization recognizes it needs to be grittier to be successful in the playoffs. Still for a 7th round pick, it seems like a decent get with relatively little risk.

Guerin didn't seem to have issues with what Yurov had to say. In fact, he gave him a lot of credit for improving his English language skills considerably in one year. Yurov seems focused on coming over after next season. It shouldn't matter, hockey is hockey. This team wants to play gritty and heavy game. I don't think they will draft only from nations where they feel they can find gritty players; they will draft players they think are gritty. Kaprizov texted Yurov and welcomed him to Minnesota; he also said he is waiting to play with him. In case anyone caught Russo's latest Straight from the Source podcast, Guerin had some very interesting things to say about prospect camp in general. I will summarize to save people time. 1. Guerin openly wondered whether having the prospects skate in drills and be put through their paces was actually necessary. If anything, it sounded like he valued the meet-n-greet value / team-organization bonding way more than having them due drills although he said that would have to be something that Brad Bombardir and the player development folks felt comfortable with before they did away with the hockey stuff altogether. Guerin said he wondered if the competitive nature of previous prospect camps was actually harmful because of how much stress and pressure it put on the younger players. Seems to fly in the face of his comments about how players need to have "FU" in their game and having initiative when they get the chance. 2. Guerin said he told the prospects that the camp was not evaluative. He said it was development focused. He said evaluation is more about training camp and perhaps the prospect scrimmages they'll have against Chicago & St. Louis this September. 3. He said he talked a lot with Danila Yurov, said he talked to him for about an hour. Said he was excited about camp and just meeting with the players in general. 4. He noted how many players have chosen to stay and train in Minnesota over the summer including Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman, Filip Gustavasson, Calen Addison, Vinni Lettieri, John Merrill and Marco Rossi. He said Rossi was the only one they ASKED to stay and train here. The others just did so on their own. The rest was a lot of food and drink stuff that wasn't that important or interesting.

Yes, I certainly have noticed that. I got told by someone on Twitter is that he 'probably has a standing offer' from Arizona but is just waiting right now. Bullschitt...no one wants him. Or at the very least, no one wants him at the price he's seeking. I think the stories of teams being 'interested' was just hopeful hype from the agents hoping to prompt a deal. Oh and I should mention that fan thought Dumba would get a deal at about $5 million per season. I'd guess the interest he has now is matched by the 'interest' he was able to create around the trade deadline the last few years. Unless we gave him away, no one wanted him.

First of all, thanks for listening and reading, we greatly appreciate it. IMO, I've had that same conversation with myself many times. In fact, when Seattle joined the league I thought about starting over with them. Yes, they didn't have it as tough as Minnesota / Columbus / Atlanta / Nashville did in those late 1990's early 2000's expansion but GM's learned their mistakes after Vegas' addition and so Seattle didn't have it quite as easy. Still, it was a new organization and I've liked their hard-working style. The Minnesota Wild feel like they are in a never ending loop of mediocrity. Half of the league qualifies for the playoffs and throughout most of it...the Wild don't do anything once they get there. They are unwilling to be bad to get the players that could push this team out of that cycle and it just continues to repeat itself. And because of that; timing has often seemed to work against them. We finally get lucky enough to draft a superstar, but then his prime years are likely going to be squandered by the cap hell for Suter and Parise. I know people said those moves were necessary but maybe that was the biggest mistake in franchise history. They never led the team on a long playoff run and now we're in a holding pattern as our superstar ponders whether to stick around or seek greener pastures. As far as the fanbase goes, the Billy Goat homers are just crazy. They will accept anything this Wild organization puts in front of them. But those people have always been around. @IllaZilla & @MNSOTA can certainly attest to the early days when the team was cheap by choice of how many folks would trot out "we're just glad hockey is back" and accept the fact it wouldn't spent another $200k to keep Cliff Ronning around after their deepest playoff run (ever)? I don't blame anyone for stepping away from it and feeling its better for their own sanity / mental health or just not wanting to be as angry about things you can't control. My dad (76 I think) is a more casual Minnesota sports fan even though he reads a lot and watches a fair amount but he doesn't get into the details as much; and at times I ask myself if its worse that I do because it often leaves me more frustrated.

True and he improved markedly by shifting from center to wing. But of course...that means you missed on addressing that need for a center. Stramel is at least supposed to be good at draws. The rest is what he needs to improve and work on.

No argument with you here. I don't care where they are from, but proportionately this was a fairly good year for Minnesota-born prospects when you think about American-born kids as a group. I don't have an issue with going for need at this point, because how many more years are you going to kick the can down the road on centers? However, was Stramel the best one available at #21? I think that seems to be a fairly big reach. David Edstrom taken at #32 by Vegas may not be 223lbs, but he's 6'3" and doesn't mind being a net front-presence and I think he had a better chance to being an NHL'er than Stramel.