CreaseAndAssist

The one time Vegas...had to follow the rules.

Problem is, you'd still have Parise and Suter on your team then. I don't want either them near my team again. The timing for this organization continues to work against its goals / interests. Again, because of the stupid retroactive punishment the NHL imposed that put the Wild in a Catch-22 situation because of cap recapture. But no...Tampa Bay and Vegas totally didn't abuse LTIR at all for a massive competitive advantage. The Wild didn't get a competitive advantage in the first place and then got punished on top of it. I don't have a show specifically talking about Kirill and his options. However I've mentioned many times the point of no return is after this upcoming season. Guerin will have to size that up and decide whether he can realistically keep him or not. If you look at the cap situations around the league; it doesn't really look that great. Most of the teams that are way under the cap are either garbage or want to remain near the floor (aka Arizona). Certainly a portion of the fanbase will lose their crap if the Wild shop #97, but they may not really have a choice if he gives them signs he's wanting to just coast into being a UFA and wishes to seek opportunities elsewhere. The NMC kicks in after this season, and then while you can ask him to waive it to try to make a deal he's clearly going to have all of the leverage and ability to decide where he's willing to go and that might not be ideal either.

Goligoski sucks and never should've been extended and given a no movement clause to boot. The NMC forces Guerin's hand. I won't be heartbroken if they have to shop Merrill or even Addison, but giving a 35-year old player an NMC was just foolish.

(shrugs) Vegas is a way different animal. They got a bunch of players entering their prime, they didn't have to rely on players they drafted and developed in order to improve. Toss in the league letting them pull a Tampa Bay and open up cap space with LTIR, they didn't have to travel the path of regular season misery to adding the kind of talent you need to turn your fortunes around. If your defense is big and strong enough to control things your end; then you can get by with Adin Hill or Logan Thompson as your goaltender.

Thanks for listening! This team has this season to consider whether #97 is going to stick around or not or whether they should move him before his full no movement clause kicks in. Would adding a player like Michkov make him want to stay, or wouldn't it matter? Do the team's prospect pool really influence him one way or another; those are all things Bill Guerin will have to figure out and then act accordingly. One thing Bill Guerin cannot do, is to let #97 walk for nothing.

Wild re-signed Hunter Jones to a one-year, two-way deal ($787,000). My guess is he'll be Jesper Wallstedt's backup in Iowa. No matter what I'm sure Hunter will be glad he's no longer having to be under siege with the Heartlanders like he has the last two seasons.

Trading up will be expensive. As far as giving up on Rossi goes, I'm ambivalent. He's had time; even after his health scare to take the initiative. While people want to talk about his points at the AHL level, he didn't produce in the games / moments when Iowa needed him to. He didn't do anything with Minnesota to make you really say he compelled the team to give him another call up either. I am more compelled to sit back and hope the KHL deal scares enough teams off he falls to us or falls closer where the asking price to move up may not be as steep. Getting into the Top 10 will cost a king's ransom this year.

Another 5'11" defenseman. Right shot, put up a lot of points for Prince Albert but they must feel they'll need the points to add another small-ish defenseman to the team's roster. I had heard they wanted to retain Dakota Mermis but we'll see what happens. Joe Hicketts has been a rock for Iowa the last two seasons; tough to see them move on from him just for his veteran leadership but if they're going all in on the kids...they're going to want to make sure they carry most of the play. Iowa should have the following defenseman in Des Moines next year. Daemon Hunt Ryan O'Rourke Simon Johansson Kyle Masters David Spacek Carson Lambos Landon Kosior

Michkov recently signed a deal to stay in the KHL until 2026. While the Wild wouldn't necessarily be in a hurry, the hope would be the opportunity to play with a guy with his talent would tempt Kaprizov to stick around. As far as making a deal goes...not sure what else you'd want and that would probably determine whether Bill Guerin would consider it or not. But I'd rather see us take a swing at Michkov than take a risk on a guy like Sale who is more boom / bust. Michkov probably will be a star, you just have to be willing to wait for him.

Is anyone going to this thing? I'd think you'd have more fun watching a DaBeauty League game instead.

They don't have the money for him. And to be honest, I'm not that interested because he never seems happy wherever he is. Its not like they're not giving him ice time and opportunity in Winnipeg; but the players seemed to have soured on that organization. Still, right now...the Wild don't have the space or would have a hard time making the space to fit a Pierre-Luc Dubois let alone what else we'd have to trade to get him.

Fergus Falls girls were pretty good last year and the boys had moments by what I had heard / seen.

Episode #16: Mock Draft-a-palooza @MNSOTA, Kalisha and myself discuss the team's possible moves at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, then do a full mock draft for all of the Wild's six selections. In addition, Theresa does a Minnesota Wild Mockery Mock Draft that you won't want to miss!

That being said, you can almost kind of tell the organization is pivoting to place its hopes more on Khusnutdinov instead of Rossi at this point. David Spacek being on this top team is a bit interesting when you consider the other players he's competing with (Lambos, Hunt, O'Rourke, Peart, etc).

The fact even a homer group like the Minnesota Wild prospects doesn't have Marco Rossi on its top 5 tells how far he's fallen in this organization. He made the 2nd team in case anyone cares, but that's saying a lot for a player who the organization had such high hopes on.

Episode #15: Into the Looking Glass In this episode, @MNSOTA and Kalisha and ask what can the Minnesota Wild learn from the Stanley Cup Finals and we also take another look at the upcoming 2023 NHL Draft. We also answer a bunch of listener questions too! Check it out!

On Episode #14 we talked about the hiring of Brett McLean as the Iowa Wild head coach as well.

That's a lot of time in the rinks to be sure. Where at? I am busy with tennis at that time (early April); but I am sure there are others who probably would be willing to get together if you wanted to. Meet up at the game or Reid's or wherever...and just have a blast. @Jimtown guy

I was listening to a Beyond the Pod short with Brandon Mileski & Pat Michelletti and if you listened to Pat he didn't think the fanbase would tolerate being bad; that they wouldn't show up if the team wasn't competitive. I agree with you, I don't think the fans would abandon the team because they would understand what they're trying to do. But they've always opted for this 'middle way' and it accomplishes nothing of significance. At some point they need to face facts and realize they have to be bad if they truly want to be a contender in the future, otherwise all they can do is keep pretending they're close when they're really not anywhere near that.

Episode #14: Minnesota Wild Graduation Theresa and I recorded this one last week. We talk a little about the Stanley Cup finals (mostly about the Vegas pre-game stuff) and start taking a sneak peak at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and take listener questions too.

Episode #13: Denial Gone Wild Theresa, Kalisha and I recorded this one almost a month ago. Sorry for not posting it here then. But its more about the team's reaction to another one & done and other post-season thoughts. You can probably guess what we thought of Guerin's comments were about this team having a successful season were.

@Jimtown guy not sure if you were on the old Wild.com message boards or not but some of us used to get together over there too over the years. We had fans come in from Nebraska (seriously, we knew a Wild season ticket holder who lived in Nebraska), North Dakota and other places far away from St. Paul and plenty of people who lived in an around the cities. It was always a great time when we got together, because no matter the rest of your differences you enjoy watching Wild hockey (at least on some level). If you want to make it happen, toss out a date...obviously giving people some lead time and maybe people can make it happen.

Maxim Strbak fits that role. I am hoping the Wild use one of their 2nd round picks on him. Michigan State recruit. Tom Willander is another one to watch for if we decided to take a defenseman in the 1st round. @IllaZilla would you want to be on our podcast next week for our 'Mock' Draft show?

I agree with every word of this. Would love to have you on the podcast if you're willing.

We've said much the same thing on our podcasts. Our defense corps, both with the big club and prospect pool are mostly 6'0"-ish puck mover types. Unfortunately there is not a lot of big, physical defenseman available in this draft.