CreaseAndAssist

Derek Lalonde talks about Iowa's 2017-18 Season For a wild.com piece this is surprisingly honest. Having followed Iowa as closely as I did (listening to most of their games online) he's 100% right about the late game collapses in that critical stretch just being painful. The team kept finding ways to fritter away points and wins. It was awful. I don't really disagree with any of what Iowa HC Derek Lalonde had to say...

Nice!

If memory serves me correctly, 42% of his points were 2nd assists. I posted it on Twitter and I had a bunch of people falling over themselves to tell me how great Suter is and how dare I criticize a player that was tied for 12th in the league in even strength scoring...shame on me!?!?

Because Suter holds the zone so well...teams give him tons of space because they want him to shoot the puck. It is so laughable that this team continues to use him in that capacity when the book is so known that he's going to take that unscreened wrist shot from the point. The sad part is no one is willing to stand in front of the goalie to either deflect it or take away the goalies vision. They wouldn't want to 'steal' a goal from Suter.

Norfolk Admirals is a nice sweater. I have a Dropkick Murphy's Hockey sweater and a few high school teams I didn't put on there. I'll add them...

Its your site...do as you please.

And they don't want guys that will cut into the amount of time with the puck for #9, #11 and #20.

So maybe we should re-boot this thread. We've never really did this at the old WMB. Age: 40 When you became a Wild fan: From the day it was announced we had a NHL team coming... First NHL Game You Ever Attended: Minnesota North Stars vs. Los Angeles Kings back in 1982 at the Met Center. Favorite article of NHL Swag: Probably a game-used stick of Pierre-Marc Bouchard's i got during the lockout while he was playing for the Houston Aeros. I have to thank MNSOTA for that opportunity. NHL Jerseys Owned: Minnesota Wild Practice jersey (cir. 2004) - Green Minnesota Wild Green Jersey (Minnesota script) Minnesota Wild Green Jersey - #36 John Scott Minnesota Wild Red & Green Jersey - #96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard Minnesota Wild White Jersey - #20 Ryan Suter Minnesota Wild Green Stadium Series Jersey - #11 Zach Parise Minnesota Wild Green Jersey (new one) Minnesota North Stars Jersey (white 1991 style) Boston Bruins - White (early 2000's) Boston Bruins - Black - Milan Lucic #17 Columbus Blue Jackets - Blue Cannon Alternate - Boone Jenner #38 Calgary Flames - Red (1997 version) Calgary Flames - White (2004 version) Edmonton Oilers - White (1980's version) Winnipeg Jets - Blue (1993 version) Winnipeg Jets - Blue - Dustin Byfuglien #33 Detroit Red Wings - White Detroit Red Wings - Red - Stadium Series - Pavel Datsyuk #13 Chicago Blackhawks - Red - Mark Bell #28 Nashville Predators - White (2003 version) Arizona Coyotes - White Practice Jersey Los Angeles Kings - Gold & Purple (1979 version) Buffalo Sabres - Blue (Buffaslug) Montreal Canadiens - White - Jacques Lemaire #25 Quebec Nordiques - Blue (1991 version) Toronto Maple Leafs - White (2005 version) Toronto St. Pat's - Green Hartford Whalers - Green (1979 version) Atlanta Thrashers - Maroon Alternate - Blake Wheeler #26 Philadelphia Flyers - White (2004 version) Washington Capitals - White (2004 version) New Jersey Devils - White (2003 version) Pittsburgh Penguins - Black (2005 version) Pittsburgh Penguins - Black (1990 version) #68 Jaromir Jagr Ottawa Senators - Black (1992 version) Minor League Jerseys Milwaukee Admirals Practice Jersey - Black Milwaukee Admirals Jersey - White Major Junior Jerseys Acadie-Bathurst Titan - White (2010 version) Quebec Remparts - White (2003 version) Rimouski Oceanic - Blue - Sidney Crosby #87 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds - Red Niagara Ice Dogs - Black - Dougie Hamilton #27 Vancouver Giants - White Portland Winterhawks - Red - Robin Big Snake #17 Everett Silvertips - White (2011 version) - Ryan Murray #27 College Hockey Jerseys North Dakota Fighting Sioux - Green Wisconsin Badgers - Red (1972 version) Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves - White International Jerseys Team Hungary - White CSKA Moscow - White - Ilya Kovalchuk #17 CSKA Moscow - Blue - Ilya Kovalchuck #17 (Cyrillic) Spartak Moscow - Red (1997 version) High School Jerseys Eagan Wildcats - White - #15 Elk River Elks - 'ER' Jersey - White Elk River Elks - Angry Elk - White - #7

I agree with you on making them earn their spot by their play in the minors but you and I and others have been arguing that FOR YEARS. I would think Fenton would want to implement that, but you have to wonder if ownership would let him do it that way. Or are they too impatient, afterall...they want 'tweaks' not changes...and that would be a change in their development philosophy I'd think. Bellows is certainly a finisher...but this team seems to shun shoot-first players.

True story...but the team was sooooo happy to have him. Although Granlund did kind of the same thing, just for 2 years as opposed to 3.

MNSOTA can confirm, the day we drafted him I knew we did so simply because of his brother...anyone remember when he was a yeti where we waited 3 years before he got here and by the time he got here he still hadn't done his military service as required of young male Finns.

I'd be more optimistic if he was an exceptional skater but he's not. He's not slow but he doesn't fly people either. A knee injury like his won't help him be a better skater. I wasn't sold on him when we drafted him. When he was captain for Team USA at the WJC's he was a role player. I thought he was pretty blah in the call ups he had.

I'd add Quant hockey... http://www.quanthockey.com/ Quant hockey is a good place to follow leagues outside North America. You can look up advanced stats and they have all kinds of fun charts and graphs if that's your thing. http://www.eliteprospects.com as a place to find information on young players

A few other thoughts...Luke Kunin. Meh. Not really thrilled about him at all. He was sent down to Iowa to be a go-to player for them and he never really dominated. I know some other Wild bloggers felt it was a shame to have Kunin in Iowa, but IMO he wasn't doing enough to be worthy of a call up. Toss in the blown out knee, and I think you can safely add the letters "BU' to the word B U _ _ no one wants to say. Greenway probably will never play in Iowa, even though he'd probably benefit playing in a bigger role down there. It will be interesting to see if Fenton mandates he demonstrate he can dominate there before he gets a roster spot here; which is what the Predators would do. Austin Watson played for years in Milwaukee being a go-to guy before getting his chance to be a Bottom-6 forward where he provides grit and offense for the Predators' 4th line. Lodnia had a good start to the season, scoring at a little bit better than a point-per-game pace before tailing off completely in the 2nd half. Erie wasn't that great of a team but I was a bit troubled that he was more of a set up guy than a goal scorer for the Otters. Dmitry Sokolov had kind of a sluggish start but picked it up to have his most productive OHL season yet. Especially after he was traded from Sudbury to Barrie his totals really took off. He was a regular on the score sheet and he lit the lamp a lot. I watched him play at the WJC's for Russia and he kind of reminded me of Teemu Pulkkinen, a one-dimensional scorer that doesn't do much else. His skating is a bit of an issue for me and while I think he could be an effective sniper in the AHL I am not sure if he has enough to make him an NHL player. As for Mason Shaw I was really kind of surprised we signed him. He blew his knee out and didn't play a single game for Medicine Hat and just one game for Iowa where he was played pretty sparingly. He is a waterbug-like player who did well at prospect camp and was doing well at Traverse City before he got hurt. Tough to know what he'll be like now that he's had more of the summer to recover and add strength.

Kaprizov, yes...our best prospect on paper and probably in terms of talent as of right now. However, we will for sure not see him for at least two more season if not longer. As for Iowa, which I followed closely all season long... Sam Anas had a great season. He was especially impressive in the middle portion of the season but he kind of tailed off in the end as did most of the team. Same could be said for Justin Kloos. Both were a big part of Iowa's offense last season; which was more well rounded than previous seasons. Cal O'Reilly had a lot to do with that IMO, and he's not a prospect but he was the team's leader on and off the ice. Kyle Rau was the only player who was scoring consistently the last 10-15 games, he was another welcome boost of offense. Gerry Mayhew had some great moments, not sure I'd call him a prospect but he was clutch at times for Iowa. Gerald Fitzgerald, a late-season college signee from Bemidji State played pretty well; was more productive offensively than I was expecting. On the blueline, Derek Grant had a good season offensively as did Zach Palmquist who had a decent 2nd half. Brennan Mennel had a good rookie season, but his +/- was a bit icky...but he provided a fair amount offense for a player making the jump from major junior. Carson Soucy was solid, if unspectacular. I thought he did better than I expected when he got a call up to play in the playoffs. Still needs more work in Iowa IMO. I'd be interested to see what Louie Belpedio could do on this team; he is a natural power play quarterback and a good leader. Niklas Svedberg started out good, but then had a pretty ugly middle of the season. He seemed to get irritated and was prone to giving up the backbreaking goals late in games; Iowa threw so many games away in the 3rd period which is why they failed to make the playoffs. Steve Michalek seemed to struggle to stay healthy but he was mostly good. C.J. Motte was good as an emergency call up goalie for Iowa. This was easily the best season in Iowa Wild history, but it still came up short and that is valuable development time lost that I think the organization is sick and tired of losing out on.

The Wild Message Borg is continuing to gain strength...honestly...the invasion has just begun.

I play in two leagues. The question is will the Wild Message Borg league be back? I won it all this year...by the slimmest of margins.

I was on the Wild message boards since 2001. It used to be the Wild west...the Canucks, oh the board wars we had when were in the Northwest division. We can hold our own with anyone...

So true. Well, that control is lost now. Its also partly why I lost my name...they didn't want my views to be misconstrued as their own. Or at least that's part of what I'm guessing...also to drive traffic towards their lame MyStateofHockey.com site.

Nothing can stop the Wild Message Borg...resistance is futile.

We are the Wild Message Borg...

I might be guessing, but its probably because the teams' European scouts don't really watch any North American players and vice versa for North American scouts to see European-based players so they don't have comparibles the same way. So they keep it as two lists. The other agencies find opportunities to watch both groups; at tournaments or cross-over games to try to create just one list. You're right though, it is a bit odd.

(sigh) So yea, that's my wife.

(sigh) Isn't that the truth for us all...

CreaseAndAssist, give credit to my friend @timnado on Twitter, he thought of it. My blog was known as the State of Hockey News for 13 years before the Minnesota Wild suddenly became annoyed or aware I used 'State of Hockey' in the title and they sent my boss a Cease and Desist letter. So my friend came up with Crease And Assist: A Legally Compliant Minnesota Hockey Blog as our official title as sort of a middle finger to the team I follow and write about. And of course I'm @CreaseAndAssist on Twitter too.