CreaseAndAssist

Well Kunin is getting his shot now it seems. Sturm and Mayhew back to Iowa and Stafford told thanks, but not this time. I am fine with giving him a long audition, but I'd still be looking for a Top 6 center to begin to supplant our two 34+ year old ones.

Tough to disagree with you...

Zucker for Travis Zajac would be a rancid return and not even fulfill the objective of acquiring a center with the quality to play in our Top 6. Or were you thinking Zacha, who I am not sold on his Top 6 potential either.

It'd be nice to be able to watch this...F$ck you Dish Network.

To the first 3 points...duh. Second, its not Iowa's fault for not developing centers. Iowa hasn't been able to keep many quality Wild prospects there for very long before they're called up to play in a bottom 6 role with the big club. Sturm should be with the big club, but we'll probably try to soldier on with Rask in that role. Good luck to Guerin to try to find a Top 6 center. I don't think it will be easy and I'm afraid how steep the price will be at this point in the season or what junk we'll be offered that will be sold to us as 'top 6 calibre' but are not.

Yea. Got to love it when they keep moving the goal posts or set their expectations so low they always will be happy with this team. I so love homers...

I am going to guess so many people are cutting the cord they hope more and more people don't notice.

Well as you stated in a new thread. Despite being completely ineffective, Rask didn't take the advice from the team and work on his skating. That $4 million / season confidence Rask has needs to be rattled IMO. Its not like any team is going to pick him up off waivers. No one will want that contract and if they do...all the better.

Wild Fans Speak: 2019-20 Season Preview, Part 3 of 3 Here is the final part of the 3-part series. Thanks again to @Davey J, @IllaZilla and @DJ Ricky for participating in the series! This time they give their predictions on the 2019-20 Season. Check it out! Sounds like Nico Sturm is making a big impression so far; from prospect camp, to Traverse City to the pre-season games so far.

Yea, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. Not dollars nor cents too. If you're not providing a service then why do we have to pay for it? We should all get a big rebate that way.

No way Spurgeon probably signs for anywhere less than 5 years. But I think 7 years is stupid. Even for Spurgeon.

I would agree @IllaZilla Fenton could feel the walls starting to get closer and closer so he just said...we must sign someone. I don't care; give him everything he wants. We can't come up short again...and boom...another terrible mistake.

Yet, they're still far younger than the Wild. The Wild have tied themselves up in NMC's to guys over 30 years old. St. Louis will get older eventually...but the Wild are signing guys over 32 and handing out NMC's the way AOL used to give out demo discs in the mail.

I will admit, this scenario is sadly plausible with this team after they grossly overpaid Koivu twice.

Or maybe the Wild give in way too easily. I am with @Hockey-78 on this one. We just keep making choices that will make the pain last longer and longer. If Spurgeon wasn't going to take a deal without a NMC (even its not the full length of the 7-year contract) or at least take a deal that was 5 years max I think its counter productive. So we'll probably be bad, but we'll be mediocre bad as opposed to bad-bad...and we'll get mediocre picks and thus continue to be a mediocre team. If Spurgeon wouldn't take a deal without a NMC or not just 5 years (or less)...I'd trade him and not look back. But instead we double down on mediocrity, yet again...

Another older player this team has to protect...I like Spurgeon. But I really hate No Movement Clauses. So to review... Ryan Suter Zach Parise Mikko Koivu Mats Zuccarello Jared Spurgeon All have NMC's... Devan Dubnyk Jason Zucker Have Modified No Trade clauses... The Wild love painting themselves into a corner. The term to Spurgeon is at least 2 years too long IMO.

This is 100% hit the nail on the head. We now had to overpay Spurgeon because Fenton decided to just table it and go on vacation instead of taking care of it and having something settled before the opening of free agency which inevitably would drive Spurgeon's asking price higher. But hey, we only fired Fenton because he didn't get along with people. (sigh)

What could you possibly mean? The Wild are a Stanley Cup contending team?!?! This is the State of Hockey?!?! How dare they!?!? Harumph...harumph...

Wild Fans Speak 2019-20 Season Preview, Part 2 of 3 I wanted to publish this earlier but I've been crazy busy the last 3 days. This part of the series discusses the Wild lineup, and possibly changing roles for veterans and its younger players. Enjoy and discuss... Featuring of course @IllaZilla @Davey J and @DJ Ricky!

What I got out of watching the prospects is the Wild's inability to players that have a lot of speed and or skill. We have lots of guys who are average to below average skaters. IMO, that is really detrimental in today's game which is more and more about speed. Beckman is a perfect example of this. Yes, he has skill, decent offensive instincts...but he's an average skater at best. And thus...his impact is limited by his mobility. The other obvious deficiency across the board are finishers. They have drafted for playmaking. But with few proven finishers goals are hard to comeby and the assists don't pile up either for the same reason. This organization has consistently ignored those two elements to their peril as this team has become older and slower.

He's speculative but the Wild are in desperation mode. That is my only reason they overpay him; for fear of him doubling down with another KHL deal. He'll probably be given the max for an entry level contract.

I am not saying he's crazy overpaid. I think Kaprizov may command more than that. He knows the Wild are desperate.

Meh. Probably about the right price...but I still wouldn'tve paid him $3 million. Wild still have about $5 million in cap space.

So this is just speculation? I'd take that trade in a second. Kyrou, a young offensive talent and a decent stay-at-home defender for 3rd and finesse defenseman with little offensive ability.

I think the variety of responses is really interesting. Everyone sees the team in its own unique way. That's the simple beauty of an article like this. Like I said, I'd love to do this in person one day and just make a YouTube video of it. Brews...food...questions and discussion. I think there would be a lot of laughter and it'd be damn fun even if the discussion was pretty hard on the Wild in the process.