CreaseAndAssist

Meh, that didn't bother me much. While Caufield seemed to be stewing pretty good by the time the Wild passed on him, I think he'll be a great power play specialist but I'm not sold on him beyond that. No doubt the Canadiens were probably not expecting him to be available so they were happy as hell to get him, afterall they seem to love drafting American-born players. Like they said on TV and everywhere else, we'll find out eventually if those teams like the Wild that passed on him made the right choice or missed on a great opportunity. It could age well or be awful pretty quick.

Ok, he played on a line with Jack Hughes. That's a ridiculously loaded line offensively. But is Boldy the driver of that line? Or is your 1st Overall pick Hughes really driving the train there. So as Boldy advances and doesn't have the elite playmaker on his line or a lethal sniper opposite of him in Caufield and opposing defenses can focus more on shutting him down how will he fare? We don't really know that, yet. I kind of felt the same apprehension a few years ago when we drafted Alex Tuch, because he played on a line with Jack Eichel and Sonny Milano. Eichel obviously was a top tier talent and the driver of the line so you ask is Tuch good or does he look good because of who he's playing with? Tuch eventually proved he could do some great things on his own. Like I said earlier in the thread, we'll see what Boldy can do when he's not surrounded by a giant collection of the best players in the league. Then we'll have a better idea of what we have and what we don't.

What is astounding is how jealous you are of our pick. You have a lot more quality in your prospect pool than we do. Even with Boldy.

Whatever. The guy who could rant for paragraphs is now the Wild's biggest fan and the rest of us are just haters right? Funny you mention trolling since you only stop by once in a while just to give people crap. Most people would call that 'trolling' wouldn't they? But I digress... I didn't hate the pick, but I thought we could've done better considering who was left on the board so thus...in your world, I hate Matthew Boldy. He's got finishing ability, he's going to a top-notch college hockey program where he'll probably have a lot of opportunity to excel right away. Great. We'll see how it plays out. Its tougher to really see how good / bad a player is when they play for a really strong team like the USNDT was. I didn't expect him to still be there, neither did the Wild. They said as much. Does that make them haters too? I pointed out his strengths, but I don't ignore or gloss over his flaws. The Wild need this kid to develop into an impact player. They need some of their later round guys to become contributors. True, I haven't been real excited about a Wild draft pick since Matthew Dumba but it doesn't mean I can't grow to like him. I liked Alex Tuch eventually, and after his strong play for Iowa in the playoffs and the World Championships I'm starting to like Luke Kunin more. Oh, he just needs to add acceleration. Ok. Maybe that can be had by adding more strength but maybe it won't. If it was easy to fix your skating as simply lifting weights / training we wouldn't have any poor skaters at all. But some of that is something you either have or you don't. The good thing about going the college route is you have more time and opportunity to work out and fill out your frame so its as pro-ready as possible. But overall, in today's age of athletics where anyone who feels they might be a big deal taking camps, personal trainers, etc especially from a player playing for the USNDT which I'm going to guess they provide a lot of that if they still have an issue like that?!?!

2019 Minnesota Wild Prospect Development Camp, roster, schedule and players to watch for Camp starts today, a little earlier than normal. In the past I've gone to the practices and scrimmages and I have always felt they're pretty cool. One interesting switch this year seems to be they're not doing the big scrimmages and instead replacing it with a 3-on-3 tournament. Enjoy and discuss.

Sam Hentges isn't at prospect camp either.

David Poile is one of THE best GM's in the NHL.

The team even said it wanted to be faster and younger. I guess they just settled for younger. Boldy may not be a slow player...but not being fast just makes me concerned how effective he'll be. He might be able to rip apart the USHL in part because that team was so freakin' loaded. I think we'll find out who were the drivers and those who were lucky to be there for the ride real soon as these players go and play on different clubs.

Wild re-sign Brad Hunt, Free Agency Thoughts... I kind of used the re-signing of Brad Hunt to take a look at free agency and consider the moves the team may / may not make. Enjoy and discuss.

True, its a somewhat common complaint. However, when they say a player isn't fast or lacks explosion I get a little worried. Because as much as a player can work on it, one would have to imagine a lot of these players HAVE been working on it and they're still an ok or sub-par skater. Almost any prospect that is serious about being drafted takes those steps, is working like crazy to address deficiencies. And even after all that people are still questioning your skating...it is a big red flag for me. Its not to say Boldy will be horrible. I think he'll be ok; at least by what I've seen and heard. But did anyone else get the vibe that Fenton was simply happy to draft guys that were taller than he is? He seemed to put a big premium on their height which I thought was a bit odd.

There is still plenty of time to sign Fenton's mistake machine...

Meh, Boldy isn't a horrific selection but our team needs centers for the future. We'll see how he turns out. I don't really HATE the pick like I did last year with Filip Johansson. But if you want to try to sell us on it, don't waste your time. Bryce Brodzinski was pretty much invisible this year at the State Tournament. He had good high school numbers but he racked up a lot of points against inferior teams. I'll be surprised if he's as dominant at the college level as his older brothers.

Yes good point and I agree with you there, but too many of those long term projects have skating issues for my taste.

Sensible deal in terms of value at just $700k per season. Now we have 7 defenseman under one-way contracts. I guess we're already telling Belpedio, Soucy, Mennell etc they don't have a chance to make the team unless we decide to trade Spurgeon or Brodin or take anything to deal away Pateryn.

(shrugs) Yet if we really want to have replacements for Koivu / Staal...we have to draft them. People can talk about Best Player Available all they want...but you'll never address your needs affordably if you don't draft those players to replace them. Otherwise we end up paying through the nose in free agency or have to mortgage off a ton of other assets to swing a trade for a player like that.

What does everyone think of Day 2 of the draft for the Wild? Beckman is probably the one player that intrigues me, maybe Firstov if he can figure out some consistency. The goalies might be something, but years down the road. But for the most part all long-term projects.

Day 2 of the Draft has a Russian Flavor for the Minnesota Wild I profile all 7 players we drafted today, with analysis, expert comments and video and my take as well. Enjoy!

Well it isn't horrible. Its not like last year...but I think we passed on some better players that fit the long-term needs of the organization. Krebs is going to be a great player iMO.

He's not fast.

I updated the article to include my analysis of Adam Beckman too.

Day 2 of the Draft (updated live) I have summaries for both Firstov and Jones already. Analysis, expert quotes, video and my thoughts too. Enjoy.

Day 2 of the draft for the Minnesota Wild (updated live) I am updating this article as the picks happen. I have full analysis on our first two picks we've had thus far. Enjoy!

I wrote about Bobby Brink in my forwards preview. Read About Brink, the last prospect I profiled here

I actually cheered when Arizona took Soderstrom...I didn't like the thought of another smallish, right shot Swedish defenseman with limited offensive ability.

Flyers take Brink.