IllaZilla

Salt Lake Pioneers

Yeah, tell me why any team needs to give out 7 NMC’s. They don’t. The only reason the Wild are giving out that many NMC’s is because the GM has been given an edict from the owner that it is Playoffs or Bust. And to get to the Playoffs they need a proven quantity rather than taking a chance on an unknown. I sure hope Craig enjoys his empty arena while his former team does some damage in the playoffs.

I’m not unhappy with this. The Wild need to be embarrassed. They didn’t even show up. Don’t give me all this BS about how prideful these guys are. They have no pride. They are all fat and happy with their NMC’s and inflated contracts and are just going through the motions so they can get to their early tee times.

This. This is the biggest problem with the Wild. They refuse to rebuild so they are always picking in the 15-20 range. They get nice players, but no one you can build a team around. Maybe Kaprizov, but nobody else. Boldy, Ericsson-Ek, Rossi, are all nice players, but none of them are going to take the team on their back and push them over the line. This team is stuck in a cycle of mediocrity and refuses to change because the owner wants that playoff money. Well, maybe missing the playoffs a couple of years in a row will get him to change his tune, but I’m not holding my breath.

lol, Gary must have just plotzed to have to make that announcement…

Just lose.

Just because Gadreau and Zuccarello aren’t on the roster doesn’t mean their salaries don’t count against the cap. The Wild still only have $40,000 in cap space. And Firstov couldn’t come here any sooner than he did because he was still under contract to his KHL team. And the Wild missed the Playoffs not because they didn’t call Firstov up, but because players like Gadreau and Johansson haven’t scored all season, Hartman and Foligno has been inconsistent, Filip Gustavson was a sieve, and 75% of the defense are AHLers. That’s why they didn’t make the Playoffs.

The 1C position has been a glaring need for the Wild since their inception. They have never had a true 1C. And it's not going to happen for at least another season. The Wild still have one season left of the Parise/Suter $14.7M cap recapture penalties to suffer through before they can even think about looking for a 1C.

Or a name that makes no sense, like the Utah Jazz. When was there any jazz in Utah?

It has nothing to do with merit. Ohgren's contract doesn't count against the cap. Firstov's does. They only have around $40K in cap space. You can fit $0 under $40,000. You can't fit $925,000.

If Ohgren follows Eriksson-Ek's trajectory, he'll be good in about 10 years, and Khusnutdinov has been described as a 3C, so we just replaced Dewar with Khusnutdinov. So I'm not holding my breath on either of these guys...

Or have the league change the rules to stack the team, like they did with Vegas...

Not if Bettman has anything to say about it. He’d lay in front of the moving vans to keep that franchise in Phoenix.

JFC, can the league bend over anymore for this one stupid franchise? My god. Quit trying to shove hockey down the throats of the citizens of Arizona. People don’t want it there.

Correct. They can negotiate in the final year of the contract to extend the contract. So the final year of those three contracts is 2024-25. The extension will kick in for the 2025-26 season, when the dead cap space is $1.6M.

According to CapFriendly, they will have just over $8.6M in cap space in 2024-25. But that's with only 18 players signed to the roster. Maybe they get Fleury to sign for $1M and they move Gus. That will get them an extra $2M and change. So now they have about $10M to play with. Still not great, but Rossi's, Faber's, and Khusnutdinov's extensions won't kick in until 2025-26 when the dead cap space is down to $1.6M and they'll have $36M is cap space.

The Wild's cap problems won't allow that. They still have to remain below the cap until the Playoffs. So if they call up all those players, what do they do with the players on the current roster? And there will be little to no changes next year. Most of the problem players have NTC/NMC (Johansson, Gadreau, Hartman). The only players that aren't signed for next season are Beckman, Lucchini, Shaw, Goligoski, Chisholm, Mermis, and Fleury. With the exception of Fleury, they all make under$1M. And Faber is going to get a BIG raise next season. Plus Rossi is due a raise. They just don't have the cap space or flexibility to overhaul the roster. They better pray no one gets hurt next season. Because it'll be deja vu all over again.

At least top five pick, maybe even challenging for #1 overall…

No. Wallstedt already got thrown to the wolves during that Dallas game. Build the kid up, don’t destroy him right off the bat. Gus is the one that needs to get his act together. Leave him in there. They need to lose the rest of their games.

2-0 now…

I’d like to know how Nashville can get players to play there without tossing around NMC’s while the Wild have given out the most in the NHL.

He could demand it, but would the CBA allow it?

No, but he is the #1 overall pick. And the NHL will do everything under the sun to pimp him. And he’s in a bigger TV market than Rossi. Which is all the NHL cares about. Which is why Atlanta is getting yet a third shot at an NHL team and Bettman is moving heaven and earth to keep the Coyotes in Arizona. Bigger markets means more advertising revenue.

You got one of your wishes…Rossi with Wild goal #2…

Russo had a pretty good article in the Athletic that more or less lambasted the Wild. Basically the Wild have no scoring beyond Kaprizov, Eriksson-Ek, Zuccarello, and Boldy. Rossi had 20 goals and Faber should finish top 2 in Calder voting, so there is some hope there. But the rest of the offense, especially Johansson and Gadreau, were basically worthless this season. Same with the defense. Beyond Faber and Brodin, the rest of the defense was useless. This season showed how little depth the Wild truly have. And when the team needed solid goaltending, Gustavson went AWOL. With the significant cap hit the Wild had, they couldn’t afford injuries and as many passengers as they had. It’s going to be more or less the same team next season with all the NMC’s and the cap only going up $4M or so.