IllaZilla

^Truth. Even if the Wild were 100%, they still don’t match up to any of the Playoff teams. The Wild are just like the Twins. They may say they want to compete for the World Series (Stanley Cup) but the reality is they are just happy with a division pennant. Or in the Wild’s case, making the Playoffs. And I don’t buy into the “these guys have so much pride” argument. Because they showed no pride whatsoever during the season finale against Seattle. I can’t wait to see GMBG sign Zuccarello to a five year deal after the “cap hell” is over. Or Foligno and Hartman to a five year deal because “grit”. Or Johansson because…whatever. This team is a mess because they refuse to tear it all down and rebuild. They keep saying they are striving for the Playoffs because once you make it there anything can happen. Yeah, no. Most of the teams that were expected to move on did. The Wild are not like the 2014 Kings who rode Jonathan Quick to the Cup. They have no goaltending (yet). They have one line that can score. Maybe Yurov in 2025-26 will improve this. I’m not holding my breath. The defense is mediocre if not down right bad beyond Faber. And I’m not seeing a whole lot of help in Iowa. Just another year of mediocrity and then the inevitable “We’ll be better next year!”

That would work if the owner would stick to writing paychecks, but he doesn’t. He wants that Playoff money. So he insists on no rebuilds, it’s Playoffs or bust. The coach wants to keep his job, so he is going to do what the owner wants. With vets you have a known quantity. You don’t know what a rookie can do. So you are going to play the vet. And the way the Wild operate, the only way a rookie is going to get a vets spot is if the vet starts shooting at their own goal. Plus they can’t move any of the vets because Guerin gave them all NTC/NMC’s.

Wally reminded me a lot of Al when he did the U of M broadcasts with Frank Mazacco. Goldy used to be the crowd going with the weekly “Frank” “Wally” “Frank” “Wally” chanting at the Old Marriucci Arena…good times, good times…

I would kill to have Al back calling the Wild broadcasts. My god that would be fun! He wouldn’t be afraid to light the team up if they were goldbricking. But unfortunately it seems that the current environment is all “rah, rah, rah, don’t criticize the team!”

Off topic, but I just about did a cartwheel when I saw Jack Edwards was retiring. Jack Edwards was the worst. He even out homered Lapanta…

I guess I look at it this way. Let Yurov sign in the KHL next season. There isn't any room for him on the current roster thanks to giving guys like Freddy Gadreau and Marcus Johansson multi-year extensions. This team still has to prove it can get past the first round. I highly doubt the addition of one Russian center is going to be the catalyst that propels this team to the second round (or further) of the Playoffs. The core of the team is basically the same as the last two seasons. So which team is going to show up? Glass half-full says Spurgeon comes back and plays to his normal level of production, Faber doesn't have a sophomore slump, Kaprizov doesn't get off to his normal slow start, the team stays healthy, Boldy becomes more consistent, the goaltending improves, and Khusnutdinov, Ohgren and Wallstedt have meaningful production. Glass half-empty says Spurgeon isn't the same after his surgeries, Faber has a sophomore slump, Kaprizov gets off to a slow start, the team continues down the injury path, Boldy is still inconsistent, the goaltending isn't improved, and the rookies are ineffective. Plus there is all this nonsense being tossed around about trading Rossi. To what end? They finally develop a center who is probably going to come in top five in the Calder voting and they want to trade him the first chance they get.

No room for him with all the extensions...

I remember when the North Stars played the Penguins in the Stanley Cup finals and Jaromir Jagr appeared to spear one of the North Stars players (I can't remember who) and no penalty was called and for the rest of the broadcast Al referred to him as "Jaromir Jagr, King of the Spear!"

I don't have a problem with keeping Flower for one more year and mentoring Wallstedt. I'd rather have him mentoring Wallstedt than the Chubby Hubby. And truly, the only thing that matters is that the team stays healthy. The Wild have so little depth that one injury will throw them into a tailspin. Fleury made some comment about how hungry the team was and how they want to get back to the Playoffs next season. They didn't look too hungry to me. As a matter of fact, they looked all fat and happy this season, especially during that final game against Seattle. A lot of comments in the pressers this season about "too many passengers", but then let's give everyone NMC's. We keep hearing about how great a farm system the Wild has, but instead of giving the young players chances, let's lock up all the graybeards for the next three seasons. There was a pretty good article in The Athletic about how it's going to be put up or shut up time for the Wild to retain Kaprizov's services next season. He seemed generally unhappy after this season. And next season is going to be more of the same if the Wild can't stay healthy and certain players under perform again. Because next season, Kaprizov's NMC kicks in and if the Wild can't right the ship, Kaprizov can walk after the 2025-26 season. But they will still have Foligno, Hartman, and Gadreau to carry the team...

Thank god that wet fart of a season is over. And we don't even have the excitement of a high draft pick to look forward to.

Iowa is out of the playoffs. They have two games left. So Wallstedt will get two more games as opposed to one.

So...does this mean Gustavsson is on thin ice? (pun intended...)

So...has anyone heard about Gustafsson getting called out for poor practice/training habits? Apparently John Hynes spoke with Gustafsson about his poor training habits this season and will be speaking to Gus about it again this off season...

There was a "What Went Wrong for The Wild?" article in the Athletic and all the homers in the comment section were signing the praises of Guerin and how clever he was for getting the draft picks he did for Dewar and Duhaime and how the Foligno, Zucarello, et al. extensions were a steal because by the time the cap recapture penalties come off the books, those guys will be playing on the third and fourth lines and paying $2M for a fourth liner isn't a bad deal...

This is neither here nor there, but BG exchanged Duhaime for a slightly higher draft pick (low 3 vs mid 4) and Dewar for a lower draft pick (3 for a 2) and everyone is wetting their pants like he’s a genius…

How about Utah Jazz Hands?

I don’t know. But at least be honest with the fans. Does the owner not want a rebuild? Then just say so. Quit trotting out these has-beens and saying the goal is always the Cup. It insults our intelligence.

Well since the prospective owner of the Coyotes owns a basketball team that makes no sense (Utah Jazz) why not the Utah Vikings?

No, Guerin will say that the injuries are not an excuse but that because of the injuries, players were put in situations where they had to play more than they should have. And that the dead money isn’t an excuse, but it limited who the team could bring in. And that the extensions weren’t a bad thing because those players are known quantities and the draft picks we might have gotten for them are unknown quantities and might never play in the NHL.

But if you look at CapFriendly.com, the money is comparable to other players with similar stats and age. But those players didn’t get NTC/NMC’s too. So none of the Wild players took a team friendly deal PLUS they got the NTC/NMC.

I think a deeper dive is needed on those NTC’s. Yes, they are limited, but they might as well be full NTC’s: Johansson has a 15 team NTC, Bogosian has a 21 team NTC, and Gadreau has a flat out NTC. And Zuccarello has a 10 team NTC but that is coupled with a NMC. So even if Guerin found a trade partner that wasn’t on Zuccarello’s list, Zuccarello can still say “No”. And a lot of these NTC list contain teams that are likely to go to the Playoffs. Teams that usually look to trade at the deadline. Garbage teams are looking to unload players at the deadline, not add more. And I get Guerin can ask these players to be traded, but they’re not going to agree. Why would they upset their family life for two months or more to help out Guerin? That’s why they got the NTC’s in the first place.

Wait ‘til NEXT Season!

So the way I’m reading this is that if the Coyote’s build an arena, they get to come back as an expansion team? First off, the Coyotes can barely make enough to get to the NHL salary floor. Where are they going to get money to build an arena? Secondly, how many frickin teams does Bettman think the NHL needs?

The man knew what he was talking about…

Deja Vu all over again…