IllaZilla

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…

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…