EJ0226

On the brightside Zucker is with a contender that is going all in to win it now and has a shot. Maybe he'll be hoisting the cup! Pens probably only have Sid for only another year or 2 before he retires so if it doesn't happen then Zuckers contract will end and he can move again. This could be best case scenario for him.

What sucks the most is the guys we really need to move, either because of money or declining skills, Parise, Suter and Koivu can't be moved. Brodin. I wouldn't want to move either but realistically might be the best D guy to move to get anything of value back. Dumba. I was one harping back years ago Dumba is overrated by fans and media. He is what he is. A guy who can score sometimes but is going to make lots of costly mistakes. He is a -8 right now even with 18 points scored. Maybe a team desperate for a scoring defenseman who has guys to cover his mistakes. Staal. Let me say I am a fan of him. I think he is going to be a HoFer. He is also our top scoring player. But last year would have netted us the most we could have gotten for him. Depending on what his modified Trade List is maybe we can still grab a good return if somebody offers. I think the ship sailed on that ship and won't get much in return other then a salary dump. Greenway. I had hopes for him. Honestly at this point he is what he is and won't net much back. Maybe if the Wild were a team that could develop young guys he would have had a shot to be a good 2nd or 3rd liner. Dubnyk. Honestly should have been a career back up Goalie. Maybe a Goalie who starts 50% of the time with another Goalie but never a actually full time starter. Maybe a team going into the playoffs who has a hurt Goalie and is desperate for another Goalie would snag him up and give a decent trade back. Spurgeon reminds me of so much of Suter and Zucker in the sense of getting that nice big contract and completely stopping what made them good. What a disappointment in my eyes. Don't know what the trade clause he has but at his price he is not worth it especially when he jumps up in cost next year. Zuccarello. Why is he making $6 million a year? Why is it the Wild continue to overpay mediocre players? I wish we could move him.

My thoughts on this. It was a salary dump and draft stockpiling move. I agree with @CreaseAndAssist that Addison seems to have peaked in Major Juniors. Galchenyuk appears to be a fill in 4th line guy who is going to be bouncing between teams all his career. Honestly, with the Wild's history of scouting and drafting players the first round pick doesn't excite me at all. I do think we needed to do something to fix our awful salary issues. I don't like as the Wild continue to get older they are willing to get slower by getting rid of our fast guys unless our goal is to get top draft picks the next few years. Good for Zucker for getting a chance to win a cup. I can almost see him becoming really good now that he is away from the Wild. It seems like players sitting on the line of becoming really good players flourish once they are off of the Wild roster. We will see how this turns out. I can't say it's either good or bad. The only thing I see is a team shedding salary and trying to stockpile picks.

My biggest fear is Guerin holding on to everybody as the Wild dance on the line of maybe making the playoffs. I am praying the Wild go into a horrible tail spin so then he can just start moving and take the rebuild path and not the let's tinker some more path. Yes it will suck but the franchise needs to do this and come out reborn as a different beast. Hopefully be shedded of all the old vets. Right now this team feels like Old Yeller that no matter how many shots you put into it there is still a hair bit of life and moaning coming from it. It just needs to be put down.

Honest question to everybody. What players do we have that could net us something worthwhile and not a player of equal or less? Would you want to pick up Zucker and his contract as another GM? Spurgeon has pulled a Suter and Zucker in signing a nice fat contract and disappearing. Would you want to risk that kind of money? Dubnyk is old and to expensive unless a team had a serious injury and was desperate. Greenway is going to net us much and more then likely net us a loss in size. I just look across the board and can't see where the Wild would get something that would be a improvement other then just shedding some contracts. None of the players are doing themselves a favor but then again most know if you just do enough and get a decent contract the Wild will treat you like royalty even if squat and drop turds on the ice. The funny thing is I can see any player leaving Minnesota, being forced to play hard and do good.

I think a lot of vets of the team have seen this same song and dance so much that a lot of us are just doing something else now and not even flipping on the channel to see the game. Suter is a huge flag of what is wrong with this team. Big fat paycheck, probably hurts the team more on the ice then helps but since he has that fat contract the Wild management wants him out there. At this point how can anybody say Suter is even trying out there?! The only other way he could say the big **** you to everybody is by talking his gloves off and skating around with the middle finger to everybody. Man, I remember sometime back Russo basically called me a idiot for suggesting Parise and Suter is the Wilds biggest downfall and probably top 10 of worst signings in all of sports. I tried explaining that they have never gotten the team further then what a team filled with a bunch of nobodies did back in 2002-03 season. In fact the 02-03 season the Wild were 8-10 in 1 year in the playoffs. The Parise & Suter era are 15-29 in 7 years. In 7 years they haven't even doubled the win total of one season. Throw in that their contracts completely anchored the team on what they can do. Add a dash of making the team just good enough to make the playoffs through the backdoor and lose right away so you don't get a good draft pick. Bake together and you have this franchise. I still remember Russo saying I am dumb for that suggestion. I like his interviews but he can wear blinders easily.

Prison wallet....?

Lol to bad there isn't a stat to how many goals you deflect into your own goal. Suter will be # 1 for sure. My thoughts exactly. The Wild are absolutely luckly they played the Wings with their performance because any other team would have made the Wild pay for it. I honestly thought when they pulled their goalie with 4 minutes left they would tie the game maybe even win it. I was more impressed the Wings came up empty handed during that span then the Wild actually winning. I hope during the break BG is able to finally staple open Leipolds eyes and show him we need to go into rebuild now. Time to let Koivu go. See if you can drive out Suter and Parise. See if you can get Zucker, Spurgeon and Dumba gone too. Get young and hungry players back into the system. Get control of the ship. Sad reality is that the Wild have to rebuild. Either do it now or suffer a few more years when some of the anchor contracts finally expire and do it then. You can sometimes get lucky and buy a championship but majority of the time it bites you in the @ss. I feel for both BG and BB. Both are in bad spots.

Trap game and Dubnyk is starting. This could be a feel good game for the Wings. I see a 5-2 game with Suter scoring at least on goal in on the Wild.

Looks like the fanboys with blinders on took over the voting. They should give that same survey to people outside of Minnesota that are not a Wild fan and you would see eye opening difference.

Agree with this pretty much. Soucy- Above what I expected. A B Fiala- Above for sure. A B Brodin=Above. A B- Stalock- Above big time. A B+ almost A- Suter- I swear he just goes out there to show people he gets paid even if he literally takes a dump on the ice in front of everybody. By far the worst on the ice for the Wild. A fat F. Spurgeon- He is way below expectations. It's really bad and concerning in my books. A F for me. Rask- Has surprised me and be at or even above expectations. I give him a C+ Greenway- Below almost at. I say a D+ Kunin- I think he's hovering right around the at expectations. A solid B Parise- I would say At. I give him a B- Staal- I believe Staal is also a At. I give him a C Eriksson Ek- I would say at. I would say a C Donato- I honestly think he is hovering at the Above right now. For sure not getting his fair share to play though. I say about a B Zuccarello- I say below. Big F for me Hunt- Below for sure. A D Pateryn- Below. A D Hartman- Below. A D Dumba- Below big time. I give him a F Dubnyk- Honestly he is below what should be expected. I expected this from him. A D+ Koivu- Skills diminishing. One trick pony in the face offs. Even his defense is declining. Below expectations. A D+ from me. Zucker- Have no idea what is going on with him. Did he pull a Suter? Sign a fat contract and then see how little effort you can put in before you get yelled at to pick it up some. A F from me. Well below expectations for me. Seeler- I guess below expectations but for me I honestly didn't expect much more. A D for me.

Going off of that list Suter, Dubnyk, Parise, Zuccarello, Staal and Spurgeon would be my priority. Even with the penalties I would take the hit to buy out Suter now and get that cancer out of here. It's clear he is contend with losing as long as he doesn't have to put in effort or work. And of course the excuses come in the form of "he's hurt", "he's going through something", "He has some rust", etc. No, he is not any of that. He is just a fat ass lazy player whose contract indicates he doesn't need to put in any effort to get paid. He wants ice time as this allows him to get those sweet advertisement deals. There is zero chance he isn't a cancer. So either he is one of the worst businessmen there are or he is lying through his teeth and I don't know what is worst. I did enjoy that even a Finnish paper could call this team a tire fire, lol a confusing one at that. Put the Wild have been plagued with bad choice, after bad choice and the lack of ability to change. Bad drafting with bad free agent signings. Add a dash of zero ability to develop players and you got the Wild. Let's not fool ourselves. Players can see this and that's why players like Kessel are avoiding coming here. You will see it more until the team goes into a full rebuild. You can get a bandaid on a cut off arm but if you don't actually get help the gangrene sets it and kills you off.

I won't stand here and say Boudreau is the only coach that can get us to the promised land and he isn't flawed. He is a good coach and made a mistake on that. It sucks for sure. But he isn't using a controller to control the players on the ice. A coach can direct a team and a very good coach can lift a team to the next level but even the mightiest, Scotty Bowman, couldn't get this team to the Stanley Cup. The roster was build by very flawed GMs who allowed a very low hockey IQ owner to make decisions on player too. Factor in this owner is more concerned about being besties with his highest paid players then being serious about winning a cup and you can't direct the blame on the coach. Bruce for sure deserves some but I think the majority falls on the GMs, Leipold and a few certain players who made this club their own personal workout gym where they get paid fat stacks of cash. And like @CreaseAndAssist said the only player who shows effort and passion to winning is Marcus Foligno. I would say he is the only player I would keep and fire sale everybody else. Honestly, I would get rid of Suter if I could even if it means I have to pay his salary still as there is no way he isn't the most toxic player in that locker room.

I completely agree with this article. This roster has proven they are not the right guys for the job. As much as I hate to a hard working blue collar guy go I would include everybody and even Foligno. I have accepted these guys together will never hoist a cup. In fact I expect ugly blowouts against the Wild every game. It's made the games more enjoyable to watch but until the team gets talent we can't really rag on them to much. I have cut my ragging back now. Except for Suter. I can't stand his lack of effort and play. I don't think he enjoys losing but I also think he doesn't bother him at all to lose as long as he can coast and save himself.

This year I don't feel like there is locker room issues as I think it's become apparent to everybody including them that they do not have the talent and can't survive locker room issues. I know others will argue on talent but if you step away and look at this team from a different view it's not hard to see we don't have talent but a ton of money spent on guys who had a good season once. Honestly I have given up on the team being serious on winning a cup. I still cheer for them but realizing the team won't win a cup with this roster has made the games more enjoyable to watch. I still get annoyed with Suter and his lack of play and effort on the ice. I don't think he enjoys losing but I also believe he doesn't care if he does lose. Dumba is Dumba. Filled with a exciting moment or two but also filled with 20 bone headed moves. Dubnyk is a career back up Goalie who got very lucky to find a desperate team. Parise never was the super star the team made and paid him out to be. Health has always been a factor for him. Zucker, is well Zucker. A third line guy for most teams. I could go on but everybody gets the point. I guess I say don't expect anything but blow out losses from them and you will be pleasantly surprised sometimes.

Honestly, why can't they play like this every game. Like @CreaseAndAssist said, they played like/as a team instead of a few individuals. And let's not fool ourselves, goaltending like that will boost any team. I pray this is what Kahkonen will be as this will fill a big gap the Wild have been needing to fix. I hope whatever Devans wife is going through ends up positive but Dubnyk needs to be the third guy now. Stalock is clearly better then Dubnyk and Kahkonen is showing he is probably better then Stalock. If the team is serious about winning then you play your best pieces no matter what. Doesn't matter if those pieces getting bumped off were once a major piece for you. You play your best pieces. It would be awesome to see more games like this. It's fun and exciting to watch. Even better is that it feels "fresh". This is a team I can stand behind and not be upset if they lose as long as they play hard and play as a team.

Except Suter. He loves losing as it means less games to dress up in towards the end of the season. Winning for sure can cure most teams but the Wild aren't most teams. There is for some issues going on behind the scenes. Anytime we see a young and upcoming guy start to catch fire they either get sent down to the AHL, get their TOI cut down or anchored to a struggling vet line where they lose fire and then lose TOI and maybe get sent to the AHL. We have seen this since 11 and 20 got here. It all points back to Leipold. Dude has zero hockey knowledge but continues to insert himself in decisions that GMs and coaches should be making. Then he fanboys out with Parise and Suter, has dinners with them and basically lets them do what they want. We know they have influence. The Adam Oates ordeal shows this. They got nothing for a punishment. If it was any other player there would have been fines and if they are 3rd or 4th liner guys they probably would have been cut.

For sure this. The Wild just don't have the play makers and honestly, chemistry, too fight from a 2-0. Glad they got a win the other night but under the microscope it won't mean too much with the current roster. As much as some people might hearing but we would be a better team with Nino, Coyle and Granlund. Maybe not much more then a bottom 12 team but at least not one of 3 teams fighting it out for the worst team in the league. It honestly feels like the guys on the roster have just given up, which I can't blame them, or have been exposed they don't have the talent and all had a fluke one year ordeal. At this point I don't know if Guerin could do much. We just don't have trade bait to get something to really improve the roster. The guys we probably would best off to move got lock down contracts that even if they waived their NTC no team is going to want them at their contracts. I think Guerin is really going to have to do some great drafting to improve the team as it appears players are now looking away from Minnesota to play for.

Same here. Never bought it once. You have 82 games a season and you show your cards and true colors. The Wild haven't been a buckle down and grind hard team in 10+ years. For some teams this saying could be true but these teams have talent and the will and drive to work and grind hard. The Wild just don't have that. Everything has to fall in place for them or it's over. The roster just isn't good. It doesn't matter who is coaching or the GM. With this roster you are asking the coaches and GMs to cut a Giant Sequoias tree down with a butter knife if you expect a championship out of them. I mean it's possible in a 0.0000000000000000001% chance. It will be so insanely amazing as it's going to take a insane amount of work, grind, willpower and talent.

And therein lies the problem, Craig Leipold. Nothing changes until he either sits down, shuts up, signs the checks and bars any players going to him or he sells the team. I can't see him sitting down so now it's a hope the attendance and money stop flowing in so he sells.

I have had Russo say something I said stupid a time or two on twitter to only watch the team fall apart even more. He's a in disguise Wild hired writer. Funny how he will crap on 4th line guys yet can't stop praising the country club. He probably wears knee pads when he is around the country club if you catch my drift.

I know for sure Koivu, Suter and Parise will never see a cup unless they somehow got traded to a cup winning team. Put I honestly don't think those 3 really care if they win or not. They all got very overpaid with contracts that made it impossible to do anything to them if they don't put any effort or care to win a cup out there. I believe, when people say Parise actually wants to win, it's all a act. If he wanted to win he knew signing that contract was really going to limit the team on what they can do and build. The effort and skill for him as dropped drastically in the last 5 years. I might be wrong but I really do believe he doesn't care about winning a Cup. Look at guys who wanted to win one so badly. The grind they do. The fact they will take over a game and carry it. The drive and fire behind their words. Parise had this the first few years but became very comfortable becoming a GM/Owner and making the team a focus on him and Suter.

My guess is Guerin knows if he blows his chance he might not get another so is just being the company Yes Man and painting a pretty picture where ever he is told. I doubt Guerin is stupid enough to believe what he said. @CreaseAndAssist you know I have forward believed in the toxic locker room. I really hope to hear someday who your source is as I am more curious and don't doubt you one bit.

I think 25 wins could be the ceiling for this team. I would hope for Parise and Suter to waive their NTC but no team in their right mind would pick them up without basically the Wild still paying for at least 55% of their contract.

Been saying it for years, the mighty Scotty Bowman wouldn't have a chance with this squad. I had suspected for awhile that their were always overrated and what we are seeing now is really what they are.