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Wild off-season 2021


Icechipper

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First free agent signing is Blaine and U of M star Nick Bjugstad. I assume at $900,000 he's either Kraken bait or a depth signing.

 

So under contract regulars appear to be:

Kaprisov Ek Zuccarello

Parise Rask Fiala

Greenway Hartman Foligno

Boldy Sturm Bjugstad

 

Suter Spurgeon

Brodin Dumba

Soucy Addison

 

Talbot

Kaapo

 

I expect Rossi will begin year in Iowa...

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  • Wild re-sign Bjugstad to one-year deal

The Minnesota Wild re-signed forward Nick Bjugstad to a one-year, $900,000 contract on Monday, bringing back some useful depth up front.

The Canadian Press

    •  

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Wild re-signed forward Nick Bjugstad to a one-year, $900,000 contract on Monday, bringing back some useful depth up front.

Bjugstad had six goals, 11 assists and a career-best plus-7 rating in 44 games this season, his first with his home-state team. The 28-year-old also had 48 hits and 22 blocked shots while playing both center and right wing. He had one goal in the playoff series against Vegas.

Bjugstad, who played at Blaine High School and the University of Minnesota, became the 27th native of Minnesota to play in a game for the Wild. He has 103 goals and 121 assists in 483 games over nine years in the NHL.

Last week, the Wild re-signed center Joel Eriksson Ek to an eight-year, $42 million contract.

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I'm not the biggest Bjugstad fan, but I am ok with the 900K one year signing.

Feels like the Wild are sorta dangling a carrot in front of him....daring him to do more and earn himself a seven figure contract with more time on it.
Whether its to stay on with the team beyond the one year or perhaps for someone else later on to sign him.
Point being that he maximize himself while still with the Wild and help Minnesota while he is still with them.

Anything more than the 900K and on a multi-year contract at this point in time would have had me going, "oh boy...here we go again".
But these types of "show me" contracts are just right for a player trying to earn long term trust from a team like Bjugstad is.

As for playing a prospect, the Wild can still do that, especially if Bjugstad falters (then you simply put him and his 900K in the press box) or he goes on IR (likely given his history).
So I wouldn't worry too much about Bjug blocking any prospects, as he himself isn't anything close to a lock on the team.

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3 hours ago, lynxrattle said:

900K is about right, but why Bjug when we could play a prospect in his place.

 

Well i don't know where the Wild are with their protection list but they also have expectations they must fulfill to Seattle for the draft and part of it is to expose 10% of their cap for them to chose from as well as one goalie under contract for next year or one who is a RFA who they can choose from.

 

So Nick just goes towards fulfilling some of that i would expect (they have to expose at least two forwards minimum and one defenseman who are under contract for next season and they have to have played at least 27 games last season).

 

So not sure who the other forward one be but you have one for now to expose.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/6/2021 at 4:06 AM, Icechipper said:

 Ek Zuccarello Rask

Greenway Hartman Foligno

Boldy Sturm Bjugstad

Brodin Spurgeon

Soucy Dumba

 

Talbot

Kaapo

 

 

Without Kaprisov signed, and Fiala, the Wild and Coyotes are the worst teams in the Central.

 

The Wild not only cannot field a bonafide NHL roster, but they need: a first line center; a top four defender and two top six wingers (hopefully Fiala and Kaprisov).

 

Meanwhile, with Greenway Dumba and Sturm protected, Seattle will almost certainly take one of the Wild's goaltenders, so Guerin will have to sign one as a free agent. Won't be cheap.

 

 

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6 hours ago, Icechipper said:

the Wild and Coyotes are the worst teams in the Central.

 

Well it is what it is. It may work itself out soon.

 

The good news if you can call it that next years draft is really deep so it would be a good year to finish in the bottom 5.

 

Some good talent to be had.

 

I know the down side is having a a year of bad hockey to have to tolerate.

 

I think Kaprizov comes around in the end he doesn't have much leverage except to head back to the KHL but that at the same time will just hurt his image.

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So, curious as to thoughts on how we address the glaring hole in the middle. Do you think we are serious about Eichel? Even with the buyouts I think the dollars with him are just too much. I don’t like the idea of throwing too much money into 3-4 players and having chicken feed for the rest of the roster. 
 

I’ve also seen some speculation about Christian Dvorak. He’s under contract for I think 4 more years at under $5M per. That would fit in more with our cap situation but point production wise he’s about the equivalent of Rask. 
 

Heard someone on NHL Network mention Tomas Hertl. That’s interesting but he’s a free agent after the coming season.

 

Any other intriguing/realistic options?

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It looks like we need to convince Kaprizov about our centers. Otherwise he might only be ready to make a short deal. It's unfortunate and risky, but we might have to take a risk with Eichel. If Kap was more patient, we could wait for Barkov's decision. He would be perfect for Kap. (He even speaks Russian fluently as his family comes from Russia.) I'm not too interested in Hertl or Dvorak.

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Zulgad reported on the Sota Pod that the Wild appear serious in whatever their offer is for him.  They even suggested although I haven't seen any confirmation of this is Buffalo would retain 50% of Eichel's salary.  However, I think its a foolish risk.  He still has to get surgery for his neck issue.  We just bought out Suter / Parise because of their toxicity to the team's culture.  Why would you want to bring another guy in who hasn't those kinds of attitude issues?  

 

As far as Bjugstad signing went.  Meh.  I think we could've saved ourselves $100K-$150K by just using someone like Luke Johnson or Brandon Duhaime in that same role.  The only other thing Bjugstad gives you he can play center or wing; but so can Johnson.  For a guy who is 6'6" he gets rag dolled a lot.  But he's mostly going to be a 4th liner so is it worth getting worked up about.  

 

I saw a lot of things talking about the Wild signing Nick Foligno to a 1-year deal.  Again, he's a captain and I think he wouldn't be an attitude problem but why get older and slower even if its for just one year?  He doesn't have a lot of offense to his game anymore and if he's brought in to be another 4th liner..why?  

 

Maybe its just me, but I don't see a point in trying to lure lots of people in on 1-year deals to try to be good one season before we have to purge the next 3 seasons because of the Parise / Suter buyout.  If we're going to be bad.  We might as well be bad.  There 3 top notch centers expected to go in the top 5 picks of the draft next year.  If we end up putting ourselves in position to get one of those players then we won't have to worry about frittering away the future on the health of Eichel.  

 

I can see the sense in signing a guy like Ian Cole, maybe another physical defenseman who would be relatively cheap like Jake McCabe.  

Edited by CreaseAndAssist
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The Minnesota Wild have exposed goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen for the Seattle Kraken.

List of protected players:
Joel Eriksson Ek
Kevin Fiala
Marcus Foligno
Jordan Greenway
Ryan Hartman
Nico Sturm
Mats Zuccarello

Jonas Brodin
Matt Dumba
Jared Spurgeon

 Cam Talbot

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2 hours ago, TallyTigerShark said:

Report just out via Trade Rumors that the Wild are likely to sign Nick Foligno.

 

I wonder what he would play for AAV wise?
His last contract's cap hit was 5.5M. Anything close to that, would, of course, be too much.

But if the price and term is right (he will have just turned 34 by the time the season starts), I wouldn't mind having a pair of Folignos knocking around opposing players on a regular basis. :) 

Edited by TropicalFruitGirl26
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23 hours ago, Icechipper said:

If I were Seattle 🤔.......I would take Kahkonen. Slam dunk.🥅

 

Wild also re-signed Joseph Crammerosa two years two way. Left exposed.

Why did we signed Cramarossa for 2 years? He played last season 4 games for the Wild team and 8 games for the Iowa Wild team. He did not present any interest. Strange decision on signing him. And Dumba should not be protected, but Soucy. Strange decision as well. We would save some money too. I even not talk about Kahkonen. Strange decision was made regarding him too. I would expose Talbot but sign Price, who is available now and he is much better than Talbot. 

From the list above I would sign Niederreiter, who will play well with Fiala. And still I would be interested to Tarasenko too. He was very upset with physicians in St.Louis which provided a low quality of his treatment caused him to finish recovery in Colorado, because he did not trust any more to physicians in St.Louis . Minnesota capable to provide a very solid quality of medical treatment as well for him if necessary in the future. Maybe he will be interested to sign a contract with us? It seems Flyers are interested in him too. Any way we need more stars in our team, but not an average players.

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19 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

Why did we signed Cramarossa for 2 years? He played last season 4 games for the Wild team and 8 games for the Iowa Wild team. He did not present any interest. Strange decision on signing him. And Dumba should not be protected, but Soucy. Strange decision as well. We would save some money too. I even not talk about Kahkonen. Strange decision was made regarding him too. I would expose Talbot but sign Price, who is available now and he is much better than Talbot. 

From the list above I would sign Niederreiter, who will play well with Fiala. And still I would be interested to Tarasenko too. He was very upset with physicians in St.Louis which provided a low quality of his treatment caused him to finish recovery in Colorado, because he did not trust any more to physicians in St.Louis . Minnesota capable to provide a very solid quality of medical treatment as well for him if necessary in the future. Maybe he will be interested to sign a contract with us? It seems Flyers are interested in him too. Any way we need more stars in our team, but not an average players.

 

It appears Cramarossa is a journeyman AHL'er with the occasional call up.....that will likely continue, whether he stays on with the Wild or is moved somehow.
Teams DO need to sign organizational depth and emergency call up type players.
Joseph Cramarossa is one of those for the Wild.

Edited by TropicalFruitGirl26
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5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

It appears Cramarossa is a journeyman AHL'er with the occasional call up.....that will likely continue, whether he stays on with the Wild or is moved somehow.
Teams DO need to sign organizational depth and emergency call up type players.
Joseph Cramarossa is one of those for the Wild.

We did not have this before the Covid pandemics. I do not see any organizational depth by using occasional an average player by occupying someone place.  Before we had a call up directly from the Iowa Wild team on a best promising prospect to replace for a while an injured Wild player. And as soon as that player recovered then we sent a promising prospect back to Iowa. If that prospect showed an outstanding results, then the Wild tried to keep him here as long as possible. Prospect also have got a valuable professional experience during that time. Cramarossa is not the player the Wild need to waste a time and money on him. Better to use a real promising prospects for the tryouts who were drafted by the Wild organization. Sending (without a contract) a 50 goals OHL scorer Sokolov back to Russia without a single game tryout in the big club, but signing Cramarossa for 2 years who showed nothing(ZERO) for the big club - it does not look absolutely right for me.  Why Cole Caufield was used in Montreal Canadiens for 10 games during the regular season as well as during playoffs and became a real star, but Boldy was not used at all in the Wild team but was available exactly at the same time as Caufield ? Something is wrong in these completely strange decisions by the Wild organization. I think Kaprizov is scared of this too.

Edited by Alexandron
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2 hours ago, Alexandron said:

We did not have this before the Covid pandemics. I do not see any organizational depth by using occasional an average player by occupying someone place.  Before we had a call up directly from the Iowa Wild team on a best promising prospect to replace for a while an injured Wild player. And as soon as that player recovered then we sent a promising prospect back to Iowa. If that prospect showed an outstanding results, then the Wild tried to keep him here as long as possible. Prospect also have got a valuable professional experience during that time. Cramarossa is not the player the Wild need to waste a time and money on him. Better to use a real promising prospects for the tryouts who were drafted by the Wild organization. Sending (without a contract) a 50 goals OHL scorer Sokolov back to Russia without a single game tryout in the big club, but signing Cramarossa for 2 years who showed nothing(ZERO) for the big club - it does not look absolutely right for me.  Why Cole Caufield was used in Montreal Canadiens for 10 games during the regular season as well as during playoffs and became a real star, but Boldy was not used at all in the Wild team but was available exactly at the same time as Caufield ? Something is wrong in these completely strange decisions by the Wild organization. I think Kaprizov is scared of this too.

 

I agree with you...the Wild should NOT be wasting roster spaces, but I don't think Cramarossa will do that at all.

My point was, teams need to fill out minor league rosters. And while in a perfect world, one would like to have all young players in the AHL, each with a real chance to make and help the big club, that simply isn't reality.

All teams across the NHL have journeymen and/or vets who are no longer NHL viable on their minor league squad to provide stability.
Cramarossa may not be NHL calibur, but he HAS played NHL games and if anything he's learned there can rub off on the young players that are coming up, then that in itself is a help.

Money-wise, its a non factor.
He will make 750K if he stays with the big club, but more likely he will only be making around 170-175K as a minor league player.

Some players, in fact, sign with a team knowing full well they will be mostly a minor league roster player and are ok with that.
But should the Wild suffer some crazy catastrophes at the NHL level, and need to call up someone who has at least played NHL games as opposed to forcing up a  young player that isn't quite ready, well, then, he could be the guy.

And if somehow, he plays really well in the AHL, and Minnesota decides to call him up based on that, they may end up with a low cost, low risk player that can solidly man a bottom six position.

It's a no-lose signing really.
He isn't blocking anyone, is someone who can round out an AHL roster with some NHL experience, and anyone with any superior talent in the minors for Minnesota will easily surpass him on the call up list anyways.

Edited by TropicalFruitGirl26
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