Wild 2022 off season

[Tomdog]

After looking at cap friendly the Wild will need at a minimum for Rossi or a different forward. If there are ANY injuries to a forward there would need to be a call up for a player of the same salary or less. 
Defense is a little more stable to the point where they would not need Addison to play until an injury. 
In my opinion I would rather see them move Addison as I don’t see him as a successful big league player. Too Small. 
I’m not sure if they could package a few of their prospects for, ideally, a player that is still a RFA but that would solve some of their issues. 

[IllaZilla]

17 hours ago, TallyTigerShark said:

There is little doubt in my mind that Rossi and Addison at a minimum will be on the opening day roster. We will not be as good a team as last year, but I still don’t see any reason this team won’t be competitive and compete for a playoff spot. They should not go from a top 5-10 team in the league, to bottom dwellers because of Fiala. 

 

One thing people forget is that an awful lot of Wild players had career years scoring-wise. Hartman had 34 goals. Ericksson-Ek had 26. Zuccarello had 24. Foligno had 23. Gadreau had 14. So it's not just Fiala's 33 goals the Wild will be missing. These players would need to maintain this level of scoring for the Wild to only miss Fiala's goals. I'm not saying it can't happen, but the odds are better that these players come back to earth rather than continue on their scoring tears.

 

And that's also saying that Kaprizov gets his work visa to re-enter the US. If not, that's 80 goals the wild will be missing. Dat's a lotta goals...

 

And unless the Wild move someone, there will only be room for Rossi or Addison, but not both. They only have $1.4M in cap space. Rossi = $863K, Addison = $795K. That's $224K too much. Maybe they can bury Merrill and his $1.2M on the LTIR list like Vegas did with half their team this season...

Edited July 11, 2022 by IllaZilla

[CreaseAndAssist]

47 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

 

One thing people forget is that an awful lot of Wild players had career years scoring-wise. Hartman had 34 goals. Ericksson-Ek had 26. Zuccarello had 24. Foligno had 23. Gadreau had 14. So it's not just Fiala's 33 goals the Wild will be missing. These players would need to maintain this level of scoring for the Wild to only miss Fiala's goals. I'm not saying it can't happen, but the odds are better that these players come back to earth rather than continue on their scoring tears.

 

And that's also saying that Kaprizov gets his work visa to re-enter the US. If not, that's 80 goals the wild will be missing. Dat's a lotta goals...

 

And unless the Wild move someone, there will only be room for Rossi or Addison, but not both. They only have $1.4M in cap space. Rossi = $863K, Addison = $795K. That's $224K too much. Maybe they can bury Merrill and his $1.2M on the LTIR list like Vegas did with half their team this season...

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly.  I talked about this on a podcast I was on a little over a week ago.  

 

Brave the Wild State of the Wild Podcast  Fast forward to the 181 minute mark.  

 

But I agree, I think its pretty presumptuous to think all of these players who had career years are going to match those totals or exceed them.  In fact, given where many are at in their careers I think its far more likely they'll score less.  Especially when you consider the fact we're going to be going from two true scoring lines back to one.  

 

I think there are maybe 3-4 players who might or exceed match their totals from last season.  Kaprizov (if he makes it back), Boldy, Eriksson Ek and maybe Greenway.  The only reason I say Eriksson Ek is that he might get more power play time without Fiala being there and Greenway simply because his totals were so modest last year.   

 

But the rest like Hartman.  No way he's going to have 34 goals this season.  I think we'll be lucky if we are a middle of the pack offensively.  

Edited July 11, 2022 by CreaseAndAssist

[TallyTigerShark]

11 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

But might it be better IF the Wild were bottom dwellers?

Yeah, I could stomach that for the long run. 

[TallyTigerShark]

8 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

One thing people forget is that an awful lot of Wild players had career years scoring-wise.

Great point, and it had crossed my mind. Should we expect the same from Zuc and Hartman? Probably not, but if they are playing alongside Kaprizov they might get close. KK97 makes everyone better. Zuc’s age will start to become a concern though. I’m more concerned about the degree of drop off with the second line.

[CreaseAndAssist]

I know we're a day away from free agency.  But maybe its just me, is I hope they keep it simple and promote from within.  I see a lot of folks on Twitter getting all giddy about adding players like Evgeni Malkin, etc, but if you are going to make any major move of significance the team is going to have to shed salary from elsewhere.  

 

I don't have a big problem dumping Dumba to do something like this; but since he's the most likely person you'd deal to free up that salary there just isn't a lot of tempting pieces to move to make that happen.  Teams aren't going to do the Wild any favors and take a bad or an ugly contract just to help us get what we want.  Also, if people want more moves than that, then you're going to have to talk to guys with NMC's to waive them to create space which is something I think this organization is probably not looking to do.  

 

Simply put, its probably not practical.  So its probably a better bet to think this team maybe trades one meh contract like Kulikov's deal (he does have a modified no trade clause) just to give themselves room to add the contracts or Rossi, Addison and probably another cheap contract (hopefully from within, i.e. another guy who played in Iowa last year).  

[IllaZilla]

I'd be surprised if they do anything other than call-ups. Right now they simply don't have the cap space. And yes, I realize they have until the start of the season to become cap compliant, but other teams will know you are bumping the cap and will not help you out trade-wise.

 

Not sure how smart that was signing MAF. He'd probably be a better mentor than Talbot for Wallstedt, but his salary chewed up a good chunk of what little cap space they had left. Wouldn't surprise me if they start the season with a 21 or 22 man roster...

 

 

[CreaseAndAssist]

2 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

I'd be surprised if they do anything other than call-ups. Right now they simply don't have the cap space. And yes, I realize they have until the start of the season to become cap compliant, but other teams will know you are bumping the cap and will not help you out trade-wise.

 

Not sure how smart that was signing MAF. He'd probably be a better mentor than Talbot for Wallstedt, but his salary chewed up a good chunk of what little cap space they had left. Wouldn't surprise me if they start the season with a 21 or 22 man roster...

 

 

 

I am not disagreeing with you on that.  

 

Even then you're going to almost have to trade a guy to have the $$ space for call ups.  I thought the Fleury signing was ill-conceived unless they're were going to deal one of them away to gain some space.  Colorado isn't spending big money between the pipes.  Although we will certainly have to be a lot better defensively since I think its very realistic to think we might lose half goal or more per game than what we averaged this season.  

[ClusterChuck]

5 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

I know we're a day away from free agency.  But maybe its just me, is I hope they keep it simple and promote from within.  I see a lot of folks on Twitter getting all giddy about adding players like Evgeni Malkin, etc,

Ugh...That makes me think of Fantasy League mentality or shades of Danny 'F'in All-Star' Heatley signing.
Why would a big name want to squeeze out another year with the Wild? The entire league knows our situation.
Which now really amazes me that MAF did sign here for 2 years. There seems to be a lot of teams looking for goalies who may just have a chance to surprise in the PO's with a decent goalie (and a lot of puck-luck) way more than the Wild's chances as thing stand right now. MAF said he wants to win ofc, Just strange he commited to here.

I agree with the "promote from within". We're pretty much forced to now and it does seem we have a solid group on the farm to choose from...For once, And not be traded out.

Edited July 12, 2022 by ClusterChuck

[Tomdog]

I think signing Fleury was a mistake in many ways. 
1 his best days are long gone. 
2 It’s a lot of money for someone to split time between the pipes. 
3 In what way is he supposed to mentor Wahlsted? Not in style of play I hope. That’s the goalie coaches job. Life in the NHL. OK. 
I just don’t see where spending that much on an older goalie who really isn’t that much better than Talbot is worth it. 
I think the roster is, as Guerin says, set. If by deadline time the team is failing I think there will be some significant moves. 
Until then we will have to wait and see. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Well, there we go....this just came in today where the Wild traded Cam Talbot to Ottawa for Filip Gustavsson.

So the goalie tandem going into the season looks to be, Fleury starter, Gustavsson, 24 yr old backup.

I'm actually ok with this. 
I thought Fleury was going to get the lion's share of the starts anyways, Talbot or not, Gustavsson is much lighter on the cap (787K), is young enough to where he may still turn into something, and if not, well, there is always Wallstedt simmering in the minors.

I've watched Gustavsson in goal for Ottawa, not bad. Some games he looked kinda brilliant, TBH.
At this stage, won't carry a team, but may thrive under better defensive protection (Ottawa, as you can imagine, is awful defensively), but still, sample sizes too small to be sure.

Edited July 12, 2022 by TropicalFruitGirl26

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Wild fans can relax...there will NOT be a Malkin-Stein sighting in St. Paul, MN, unless he is part of the visiting team.
The longtime Penguin has reached an agreement with his team for 4 yrs, 6.1M AAV.

No more worrying the Wild were gonna do something crazy like sign him, have him get injured, while eating up whatever cap they have left or blocking a younger player.
Crisis averted.  

Courtesy of Capfriendly, though they DO note it is "unconfirmed" and not official yet. But it should be soon.

[Alexandron]

He was asking to be signed at least 3 years even for less money, but not 2 years as was initially proposed for him. He is not comparable to Heatley and I would be happy to have a star of his level for the Wild team, especially to play with Kaprizov and Zuccarello line. 

[IllaZilla]

Well, they now have $4.3M in cap space to sign/call up three players. 

 

And I think BG just sent a message to the team as well...

[IllaZilla]

Minnesota Wild Agrees to Terms with Four Players

 

Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin today announced the National Hockey League (NHL) club has agreed to terms with forward Brandon Baddock on a one-year, two-way contract ($750,000/$200,000), forward Steven Fogarty on a two-year, two-way contract ($750,000/$350,000 in 2022-23 and $775,000/$350,000 in 2023-24, forward Nic Petan on a two-year, two-way contract ($750,000/$500,000 in 2022-23 and $775,000/$550,000 in 2023-24) and defenseman Andrej Sustr (pronounced AHN-dray SHOO-stuhr) on a one-year, two-way contract ($750,000/$400,000).

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

 defenseman Andrej Sustr (pronounced AHN-dray SHOO-stuhr) on a one-year, two-way contract ($750,000/$400,000).

 

Yikes!
Sustr!

Like a bad penny...keeps re-appearing everywhere! 

[Alexandron]

5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Yikes!
Sustr!

Like a bad penny...keeps re-appearing everywhere! 

A decent size defenseman played for 6 seasons in Tampa and a couple in Anaheim. Did we have players from Czechia or he is the 1st one in the Wild history?

[Alexandron]

Interesting, Deslauriers transfered from Wild to Flyers. And our former players Sturm from Colorado to San Jose; Stalock to Chicago.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

5 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

A decent size defenseman played for 6 seasons in Tampa and a couple in Anaheim. Did we have players from Czechia or he is the 1st one in the Wild history?

not sure on the Czech players, but all Sustr has going for him is a big wingspan and a HINT of a mean streak, and that’s about it.

You definitely don’t want him matched against anyone’s top 6, or in a situation with open ice and he has to cover a good skater.

 

He left the NHL to play in Europe some years back when the only North American job he could get was in the AHL, then came back, a bit more improved defensively, though still below par when compared to your standard stay at home d-man.

 

if the Wild use him primarily against big bodied grinders, and don’t dump him with a ton of minutes, he will be serviceable….otherwise, he can get burned relatively easily by players with even above average NHL skill and skate speed

 

[IllaZilla]

14 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

A decent size defenseman played for 6 seasons in Tampa and a couple in Anaheim. Did we have players from Czechia or he is the 1st one in the Wild history?

Filip Kuba and Lubomir Sekeras from the 2000-2001 team were the first players from Czechia. 

[IllaZilla]

4 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

not sure on the Czech players, but all Sustr has going for him is a big wingspan and a HINT of a mean streak, and that’s about it.

You definitely don’t want him matched against anyone’s top 6, or in a situation with open ice and he has to cover a good skater.

 

He left the NHL to play in Europe some years back when the only North American job he could get was in the AHL, then came back, a bit more improved defensively, though still below par when compared to your standard stay at home d-man.

 

if the Wild use him primarily against big bodied grinders, and don’t dump him with a ton of minutes, he will be serviceable….otherwise, he can get burned relatively easily by players with even above average NHL skill and skate speed

 

I’m guessing he’s the new Jordie Benn. Or Iowa bound. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

3 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

I’m guessing he’s the new Jordie Benn. Or Iowa bound. 

Fair comparison, and quite possible he ends up as Iowa fodder.

 

Though I gotta say I think Benn was a better shot blocker and hit more often at least

[CreaseAndAssist]

Martin Skoula was from what today is known as Czechia.  We've had others too like Martin Havlat.  

 

Anyways...I don't think any of those guys we added yesterday are really made to boost the Minnesota Wild as much as they're to be veterans for Iowa to utilize.  Sustr never really became the poor man's Zdeno Chara people hoped he'd be back from his college days at Nebraska-Omaha.  But he'll give Iowa some size which they don't have a lot of there.  

 

Baddock will take on that enforcer role that Cody McLeod used to have before he decided to hang up the skates as a player.  

 

Fogarty hopefully can be a consistent offensive contributor in a way Dominic Turgeon wasn't.  

[CreaseAndAssist]

13 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Interesting, Deslauriers transfered from Wild to Flyers. And our former players Sturm from Colorado to San Jose; Stalock to Chicago.

 

The 4-year contract to Deslauriers to the Flyers was AWFUL.  $1.75M a season?  Blech, can't imagine too many Flyers fans were thrilled about that pickup.  Sturm actually took less money and term than the Wild offered (and rejected) before we traded him for Tyson Jost.  Stalock to Chicago...hope it actually leads to an NHL opportunity for him.  

[TallyTigerShark]

2 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

The 4-year contract to Deslauriers to the Flyers was AWFUL.  $1.75M a season?  Blech, can't imagine too many Flyers fans were thrilled about that pickup.  Sturm actually took less money and term than the Wild offered (and rejected) before we traded him for Tyson Jost.  Stalock to Chicago...hope it actually leads to an NHL opportunity for him.  

I find it REALLY hard to believe that Chuck Fletcher is still a GM in this league.