Wild Deadline Watch

[ClusterChuck]

20 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Good questions there. Here is what Minnesota's cap structure looks like at the moment....including the two injured players Brodin and Nyquist.

BG is going to have his work cut out for him, and I believe most of that will be in the forms of conversations he will need to have with players.
From the GM and team standpoint, he'd have to be firm with players on what can be offered, how much the front office may or may not desire to keep a given player, and if the player is willing to take a team friendly, though still reasonable contract FOR the player, they can stay on.

Right off, the cap retained for O'Reilly, Orlov (3.1M) comes off so BG has that to work with. Also right off, frankly, I'd let Reaves walk freeing up another 1.75M.
IMO, Dumba's status could come down to what the team does with John Klingberg, should Kling actually look like he is working out with the team and they'd like to keep him on.

Obviously, Dumba is NOT a 6M cap hit player, and he is NOT suited for a top 4 role. If Klingberg has anything left, and he and the team can come to some decent, oh, I dunno, say, 3M per year deal, I'd be ok with a top 4 of Spurgeon, Brodin, Klingberg, and Middleton.
If Dumba is retained (I'd say if he is going to play a bottom pair role, possibly be in a defensive rotation with the remaining defenders), no more than 2-2.5M should go to him.
Again, these are some conversations BG is going to have to have with Dumba and some other players, because they ALL know the crunch the Suter/Parise buyouts are causing and the limited amount of money to go around to keep a competitive team.

If Dumba agrees to a lowered contract, I'd be ok with him staying on. If he is seeking more, then good luck to him. Yes, he'd "walk" for nothing, but since he didn't figure into the financial plans due to any demand from his camp, it is just as well...ESPECIALLY if the team has already agreed to something reasonable with Klingberg.

The two bottom defensive spots, assuming all stay, can be rotated between Dumba, Merrill, Goligoski, and possibly Addison as well.
But at some point, that will have to be thinned out by at least one (maybe not so if Dumba isn't there).

As for Gustavsson, he is only 24, had some decent years with the Sens coming up and has now had his first real good, complete season, I'd try to more than quadruple his contract to around the 3.2M mark (the money coming off from the retained contracts) on a shorter bridge term (till the Parise/Suter cloud blows over) and then see where he is after that, when he will just be 27... in his prime for goalie years.

I'd let one of Sundquist/Johansson and as mentioned, Reaves walk, maybe Nyquist too if he demands too much or if it looks like his injury is more serious than though, and use that money to spread around to give small raises to guys like Addison, Duhaime, Shaw, possibly Steel and/or Gaudreau as well.

Lots and lots of conversations and hard decisions will need to be made.
Perhaps some of what I am thinking isn't even possible for one reason or the other (cap space being likely the biggest culprit), but I do believe BG does have some wiggle room, albeit not a whole lot, to ice a decent team once again next year....all the while trying to stay afloat till more serious cap space can open up after the 24-25 season.

Very nice breakdown. Thanks
I view that Capfriendly page too.
The interesting part about Klingberg is finding out the history with Brodin, Growing up playing together etc. Almost instant chemistry there.

I'm going to assume that GM's can't back end contracts by paying less for 1-2 years and way more later. Pretty much what the NHL did to screw the plans for Parise-Suter. (I believe)
That's one way I thought BG might try to retain Dumba since he likes him so much, So he says. But the #'s just don't work for 1 player that could affect a bunch of our younger upcoming core.

 

[ClusterChuck]

18 hours ago, Math said:

Why not taking a shot with Klingberg as he will be UFA at the end of the season. He wanted too much for too long with the Stars and he was really on my nerves with his Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde type of hockey for the last two season, capable to win a game all by himself at any time but also to lose a game all by himself at any time too... Went to a prove-it deal with the Ducks but he was godawful with them, not only defensively, but offensively too. It was a bit better lately but the whole Ducks defense is a mess anyway.

 

He's still a terrific puck mover with his unique skating duckfeet style but his also a defensive liability. Some were saying that he's difficult to coach because he often want to play like a savior with his typical suicidal-kamikaze rushes. Again, he's on a prove-it mission with the Wild and his tenure will be very interesting to follow, especially if he can be productive on the first PP unit.

He's 1 up on Dumba then right there. Brodin is used to covering for line mates and we could really use someone on D who can take the reigns and move the puck into the O-Zone.
20 games and some PO''s is still a small sample size but should be fun to see what he can do here.

[Tomdog]

Hopefully BG will let Reaves walk and talk the rest into prove it deals until the cap he'll is over.

Only the RFA guys have an upside, everyone else is what they are.

Gaudreau, Johanson, Nyquist, Sundquist, Dumba, Klingberg are not going to get much better. 

They may have a good year but they are what they are.

 

Use the rest of the season to give them a look and re-sign who you can to prove it deals for 1 or 2 years.

I would  prefer to keep the right hand shot guys, but taking a discount will probably be more important. 

[ClusterChuck]

22 hours ago, Tomdog said:

Hopefully BG will let Reaves walk and talk the rest into prove it deals until the cap he'll is over.

Only the RFA guys have an upside, everyone else is what they are.

Gaudreau, Johanson, Nyquist, Sundquist, Dumba, Klingberg are not going to get much better. 

They may have a good year but they are what they are.

 

Use the rest of the season to give them a look and re-sign who you can to prove it deals for 1 or 2 years.

I would  prefer to keep the right hand shot guys, but taking a discount will probably be more important. 

Very true 
Ah, Can you shine some light on the whole 'Right Hand Shot' importance? And why I'll hear teams are always looking for them.
I've never really understood when that's mentioned.
I usually think of if it's a LW or LD, They'd have a better angle for a SOG.

[IllaZilla]

2 hours ago, ClusterChuck said:

Very true 
Ah, Can you shine some light on the whole 'Right Hand Shot' importance? And why I'll hear teams are always looking for them.
I've never really understood when that's mentioned.
I usually think of if it's a LW or LD, They'd have a better angle for a SOG.

 

Handedness in hockey means the dominant hand is at the top of the stick. Since more people are right handed than left handed, more players will have their right hand at the top of the stick using their left hand to shoot. 60-70% of NHL players shoot left handed and 30-40% shoot right handed.

 

One of the reasons there is such a big deal made over a righty-left pairing is that it has to do with passing. A righty-lefty pairing allows both players to receive the puck on their forehand. With a lefty-lefty pairing, one of the players will receive the puck on their backhand, which isn't ideal. 

[Icechipper]

Other argument for playing an offside wing is that can lead to an inside shot lane

[Tomdog]

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t take a poor righty over a good lefty, but all things being equal it would be nice to get a few more righty’s.  
I think it would help the PP quite a bit. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Tomdog

[ClusterChuck]

6 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

 

Handedness in hockey means the dominant hand is at the top of the stick. Since more people are right handed than left handed, more players will have their right hand at the top of the stick using their left hand to shoot. 60-70% of NHL players shoot left handed and 30-40% shoot right handed.

 

One of the reasons there is such a big deal made over a righty-left pairing is that it has to do with passing. A righty-lefty pairing allows both players to receive the puck on their forehand. With a lefty-lefty pairing, one of the players will receive the puck on their backhand, which isn't ideal. 

Oh wow, I never realized or noticed the #'s were that high for lefties.
Cool, Thanks.

4 hours ago, Icechipper said:

Other argument for playing an offside wing is that can lead to an inside shot lane

That's what I was thinking mostly.

[Icechipper]

I'm dyslexic and as a young player anorexic but I compensated by being ambidextrous. Seriously, I'm right handed, shoot left in hockey, switch hit in baseball and suck at golf both ways.....

[Tomdog]

Having a few righty’s could help some of their face off woes as well. There are times where a right hander would have the advantage. 

[Icechipper]

We had 60 percent last game.

[ClusterChuck]

14 hours ago, Icechipper said:

I'm dyslexic and as a young player anorexic but I compensated by being ambidextrous. Seriously, I'm right handed, shoot left in hockey, switch hit in baseball and suck at golf both ways.....

I'm seriously right handed and tried to bat left and I remember trying to shoot a puck lefty. It was ugly.

[Alexandron]

5 hours ago, ClusterChuck said:

I'm seriously right handed and tried to bat left and I remember trying to shoot a puck lefty. It was ugly.

I am right handed too as well as right handed writing person too. About 45 years ago I played basketball for 5 years and played equally with both hands in passing and shooting the ball until I broke my left arm in elbow. Since that time I never was able to play basketball with my left arm. 

In a recent interview Guerin was asked if he would prefer to sign to the team more right handed players. He said that for him does not matter even if we have 90% left handed players. For him more important wins of them game. If the team can win this way then it does not matter what arm player is using.