** Wild 2023 Off Season and Summer **

[CreaseAndAssist]

Having watched the Wild farm team for years, you might have a few that are ready to graduate.  

 

Adam Beckman finally showed some of the scoring touch we saw from his major junior days.  Damien Giroux might be workable as a temporary replacement for Mason Shaw as he's a decent penalty killer and hustles on every shift.  Another guy that I think may surprise is Mikey Milne, the kid was one of Iowa's best skaters and he always seemed to make good things happen in the offensive zone with his speed and hustle.  

 

Rossi...he has to show tangible improvement in his strength and speed / quickness if he's going to be viable in the NHL.  I think they're to that point with Rossi.  Addison..meh, I think he's trade bait regardless.  They have more defenseman in the system and while he's the one offensive defenseman of the group I think they like the more complete game of Daemon Hunt than Addison's game.  

 

Hunt was the most impressive this season of the young defenseman for Iowa.  Ryan O'Rourke and SIMON Johansson were the others that performed well but I didn't think they were as strong as Hunt was.  Their best offensive defenseman in Iowa was AHL vet Joe Hicketts.  

 

Iowa will get an influx of major junior players like Kyle Masters, Caeden Bankier, Carson Lambos, David Spacek, perhaps Pavel Novak or Hunter Haight to join guys like Milne if they stay in Iowa.  Wallstedt will be back as Iowa's #1 goaltender.  

[Alexandron]

Finally Marco Rossi was able to place a nice goal against Hungarian team at the IIHF World 2023 Championship. So far he has 1 goal and 5 assists out of 7 games played there. Unfortunately, Austrian team was not able to win any games even including against evident outsiders. 

Here is his goal:

 

[Alexandron]

Our goalie prospect Wallstedt is doing pretty well at IIHF. He has 3 wins already. And his Sweden team(17 points) merit attention as well as USA team(18 points) and team from Switzerland (18 points) where our formers players are playing now (Kevin Fiala and Nino Niederreiter). Our other former player Nico Sturm is playing for Germany team and is having 5 goals and 1 assist in 6 played games so far. I liked his speed when he played for the Wild team as well as Nick Bjugstad's speed.

[Alexandron]

Here is an interesting article to think about:

https://hockeywilderness.com/news-rumors/minnesota-wild/the-wild-may-have-to-downsize-their-grit-r29408/

 

[CreaseAndAssist]

If Marco Rossi thinks any NHL team will be that incompetent to just part the seas for him the way Team Hungary did he's mistaken.  IMO...kind of a meh goal against a meh World Championship qualifier.  

[Jimtown guy]

1 hour ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

If Marco Rossi thinks any NHL team will be that incompetent to just part the seas for him the way Team Hungary did he's mistaken.  IMO...kind of a meh goal against a meh World Championship qualifier.  

Thought the same thing when I saw that goal. Hell I could of got through that then shot wide by 10 feet 

[IllaZilla]

12 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

If Marco Rossi thinks any NHL team will be that incompetent to just part the seas for him the way Team Hungary did he's mistaken.  IMO...kind of a meh goal against a meh World Championship qualifier.  

I don't know...Ryan Suter looked pretty incompetent with his play in the last Vegas-Dallas game...

Edited May 23, 2023 by IllaZilla

[Tomdog]

Ryan didn’t really look all that good for either game against Vegas. 

[Alexandron]

13 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

If Marco Rossi thinks any NHL team will be that incompetent to just part the seas for him the way Team Hungary did he's mistaken.  IMO...kind of a meh goal against a meh World Championship qualifier.  

I agree. I expected his much better play at this championship. He has so far only 1 goal in 7 games especially against some very low level teams. Not acceptable for our round 1; #9 overall draft in 2020.

I do not know what happened with our Sammy Walker prospect ? He suppose to be playing for USA team there. His name was before, but then his name disappeared at team's roster. 

 

[IllaZilla]

3 hours ago, Alexandron said:

I agree. I expected his much better play at this championship. He has so far only 1 goal in 7 games especially against some very low level teams. Not acceptable for our round 1; #9 overall draft in 2020.

I do not know what happened with our Sammy Walker prospect ? He suppose to be playing for USA team there. His name was before, but then his name disappeared at team's roster. 

 

He suffered a shoulder injury after the first game and is now back home.

 

Sammy Walker injured at World Championship

[Alexandron]

10 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

He suffered a shoulder injury after the first game and is now back home.

 

Sammy Walker injured at World Championship

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about this injury. Such a nice creative player.

[IllaZilla]

5 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about this injury. Such a nice creative player.

Sounded like he’d be ready for the preseason, so it must not be too bad…

[ClusterChuck]

On 5/23/2023 at 9:44 AM, Tomdog said:

Ryan didn’t really look all that good for either game against Vegas. 

The trend continues. Sutes got a chop on the back in GM 4 and turned to retaliate only to turn his back on the play and didn't do his job. 
Another goal with him turned around or out of position. After that goal you could see he was pi$$ed. 
Lucky the team around him came back to win it.

[Icechipper]

Wild Current signed NHL roster:

97 Kaprisov 14 E-Ek 36 Zuccarello

90 MoJo 89 Freddie 12 Boldy

17 Foligno 21 Dewar 38 Hartman

 

25 Brodin 46 Spurgeon

5 Middleton 33 Goligoski

4 Merrill 7 Faber

 

29 Fluery

[Alexandron]

On 5/22/2023 at 2:58 PM, Alexandron said:

Our goalie prospect Wallstedt is doing pretty well at IIHF. He has 3 wins already. And his Sweden team(17 points) merit attention as well as USA team(18 points) and team from Switzerland (18 points) where our formers players are playing now (Kevin Fiala and Nino Niederreiter). Our other former player Nico Sturm is playing for Germany team and is having 5 goals and 1 assist in 6 played games so far. I liked his speed when he played for the Wild team as well as Nick Bjugstad's speed.

Goaltender Jesper Wallstedt delivered three strong performances in net for Sweden at 2023 IIHF World Championship, which went 6-0-1 in the opening round. Wallstedt posted a 0.67 goals-against average and 0.947 save percentage en route to three consecutive victories.  

Sadly, he played only 3 games at this tournament in the opening round, but not after that round. Maybe with him a Sweden team would do better in quarterfinals.

 

But Congrats to our Wild defenseman Jacob Middleton!!!!! who has got a Gold Medal there with a Canadian team. He had 5 assists; +/- +12 in 10 played games there.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Alexandron

[TallyTigerShark]

So, watching the playoffs this season has just confirmed for me something I’ve felt for a few years now. Yes, we are more than razor thin at center, but I think we have just as big, if not a bigger problem, at defense. We are too small, and overall not tough enough, along our D-corp. Every year we seem to get exposed back there during the playoffs. This won’t be popular, but I really wish this team would move Jared Spurgeon. I love him, on and off the ice. He seems to be a great guy, but his career playoff stats are so totally opposite what he does in the regular season that it’s staggering. And the sample size is large enough in my opinion, that it isn’t an anomaly. He’s so poor in the playoff environment that he’s a third pair defensemen at best come playoff time. I think it boils down to the fact that physically, he can’t function as well in the playoff meat grinder. At least that’s how I see it.

 

He’s 34 years old so he’ll be 36 by the time we clear cap hell. He’s certainly not going to be a better player 3 years from now. We could do a lot with almost $7.6M off our books if he would waive the no-move clause. I don’t care if we “lose the trade” and don’t get a great return, the goal should be to clear cap space. We could sign a defenseman with more size. We could also possibly sign a center to lengthen our depth there and hopefully improve our face offs at the same time.
 

I just think this team needs to toughen up a little, and I don’t mean at forward by signing Reaves. We need some nasty at defense. Not dirty, but some nasty and some size.

 

Just my thoughts tonight as I sit here waiting for next season.

Edited June 10, 2023 by TallyTigerShark

[ClusterChuck]

1 hour ago, TallyTigerShark said:

So, watching the playoffs this season has just confirmed for me something I’ve felt for a few years now. Yes, we are more than razor thin at center, but I think we have just as big, if not a bigger problem, at defense. We are too small, and overall not tough enough, along our D-corp. Every year we seem to get exposed back there during the playoffs. This won’t be popular, but I really wish this team would move Jared Spurgeon. I love him, on and off the ice. He seems to be a great guy, but his career playoff stats are so totally opposite what he does in the regular season that it’s staggering. And the sample size is large enough in my opinion, that it isn’t an anomaly. He’s so poor in the playoff environment that he’s a third pair defensemen at best come playoff time. I think it boils down to the fact he can’t function as well in the playoff meat grinder that physically,. At least that’s how I see it.

 

He’s 34 years old so he’ll be 36 by the time we clear cap hell. He’s certainly not going to be a better player 3 years from now. We could do a lot with almost $7.6M off our books if he would waive the no-move clause. I don’t care if we “lose the trade” and don’t get a great return, the goal should be to clear cap space. We could sign a defenseman with more size. We could also possibly sign a center to lengthen our depth there and hopefully improve our face offs at the same time.
 

I just think this team needs to toughen up a little, and I don’t mean at forward by signing Reaves. We need some nasty at defense. Not dirty, but some nasty and some size.

 

Just my thoughts tonight as I sit here waiting for next season.

I've felt that way for a few years now. Early on he was good at being able to be  * cough * Positionally Strong with his size and being able to disrupt bigger opponents. I don't see that as much anymore as the game continues to change.
We already have skilled D in Brodin and the only muscle would go to Middleton. The rest somewhere in between.
Also, Yes Spurge is a great guy and team mate but I've never felt he was Captain material in a way to motivate the team between periods. Foligno comes to mind as he doesn't hesitate to 'Call it as he sees it'.
Spurge was given the C by tenure imo.
We let too many opponents creep into the blue paint with little fear. This needs to change.

[Tomdog]

This team has so many deficiencies that now really would be a good time to rebalance the team with, as you say move Spurgeon, get a better balance of right handers, and finally find anyone who can win faceoffs. 
Better to take their lumps now to set the stage for 2 years from now. 
 

Look at the talent Dallas added just by having a couple bad but not terrible years. 

[IllaZilla]

Spurgeon is not going anywhere. He has a full NMC. That whole defense needs to be rebuilt. It scares no one. It’s too small and too passive. The only defensemen I would keep would be Brodin, Faber, and maybe Middleton. The rest are junk. 
 

The Wild are stuck in a cycle of mediocrity of their own doing. They refuse to rebuild, being more concerned with making the playoffs. So they constantly sign over-the-hill UFA’s to fill gaps rather than allowing prospects to fill the roles. This strategy leads them to making the playoffs and then consistently getting bounced in the first round because all they have is decent but not great talent. Which leads them to a low first round draft pick. Which will probably net them a decent player. Wash, rinse, repeat. 
 

There is no tweaking or rebuilding on the fly that is going to get this team out of the rut they are in. They need a high first round draft pick to get that #1 center they’ve needed since they’ve been in existence (Mikko Koivu was NOT a #1 center despite the team claiming he was). And the only way to do that is either tank for a season or two (which they refuse to do) or trade away high end talent for a high first round draft pick, which probably only Boldy or Kaprizov would get them. So now they have a #1 center, but no one for him to pass to. Brilliant. 

[Tomdog]

That’s why now would be the time to lose. 
Being handicapped by the cap hit is the perfect excuse to tank. 
If they could get Spurgeon to waive that nmc it would be great, but I dout he will. 
The Wild playing young guys as 4th liners is opposite of what successful playoff teams do. 
Successful playoff teams often have older, highly skilled, players at the end of their career playing 4th line minutes. 
This fits their physical limitations of being older. 
The Wild playing mediocre talent for 4th liners generally adds little production. 
Old guys playing 4th line minutes appears to provide more production. 

[TallyTigerShark]

4 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

Spurgeon is not going anywhere. He has a full NMC.

Yeah, that’s true. I mentioned that. But there is nothing stopping you from asking him to waive it.

[CreaseAndAssist]

On 6/9/2023 at 8:45 PM, TallyTigerShark said:

So, watching the playoffs this season has just confirmed for me something I’ve felt for a few years now. Yes, we are more than razor thin at center, but I think we have just as big, if not a bigger problem, at defense. We are too small, and overall not tough enough, along our D-corp. Every year we seem to get exposed back there during the playoffs. This won’t be popular, but I really wish this team would move Jared Spurgeon. I love him, on and off the ice. He seems to be a great guy, but his career playoff stats are so totally opposite what he does in the regular season that it’s staggering. And the sample size is large enough in my opinion, that it isn’t an anomaly. He’s so poor in the playoff environment that he’s a third pair defensemen at best come playoff time. I think it boils down to the fact that physically, he can’t function as well in the playoff meat grinder. At least that’s how I see it.

 

He’s 34 years old so he’ll be 36 by the time we clear cap hell. He’s certainly not going to be a better player 3 years from now. We could do a lot with almost $7.6M off our books if he would waive the no-move clause. I don’t care if we “lose the trade” and don’t get a great return, the goal should be to clear cap space. We could sign a defenseman with more size. We could also possibly sign a center to lengthen our depth there and hopefully improve our face offs at the same time.
 

I just think this team needs to toughen up a little, and I don’t mean at forward by signing Reaves. We need some nasty at defense. Not dirty, but some nasty and some size.

 

Just my thoughts tonight as I sit here waiting for next season.

 

We've said much the same thing on our podcasts.  Our defense corps, both with the big club and prospect pool are mostly 6'0"-ish puck mover types.  Unfortunately there is not a lot of big, physical defenseman available in this draft.  

[IllaZilla]

7 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

We've said much the same thing on our podcasts.  Our defense corps, both with the big club and prospect pool are mostly 6'0"-ish puck mover types.  Unfortunately there is not a lot of big, physical defenseman available in this draft.  

Even if there were some big hulking types available, the Wild would still go for the finesse type of defenseman. They’d rather have a defenseman who can wave his stick around and “take away passing lanes” than a defenseman who will knock someone’s block off if they cross the blue line. 

[IllaZilla]

On 6/10/2023 at 3:06 PM, TallyTigerShark said:

Yeah, that’s true. I mentioned that. But there is nothing stopping you from asking him to waive it.

But what legitimate reason would you ask him to waive it for? 

[CreaseAndAssist]

On 6/10/2023 at 10:17 AM, IllaZilla said:

Spurgeon is not going anywhere. He has a full NMC. That whole defense needs to be rebuilt. It scares no one. It’s too small and too passive. The only defensemen I would keep would be Brodin, Faber, and maybe Middleton. The rest are junk. 
 

The Wild are stuck in a cycle of mediocrity of their own doing. They refuse to rebuild, being more concerned with making the playoffs. So they constantly sign over-the-hill UFA’s to fill gaps rather than allowing prospects to fill the roles. This strategy leads them to making the playoffs and then consistently getting bounced in the first round because all they have is decent but not great talent. Which leads them to a low first round draft pick. Which will probably net them a decent player. Wash, rinse, repeat. 
 

There is no tweaking or rebuilding on the fly that is going to get this team out of the rut they are in. They need a high first round draft pick to get that #1 center they’ve needed since they’ve been in existence (Mikko Koivu was NOT a #1 center despite the team claiming he was). And the only way to do that is either tank for a season or two (which they refuse to do) or trade away high end talent for a high first round draft pick, which probably only Boldy or Kaprizov would get them. So now they have a #1 center, but no one for him to pass to. Brilliant. 

 

I agree with every word of this.  Would love to have you on the podcast if you're willing.