2019-20 Iowa Wild and Prospects

[CreaseAndAssist]

21 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

Kind of funny how Boldy NOT making the US WJC team is being spun as “not a big deal” by the Wild, yet if he had made the roster that would have been a BIG deal...

 

Of course, its all spin.  As I pointed out on Twitter; Turcotte, Zegras, Caufield and Brink were all guys from the USNDT / USHL that were moving up to play college hockey this season, they seemed to still produce unlike our guy.  Same age, same hockey conferences, similar opponents...but they score and our guy doesn't.  Now in case anyone is following him real closely they'll notice the shot totals each game are starting to drop from Boldy.  He's not just struggling to score and now he's not pulling the trigger as much either.  

 

Even the guys that were passed over the first time they were eligible like Kunin, Greenway and Donato.  Let's take a look at what they did in their freshman season's...

 

J. Greenway (Boston U., H-East) - 39GP  5G 21A = 26pts

R. Donato (Harvard, ECAC) ~ 32GP  13G 8A = 21pts

L. Kunin (Wisconsin, Big 10) ~ 34GP  19G 13A = 32pts

 

Compared to...

 

M. Boldy (Boston College, H-East) ~ 15GP 1G 2A = 3pts 

 

Yes, its an incomplete sample for Boldy, but the other players seasons look pretty bullish compared to this year's 1st round pick.  But hey...let's look at last year's 1st round pick's first season...playing in the Swedish B-league.  

 

F. Johansson (Leksands IF, Allsvenskan) ~ 47GP  1G 3A = 4pts

 

I'm noticing a trend...  

[CreaseAndAssist]

@IllaZilla if you want something to write about...you're welcome to it! 

[IllaZilla]

4 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

@IllaZilla if you want something to write about...you're welcome to it! 

I actually got something pulled together for the Seattle entry draft, and it may not be as dire for the Wild as the Vegas draft. Depending on what they do with Koivu and Staal...

[jammer2]

Can he Boldy go where no prospect has gone before? Guess not...unless the snack counter at Boston College games count...lol.

[CreaseAndAssist]

Hunter Jones got released by Team Canada today...so its another WJC's with very little representation for the Wild.  I think its Khovanov and that's it.  

[Starofthenorth]

The wild should be embarrassed and replace their scouts as soon as possible

[IllaZilla]

13 hours ago, Starofthenorth said:

The wild should be embarrassed and replace their scouts as soon as possible

Part of it’s the scouting, but a big chunk is this first round playoff exit strategy they have. They are constantly picking in the low teens. You don’t find game changers there. You’ll get good players, but not great players.
And the Wild have a tendency to pick the safe player rather than the player that may be more of a risk but could have a higher ceiling. 

[CreaseAndAssist]

23 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

Part of it’s the scouting, but a big chunk is this first round playoff exit strategy they have. They are constantly picking in the low teens. You don’t find game changers there. You’ll get good players, but not great players.
And the Wild have a tendency to pick the safe player rather than the player that may be more of a risk but could have a higher ceiling. 

 

And I'd also say part of it was trading away 2nd round picks like they were Halloween candy.   Still, the Wild had some chances to pick players that would be more impactful than the ones we have, but we haven't been that savvy.   

[IllaZilla]

14 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

And I'd also say part of it was trading away 2nd round picks like they were Halloween candy.   Still, the Wild had some chances to pick players that would be more impactful than the ones we have, but we haven't been that savvy.   

There’s that too (trading away high draft picks). Since the salary cap was introduced, the Wild haven’t been the most astute with building through the draft. They seem stuck in the 1980’s where teams that were willing to spend money just threw money at free agents to try and get the most talent or if they made a mistake in free agency, they just threw more money at the mistake. 
Leipold seems willing to spend to the cap, which is refreshing from Naegle. But he’s not smart about it. What ever big name comes along he seems content to wave fat stacks at them in the hopes that they will be the missing link to a Stanley Cup...

[IllaZilla]

I still wonder why BC thought it was a good idea to move Boldy from LW to C. 
And I’m starting to wonder if Boldy’s flashy USNTDP numbers were a product of playing on a line with Jack Hughes...

[CreaseAndAssist]

14 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

I still wonder why BC thought it was a good idea to move Boldy from LW to C. 
And I’m starting to wonder if Boldy’s flashy USNTDP numbers were a product of playing on a line with Jack Hughes...

 

My thoughts exactly...everyone on that USNDT was scoring like crazy.  I also heard the USNDT would keep their 1st power play out there in games where they were up big.  Sort of like Zack Phillips...played on a really stacked Saint John team, inflated his totals.  

[Alexandron]

Good news. Finally, Iowa Wild team was able to win a game after a 4 games losing streak. Dmitry Sokolov was selected a 1st star of the very difficult game yesterday against Ontario Reign team in California by placing a winning goal in shootouts. Score was 4:3.Dewar;Bitten and Belpedio had goals for our team too in regulation. Our goalie Mat  Robson had also a solid game, who was able to stop 37 shots out of 40  and 2 shots out of 3 during shootouts.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Alexandron

[CreaseAndAssist]

On 12/15/2019 at 1:03 AM, Alexandron said:

Good news. Finally, Iowa Wild team was able to win a game after a 4 games losing streak. Dmitry Sokolov was selected a 1st star of the very difficult game yesterday against Ontario Reign team in California by placing a winning goal in shootouts. Score was 4:3.Dewar;Bitten and Belpedio had goals for our team too in regulation. Our goalie Mat  Robson had also a solid game, who was able to stop 37 shots out of 40  and 2 shots out of 3 during shootouts.

 

Well they lost the next night...so...they miss Mayhew.  

[IllaZilla]

3 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

Well they lost the next night...so...they miss Mayhew.  

The just lost Luke Johnson and Nico Sturm to the Wild as well. But they gained Kahkonen from the Wild, so there’s that...

[CreaseAndAssist]

On 12/16/2019 at 5:58 PM, IllaZilla said:

The just lost Luke Johnson and Nico Sturm to the Wild as well. But they gained Kahkonen from the Wild, so there’s that...

 

And Mayhew...and they won last night in Stockton for the first time ever.  

[Alexandron]

4 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

And Mayhew...and they won last night in Stockton for the first time ever.  

I was listening that game on a radio started at 9:00 p.m. CST till late late night , which was the last game of yesterday schedule. Dmitry Sokolov was selected again as a #1 star for the game against Stockton Heats yesterday . Score was 4:3 in OT. Like LIG said - first of all an achievement - that was a first time win in Iowa Wild history at Stockton arena.  Sokolov was able to put 2 goals in regulation and had a primary assist to the Kyle Bauman beautiful  winning goal in OT. That was also a Sokolov's first triple points game in a Iowa Wild uniform.
Here is more to read about that dramatic game finished with ours tremendous happy end:

https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/iowa-ousts-heat-in-a-4-3-overtime-thriller

[Alexandron]

Iowa Wild team won in regulation tonight with a score 4:2 against Grand Rapids Griffins. Gerald Mayhew was able to put 2 goals (his 15th and 16th goal this season already). Kahkonen stopped 26 out of 28 shots towards his net.
 

[Alexandron]

Good news !!! again for our Iowa Wild club who played tonight first-ever Iowa Hockey Classic against Grand Rapids Griffins team. We won that such a difficult game in OT with a score 4:3, which recently finished. 
Stars of the game:
#1star - Dmitry Sokolov, who was able to put a winning goal in OT;
#2 star- Will Bitten, who was able to put 2 goals in regulation;
#3 star- Gerald Mayhew, who had a primary assist for the OT winning goal.
Kaapo Kahkonen was our goalie again who was able to stop 31 shots out of 34 towards his net. It seems Tim Army having more and more trust to Kahkonen , after his 5 games valuable recent experience in the big club.

[Hockey-78]

Blatantly obvious KK is a strong candidate to try and turn things around with the big club too. Dubnyk and Stalock are not getting it done, as I've told many times.

 

Luckily for the Wild the organization is somewhat conservative and wants to stick to what they have. Puppies in Iowa get to develop, the Wild will miss the playoffs again and there will be some sort of a sweep after the season. Probably couple of prospects will be included in the Wild roster for next year. I guess that is the best case scenario.

[Alexandron]

An interesting article was published today regarding a Sokolov's recent achievement. Hope, he will be involved in games on every time/everyday basis to get more and more professional experience.

Here is a link to read it:

https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/sokolov-making-strides-to-become-everyday-player-for-wild

 

[lynxrattle]

On 12/27/2019 at 6:20 AM, Alexandron said:

An interesting article was published today regarding a Sokolov's recent achievement. Hope, he will be involved in games on every time/everyday basis to get more and more professional experience.

Here is a link to read it:

https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/sokolov-making-strides-to-become-everyday-player-for-wild

 

Thanks, great to read! There seems to be a problem in his off-season training/work-out. I hope by next season he's fit from the start of the season. I doubt there's much time to get fit during the season, if he gets a chance to play in MIN.

[IllaZilla]

1 hour ago, lynxrattle said:

Thanks, great to read! There seems to be a problem in his off-season training/work-out. I hope by next season he's fit from the start of the season. I doubt there's much time to get fit during the season, if he gets a chance to play in MIN.

That was always the knock on Sokolov. That’s why the Wild got him in the seventh round. He doesn’t like to work out. He may have been able to get away with that in juniors because he could score a lot, but at the pro level you are just doing yourself a disservice by not coming into camp in the best possible shape you can. And you are correct. There isn’t much time to get fit during the season. Pre season is for shaking off some of the rust accumulated during the off season, but that is not the time to say “Ok, now I get serious about hitting the weights.” You’re going to be so far behind everyone else (and probably irked the coach) that you’re not going to get ice time. You don’t get ice time, you can’t score. You can’t score, pretty soon the parent club passes you over for someone who will work out and can score goals. And now you blew your chance at making the NHL. Simply because you were lazy. 

[Alexandron]

Iowa Wild team was able to put yesterday same amount of goals (6) as Minnesota Wild team in a win against Rockford IceHogs with a score 6:2. Kahkonen was again in the net and was able to stop 17 out of 19 shots towards his net. Gerald Mayhew was #1 star of this game by placing 2 goals. Rau had 3 assists. Sokolov had a goal and  assist during that game too.

From my observation our team has too many penalty minutes there. For example, we had 32 PIM in a game  yesterday. Mitch McLain  had 15.

Tonight is a pretty tough game against Chicago Wolves. Hope, they will stay out of the penalty box during the game.

[Alexandron]

On 12/28/2019 at 12:31 PM, Alexandron said:

 

Tonight is a pretty tough game against Chicago Wolves. Hope, they will stay out of the penalty box during the game.

They still lost it last night in regulation with a score 3:4 against Chicago. Our team had 6 PIM vs 2 PIM of Chicago and lost 1 goal during 1 PP against us.

[Alexandron]

Here are a couple of video highlights to watch of 2 games from yesterday.
Our Iowa Wild team, which lost with a score 3:4 against Chicago Wolves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DstZ9ciw3v4

 

And a video from a World Junior Championship 2020, where our single prospect Alexander Khovanov playing for the Russia team which won that game with a score 6:0 against a Canada team. He is playing under #7, and was able to put 1st goal and had a primary assist to the 6th goal of that game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8uOddiWZ04