lynxrattle Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 1 minute ago, Alexandron said: I agree. It would be so cool to get trophy for the Wild team. And Kaapo Kahkonen is also could be a potential winner of that trophy this season. Interesting that both players (Kirill Kaprizov and Kaapo Kahkonen) have the same initials KK. If the following draft has a center with those initials, we'll take him! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 2 hours ago, lynxrattle said: If the following draft has a center with those initials, we'll take him! It seems those initials are golden for us so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonkkis Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 On 3/2/2021 at 7:50 PM, lynxrattle said: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nhls-four-surprising-teams-2021-makes-tick/ The Wild is getting noticed positively. The change agent being of course Kaprizov. I still can't believe our luck. It seems we have in him a player who can skate, score, hit, pass, deke, who has a wonderful hockey IQ, who makes his team mates better and has a team first mentality, good character and who has not forgotten hockey is a game - so he's fun as well. This kind of stuff happens to the other teams, not to the Wild. Who can we even compare him to? Somebody said perhaps Datsyuk or Kane. It's crazy. It's surreal, even NHL.com is now writing about the Wild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 8 hours ago, Lonkkis said: It's surreal, even NHL.com is now writing about the Wild. I need to check that site too from now on. I had lost interest because of their lack of interest in the the Wild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Very good article was published yesterday at the main Wild page about Kirill Kaprizov. Nice talks from Bjugstad and Fiala about him too as well as Coach. Here is a link to read : https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/kirill-kaprizov-star-is-born-030421/c-322086688 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Thanks, I would have missed the article. It's a great read. I like Fiala's comment about Kaprizov losing the puck and then taking right back. He's not just a skill guy. He's a power house, a small bear. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 52 minutes ago, lynxrattle said: Thanks, I would have missed the article. It's a great read. I like Fiala's comment about Kaprizov losing the puck and then taking right back. He's not just a skill guy. He's a power house, a small bear. Nice comparison. A small bear added into a big Wild Bear club. Maybe our team like a bear usually slow, sleeping for a long period of time (in our case for 2 decades), but when it is a time then it is showing his power. Actually, some Russians sports having a bear logo too, even including their 1980 Olympics. Hope, our Wild Bear logo will hold Kaprizov to stay longer in our team too. And maybe our current team-first attitude for the most players will help us together with Kirill to reach at least 2002-2003 results. I am sure he wants to his 5 titles to add a Stanley Cup winner title as well as many other players of our team in their career. It is a dream for many professional players. . 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 "He's an unbelievable player. He does it every night on a consistent basis and he's very strong. He's not just skilled and he can score goals and make plays but it's the work ethic," said Wild forward Kevin Fiala. "You see when he loses the puck, he gets it back. He does all the little things right now to make a skilled player. Just everything works. He just has to keep going. We are glad to have him." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 10 hours ago, Alexandron said: Nice comparison. A small bear added into a big Wild Bear club. Maybe our team like a bear usually slow, sleeping for a long period of time (in our case for 2 decades), but when it is a time then it is showing his power. Actually, some Russians sports having a bear logo too, even including their 1980 Olympics. Hope, our Wild Bear logo will hold Kaprizov to stay longer in our team too. And maybe our current team-first attitude for the most players will help us together with Kirill to reach at least 2002-2003 results. I am sure he wants to his 5 titles to add a Stanley Cup winner title as well as many other players of our team in their career. It is a dream for many professional players. . They even look alike, Moscow Olympics mascot Misha and KK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 9 hours ago, lynxrattle said: They even look alike, Moscow Olympics mascot Misha and KK Misha means bear as well as Michael. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 Little bear sure is fun to watch this team is fun to watch again 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 2 hours ago, Alexandron said: Misha means bear as well as Michael. Is that so! So what would "little bear" be? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Ok now, let's cut the BS: was the Wild really aware of what they were doing by selecting him in the fifth round or were they that high...? (Meanwhile, in NYC...) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 6 hours ago, Math said: Ok now, let's cut the BS: was the Wild really aware of what they were doing by selecting him in the fifth round or were they that high...? (Meanwhile, in NYC...) My guess is that they have finally realised that we can't ignore the humongous Russian prospect pool and Kaprizov was one of the first and hopefully not last gems from there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 23 hours ago, lynxrattle said: Is that so! So what would "little bear" be? Exactly, as you presented on pictures. Little bear is an Olympics game winner as well as in his plans to win a Stanley Cup in a Wild Bear uniform. Hope we will have a Fleury caliber goalie for that goal. Yesterday he had his 4th SO against Sharks(score was 4:0). And Dubnyk lost 4 goals in that game. So far I have an interest and more respect to 2 goalies in our team Kahkonen and a promising prospect Lindberg. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 10 hours ago, lynxrattle said: My guess is that they have finally realised that we can't ignore the humongous Russian prospect pool and Kaprizov was one of the first and hopefully not last gems from there. Very good point. Most of the recent Stanley Cup winners and not only recent one had Russian players in their rosters. It took for our Wild organization 15 years to realize that and it took 5 years more to sign Kaprizov by the help of our 3rd GM Bill Guerin. The team is really playing different. We have now in our system 9 Russian speaking prospects. Hope we will select out of them some superb and fast snipers. Kaprizov is like a Datsyuk providing the team with golden passes and his hard enormous working mentality. Definitely we need more magicians in our team. So far I do see 3- Kaprizov, Fiala, Zuccarello. Of course, the entire team of magicians will get us the best outcome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Most clicked player profile last week on eliteprospects.com according to Russo info: 1 Trevor Zegras 21,440 2 Tim Stützle 11,062 3 Connor McDavid 10,168 4 Cole Caufield 9,941 5 Kirill Kaprizov 8,847 6 Alexis Lafreniere 7,836 7 Dominique Ducharme 7,357 8 Jeff Skinner 7,353 9 Sidney Crosby 7,328 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Zegras is very good, but still a surprise to see him first in the list. Nice to see so far up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 8 hours ago, lynxrattle said: Zegras is very good, but still a surprise to see him first in the list. Nice to see so far up. Totally agree. Our 5th place for Kirill Kaprizov among all players on elite prospects list tells a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey-78 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 On 3/7/2021 at 2:43 AM, Math said: Ok now, let's cut the BS: was the Wild really aware of what they were doing by selecting him in the fifth round or were they that high...? (Meanwhile, in NYC...) If someone were to continue with the BS, he/she'd probably like to know why the heck was he selected ONLY in the 5th round? By any team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 10 minutes ago, Hockey-78 said: If someone were to continue with the BS, he/she'd probably like to know why the heck was he selected ONLY in the 5th round? By any team. Right. I'd say prior to his drafting year his stat were interesting when it comes to the russian national junior team but that's about it. He really picked up and drastically improved after being drafted. My 2¢: the classical russian bias: if any GM was about to waste a 5th rounder, better be a north American rather than a Euro or Russian because you have all the integration aspects and cultural differences to deal with. That's still a beautiful steal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey-78 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 2 minutes ago, Math said: Right. I'd say prior to his drafting year his stat were interesting when it comes to the russian national junior team but that's about it. He really picked up and drastically improved after being drafted. My 2¢: the classical russian bias: if any GM was about to waste a 5th rounder, better be a north American rather than a Euro or Russian because you have all the integration aspects and cultural differences to deal with. That's still a beautiful steal. Yeah. Some players do mature later and I think you're right about the attitudes of drafting a NA vs. European player. Still a PPG player in the 5th... someone has to dig deep in to the history of Wild drafting to find a similar jackpot pick. Well, Kahkonen in the 4th. Kuemper in the 6th (though he didn't blossom in the WILD jersey) Haula 7th(!) Khudobin 7th (though he either didn't do anything special in the Wild) Pretty thin list. Certainly no 1st line players if I didn't ignore anyone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 There was a pick swap between us and the Bruins to make it possible: https://causewaycrowd.com/2021/02/26/boston-bruins-could-had-kaprizov/ Pretty happy we got the instead of the Bruins. Isn't a bruin a bear, too? But who cares, we have a bear in the logo, the Bruins just a B. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 40 minutes ago, lynxrattle said: There was a pick swap between us and the Bruins to make it possible: https://causewaycrowd.com/2021/02/26/boston-bruins-could-had-kaprizov/ Pretty happy we got the instead of the Bruins. Isn't a bruin a bear, too? But who cares, we have a bear in the logo, the Bruins just a B. Combined with letter S on getting their draft. According to that article, I am already worry that they have some plans on Kaprizov future signing contract. And here is other good article recently came from Tonny Abbott covering the Minnesota Wild team on Zone Coverage which is strongly supporting Kirill Kaprizov against of kind of a strange debate: https://zonecoverage.com/2021/wild/why-is-pierre-lebrun-hung-up-about-kaprizovs-rookie-status/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 2 hours ago, Hockey-78 said: Well, Kahkonen in the 4th. Kuemper in the 6th (though he didn't blossom in the WILD jersey) Haula 7th(!) Khudobin 7th (though he either didn't do anything special in the Wild) Pretty thin list. Certainly no 1st line players if I didn't ignore anyone... Kuemper was a good goalie but a bit inconsistent. I remember him sucking like hell in SO. Haula was another steal IMO, too bad he was playing under Yeo. Always liked him and his speed. Khudobin also had very good games in the few opportunities he has with the Wild but he started to be pissed of being sent down and recalled over and over. I was surprised to see Minny letting him go and not giving him a real shot. For the late picks, there was Sekeras in the 9th round and the late Boogeyman in the 7th. I think that's pretty much it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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