Captain, my captain

[Icechipper]

Jared Spurgeon named captain. Been with team 11 years already at 31 years old. Pretty nice for a sixth rounder who went to Wild in free agency. Suter and Parise asst. captains. Undecided: Who controls the boom box.

[CreaseAndAssist]

Minnesota Wild Name Jared Spurgeon their Team Captain

 

I share my thoughts on the decision and discuss other issues surrounding team culture.  Check it out!  

[lynxrattle]

Spurgeon should be a great captain. He would probably be even better, if he would learn to be not nice at all at times. Foligno is a great role model to follow on that, so Spurgeon should be able to learn. Maybe they can even doubleteam and Spurgeon can play the good cop and Foligno the bad one. Foligno might not stay for long, though.

[bbgarnett]

I am very happy with Spurgeon as captain. He is my favorite player and 100% deserves it. As far as removing Parise and Suter as A's I think it should have happened. I also think that doing so might have caused issues as well and Guerin probably had to factor that into his decision. Again I think any issues that would have arosed would have come out of the self entitlement that Suter and Parise have. 

[Alexandron]

On 1/3/2021 at 10:42 PM, lynxrattle said:

Spurgeon should be a great captain. He would probably be even better, if he would learn to be not nice at all at times. Foligno is a great role model to follow on that, so Spurgeon should be able to learn. Maybe they can even doubleteam and Spurgeon can play the good cop and Foligno the bad one. Foligno might not stay for long, though.

Agree, it was a long difficult , but good decision to make him next great captain. He is 100% merit to be a captain, in my opinion, because he is a very smart; very hard every game working; very intelligent and a very productive player not only on an ice but in a family too.  I think  his 4 children is a really rare achievement among most NHL players. And Foligno could be his real helper as a strong solid warrior at least for 1 season, but hope, even for more seasons.  Just a guess.

[EmptyShelf]

I like Spurgeon as the C.  My one worry is that the two entitled a$$hats will undermine him while he develops as a C.  It would have been nice to have Foligno or someone else (Brodin?) appointed to accomplish three things:  1) Provide a second new leadership voice to the team (which desperately needs it)  2)  Provide freshness and 'numbers' to back up Spurgeon (in the event that he needed another respected player to overrule one of 11 and 20 if they remained as A)  3)  Punish one or both of Parise and Suter for their past selfish and entitled play (and to put them on notice going forward that the organization is moving forward towards a new core)

 

In short, I think CL had more to do with the decision to not upset these two children than Guerin/HC did.  It was for the sake of continuity and his friendship with them that this charade continues.  I just hope that it won't undermine Spurgeon.  This team needs new voices and a fresh new direction as the mantle is passed to younger generation of core leaders.  I am really sour about these two seemingly keeping their A's until retirement or they are moved out (hopefully some day when they agree to drop NTC/NMC.  I am more than ready to discard  this  tired period of Wild hockey with 9, 11, and 20 leading the team

[CreaseAndAssist]

11 hours ago, EmptyShelf said:

I like Spurgeon as the C.  My one worry is that the two entitled a$$hats will undermine him while he develops as a C.  It would have been nice to have Foligno or someone else (Brodin?) appointed to accomplish three things:  1) Provide a second new leadership voice to the team (which desperately needs it)  2)  Provide freshness and 'numbers' to back up Spurgeon (in the event that he needed another respected player to overrule one of 11 and 20 if they remained as A)  3)  Punish one or both of Parise and Suter for their past selfish and entitled play (and to put them on notice going forward that the organization is moving forward towards a new core)

 

In short, I think CL had more to do with the decision to not upset these two children than Guerin/HC did.  It was for the sake of continuity and his friendship with them that this charade continues.  I just hope that it won't undermine Spurgeon.  This team needs new voices and a fresh new direction as the mantle is passed to younger generation of core leaders.  I am really sour about these two seemingly keeping their A's until retirement or they are moved out (hopefully some day when they agree to drop NTC/NMC.  I am more than ready to discard  this  tired period of Wild hockey with 9, 11, and 20 leading the team

 

I kind of wanted to talk about this when I was on a podcast (The Sota Pod) last Sunday.  I don't see how changing culture is only done by who has the "C" if you're going to keep the 'country club' with the A.  Also, the captaincy is the Top 3 salaries on the team so have you truly changed culture or just thrown the leadership to those making the lion's share of the $$$?  All of these guys have NMC's too and does that help instill that 'country club' mentality.  

[EmptyShelf]

On 1/10/2021 at 8:31 AM, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

I kind of wanted to talk about this when I was on a podcast (The Sota Pod) last Sunday.  I don't see how changing culture is only done by who has the "C" if you're going to keep the 'country club' with the A.  Also, the captaincy is the Top 3 salaries on the team so have you truly changed culture or just thrown the leadership to those making the lion's share of the $$$?  All of these guys have NMC's too and does that help instill that 'country club' mentality.  

Totally agree with your viewpoints above.  I am really worried that 11 and 20 will try to 'rope Spurgeon' into their little 'club,' which I think they did with Staal once he arrived.  I think it is bad from a chemistry standpoint, and could compromise Spurgeon's other relationships within the team up to this point.  Also, I would guess that there is some animosity between the hard-workers and 11 and 20, whom always have the vanilla attitude when games are lost, never judge their own contribution negatively, and continue to blather the platitudes that show other players that they hardly care.  New voices like Foligno's would be welcome here.  He has a gritty and honest attitude that I think would better resonate with the team.

 

Can you imagine working your a$$ off on line 4 with limited 'glory opportunities' in a loss and having the two primadonna personalities wax poetic thereafter with a bunch of cliche's like 'we need to play hard for 3 periods,' 'we'll get them next time,' 'we're coming off a long road trip....'  Blah, blah, blah; while rushing off to film a QuikTrip commercial and cashing in close to $100k for a weak effort in a game.  It would piss me off.  This would be particularly aggravating for a player who is fighting for their spot and ice time when these two decide their own ice time and spend it weakly 'swinging their purse' and floating limp wristers at that goal or getting knocked around in front of the net.  It is time they both 'put up, or shut up.'  I would be happy to see both retire.....If not for CL, I would guess Guerin would have done something different with the A's, as 11 and 20 no longer exhibit much desire to win.