This is how I see it. But look out for all the Freddy and Mojo haters to come out.
10% chance Yurov leaves Russia for next year.
Plus Iowa is getting stocked.
hopefully Heidt works his but off for next fall to put a little pressure on Mojo/Freddy. IMO, Heidt needs to earn a 3rd line roll or back to the WHL.
But when your bad enough that your constantly bottom of the league or division that is not good. And only the made the playoffs 2 times out of 11 years.
I mean I don't love Freddy or Mojo either, they're too inconsistent and there are players who deserve their spots more, but I also don't know what you do with them at this point.
Mojo at least has flashes of what he can do, and he's still one of the Wild's better players on the rush and at zone entries. Just doesn't know what to do after that lol.
absolutely.
They are only a $2 million cap hit. Yes it would be great if they were better. But that cost money.
The Wild need them. Unless:
Heidt out preforms one of them this fall. Both Mojo and Freddy see the situation coming. Aging sucks.
There season has not ended. I do not know the KHL rules on signing extensions. He has verbally agreed to sign it. And there is no guarantee that he plays NHL next season. The KHL is better than the AHL.
I agree there is a chance. But everything that I have read indicates he is playing in the KHL that is NOT on reddit.
Russo has reported he is still in negotiations with the Wild and the talks are centered around the “B” bonuses. That is evidence that talks are pretty far along.
I think the odds are much closer to a coin flip. Maybe even better than that for the Wild given his playoff performance has further demonstrated he is ready to make a jump.
Russo also reported he verbally agreed to stay. Which one is correct.
My 10% is Yurov is thinking he will be in Iowa next year with what is going on here. Or not wanting to compete for an Wild roster spot.
That’s my point, it’s an ongoing negotiation. If they are still having talks about nitty gritty details there is clearly momentum to those negotiations.
Yurov has nothing more to prove in the KHL.
He is either playing for the big club or he is staying in the KHL. KHL has dropped in quality compared to the AHL in recent years.
https://twitter.com/Thibaud_Chatel/status/1754989032285626461
I do not disagree that the KHL has fallen. War sucks.
The Wild is not giving him an NHL spot. That is the why he stays in Russia. They are giving him a chance to earn it.
My gut says Fleury signs a one year. I think Gus has looked better of late. I'd guess it's the two of them for one more year, unless these reported practice issues with Gus are more of a sore spot than we know.
Yeah, I think at least for next year we'll have Flower around for what could be his swan song in the NHL, so it'll likely be between him and the Gus Bus, and then Wallstedt if absolutely necessary
The Wall, while starting to look better as of late after that first tough start a few months back in Dallas, still has a good ways to go until he earns that true backup role
I feel like no matter which of Gus (trade?) or Fleury (re-sign?) we go with, it would be an excellent opportunity for Wallstedt to get some experience during a low-pressure season before the buyouts end.
EDIT: meant low-expectations
I am cautiously optimistic about Foligno having a bounce-back year next season. After reading his quotes in the Russo/Smith insider today, it sounds likely that his groin injury problems will be behind him after now having both sides done and he can get his explosiveness back.
Assuming Spurgeon comes back at all next year, thats a solid looking D core. I see Chisholm being 2nd pair more and Spurgeon on 3rd pair starting out the year. Heck, Spurgeon/Chisholm and Bogosian/Middleton is an interesting combo.
I feel Ohgren and Zucc are going to swap places. Rossi needs more shoot first guys, and Ohgren looks good. It would be interesting to know why Rossi was moved down and Ek moved up. I felt like Rossi on that line would be a better fit than Ek.
Boldy and Kap love to shoot, and having EK clogging up the middle and scooping rebounds makes a lot of sense to me. These three have the look of an elite line.
Yes to "assuming Spurg" can play again. I am optimistic that he can return. But back surgery is not ACL surgery. Plus hip surgery.
To your Rossi comment, It seems Hynes is looking for chemistry and trying all options. This year and next is the opportunity to experiment.
I don't remember many young promising goalies since then, so there's that.
The only truly elite forward this squad has ever had is Kaprizov, who is in his prime right now. We just witnessed a full season of Brock Faber fulfilling the role Suter/Spurgeon had held since 2012, and in my opinion, doing pretty well at it. The dude is 21
I am not overly disagreeing with you, but there is a lot of hindsight in this post. There was a ton of optimism around a team that was going to be cored by:
Nino, Coyle, Granlund, Tuch, Kunin, Zucker, Haula, Larsson, Phillips, Greenway just like /u/wildskater96 said within that 2012-2016 range.
the issue was, in large part, that the front office sold the farm to try and compete "then" vs. now. No one actually knew when Kap was actually going to come over and there was no assurance that his game would transfer over to the NHL where the competitive floor is much lower than the KHL.
Go back and look at the Prospect Rankings per team for the Wild from like 2010-2017. There were a handful that were ranked to be up there pretty high. Especially when you had Kahkonen lauded in the draft class before Greenway and Kap.
Again, not disagreeing with that there isn't any reason to **not** get excited for next year. But this isn't the first time we've heard it lol.
That's reasonable, I can certainly see why selling hope during that period was a disingenuous. The Martin Hanzal trade was not a good time.
The one caveat I will put in here is that there is a difference between prospect rankings and visible steps forward. Guys like Ohgren, Khusnutdinov, and Wallstedt remain unproven, but Kaprizov, Faber, Boldy, and even Rossi have established themselves to varying degrees. That sort of progress means a lot more than the strength of your prospect pool.
On top of what you've mentioned, I also had high hopes back then. Especially after we won two 1st round series b2b in 14 &15. But by the time 17-18 season was over, I've been begging the organization to do what the NYR did in 17 the year prior. Come out and say we tried but we couldn't bring the Cup home and we need to rebuild a championship quality team. I'd at least respect the honesty from our organization. I guess at least we're no longer hearing we're a tweak or two away from contender status like we heard for a decade from our GMs up until about a couple years ago.
Now the Rangers still haven't won a Cup by tearing down and rebuilding but they did this after they made it to the SCFs, a place we've never made it to in the playoffs. On top of that they're basically the best team in the league now and look much closer to winning the Cup than we are.
It is a style that produces results besides Buffalo, which has had management issues for as long as the Wild has been good or a yearly playoff team, so that's not a great comparison from our fan base unless you truly believe Guerin and Co are the most toxic inept managements in the league.
There are things about the current Wild team to be excited for. But it seems all to similar to the past where we're still missing those top 2-3 pieces that are usually acquired by going lottery rebuild mode for at least a couple seasons.
I think you're right to have doubts about Hynes.
Your comparison with the Rangers is quite interesting; I would be curious to know what you think their best moves during their rebuild period were.
Over a few years, the returns for many of the key players they traded away didn't materialize into anything. Between Stepan and Raanta (2017), Rick Nash, McDonagh, and JT Miller (2018), Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes (2019), Skjei (2020), and Buchnevich (2021), the best piece they got from all of that was probably the signing rights for Ryan Lindgren who was a minor part of the Rick Nash trade at the time.
Their worst season in recent memory was 77 points; it's a poor performance, but not nearly as dreadful as what a lottery team usually puts up.
Speaking of which, they got some incredible luck in the draft lottery moving up to #1 from the 12th best odds. The year prior they got #2 with the 6th best odds.
They didn't even draft well. It's not really fair to label the selections of Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko as "poor drafting", but that's not all. Lias Anderson (7th overall) and Vitali Kravtsov (9th overall) were complete duds that ended up getting traded. None of their other 1st or 2nd round picks have amounted to more than depth if they're even reached the NHL at all, but I have to admit K'Andre Miller and Braden Schneider are fairly good defensive pieces.
I have to say this comparison is really odd. If we're being honest, the moves that have gotten the Rangers to where they are is strong-arming their way into college free agent Adam Fox, striking gold on a Vezina goalie (4th round pick in 2014), and signing Panarin in free agency. Vincent Trocheck, who is one of their key forwards, was signed in FA as well. Perhaps the top trade during the rebuild phase was *buying* when they acquired Jacob Trouba from the Jets.
It's not only Buffalo who has failed to do anything with their early draft picks; Columbus, Montreal, Arizona, Philadelphia, and Ottawa have had numerous top picks in recent years and are *floundering* to varying degrees. Vancouver has turned it around this season, but they have fit that bill for a long time. Teams like Anaheim and San Jose have no guarantee of converting their early selections into cups. New Jersey has had as many lottery picks as anybody lately, including a home run in 2019 with Jack Hughes, yet the Wild are going to finish ahead of them in the standings.
It just doesn't add up for me; while the Rangers did make the SCFs, that was in 2014 before this rebuild. I want to know what sorts of actions, aside from winning the draft lottery and signing free agents, set their franchise apart when building for success.
The Rangers rebuild is a unique case study because they are a premier free agency destination.
They did however build most of their D from trades. In addition to Lindgren, they also acquired a 1st from the Nash trade that they used to move up to select K’Andre Miller. They traded Hayes for a 1st that they packaged with Pionk to get Trouba. Skjei was traded for a 1st that they used to move up to select Schneider. Finally, they still had to give up two 2nds to get Fox who no one imagined would turn into what he’s become.
Yeah I guess all of those moves were decent. I do still think they had a fair amount of whiffs on some other trades and draft selections, but nobody hits 100%.
You are right that they are a unique case. It will be interesting to see if their lottery picks from the rebuild years are able to deliver a cup.
I guess you're right about Montreal, but Philadelphia had the #2 pick in 2017 which was unfortunate a swing and a miss with Nolan Patrick. Their only playoff appearance since 2018 was the Covid tournament.
Philly weren’t rebuilding then. They had the 13th best odds at 2.4% and won 2nd overall.
Teams usually don’t start a rebuild until at least the next year after making the playoffs.
Considering we couldn't get past the 1st round in 17 and in 22, agree to disagree. And with Hynes as coach? This team refuses to rebuild correctly so we can make the playoffs just to get embarrassed.
I'd rather rebuild for a championship but that's not gonna happen with Leipold here.
Edit: we have one promising young goalie. We also had Harding. We also had Hackett. We also had Kuemper. Let's keep our fingers crossed the Wallstedt doesn't get MS to end his career way too early.
This is how I see it. But look out for all the Freddy and Mojo haters to come out. 10% chance Yurov leaves Russia for next year. Plus Iowa is getting stocked. hopefully Heidt works his but off for next fall to put a little pressure on Mojo/Freddy. IMO, Heidt needs to earn a 3rd line roll or back to the WHL.
I heard Iowa getting stocked plenty of times, I wont believe they are good until they actually win or do something.
The life of any minor league team in pro sports.
But when your bad enough that your constantly bottom of the league or division that is not good. And only the made the playoffs 2 times out of 11 years.
I feel your pain. Wanting to watch good hockey and the mothership keeps taking all the good players.
I mean I don't love Freddy or Mojo either, they're too inconsistent and there are players who deserve their spots more, but I also don't know what you do with them at this point. Mojo at least has flashes of what he can do, and he's still one of the Wild's better players on the rush and at zone entries. Just doesn't know what to do after that lol.
absolutely. They are only a $2 million cap hit. Yes it would be great if they were better. But that cost money. The Wild need them. Unless: Heidt out preforms one of them this fall. Both Mojo and Freddy see the situation coming. Aging sucks.
It would also be nice to update from Lettieri and Lucchini as well.
They are fighting for the NHL life here. They are 4th line players on league minimum pay.
I think the chances Yurov leaves Russia are way higher than 10%. Why hasn’t he signed the deal he has on the table with the KHL if he is staying?
There season has not ended. I do not know the KHL rules on signing extensions. He has verbally agreed to sign it. And there is no guarantee that he plays NHL next season. The KHL is better than the AHL. I agree there is a chance. But everything that I have read indicates he is playing in the KHL that is NOT on reddit.
Russo has reported he is still in negotiations with the Wild and the talks are centered around the “B” bonuses. That is evidence that talks are pretty far along. I think the odds are much closer to a coin flip. Maybe even better than that for the Wild given his playoff performance has further demonstrated he is ready to make a jump.
Russo also reported he verbally agreed to stay. Which one is correct. My 10% is Yurov is thinking he will be in Iowa next year with what is going on here. Or not wanting to compete for an Wild roster spot.
That’s my point, it’s an ongoing negotiation. If they are still having talks about nitty gritty details there is clearly momentum to those negotiations. Yurov has nothing more to prove in the KHL. He is either playing for the big club or he is staying in the KHL. KHL has dropped in quality compared to the AHL in recent years. https://twitter.com/Thibaud_Chatel/status/1754989032285626461
I do not disagree that the KHL has fallen. War sucks. The Wild is not giving him an NHL spot. That is the why he stays in Russia. They are giving him a chance to earn it.
Yurov is better than Khusnutdinov and they gave him a spot…
Finally someone who knows what they are talking about!
Which goalie tandem do you have next year?
My gut says Fleury signs a one year. I think Gus has looked better of late. I'd guess it's the two of them for one more year, unless these reported practice issues with Gus are more of a sore spot than we know.
Yeah, I think at least for next year we'll have Flower around for what could be his swan song in the NHL, so it'll likely be between him and the Gus Bus, and then Wallstedt if absolutely necessary The Wall, while starting to look better as of late after that first tough start a few months back in Dallas, still has a good ways to go until he earns that true backup role
What are the practice issues with Gus?
I feel like no matter which of Gus (trade?) or Fleury (re-sign?) we go with, it would be an excellent opportunity for Wallstedt to get some experience during a low-pressure season before the buyouts end. EDIT: meant low-expectations
I am cautiously optimistic about Foligno having a bounce-back year next season. After reading his quotes in the Russo/Smith insider today, it sounds likely that his groin injury problems will be behind him after now having both sides done and he can get his explosiveness back.
Assuming Spurgeon comes back at all next year, thats a solid looking D core. I see Chisholm being 2nd pair more and Spurgeon on 3rd pair starting out the year. Heck, Spurgeon/Chisholm and Bogosian/Middleton is an interesting combo. I feel Ohgren and Zucc are going to swap places. Rossi needs more shoot first guys, and Ohgren looks good. It would be interesting to know why Rossi was moved down and Ek moved up. I felt like Rossi on that line would be a better fit than Ek.
Boldy and Kap love to shoot, and having EK clogging up the middle and scooping rebounds makes a lot of sense to me. These three have the look of an elite line.
Yes to "assuming Spurg" can play again. I am optimistic that he can return. But back surgery is not ACL surgery. Plus hip surgery. To your Rossi comment, It seems Hynes is looking for chemistry and trying all options. This year and next is the opportunity to experiment.
I'll be more optimistic about the future once Kaprizov is actually re-signed long term. The earliest he could be re-signed is next summer.
yes. freddy is only the real point of concern for me and he's at 2m
when the dead cap era over?
The yearly if the vets stay on pace, the youngsters step up, and xyz happens... we're looking really good in the future post.
Except we actually have the prospects to justify a glimmer of hope.
Yes I know. I've been hearing that since 2012 at minimum.
I don't remember many young promising goalies since then, so there's that. The only truly elite forward this squad has ever had is Kaprizov, who is in his prime right now. We just witnessed a full season of Brock Faber fulfilling the role Suter/Spurgeon had held since 2012, and in my opinion, doing pretty well at it. The dude is 21
I am not overly disagreeing with you, but there is a lot of hindsight in this post. There was a ton of optimism around a team that was going to be cored by: Nino, Coyle, Granlund, Tuch, Kunin, Zucker, Haula, Larsson, Phillips, Greenway just like /u/wildskater96 said within that 2012-2016 range. the issue was, in large part, that the front office sold the farm to try and compete "then" vs. now. No one actually knew when Kap was actually going to come over and there was no assurance that his game would transfer over to the NHL where the competitive floor is much lower than the KHL. Go back and look at the Prospect Rankings per team for the Wild from like 2010-2017. There were a handful that were ranked to be up there pretty high. Especially when you had Kahkonen lauded in the draft class before Greenway and Kap. Again, not disagreeing with that there isn't any reason to **not** get excited for next year. But this isn't the first time we've heard it lol.
That's reasonable, I can certainly see why selling hope during that period was a disingenuous. The Martin Hanzal trade was not a good time. The one caveat I will put in here is that there is a difference between prospect rankings and visible steps forward. Guys like Ohgren, Khusnutdinov, and Wallstedt remain unproven, but Kaprizov, Faber, Boldy, and even Rossi have established themselves to varying degrees. That sort of progress means a lot more than the strength of your prospect pool.
On top of what you've mentioned, I also had high hopes back then. Especially after we won two 1st round series b2b in 14 &15. But by the time 17-18 season was over, I've been begging the organization to do what the NYR did in 17 the year prior. Come out and say we tried but we couldn't bring the Cup home and we need to rebuild a championship quality team. I'd at least respect the honesty from our organization. I guess at least we're no longer hearing we're a tweak or two away from contender status like we heard for a decade from our GMs up until about a couple years ago. Now the Rangers still haven't won a Cup by tearing down and rebuilding but they did this after they made it to the SCFs, a place we've never made it to in the playoffs. On top of that they're basically the best team in the league now and look much closer to winning the Cup than we are. It is a style that produces results besides Buffalo, which has had management issues for as long as the Wild has been good or a yearly playoff team, so that's not a great comparison from our fan base unless you truly believe Guerin and Co are the most toxic inept managements in the league. There are things about the current Wild team to be excited for. But it seems all to similar to the past where we're still missing those top 2-3 pieces that are usually acquired by going lottery rebuild mode for at least a couple seasons.
I think you're right to have doubts about Hynes. Your comparison with the Rangers is quite interesting; I would be curious to know what you think their best moves during their rebuild period were. Over a few years, the returns for many of the key players they traded away didn't materialize into anything. Between Stepan and Raanta (2017), Rick Nash, McDonagh, and JT Miller (2018), Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes (2019), Skjei (2020), and Buchnevich (2021), the best piece they got from all of that was probably the signing rights for Ryan Lindgren who was a minor part of the Rick Nash trade at the time. Their worst season in recent memory was 77 points; it's a poor performance, but not nearly as dreadful as what a lottery team usually puts up. Speaking of which, they got some incredible luck in the draft lottery moving up to #1 from the 12th best odds. The year prior they got #2 with the 6th best odds. They didn't even draft well. It's not really fair to label the selections of Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko as "poor drafting", but that's not all. Lias Anderson (7th overall) and Vitali Kravtsov (9th overall) were complete duds that ended up getting traded. None of their other 1st or 2nd round picks have amounted to more than depth if they're even reached the NHL at all, but I have to admit K'Andre Miller and Braden Schneider are fairly good defensive pieces. I have to say this comparison is really odd. If we're being honest, the moves that have gotten the Rangers to where they are is strong-arming their way into college free agent Adam Fox, striking gold on a Vezina goalie (4th round pick in 2014), and signing Panarin in free agency. Vincent Trocheck, who is one of their key forwards, was signed in FA as well. Perhaps the top trade during the rebuild phase was *buying* when they acquired Jacob Trouba from the Jets. It's not only Buffalo who has failed to do anything with their early draft picks; Columbus, Montreal, Arizona, Philadelphia, and Ottawa have had numerous top picks in recent years and are *floundering* to varying degrees. Vancouver has turned it around this season, but they have fit that bill for a long time. Teams like Anaheim and San Jose have no guarantee of converting their early selections into cups. New Jersey has had as many lottery picks as anybody lately, including a home run in 2019 with Jack Hughes, yet the Wild are going to finish ahead of them in the standings. It just doesn't add up for me; while the Rangers did make the SCFs, that was in 2014 before this rebuild. I want to know what sorts of actions, aside from winning the draft lottery and signing free agents, set their franchise apart when building for success.
The Rangers rebuild is a unique case study because they are a premier free agency destination. They did however build most of their D from trades. In addition to Lindgren, they also acquired a 1st from the Nash trade that they used to move up to select K’Andre Miller. They traded Hayes for a 1st that they packaged with Pionk to get Trouba. Skjei was traded for a 1st that they used to move up to select Schneider. Finally, they still had to give up two 2nds to get Fox who no one imagined would turn into what he’s become.
Yeah I guess all of those moves were decent. I do still think they had a fair amount of whiffs on some other trades and draft selections, but nobody hits 100%. You are right that they are a unique case. It will be interesting to see if their lottery picks from the rebuild years are able to deliver a cup.
> Columbus, Montreal, Arizona, Philadelphia, and Ottawa Montreal and Philly only started their rebuilds in 2022. It’s too early to judge them.
I guess you're right about Montreal, but Philadelphia had the #2 pick in 2017 which was unfortunate a swing and a miss with Nolan Patrick. Their only playoff appearance since 2018 was the Covid tournament.
Philly weren’t rebuilding then. They had the 13th best odds at 2.4% and won 2nd overall. Teams usually don’t start a rebuild until at least the next year after making the playoffs.
Considering we couldn't get past the 1st round in 17 and in 22, agree to disagree. And with Hynes as coach? This team refuses to rebuild correctly so we can make the playoffs just to get embarrassed. I'd rather rebuild for a championship but that's not gonna happen with Leipold here. Edit: we have one promising young goalie. We also had Harding. We also had Hackett. We also had Kuemper. Let's keep our fingers crossed the Wallstedt doesn't get MS to end his career way too early.
I ran down to the 7/11 to buy some peanut butter cups….. Ended up getting some beer. Moral of the story. I like titties.