WILD HOCKEY!

[scsavre]

The lottery is fixed anyway. Obviously.

[archerystud]

Here's hoping the Wild land Parise and Matt Carle in the off season.

[scsavre]

We still need more. Im still not sold on Parise, I better research. Is he a guy who makes things happen, or does he need support.

[Bran32]

Parise had 31 goals and 38 assists in 82 games this year. I think he is capable of making things happen on his own.

Here are the rest of his stats since he came into the league!

Year GP Goals Assists

05-06 81 14 18

06-07 82 31 31

07-08 81 32 33

08-09 82 45 49

09-10 81 38 44

10-11 13 3 3

11-12 82 31 38

Beside the one year he seems to be very durable as well which is a HUGE plus!! He has averaged about 27.7 goals per year and 30.8 assists per year. If you take away his rookie year and the year he was hurt he averages 35 gpg and 39 apg. That has to be better than anything we have had since Gabby doesn't it? What do you guys think?

[Bran32]

Here are Gaborik's stats in the same time frame:

YEAR GP Goals Assists

05-06 65 38 28

06-07 48 30 27

07-08 77 42 41

08-09 17 13 10

09-10 76 42 44

10-11 62 22 26

11-12 82 41 35

Totals 427 228 211

Averages 61 32.5 30.1

Not much difference performance wise considering Gabby is hurt all the time!!

[Bear55]

Parise is a very good hockey player, if you give him talent he can be extremely good al a 94 pt season. We also have to remember he is coming off a major injury so I think he can still be better. Now landing him on the other land wow I have no clue, I would love him but I'm not sure if we have what he is looking for yet. CF would have to be the greatest salesman in the world.

[OnAFly]

I keep hearing he wants a Cup. My guess is he goes to a team which is more Cup-ready than we are. I would love to have him on the team though!

[archerystud]

Current list I see shows the Wild at $18.8M under the cap for next year but there roster size is currently only at 15. So they do also need some "bodies" out there. So if they were to sign Parise at say $8M a year that only leaves $10.8M for probably at least 10 other players. Current roster size is 29. Looking at those numbers I think I'd be a bit surprised if the Wild could really go after him. They also need to sign some D-men and I'm assuming Granlund.

The Wild have to decide when some of these young guys Zucker, Granlund, Coyle are going to be able to step in and play.

Although there probably are a few names out there who could step in and be solid second line players.

After Parise I wouldn't mind Jiri Hudler, P.A. Parenteau, or David Jones if they don't overpay for them. There are some other "names" out there who I think are getting too far past their prime.....Jokinen, Whitney and this team has to be looking to the future.

[Bear55]

I keep hearing he wants a Cup. My guess is he goes to a team which is more Cup-ready than we are. I would love to have him on the team though!

Our only read hope is his Dad and the idea that we are a good team with a future that was tore up by injuries this year. I hear JP wants Zack to play at home so he can watch his, obviously its Zacks call and he wants a cup. Hard decision for sure.

[Bear55]

Looking at cap geek we have 8 forwards and 5 D signed with 18M in cap space. Other than Lats and maybe Granlund (performance bonuses) it won't cost us much to fill out the roster if we do go on a spending spree. Clearly we have room for 1 big fish and maybe 2 if we really stretch the $$$. The good news is the year after we have like 13M coming off the books if we don't want to resign Cullen, Butch, and Backstrom. I really don't see us keeping them, maybe Backstrom at a significant pay cut. So we could have freedom to wheel and deal if the right free agents come along. Its kind of a pipe dream but at least possible. We should also have a lot of young cheap talent that could play up or down.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, next year we aren't as flexible as the year after for sure.

Here's something to keep in mind. The new CBA needs to be addressed. This means the cap could come down (as is rumored). In Craig Leopold's interview, he alluded to this possibility.

Here's a clip from the interview:

Are you making money? “We’re not making money, and that’s one reason we need to fix our system. We need to fix how much we’re spending right now. [The Wild's] revenues are fine. We’re down a little bit in attendance, but we’re up in sponsorships, we’re up in TV revenue. And so the revenue that we’re generating is not the issue as much as our expenses. And [the Wild's] biggest expense by far is player salaries.”

Craig Leopold has shown in the past that he wants to spend the money to make a winning team. But, he states that player salaries are too high. My guess is that he will be pushing to bring the cap down in the new CBA. This means he is probably telling CF not to spend to the max.

[archerystud]

Yeah if anything it's a step up from the DR era.

No talent in the bigs, no talent in the minors and no cap space. Kind of got us where we are today.

So at D we currently have Gilbert, Kampfer, Scandella, Prosser and Spurgeon coming back. Depends who you like but I do think they need to make one significant D signing even over Parise. I'm a little higher on Prosser than Kampfer at this point but I don't know if either is ready for a big time season.

With that in mind I could see the Wild getting a second tier free agents ( something like Carle/Hudler) and maybe resigning Scandella/Spurgeon to better deals and lock them up if they like them. Then plan on getting Zucker, Coyle, Granlund more PT and make a run at a top guy the next year (via trade or FA). At least there is now some younger talent that other teams may want!!

I think they could be a playoff team with that next year but probably not a cup contender yet. This years team just has too many 4th liners playing.

But I'd be ecstatic if they can land Parise this offseason.

[archerystud]

Yeah, next year we aren't as flexible as the year after for sure.

Here's something to keep in mind. The new CBA needs to be addressed. This means the cap could come down (as is rumored). In Craig Leopold's interview, he alluded to this possibility.

That's what concern's me about the CBA negotiations. If the owners take that stance and you have Donald Fehr on the other side I don't think it's going to be good!

[OnAFly]

Honestly, I wonder if he said that purely to plant the seed in the public's mind that the cap is too high. I bet he's steamed about having to pay for higher travel costs staying in the NW Div at least another year. I would be, that's for sure.

When Donald Fehr is involved in anything, it's only good for Donald Fehr.

Can someone tell Roenick that he doesn't play anymore and he can shave for the playoffs.