Wild off season

[fishing tech]

Wild sign Matt Cooke. We finally have a guy that other teams will hate.

[OnAFly]

We have that for years in Clutterbuck. Cooke...wow. That's gonna be a tough sell to the fans, myself included. That guys says he's cleaned up his act, but man he had some pretty dirty hits in the past few years.

We got a second for Seto, that's about expectable considering his inconsistency.

[10,000 Casts]

Wow.... I don't know what to think!!!! On one hand, he is a punching bag agitator that everybody hates and on the other hand he should replace Seto's 15 goals next year at a cheaper price and they got another 2nd rd pick that they can use as trade bait next year when they have money to spend.

Jeez with Cooke on the 3rd line and Kenopka on the 4th line, it should make for some fun games to watch. Rupp is going to be a busy guy.

I wonder if they are looking ahead to the 2014 season and will be happy with another squeaker next year.

[broodwich]

I'm no GM just one fan, so this is from a fan of the wild stand point. I really liked Seto. I thought he had a good season. He played hard forechecked with intensity and thought he was starting to put his skill together with his physical play. Also sad to see Cullen go have tons of respect for this guy. You can replace his production but it will be very difficult to replace his character. I really don't care about Clutter. I'm on the fence about Backstrom. As for Koivu, was not pleased with his play and was disappointed with his leadership this past season. I feel like the Parise and Suter signing had him pouting all season. Maybe his leadership was challenged by those 2 but he needs to step it up this year and be the player he should be. Reminds me of a saying "lead, follow, or get out of the way." I feel like Fletcher knows what he is doing so I will let him be the GM of the Wild and I'll GLADLY stay a fan of the Wild. Can't wait to see how the final product will work together next season. BTW I still stand behind Yeo, he is a young coach and it takes time to learn all the aspects of coaching. Scotty Bowman started his coaching career at a young age and it took him 5 years to win a cup. Not saying Yeo is going to be Bowman just trying to put it into perspective.

[bbfenatic]

I'm no GM just one fan, so this is from a fan of the wild stand point. I really liked Seto. I thought he had a good season. He played hard forechecked with intensity and thought he was starting to put his skill together with his physical play. Also sad to see Cullen go have tons of respect for this guy. You can replace his production but it will be very difficult to replace his character. I really don't care about Clutter. I'm on the fence about Backstrom. As for Koivu, was not pleased with his play and was disappointed with his leadership this past season. I feel like the Parise and Suter signing had him pouting all season. Maybe his leadership was challenged by those 2 but he needs to step it up this year and be the player he should be. Reminds me of a saying "lead, follow, or get out of the way." I feel like Fletcher knows what he is doing so I will let him be the GM of the Wild and I'll GLADLY stay a fan of the Wild. Can't wait to see how the final product will work together next season. BTW I still stand behind Yeo, he is a young coach and it takes time to learn all the aspects of coaching. Scotty Bowman started his coaching career at a young age and it took him 5 years to win a cup. Not saying Yeo is going to be Bowman just trying to put it into perspective.

+1 I agree with everything here except I am not a Yeo fan. According to Fletch the team is set now with these latest moves so they'll have to make the best of what they have...and Fletch is hanging his hat on Heatley putting up 25 goals this season which is asking a lot from that guy. I know the cupboard is far from empty but I was hoping for a better off-season....we shall see how this plays out.

[certified jumbo]

Fletcher better get all this right. Dating back to polminville trade, lots has happened. Most of it I find myself scratching my head.

[fishing tech]

I am thinking that there will be 1 more move. Not sure what it will be but I just have a feeling that 1 more is coming. It will be nice to have Cooke on our side.

[walleyes12]

I am not sure where the scoring is going to come from this season. I belive we were ranked towards the bottom in scoring last season. We got rid of Cullen and Seto and signed Cooke? Whos going to be our second line Center,? Grandlund, he couldnt even stay with the team last season. I have a feeling we are going to be a team with a bunch of 3rd and 4th line players. This has been a very nonproductive offseason.

[10,000 Casts]

I hope Hot Wheels Heatley gets massively boo'd every time he touches the puck next year.. And the only difference between now and 3-4 years ago are 2 big contracts and some unproven prospects. For anyone who thinks Heatley will score 25 goals, I say 15 at best with a -15 rating.

Either way, I'm still excited for the season..

[Bear55]

Wow I was off grid for a while, didn't expect all these moves. Going to have to let all this sink in for a while. Looks like the kids are going to get a serious look this year.

[mulefarm]

Why the hate for Heatly? Not sure why he should be booed every time he touches the puck. May not be the player he was, and the Wild knew what his contract was when they traded for him.

[Hoyt4]

Cooke will not be a good move.

[OnAFly]

In Cooke's defense (never thought I'd say that!) he can actually play hockey. He's good for 15 goals a year, which is about the same as Clutterbuck.

[Port.Winterhawk]

HEATLEY will score over 20 goals this year.

[Port.Winterhawk]

COOKE adds more to this team than CLUTTER ever could.

[bbfenatic]

COOKE adds more to this team than CLUTTER ever could.

Time will tell, if he stays out of the box. I think he is more of a cheap shot artist. I just think Cooke will camp out in front more than Clutter ever did and wreak more havoc which might free up someone else to put it away.

Not sure of our identity....the kids are more skilled with speed as are Parise, Pom, and Suter and not so physical ....maybe the mix will be great. Heatley is a liability IMO and if they have the chance to buy him out I hope they do.

[MUSKY18]

Sad to see Cullen go away. Really thought he would finish his career at home. He leaves a HUGE void in the lineup. Not only do we lose his leadership, character and experience, we now don't have a second line center. Even tho he might only have a good year, maybe two left on his wheels, if he could play the way he did the last half of this past season, he was worth signing. Rather have signed him than have Heatley back.

Ballard could be a great deal if his game comes back, so the jury is still out on that one in my book.

Cooke......supposedly he has cleaned his game up and is focused more on points than time in the sin bin.

Bottom line is none of us will really know until the players strap on the blades and the season begins. That's where the rubber meets the road and we see how good or bad the decisions were.

[10,000 Casts]

Quote:

HEATLEY will score over 20 goals this year.

I hope you're right! But can he play D? He'll get his goals on the PP and he'll give up alot more on D..

Quote:

COOKE adds more to this team than CLUTTER ever could.

agreed

Quote:

Why the hate for Heatly? Not sure why he should be booed every time he touches the puck. May not be the player he was, and the Wild knew what his contract was when they traded for him.

I know it wasn't his fault he was crosschecked and injured at the end of the last season but he either has lost a huge step or he didn't come into the season ready to play last year. Either way it doesn't warrent paying him over $7m a year that could have gone to Cullen and someone else more deserving. If he plays like he did last season, the Wild are in trouble.. That big contract is the reason we had to get rid of Seto, Clutter and Cullen. And not saying thats a horrible thing but we weren't able to improve. Instead now we have a bunch of wild cards and gambles and we're strapped.

Quote:

Bottom line is none of us will really know until the players strap on the blades and the season begins. That's where the rubber meets the road and we see how good or bad the decisions were.

Yup and I can't wait!

[CaptainMusky]

Cullen played well down the stretch but the first part of the season he was terrible. So which Cullen is more representative of what we would have gotten this year? Who knows. Wheatley is hurt so the wild are stuck holdingthe puck bag on him. can't buy him out while injured. Aside from the money is is slated to get I like him on the roster. But that's a big price yet. There will probably be another move yet because we are down one player unless they are going to roll with one of the young guys and that makes me nervous.

[fishing tech]

I think there is 1 more move coming also. I also believe that Heatley's injury has forced Fletcher to change his plans for this year which means we should be in pretty good shape to resign Pommer and have a serious shot at Vanek and another big name FA next year. I know I know next year but with Heatley on the books we are stuck. I do believe he will be in better shape this year then last.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Im pretty excited about their recent moves, I am going to miss clutter but I think they got a little more grit and skill with Cooke and Ballard

[Raider4ever]

Wow! Cheap-Shot artists (Cooke) and killers (Heatly). Man, this squad is starting to look like the Raiders of the '70's. Geaux Wild!! Bring on Ogie Oglethorpe!!

[Bear55]

Hated the Cooke signing at first but he is actually pretty good hockey player and looks to be a slight upgrade on cluterbuck. Just hope all the suspensions are diry play are in the past.

Cullen leaving I am ok with, it might make us slightly worse this year but he was old and expensive and we had to move on at some point.

Ballard on the cheap to replace Gilbert is solid in my book.

Also glad we got something for Seto, he was highly likely to go free agent on us anyway. It also opens up a spot for one of the kids.

Spurgie cost us a little more than I would have thought but we needed him. At some point we need some guys to step up on D or they need to be replaced. I am hoping Scandella can take a step forward and Ballard can recover from a bad stint in Vancouver.

Heatley is ugly slow but gets 20 goals easy, I think he was on pace for 23-24 goals last year and scored 24 playing with Brodziak the year before. He will also see plenty of PP time.

[archerystud]

Bring on Ogie Oglethorpe!!

OGLETORPE!?!?!?!!?

I'm not real crazy about their free agent signings but what were they supposed to do?

I'm okay with Cooke and Clutterbuck. Would have like the SCSU guy Cullen back but that was too steep of a price. I've never been much of a Ballard fan so I hope that one works out.

I think the long term plan was for Harding to be the starter and get rid of Healtey but their hands kind of got tied with what happen last year.

[Bear55]