Wild 2013-14 season

[CaptainMusky]

Heatley with another impressive goal. Body position and hands. Totally a goal scorers goal but an excellent play by spurgeon.

[RK]

Solid game last night against a very good Tampa Bay team. First time I'd seen a Bolts game, and I knew they were fast, but they were a lot more physical than I'd expected. Nice to see Spurgeon pick up right where he left off, and very very nice to see Kuemper shake off a couple losses, even though I didn't think either one was on him. With a young goalie you never know how they'll respond but he was solid all night.

Hated to see Scandella go down though. He's the kind of D where you don't notice him most nights, but not noticing him is a compliment. He's just a steady, efficient second pair D. Hope he isn't out too long. Am glad they kept Prosser in when Spurgeon came back though. Think he's earned the time. Holy smokes was Granlund ever good at times last night too. Man it's been fun watching him find his game in the NHL.

Going to be very very interesting to see what they do up the middle when Koivu comes back. I don't see how you can split up Parise/Granlund/Pomminville right now, and Haula has been great on the 4th line/pk. Much as I hate to engage in deadline speculation, makes a guy wonder if Brodziak might get moved. He's been a disaster on faceoffs, and that's kind of a big deal when you're a PK/checking line center...

[Bear55]

Players get one, maybe two shots at a big payday in their careers, and this is Vanek's first chance at being a UFA on the market.

Vanek is kind of a rare case, he got a pretty massive payday at a young age. I don't remember every detail but I think the oilers offer sheeted him and Buffalo matched. I think he was also quoted somewhere of wanted to win and leaving money on the table, I just hope he picks our table.

[Bear55]

Gosh darn Heatley, making harder and harder to hate on him, hope he keeps it up the rest of the season.

I also suspect by the end of the season we see Koivu and Parise back together unless the PGP line is on some kind of epic hot streak.

I kind of like:

Parise Koivu Fontaine

Nino Grandlund Pommers

Heatley Coyle Zucker

[OnAFly]

Heatley won't be here next year and I doubt he has much in the way of trade value.

Trading Brodziak? Yes please! Put Coyle on the 3rd C and keep Haula on the 4th C. If we don't trade Brodziak, then I would put him on the 4th C, Haula on the 3rd C, and Coyle back to wing. Coyle made more impact on wing than on C.

[OnAFly]

Wouldn't look too bad next year if Vanek winds up here.

Parise Granlund Pommer

Vanek Koivu Nino

Cooke Haula Coyle

Fontaine Brodz Zucker

(I'm not positive on wings there)

Suter Spurgeon

Scandella Brodin

Ballard XXXXX

We need a decent Defenseman.

[Bear55]

Heatley won't be here next year and I doubt he has much in the way of trade value.

Yep gone for sure, hoping he finally figured out he is in a contract year and plays his butt off for the rest of the year. You never know if the wild get hot and Kuemper/Harding(comes back) play out of thier minds we could be dangerous this year and into the future.

[Bear55]

Ugg more Ryan Miller rumors popping up, that might be cool if we can get him cheap and dump Backstrom but I'm not sure I want to hear what we have to give up to get him.

[bbfenatic]

Great Win last night putting more points between us and those chasing us. Has Coyle been playing, or is he out/hurt, or is he playing hurt ? Kind of off the radar lately, only 2 SOG and 1 Hit last night; we need him to compete at a higher level. Heatley's performance lately has noticeably lifted the weights from his ankles and he is so much more confident, so much more involved in the play....good for him (and the Wild), a very pleasant surprise!

I think Vanek will be traded to the highest bidder and if the right team gets him and has the cap room he will sign a big deal. If Snow does not deal him before deadline he really is the worst Gm EVER IMO. I still think we have plenty of ammo to make Snow a good offer but we will see how this unfolds.

[CaptainMusky]

This would be my pairings for next year when Vanek arrives with his cape:

Vanek Granlund Pommer (reunite Pomminville with Vanek and keep Granlund with Pommers too) Deadly!!!)

Parise Koivu Nino

Cooke Haula Coyle

Fontaine Brodz Zucker

I am not too high on Brodz at this point, I would like to see something done in this spot, but on this current roster I dont know if one exists.

[Bear55]

Lovin that depth.

[10,000 Casts]

Veilleux was waived yesterday. I supposed because he needs to go through waivers to be sent down?

[RK]

No kidding on the depth. Huge change from even two or three years ago when we had no depth at all, even on the NHL roster, much less at the AHL level. Chuck Kobasew, Andrew Ebbett and Robbie Earl played a ton, and Casey Wellman was a 'prospect' for us. Remarkable turn-around. Anyone who's squawking about Chuck Fletcher not doing enough to build a better team should look at the 2009-2010 org depth chart compared to now...

Re: Veilleux, he's on a two-way contract so he can go back to Iowa. The rules areound the Olympic break and who can go to the AHL and who can't are kind of arcane apparently. Zucker can't go because he's played in too many of their recent games. Probably why the can send SV back as he's been a scratch quite a bit. Sounds like they're keeping Kuemper either way, which makes a ton of sense. They'd be up a creek if he got run over by some AHL lummox and got hurt. Veilleux is probably pretty safe on the waiver wire though, and they'd survive if he did get claimed...

Sounds like relatively good news on Scandella - just a sprain.

[10,000 Casts]

SV cleared waivers and I'm glad, he's a pretty solid call up when we need a winger.

And they just posted on Twitter that Backstrom is out for tonight and Gustaffson is already in St. Paul. [PoorWordUsage] happened there????

[Bear55]

Sounds likes Backs injury from last season is flaring up again, I guess our depth is so good we can come at them with our AHL tandem.

I think Veilleux has cleared waivers a few times of the past couple of seasons, everyone kind of knows what he brings so while he can be good for our team on the 4th line there really isn't much threat of someone else grabbing him.

[OnAFly]

There was some speculation that Backs wasn't fully healed and that's why Yeo was riding Keumper so hard. Sounds like it was right.

[RK]

Yeah - recurring abdominal issue for Backstrom. All I can say is thank God Kuemper has stepped up. Have to wonder if this + Harding's uncertain future changes the equation on the Wild looking for a goalie at the deadline. Pommer, Miller, maybe Vanek in the offseason. For a while we were the Minnesota Sharks (Heatly, Seto, Coyle). Might be the Minnesota Buffaloes here soon.

Weird Bermuda Triangle day for the Preds... GM David Poile got nailed by a puck during morning skate - puck skipped of a stick, went through the doorway leading to the benches and hit Poile in the face while he was standing in the hallway. Taken to the hospital... Then Pete Weber, their play by play guy, and an all around fantastic hockey journalist, had a heart attack at the team hotel. Sounds like he's ok...

[BartmanMN]

Wonder if Backy is being moved. Yeo's interview this morning on Kfan, he said he would address the goalie concerns later and would not answer the question.

[OnAFly]

Good lord hopefully the next bad thing that happens to the Preds is just a loss tonight

[CaptainMusky]

Yikes scary on both accounts for the predator staff!

Miller miller miller. :-)

I had to do it though realistically I think the asking price will be too much and I don't want to sacrifice our youth.

[Bear55]

Nice way to go into the break, what a snipe by Nino!

I think Heatley finally figure out he isn't a top line sniper anymore, he is working hard and using his teammates.

[hoppe56307]

Koivu out of the olympics.

Koivu

Though I am not surprised, but I am happy he can get fully healed.

[Bear55]

This break comes at a good time for us, Scandella, Koivu, Backs, Harding need some time.

[OnAFly]

Man that sucks for Koivu not to be able to captain his country's team.

[CaptainMusky]

Major bummer for Koivu. Good for us, bad for him.

Anyone hear the Russo interview between periods last night when he was talking about an earlier Presser with Yeo?

Specifically the part about addressing the goal tending "situation"? This was after it was announced that Backstrom was scratched.

When Russo was talking about it and how he described Yeo's response it was very compelling and left a LOT open for interpretation. I believe the comment from Yeo was along the lines of "it will be addressed at a later date". Didnt comment on Backs directly, but it almost made it seem there was a trade in the works. Hmmm.