Wild 2014/2015 Regular Season

[leechlake]

I always thought that Clutterbuck was a little over the top with his finishing checks but it wouldn't be something that would hurt the Wild this year would it?

[CaptainMusky]

I always thought that Clutterbuck was a little over the top with his finishing checks but it wouldn't be something that would hurt the Wild this year would it?

No it wouldn't.

Its funny, so many folks say the Wild aren't tough enough and don't hit enough and have to be bigger. Which, I agree with to a point. But have any of you that say that spend considerable time watching the Blackhawks?

Watched another of their games last night and I will tell you, their game is very much the same as the Wild. Obviously their results have been dramatically different and they certainly have more proven skill guys that we do, but watch them play. They don't throw thunderous hits all over the ice. Its not necessary, but it would certainly be nice to have a couple guys that could do it. I expect Folin to emerge as a more physical force as he develops. Scandella is probably our most physical guy.

Brodz doesn't even seem to check anyone anymore or even Cooke for that matter.

When I played I sought out that first hit to get me in the game. Nothing like a good snot-rattler to get your head in the game.

[bbfenatic]

I am not a proponent of going out and trying to hit everything that moves. The Size/toughness issue for the Wild is more of being able to win more of the little battles in front of opponents goalie and for the D in front of our net...it is the law of physics smaller/weaker cannot overcome bigger/stronger when both are same speed/skill....plus when the collisions do happen the smaller player is more likely to get hurt or get dinged and feel the pain more...and then continue to play with that dinged sholder, arm, leg, whatever and become slower, less likely to get in a scrum, etc. We need both fast/skilled and tough/skilled but IMO we are tilted too much to the small size both on O and D to be highly competitive in the NHL.

[CaptainMusky]

Yep we are undersized comparatively. But guys like Kane never get hit so size isn't always that important its how you position and protect yourself.

I do agree we could use more beef though. A lot of the puck battle issues stem more from effort this season than strength.

This roster will look very different next year. Brodz, Harding, backstrom, prosser all likely gone. Interesting and important off season coming up.

[OnAFly]

Lot of dead weight there, with the exception of Brodziak. He's actually been pretty good this year. Good defensive 3rd/4th line checker.

Size+Skill=$$$$$, HIGH draft pick, or a diamond in the rough. Not too many Getzlafs out there and everyone wants one. Thoguh, I do think the Wild have been drafting a bit more for size now.

[bbfenatic]

I am not saying Getzlaff or any other of the Superstars, a guy his size half his skill would be better than 3/4 of our forwards IMO. That will be the toughest issue trying to improve this team, the $$$ we are willing to spend and the $$$ we can dump and the $$$ we spend on the youngsters and other FA. Brodz, Granlund, Haula, Veiluex, Blum, Falk, Folin, Prosser Curry, Gustafson, Harding all FA either restricted or un. IMO Granny will want too much and we could get bigger there, Haula may or may not be worth it depending in $$, Folin maybe, Prosser maybe....all the others can go or try to sign those that contractually can be to 2-ways on the cheap IMO and word is they will buy out Backs to free up that cap space. We may end up behind the 8 ball at goalie and have to shoot the wad on that position which would be a disaster as we need to upgrade more than goalie to be a playoff team IMO.

[O.T.C.]

6'2" 205 is or was the average sized NHLer. The blackhawks still have Bickell, Seabrook, and even Patrick Sharp won a fight last night, we haven't one a fight all season. Our toughest guy couldn't take out Sharp. I do not want to hear about Matt Cooke, he's no fighter lol, not at all. 23 fights since 1998 so in like 17 years he's averaging barely over 1 fight a season and 1/2 of those likely came from shaky dirty checks etc where you have to answer the bell. They also have Daniel Carcillo and Andrew Shaw who will take em off. If we can get the goalie figured out, I like our skill, we can add defensive pieces and toughness to what we have. Maybe our boys don't realize it's winter yet lol.

[bbfenatic]

6'2" 205 is or was the average sized NHLer.

If that is the case we have Brodz, Coyle, Koivu, Vanek, Falk, Folin, Prosser that are 6'2" 205 or better....only Coyle/Prosser would be considered tough guys IMO. Brodz has trouble keeping up with the play and figuring out where he needs to be, Koivu is questionable, Vanek I could push over with ease, Falk minor leaguer, Folin has potential and Prosser is big but nothing else. I thought Sutter had skill/size but does not fit Yeo's "busy little bee" system, not sure who else in Iowa has some size with decent skill. Carter tries to play tough but not 6' 2" and you are right on Cooke, acts tough, throws his body around, and yaps non stop and is useless IMO. Parise is the only guy we have who actually plays bigger/tpugher than his size/weight unfortunately.

[CaptainMusky]

Thoguh, I do think the Wild have been drafting a bit more for size now.

Agreed, look at Tuch, Graovac, etc as two prime examples. I am excited to see what Graovac can turn into, he is a monster by size standards. Though they have been murmuring about easing those guys along. They even were on record saying they want Tuch to play two years of college so we have another full year before we can think about him.

[fishing tech]

If we had the Hawks D men and they had ours, I think we win 6 or 7 out of 10 games. Our forwards when healthy are decent. Our D lose way to many battles in our zone. Just a thought.

[Bear55]

I'm still not worried about our team unless this mess continues into next year then we might have to start talking about issues and trading dead weight. Like CM mentioned a couple of times, better goaltending this year and we are probably sitting in or near a playoff position.

I wouldn't give up on some of the younger guys yet either, you never know when they are going to break out and become something special. Look at last season, Zucker was and afterthought and potential trade bait and now he is one of our best players. We just need these guys to work out some of their consistency issues. I think last year in the playoffs the kids teased us a bit with all that potential, it's certainly been a let down year for a lot of them but that doesn't mean we should give up on them.

[leechlake]

"teased us with potential"

very accurate statement. I think logically we all get caught up that with a young team like this we're going to have a progression or stair step like improvements. Last year in playoffs the Wild overachieved and a ton of that overachieving was from the goalies. I guess reality is that with a young team instead of going up the stairs one step at a time it's more accurate to go up one, down two, up three, down one...you get the picture. It's still disappointing when the steps are going backwards.

[CaptainMusky]

Look at last season, Zucker was and afterthought and potential trade bait and now he is one of our best players.

This is DEAD on! I was a vocal person going into the season saying he should be traded. Wow, was that ever wrong. Maybe this year is an aberration, but he has stepped his game up big time. Both ends of the ice. Too bad Coyle, Haula and Granlund haven't made the next step. Nino burst out of the gates this year, but now he is silent.

Lots of talented youth, hopefully the last half they can start building. That's when they really made the push last year.

[bbfenatic]

[CaptainMusky]

What "lots of talented youth are you speaking of?

Just because they are playing like dump right now doesn't mean they are lacking talent. We have some skill, speed, size, etc in our youth, they just in almost all cases (with one exception Zucker) regressed this year. Nino started great, but now is absent.

If you don't think any of those guys are talented then you are just being overly critical and bitter. Cant say I blame you because its been an abysmal season, but we have talented young players, unfortunately there isn't much left in Iowa right now. We hedged our bets on rolling with a lot more youth which savaged Iowa but they are not producing at the NHL level yet.

Haula played the majority of the season in Iowa last year as did Zucker. Zucker has exploded this year. Haula hasn't upped his game from last year, but he was cutthroat in the playoffs. In the Chicago series he was our best center and possibly best forward period. So, yes, there is talent here, it just isn't producing right now.

[bbfenatic]

Yes we do have some talent in the youth....emphasis on "some". I think you are sold on having "great" young talent and sorry to say it is not. Good yes, but you can hand pick better youth off many other teams in the NHL and when you add in the fact that many teams also have better overall Vets it puts us right where we belong...on the outside looking in...you can't spin it any other way unfortunately...and that's not even including the tending debacle, that's makes it even worse IMO. Could our youth develop, sure they could....but so can all the other talent in the NHL. Like I have stated before we have no Superstars in a Superstar League and to be really top notch you need a Duo.

[fishing tech]

Zucker has always been a goal scorer. He needed to figure out defensive play 1st to get playing time in the NHL under Yoe's system. Coyle when he plays physical he is a beast, when he doesn't he is average at best. Granland need to try and put on some man weight. He can dangle but in the NHL when you do that with your head down you won't survive. Broten did it I think Granny can to if this team gets 1 or 2 tough guys that will stand up for their teammates.

[CaptainMusky]

Good yes, but you can hand pick better youth off many other teams in the NHL.

You can also hand pick far worse youth players off many other teams so what's the point? You can't have an entire NHL all star team assembled on one roster. Not going to happen in the days of salary cap.

My point is, you are focusing too much on what they are "doing for you lately" vs what they project to be. Sure there are some phenoms on other teams that I would love to have in exchange for some of our players, but those guys were likely #1 picks many of ours came from later rounds.

Look at a guy like Mckinnon for example. He was all world last year. People were touting him the next Gretzky, etc. Where is he this year? 9 goals and 27 pts. While that is respectable, we have two young guys with more goals than him (Zucker and Nino) would you have traded them away for him based on what he did last year? In an instant! How about now? Just looking at the numbers THIS year, probably not.

The whole team is underachieving with the exception of 2 players (Zucker and Scandella). Granlund the last half of last year was awesome. You seem to be forgetting what these kids did for us the last half of last year. That talent isn't gone, it just hasn't come out.

Everyone was talking about the Wild at the beginning of this season as being the up and comer. Through the first 10 games this year we should have been 10-0 and that's not an exaggeration. The games we lost were 1 goal games and our PP was totally pathetic (still not much better).

You can spin the negative all you want, but the fact is we have skilled players on this team who HAVE proven they can produce in the past, they just haven't progressed like they should or we would have hoped.

So now you can dump the roster and start over and be in the dumps for several years OR you can find a few pieces including stable goal tending and then WHEN these guys turn it around have a strong team. That is where I think this team will go. Losing focus on what we really have and being envious about what some other team has right now gets you burned in a hurry.

[CaptainMusky]

Zucker has always been a goal scorer. He needed to figure out defensive play 1st to get playing time in the NHL under Yoe's system. Coyle when he plays physical he is a beast, when he doesn't he is average at best. Granland need to try and put on some man weight. He can dangle but in the NHL when you do that with your head down you won't survive. Broten did it I think Granny can to if this team gets 1 or 2 tough guys that will stand up for their teammates.

This is dead nuts on. On granlund, I think he needs to take some serious notes on Patrick Kane. he never gets hit, guys don't even get close to him. This is what Granlund needs to do. How, not sure, but if he can figure that out instead of getting railroaded by a 6'5" D man behind the net, he will be deadly.

[bbfenatic]

You can also hand pick far worse youth players off many other teams so what's the point? You can't have an entire NHL all star team assembled on one roster.

Seriously? Why would you pick worse players aren't we try to get a winner here?? And who said anything about having an all-star team on one roster?? No reason to change the context of the post...that's B$. I am just saying IMO that even outside the tending we are not a playoff caliber team and reapeatedly have said I think we are too small/weak and need to get bigger/tougher. As far as Mckinnon, I'd make that trade every day of the week and twice on Sundays, and no the talent is not gone it just is not as good when you stack it up against many other lineups. And I never said anything about dumping the roster and in fact posted recently that I am guessing 5 or 6 new faces next year. Really now CM is that the way you roll? Just posting opinions and you want to change what I posted?

[knoppers]

suter misses 2 games for suspension, and the wild go 2-0, first game back, we lose to Columbus at home.

and he makes the all star game, and not parise?

suter is on the wrong side of the plus/minus, but parise and scandella are on the good side.

seems as thought suter plays like he just doesn't care, since he has his big contract now. yes he does get plenty of assists, but like said, he plays 30 minutes a game and always plays the power plays.

[CaptainMusky]

BB you completely missed the point of my post. You are talking about youth that are better on other teams at this point in time. While they may be doing better now my point was our young guys shined late last year and into the playoffs. It looked very bright for the team but they haven't played at that level this year. That doesn't mean they are garbage or they aren't skilled. They are skilled.

Its not changing the context of the post just proving a point that you are cherry picking at guys that are standing out right now vs guys that aren't matching what they have already done. That's a ridiculous argument.

[CaptainMusky]

So you honestly don't think they would have won 4 more games with a better goal tender? If they did they would be a playoff team right now.

[CaptainMusky]

What "lots of talented youth are you speaking of? I can think of Zucker (on fire....maybe), Nino (good around the net if we can get shots on the net), Coyle (he's a mystery to me), Spurg (good if they'd only put him on the PP), Brodin (Avg), Kemps (headcase), granny (too small), Haula (good AHL player, not NHL caliber), Dumba (would like to see him up and stay up but....). All in all our youth are just avg IMO when you look around the league and Iowa is in last place...what does that tell you?

clearly here you said that all of our young guys are garbage. Still a mystery why you dog Brodin. He is our most solid overall d man. Far above average. Dumba is not ready and should be in Iowa. What more could zucker do to impress you?

Last I checked size doesn't reflect skill as well. Lots of guys with small size have great successful careers. Granlund just need to tailor his game after some of these guys to avoid big hits.

[bbfenatic]

CM, can you read? Clearly I said Brodin is "avg" that means average by the way, so I did not "dog" him and said in recent post he would be good trade bait meaning someone might have interest in him, which means others might think he is good by the way. IMO he's an OK Dman just too light, he has 3-4" on Spurg and is 5lbs lighter and on a skinny frame. And I never used the word "garbage" when describing our youth but except for a few IMO we are finding out they are not what we had hoped. I said Zucker is awesome and have posted that he is 2nd best player to Parise on the team. You and I are not even on the same planet....wait a minute...are you female? This is like arguing with my wife when I have to tell her "I did not say that....I told you your a$$ was average....I did not say it was big" hahaha!!! Men are from Mars...Women are from Venus...ever heard of the book? I really like Dumba...just a personal thing...reminds me of a young Brent Burns and a little like Dustin Byfuglien...just smaller unfortunately. He's adequate on D and sees the ice very well, good shot and not afraid to play physical.