Wild Off-Season Moves 2016

[Bryce]

Zucker 2 year deal for $4 million

[bbfenatic]

Other than Zucker pretty quiet on the signing/trade front for the Wild even though many moves by clubs today...Cullen spilled the beans a little that Staal may be coming to the Wild but I hope that is not all Fletch is thinking about. Signing Zucker is OK but he better become more consistent, good player one week, pathetic the next....just goes to show where we are.  As far as I'm concerned we could lose any dman we have if we got a good forward in return, Folin can step in, Reilly can step in, none of our top 6 are outstanding NHL defensemen ...just decent players IMO.  If you think about it the Wild have not one player any other team would love to have...given their salaries...so, what does that tell you?  #blowthisthingup

[hoppe56307]

ESPN REPORTS:  Kyle Okposo has signed a seven-year, $42 million deal with the Buffalo Sabres.

 

Seems like that was a lot of money for him, but him and Eichel on the same line could be very dangerous. 

Edited July 1, 2016 by hoppe56307

[hoppe56307]

looks like we signed Staal, and brought back chris stewart low cap it at $1.15mil

 

http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2016/07/01/wild-get-a-center-eric-staal/

[CaptainMusky]

Staal, Stewart and Stalock. All good moves IMO. Staal is short term and low cap hit. Stewart really short term and smaller cap hit. Stalock insurance for Iowa and possibly allows position flexibility to trade Kuemper.

Staal is going to help this team. IMO this means Granlund can stay at wing and possibly even Coyle. That is a side benefit to me. Both of those guys execute better when their mind doesn't have to wrap around the Center ice responsibilities.

If Staal can regain what he had a couple years ago we are going to be much improved.

Stewart is excited to come back. Said "best fans he has ever played in front of".

[bbfenatic]

My first reaction was to laugh....then I got mad......then it was...WTF Chuck? Something is amiss...either Liepold has Fletch on a tight leash....Fletch does not give a darn....or there is better news on the horizon. 

[Bear55]

Yep ok with this, maybe Stall for one less year but that cap hit is very workable. Best news is we can try Granny and Coyle full time on the wings and see what works. No reason Stall can't get 40 points here easy, 50 is certainly possible as well alghough he has clearly lost a step. Glad we didn't take on O or Backs with those contracts, too much $$$ and term for now.

[CaptainMusky]

Exactly how I saw it too Bear. Okposo and Backes both signed for much higher and longer term than I would have ever done. Glad Fletch didn't pull the trigger on either of those.

I like each of these deals IMO. I think it does make the team better than a year ago, BUT, there is clearly still work to be done.

I have to think there is a deal in the works for Kuemper. That is what I am seeing. It may not happen now, but perhaps at the trade deadline to a team in desperate need. Stalock isn't a superstar by any means, but at least it gives some flexibility and Iowa wont be so dang horrible in net that we cannot see how much our players are growing down there.

[Bryce]

Parise wanted Staal so done.

[bbfenatic]

Here is a big Red Flag to me.  Edmonton was shopping Ryan Nugent Hopkins earlier and we showed some interest but....they end up trading even a better player in Taylor Hall who is much better, better numbers, bigger, better upside than Hopkins to NJ for Adam Larsson...really???  Edmonton's fan base is deservedly up in arms. Where was Fletch on that deal? Dumba is better than Larsson, Edmonton was looking for a big right handed shot with a little bit of "O" from the D position...perfect....Hall for Dumba, everybody wins. Nope...NJ wins and Edmonton loses...and Fletch is asleep at the wheel or............??????

[CaptainMusky]

16 hours ago, bbfenatic said:

Here is a big Red Flag to me.  Edmonton was shopping Ryan Nugent Hopkins earlier and we showed some interest but....they end up trading even a better player in Taylor Hall who is much better, better numbers, bigger, better upside than Hopkins to NJ for Adam Larsson...really???  Edmonton's fan base is deservedly up in arms. Where was Fletch on that deal? Dumba is better than Larsson, Edmonton was looking for a big right handed shot with a little bit of "O" from the D position...perfect....Hall for Dumba, everybody wins. Nope...NJ wins and Edmonton loses...and Fletch is asleep at the wheel or............??????

I would have done that deal in a second, but I just don't believe that deal presented itself. If Edmonton is up in arms about the trade they made, had a Hall for Dumba trade happened it would be worse. At least with Larsson they are getting a solid defender. Dumba is NOT a solid defender. I don't believe that opportunity ever was available, if it had and Chuck balked, he's an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly.

 

[bbfenatic]

7 hours ago, CaptainMusky said:

I would have done that deal in a second, but I just don't believe that deal presented itself. If Edmonton is up in arms about the trade they made, had a Hall for Dumba trade happened it would be worse. At least with Larsson they are getting a solid defender. Dumba is NOT a solid defender. I don't believe that opportunity ever was available, if it had and Chuck balked, he's an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly.

 

CM....the article I read said they were looking for a big shot and some O-skill from the D position...but with that being said Larsson is only +13 in 274 games, Dumba is +9 in 152 and Dumba has 19 goals in the 152 games to Larsson's 9 in 274 and Dumba is younger.  

My points are: 1)Fletch has to be a little more desperate and claims he "spent more time this year on the phone talking to other teams" than he ever has....seems to me he needs to sharpen up his GM skills and should have been in the middle of that deal in some way or another....Hall would have been worth Dumba plus a pick or another player IMO and 2) This just solidifies a point I made earlier...this great D core we have and these "young" players we covet so much don't seem to have the appeal to others as they do to us or we would have seen more Wild (no pun intended) deals get done. #boudreausproblemnow

[CaptainMusky]

well if they were looking for O-skill from the point, Larsson is certainly the wrong guy. Dumba was offered for RNH, but I believe that there wasn't much talk about Hall for Dumba. Like I said, if there was and Fletch didn't do the deal he is an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly.

I think Fletch is holding tight with giving up young guys because he dealt away so many picks.

I wish they would move Dumba. I don't see him developing like others do. I hope I am wrong, but I see him going to be a liability on D and a dump shoot on the PP. Pretty much what he is now.

[Bear55]

Trading is a two way street, the other team has to agree with it to make it work. We will likely never know what trades almost happened or what deals could have been made. Would have been nice to pick up a young center but I guess we get older and hope for some magic. I think our biggest move this off season was a new coach, hopefully he can get a few more miles out of some of those old legs and spark some others. It would be nice to see a breakout year from some of these guys but I'm not going to hold my breath. We will be very competitive, maybe even good, hard to say who will be great. Despite the talent on the sharks and pens I doubt a lot of people picked them for the finals this year so I think things will be plenty unpredictable.

[CaptainMusky]

Im just glad that at least at this stage in the NHL it is nothing like free agency in the NBA. What a joke! Durant to Golden State? Its all about "ships". Yeah, that is everyone's goal, but it sure makes small market teams like MN not a desirable locale.

Enough about NBA, I agree Bear, at this stage it is certainly hard to guess who will oust the Pens. I am sure teams like Buffalo, Calgary, Edmonton improved, but was it enough? Toronto is years away from being a serious contender.

Winnipeg is the team I fear in our division. Loaded with young talent. All they need is stable goal tending and better D play overall and they will be tough. The interesting thing though is watching the move for speed league-wide. After watching the Pens dispatch every opponent its clear that you can win with speed, obviously they have some skill too and guys who played big when it counted.

This should be encouraging for teams that may not have a long list of superstars but have team speed and overall skill. Maybe there is hope for the wild?

At this stage I do not see the wild jumping up the standings based on their moves. I hope Boudreau can squeeze that extra ounce out of these guys, but we swapped out some pieces, but not sure it will be enough to challenge for a division title.

[Bear55]

All the wild really have to do to get better is iron out the roller coaster ride, since Yoe this team has been half world beaters and half garbage. If they can find some level of consistency we will be fine, get hot at the right time and you can make some noise. We certainly lack superstars but we have plenty of depth to compete with anyone.

[bbfenatic]

Bear....I'm just not seeing that depth you speak of when compared to other top 10 teams maybe even top 20. Parise getting older fast and is coming off injury and future unknown, Koivu is avg at best, Staal huge question mark, Pom avg at best, Coyle best is yet to come I hope, Nino has shown minor spurts, Granlund OK but just too weak and not shifty enough to avoid hits/injuries IMO, Haula is avg at best, Zucker good but not smart enough by NHL standards to play the game at a high level consistently....and those are your top forwards.

Now look at others; Stewart is putrid, Schroeder not NHL caliber, Graovac maybe, Dalpe avg at best, Carter OK role player, Porter is avg. We are OK at defense in numbers of serviceable players but overall just avg there too. In goal Dubs has to stand on his head, Kemps is avg, Stalock is avg. Bottomline IMO is we we have not upgraded in toughness/grit. We need to be clicking on all cylinders and going 110% to play at a higher level and have those short win streaks but that takes a lot out of our players due to lack of size/toughness, they get dinged up, they get wore out, they play with unreported nicks/injures and we cannot sustain an entire season at the high level it takes to make the playoffs and/or get deep into the playoffs. IMO we will be bottom dwellers for the foreseeable future until major changes are made. BB will have them strong out of the gate I'm sure but 30 games in we'll be .500 at best and I don't expect to be above .500 for the season so anything better than that I will be thrilled....I guess you can say I've taken your approach now Bear...there is always next year 

[Bear55]

Don't worry BB, not long and you will get your wish. A lot of the older guys save for Parise and Suter will be gone in 2-3 more years and we will have to get younger and possible rebuild. They are giving it one or two more shots before this happens. We really don't know what kind of team we have, so much jekyll and hyde the past two season. Even last season they started out red hot, it wasn't a winning streak, it was great hockey for 30-40 games. Somewhere in there is a good consistent team, they just need to find it. Every team has good and bad streaks, we just seem to excel at streaking. Look around the league, if you aren't LA, Pitt, or Chicago you can probably make up 100 reasons to complain if you want to, there are 27 other teams in our shoes and many of them have been or are on their way to much worse shape. We have been enjoying a nice up-tick from the early Wild years save for that Miracle run, just enjoy the ride. A rebuild or re-tool or whatever you want to call it will be here soon enough.

[CaptainMusky]

After watching this year's playoffs I don't think size/grit has any immediate future in the NHL. The Pens certainly don't have a ton of size and are not a physical team by any stretch. San Jose is very similar and look where those teams ended up.

Tampa is a small team and nearly made the cup finals two years in a row.

We certainly added grit and size with Stewart and Staal. We are a bigger team than a year ago just by added those two guys. Whether that means anything anymore, I don't know.

I think we are going to see the continued growth of two specific players by adding ONE. The addition of Staal will likely mean that Granlund and Coyle can both play wing which they flourished at wing when they had the chance. Granlund is too small to be center and the responsibilities required there.

[bbfenatic]

We are not even close to the talent of Pitt, SJ, TB, etc. It all has to do with depth IMO and when your top tier guys are not at the same level as your opponents and you add the fact that your bottom tier guys have less skill/talent/experience vs opponents that spells...Unsuccessful. Facts are that both Stewart and Staal were cheap for good reason, they are not that good and their stats prove that, both are trying to hang on at the end of their careers to bank more cash.

As far as Coyle/Granlund...Coyle could flourish wherever you put him...Granlund cannot and moving him around is more of an excuse, Wing/Center for him makes no difference...he'll continue to be a disappointment wherever they put him IMO.

The other issue is we really don't have much in Iowa to push the guys up in the big league unfortunately. We'll out hustle some teams on nights, Dubs will steal a few, we'll get flashes of individual brilliance now and then, we'll win games.....but I see a downward trend overall.

 

 

[CaptainMusky]

BB, I am certainly not disagreeing with you on how we may match up against PItt, SJ, etc in the skill dept. My entire post was in response to your analysis that we needed to add "size/grit" to which I said that I don't think its at all necessary in today's league and used those teams as reference. You CAN win without size. Its been proven. Now we need our "little" guys to perform. Aside from Malkin and Crosby the Pens don't have a lot else. Obviously that separates them on a higher tier than us right away because we have no one close to their level, but if you can put a solid shut down line against them (Haula) I think they could be beaten. They also had key coming our party for Rust and Cullen had a huge playoffs.

[CaptainMusky]

1 hour ago, bbfenatic said:

As far as Coyle/Granlund...Coyle could flourish wherever you put him...Granlund cannot and moving him around is more of an excuse, Wing/Center for him makes no difference...he'll continue to be a disappointment wherever they put him IMO.

Did you watch Granlund play wing at all the end of last year? Did you watch him play in the World Championships for Finland? Again at wing?

He is a GREAT wing and he performed extremely well. His weaknesses are his size and that is exposed when playing center. When he is playing wing he can exploit his strengths, speed, puck possession (he is actually fairly strong with the puck if not against the boards).

Im certainly not saying he is going to be the next Jarri Kurri or anything, but he can be more than adequate on this team and if he played wing for an entire season here instead of a few games, I think you would see a lot more production.

[bbfenatic]

1 hour ago, CaptainMusky said:

BB, I am certainly not disagreeing with you on how we may match up against PItt, SJ, etc in the skill dept. My entire post was in response to your analysis that we needed to add "size/grit" to which I said that I don't think its at all necessary in today's league and used those teams as reference. You CAN win without size. Its been proven. Now we need our "little" guys to perform. Aside from Malkin and Crosby the Pens don't have a lot else. Obviously that separates them on a higher tier than us right away because we have no one close to their level, but if you can put a solid shut down line against them (Haula) I think they could be beaten. They also had key coming our party for Rust and Cullen had a huge playoffs.

If you think toughness/grit is not needed in the NHL you are wrong...we have not matched up in that area in recent history...speed alone does not win in the NHL...you have to be able to win small battles along the boards with forwards and D has to be downright mean....we lose to many physical battles as we have all witnessed...the speed has increased overall in the NHL...but so has the overall size/toughness and I think Fletch got "speed" only on his mind when he built this team and it has hurt us long term....we are stuck with speed without the toughness IMO and I speak at the D position as well as up front...Skill is just a diff topic I brought up...we certainly are not a highly skilled team when compared to others...just avg...I'll say it one more time...when your 2 best players are a mucker (Parise who is feeling the effects of having to play that way) and a Dman who just chews up minutes but performs OK overall (Suter) you are in trouble because the supporting cast is again...avg caliber. Kudos to Cullen, he played 7 of the last 10 shifts in that last game, why...because of his veteran experience, Hitchcock talked about that in an interview several weeks ago,,,the need to have 3 and 4th line guys who are veteran players so when the game is on the line you pull more talented/higher paid young guys and go with the experienced vets who have been there done that...we don't have that luxury either which is another concern....the negative list just keeps building...we'll see where we shake out soon enough but my bet is "no playoffs" for the Wild this year. 

[bbfenatic]

1 hour ago, CaptainMusky said:

Did you watch Granlund play wing at all the end of last year? Did you watch him play in the World Championships for Finland? Again at wing?

He is a GREAT wing and he performed extremely well. His weaknesses are his size and that is exposed when playing center. When he is playing wing he can exploit his strengths, speed, puck possession (he is actually fairly strong with the puck if not against the boards).

Im certainly not saying he is going to be the next Jarri Kurri or anything, but he can be more than adequate on this team and if he played wing for an entire season here instead of a few games, I think you would see a lot more production.

Ya, I saw all that...he played good but the World Championships are not the NHL and physical play is not near what the NHL is and his supporting cast is not near what he needs it to be with the Wild. Our projected 1st line looks OK with Staal centering Parise and Coyle, 2nd line with with Koivu centering Granlund and Zucker (all lefties) is avg, after that the bottom 6 could be thrown out there in any combination and just hope one guy per shift can have "wow" moment.  I always consider what they are going up against...not just look at our players and assume they are so good...good compared to whom? I consider Coyle our best all around player...but he would not even be in the top 25 discussions overall.

[CaptainMusky]

BB, I think you are arguing for the sake of arguing. You make it sound like I think this team is a world beater. I have NEVER said that, but I have found flaws in your argument about needing size/grit. You said we needed size/grit and we added two guys that fit that mold.

Apparently you didn't watch any of the playoffs because the lightning and Penguins are two prime examples of teams that win and win at a high level without putting anyone through the boards. Those two teams have speed AND skill. The Wild do not have anywhere near the speed of either team and not as much skill. What I AM saying is that you can win with the model and at a high level. We just do not have a well rounded group yet. We have some decent pieces. Haula the last few months of the season was awesome.

You also forgot about Nino and Pominville. I have been a HUGE critic of Pominville, but you didn't even have him listed in the top 6. So, if he is in the bottom 6 he would certainly have a better chance against lesser competition. I would hope anyway. He is the streakiest guy we have. He is either absolutely terrible or he gets goals in bunches. His game could flourish with Boudreau.

Nino is ready to explode.