Wild Off-Season Moves 2016

[bbfenatic]

2 hours ago, CaptainMusky said:

 The Wild do not have anywhere near the speed of either team and not as much skill. 

Well we agree after all as this is exactly what I've been saying! CF brought us speed but missed the fact that the NHL has gotten even Faster AND more Skilled....and personally I think grittier. 

CM...when I mean grit/toughness I mean winning battles more than losing battles, leaving the other guy on the ice and coming out with the puck more times than naught, catching a guy with his head down once in a while and laying him out, controlling the puck with 2 guys on you, blocking shots, owning your space, jumping into a scrum and taking complete charge. I don't mean some blockhead who wants to drop the gloves every chance he gets....but we don't win enough battles.

On Pom...no I do not like him as a player...even at the 3rd line level. Unless he is cocked and loaded and the puck is square on his tape he is terrible IMO and even worse defensively...Vanek was better than he is...can Pom compete yes...but not successfully.  Nino is good, streaky like you said and perfect as a 3rd liner. Haula...Super Fast straight ahead and good 3rd/4th liner/penalty killer....again if he's got others who compliment him. For the record...I do not like the Stewart/Staal signings...been there done that with Stewart and Staal has lost his game.

I certainly appreciate your points CM and respect your opinions & knowledge of the game.....and yes I do like to argue too much but it is fun to get all points of view. I really thought CF knew what he was doing but that has been proven otherwise up to this point IMO #.500atbest

[CaptainMusky]

.500 at best? I bet they are better than that. I don't see them finishing higher than 4th in the division though.

Im just giving you a hard time BB. Its all good. We will soon see if Boudreau can get these boys to play. Should be fun because he likes a more up tempo game. Dubnyk will likely get a workout! :-)

[Bear55]

You have to realize Leipold didn't invest all that Parise and Suter money to give up after 4 seasons, the team is going to try to win at all costs until they know for sure that it isn't working. Last year San Jose missed the playoffs, this year they made the cup final. LA missed the playoffs a year after winning the cup. There is no telling how good or bad the wild will be this season, plenty to look forward too but certainly some doubt and some aging vets could slow us down too. Win or lose its always fun to watch and see what happens.

[CaptainMusky]

Development camp opened. Anyone going to take in the free scrimmages? I went a couple years ago. It was pretty fun to watch some of the guys we never get to see around here. Thursday 7/14 at 2:30 and Sunday 7/16 at 5 at the X.

When I went there was around 5000 people there.

[bbfenatic]

On 7/12/2016 at 8:42 AM, CaptainMusky said:

.500 at best? I bet they are better than that. I don't see them finishing higher than 4th in the division though.

Im just giving you a hard time BB. Its all good. We will soon see if Boudreau can get these boys to play. Should be fun because he likes a more up tempo game. Dubnyk will likely get a workout! :-)

I hear you..it's all good and great to have some off season banter!  Keep in mind CM the Wild were 6 games under .500 this past season with our terrible OT record and I just don't see it being much (if any) better this year. Read an article yesterday on THN that out of the 30 teams Wild fans were 22nd in overall "confidence" in the team's moves and upper Mgmt....but I might have been 100 of the 200 who responded to the poll ....jk...but it was an interesting read and broke down the diff areas.

[CaptainMusky]

1 hour ago, bbfenatic said:

....but I might have been 100 of the 200 who responded to the poll ....

Too funny!!!

[bbfenatic]

How about Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Benoit Pouliot for Dumba and Zucker?  Could happen...I'd be OK with that deal and I think BB needs more fire power...he's always had it on his other teams and I just don't see the Wild being offensive enough for his liking with the current roster.  He says he likes what we have but the tires have not hit the road yet and I think he'll be surprised how subpar we really are. The only caveat to that is if he would remove the reigns from Dumba and let him "freewheel" at will he might find a bunch of offense right there (ie Brent Burns)...Zucker is a headcase plus he has Las Vegas on the brain and I don't blame him...so getting something for him would be good for the team IMO.

Personally I really like Reilly, I think he sees the ice very well, moves the puck well, skates with the puck well....and even though he made a couple glaring mistakes that cost goals his D play was actually better than I expected and should improve....plus he walks that blueline with the puck as good as any IMO.

 

[Bear55]

Would never work with the cap, can't take on 10 million and send back 4.5 so file that one away unless some details change. Just have to fill out the 4th line and we are probably set for the year.

[bbfenatic]

Throw in Koivu...his hit is nearly $7M, give us one more of their good young projects like Pakarinen and that would be a good start to the re-build and youth movement...Oilers need some old tired legs to make their others look even faster anyways 

[CaptainMusky]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 5:12 PM, bbfenatic said:

Throw in Koivu...his hit is nearly $7M, give us one more of their good young projects like Pakarinen and that would be a good start to the re-build and youth movement...Oilers need some old tired legs to make their others look even faster anyways 

BBfenatic for GM. If you can pull off that move, you deserve it. :-)

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 1:00 PM, bbfenatic said:

Personally I really like Reilly, I think he sees the ice very well, moves the puck well, skates with the puck well....and even though he made a couple glaring mistakes that cost goals his D play was actually better than I expected and should improve....plus he walks that blueline with the puck as good as any IMO.

 

I agree. I watched him play for the Gophers and he scared the dump out of me when called upon in the D zone. I think he did very well all things considering defensively anyway.

He is very fast, and a strong skater. It should be fun in a couple years when all these new guys are up with the big team to watch the puck movement on the PP.

Can you imagine Reilly, Olofsson, Eriksson-Ek, Tuch, etc on the PP? That would be fun to watch I think.

[bbfenatic]

Well the truth is coming out on how Boudreau really feels about the Wild current roster...he's made Fletcher know he needs more depth.  Gotta love how the honeymoon period wanes so quickly and Fletch must really feel inept now that he's got a coach asking for diff players before the season even starts and Fletch has little to no money to spend to appease him.

This is gonna get very interesting is short order IMO.

[BartmanMN]

Bruce wants bigger bodies.  He already mentioned Gabriel.  Maybe Tuch has a chance at making it.

[Bear55]

Would be nice if a forward prospect could surprise us for once, Tuch might get a shot if Zucker and Pominville aren't up to the challenge and add another big body. We aren't as small as we once were, Nino, Coyle, Stewart, Koivu and Stall are big bodies.