But would we be comfortable playing him 'Suter minutes' right off the bat. I know we've all been impressed with him, but it might not be the best idea. My idea from another thread...
But when you take into account Suter's minutes, it also means he's out there for the bulk of the PPs, PKs, and critical aspects of the game. For the odd-man situations, you'd have Spurgeon, Scandella, and possibly other forwards moving up while Brodin gets pushed down.
Brodin would get fairly significant minutes in such a pairing but it isn't as if pairings remain constant throughout games. Develop a sound second pairing, and a third pairing that has Spurgeon - Scandella, and I believe you've got the makings of a fairly balanced defensive corps.
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But when you take into account Suter's minutes, it also means he's out there for the bulk of the PPs, PKs, and critical aspects of the game. For the odd-man situations, you'd have Spurgeon, Scandella, and possibly other forwards moving up while Brodin gets pushed down.
Brodin would get fairly significant minutes in such a pairing but it isn't as if pairings remain constant throughout games. Develop a sound second pairing, and a third pairing that has Spurgeon - Scandella, and I believe you've got the makings of a fairly balanced defensive corps.
By 'Suter minutes', I also meant quality of 5v5. Suter is going to match up against the Sedins, Toews/Kane, RGP, etc... Maybe Brodin could handle it fine and it won't be an issue, but how many rookie Ds come in and play against top lines right away?
By 'Suter minutes', I also meant quality of 5v5. Suter is going to match up against the Sedins, Toews/Kane, RGP, etc... Maybe Brodin could handle it fine and it won't be an issue, but how many rookie Ds come in and play against top lines right away?
Valid concern.
However, that's the player Brodin is billed as and is what we've seen him be. Add Suter to the mix in addition to forwards who are very sound in all phases like Koivu and Parise and I'm not all that concerned to be honest. I'd be a lot more concerned with Brodin's development if he was paired with more shaky options while getting matched-up with lesser personnel.
That's just my read on Brodin, though. I think he's the type who succeeds against higher level competition. I don't want him to be thrust into a role where he's the one who needs to do the bailing out. I don't think that's the correct way to develop him if you want other areas of his game to progress and flourish. That just gets him on track and stuck in a rut to always concentrate on being that guy. Of course, my take and all...
Well yeah, they drafted Martin Frk in the second round and he was once touted as a possible top 10 pick. Obviously he's the best prospect outside of the NHL.
We'll be in the top 4, probably #3 if I had to guess.
I bet we are #1 or #2, we were #2 after last season behind Florida. Neither has graduated anyone since that ranking and we draft Dumba while Florida added Michael Matheson from the USHL with a late first rounder.
Edmonton was fourth but graduated RNH and added Schultz and Yakapuv so they are probably around the same. Ottawa was 3 and added Ceci. So they are probably the same.
EDIT: Ha, minutes after posting this they released the rankings with the Wild at #1, followed by Panthers, Oilers and Senators
I had assumed HF would've put Florida and/or Ottawa ahead of us, but I can't argue with #1.
5 blue-chippers at all 3 positions + very good depth at 2 out of 3 positions is tough to beat. Imagine adding MacKinnon, Jones, Barkov or Monahan to the group... wow.
Who could have seen this coming 4 years ago? Worst to first. Time will tell if its accurate but all you can do is draft well and hope for the best. It takes a lot of luck to win the cup but all you can do is put the organization in the mix as much as possible. I'd say Fletcher has us set up pretty well for the coming years.
Johan Gustafsson the Rodney Dangerfield of goaltending prospects.Dude backstops Sweeden to World Junior gold and is playing out of his mind in the SEL and very well could end up being the best goalie out of all the goalie prospects the Wild have.....Yet no mention of him in the article.
Who could have seen this coming 4 years ago? Worst to first. Time will tell if its accurate but all you can do is draft well and hope for the best. It takes a lot of luck to win the cup but all you can do is put the organization in the mix as much as possible. I'd say Fletcher has us set up pretty well for the coming years.
The patience to let the kids grow is a plus too. It's felt painfully slow, but it'll be worth it. We've seen what happens when you throw young prospects to the wolves due to lack of talent and help with the big boy club. It rarely ends well.
Great to see Minnesota Wild rewarded for drafting smart. So far it looks like we made solid draft picks, our prospects have continued to grow post draft year which is the key thing here, its not jut that we are letting them develop (don't get me wrong its huge) but its that our scouts have identified guys with room to grow and expand their game.
When you look at picks like Bulmer,Zucker,Buss, Coyle (didn't draft him but he was huge in parting with burns) Larsson, all these guys have grown from the time we got them, they are showing there might be more them then what most people initially though.
Where as it seems DR picked guys who didn't have much room for growth and then rushed them, ensuring that they would fail.
he is 5g 5a in 30 games, leads all dman on his team in points.
Haven't followed him, but looking at boxscores and stats he's been getting a little under 18 min TOI/G in the second pairing. (The fact that you can ice 7 defensemen in a single SEL game skews the TOI totals a bit, he's 3rd of Luleå's D men, #1 having around 21 mins.) With his 5+5=10 stats Gunner's tied for 19th in the league in D man points and 4th in goals. 7 hits listed, so he's not exactly physical, but there are many players with less than that, so the fact that SEL isn't too physical league in the first place could have an effect. 12 PIM, so he isn't really gooning it up either.
In other news, Gustafsson is 3rd in the league with 93,86 s-% and 1st with 1,63 GAA, after playing in 20 games. However his backup, who's appeared in 12 games, has 95,06 s-% and 1,15 GAA, yet he isn't listed, probably because he doesn't have enough starts.
