Heck of a coup by Minnesota, well done. They get a stud forward and a stud defensemen, both only 27 years old with lots of hockey left in them. Big time winners of the Free Agent Frenzy.
Shocked.
But this should make the NW division a lot tougher.
Heck of a coup by Minnesota, well done. They get a stud forward and a stud defensemen, both only 27 years old with lots of hockey left in them. Big time winners of the Free Agent Frenzy.
Holy **** they got both? Wow. I suppose it's good to restore a little balance, I didn't really want to see them going to an already good team.
Guys, Wild will still be a lower seeded playoff team. They have no offensive depth and their backend is turrible. Backstrom is injury prone and in decline while Harding is still a fairly unknown quality.
Hopefully, it motivates Gillis to go that extra mile. There's a sense of complacency in this team and sleepwalking backwards to division titles doesn't help.
looks like everyone in the NW just got better compared to last year. MG better be on the phone with Polie right now trying to get Weber. At least I'll get to see Suter and Parise more often now.
Detroit will probably go all-in on acquiring Weber next year now that they missed out on Suter. This will make it tougher for Vancouver to make Shea Weber a Canuck.
Guys, Wild will still be a lower seeded playoff team. They have no offensive depth and their backend is turrible. Backstrom is injury prone and in decline while Harding is still a fairly unknown quality.
I don't think you can underestimate the impact of bringing in a top flight defender like Suter on that team's defense, and a top flight offensive threat like Parise for their offense. They have Heatley, Koivu and Setoguchi to help take the load off of Parise up front.
I don't think you can underestimate the impact of bringing in a top flight defender like Suter on that team's defense, and a top flight offensive threat like Parise for their offense. They have Heatley, Koivu and Setoguchi to help take the load off of Parise up front.
Heatley is garbage and Setoguchi is overrated. Parise and Weber for them is huge, I agree, but they still have a long ways to go in becoming contenders. To me, they're a playoff team that may or may not win a round. Their poor drafting has given them zero depth throughout the lineup and their topend talent isn't all that grand outside of the new signings and Koivu, who isn't offensively dynamic to begin with.
True. Detroit's in big trouble now as well with Lidstrom retiring and no clear replacement. They'll gun hard for Carle, but he's not even close to being at that level, IMO.
Detroit should probably just give up and rebuild. They were relying on spending big money on the few pieces of quality this summer and failed. Look at their defence. Look at their depth at forward after Datsyuk, Zetterber, and Franzen. It's not pretty.
Our division just got a hell of a lot tougher.
In 3 years, we'll have to deal with an Edmonton squad with all their prospects developed, and Minnesota with their high end prospects (Granlund, Coyle, Brodin, Dumba) developed along with their superstars (Parise, Suter, Koivu).
