Other than the adding a top defenseman in free agency talk (which is hard to see happening without another move), I like it. They have the blueprint down and is realistic without being extremely pessimistic.
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Blog: First Round Bust: A Cast of Thousands celebrating a rather dodgy track record of Minnesota Wild Drafting.
"Will beats skill when skill doesn't have enough will."
-Doug Woog
I agree. I find Cullen to do pretty good off-season and pre-season stuff. In fact, I would say he is the only one that seems to be consistent on most teams, even better than most of the magazines that come out in August/September.
Yeah, it was a real good recap of what we all thought. It's going to be interesting to see what happens this summer as like he said that CF will be looking to be active.
I hope we don't add a defenseman in FA, but we'll have to see what pans out, I'm guessing just depth signings.
Cullen did a good job. You can tell it was written by someone who actually had good knowledge of the situation. We're set at defense though, and those "depth" forwards need to be changed into top-6 forwards.
Yeah, it was a real good recap of what we all thought. It's going to be interesting to see what happens this summer as like he said that CF will be looking to be active.
I hope we don't add a defenseman in FA, but we'll have to see what pans out, I'm guessing just depth signings.
I agree they have plenty of young players at defense that could help this team. It might actually be a good year to lay low and just plug away with what they have next year. Then with more money being freed up after next season they should have plenty of cap room to make some decent signings.
Really solid analysis, a lot more knowledgeable and honest than most. Usually you see things like "second line center Pierre Marc Bouchard had a disappointing year", or my favorite preview from last year where the guy completely forgot about Mikko Koivu.
I see only two holes, which is nice, but they are also very hard holes to fill (as they have been the holes for a couple of seasons now).
Priority #1: Top-6 center. Honestly, we aren't going to pull of a mega trade for a center. Instead, I would sign O. Jokinen to a reasonable deal and groom Wellman for that roll a few seasons from now. Buy low. Pair Jokinen with a set-up guy (Miettinen or Bouchard) and a net-crasher (Kobasew or Clutterbuck), then tell him to shoot all day long. That's how he was effective in Florida. Yeah, the defensives were worst, but he used to take 350-400 shots a season. Last two seasons he was taking below 250. Bouchard and Miettinen would both love to have a guy who would do all the shooting for them.
Priority #2: Shooting RW for Koivu. I'd make a package of Harding, Miettinen, Bouchard, and/or Sheppard, and see what I could get. Again, you'd wouldn't get a mega-star, but you might be able to pluck Boyes out of St. Louis or Sharp out of Chicago. If that doesn't work, sign Frolov and hope he can play RW (you'd have to then dump Bouchard for salary)
Then, just re-sign the RFAs for reasonable prices, let the UFAs walk, including Boogy.
Bruno-Koivu-Boyes/Sharp/Frolov
Kobasew-Jokinen-Miettinen
Lats-Brodziak-Havlat
Kassian-X-Clutterbuck
Y, Z
I don't think teams will fall for the "let's trade a bunch of mediocre/******/overpaid players for one good one" trick. Mittens will garner the Wild more than he probably should due to being a third liner playing next to Koivu and Harding is intriguing to a lot of teams, but no one would take a pass on Bouchard or Sheppard at the moment. And if a team is willing to trade those guys, they either want cap relief (Chicago) or veteran leadership (St. Louis). Neither team gets that.
EDIT: I take the Sheppard comment back. Teams would take a pass on Sheppard; however it would require us to receive junk or be low-balled.
I don't think teams will fall for the "let's trade a bunch of mediocre/******/overpaid players for one good one" trick. Mittens will garner the Wild more than he probably should due to being a third liner playing next to Koivu and Harding is intriguing to a lot of teams, but no one would take a pass on Bouchard or Sheppard at the moment. And if a team is willing to trade those guys, they either want cap relief (Chicago) or veteran leadership (St. Louis). Neither team gets that.
EDIT: I take the Sheppard comment back. Teams would take a pass on Sheppard; however it would require us to receive junk or be low-balled.
A Miettinen, Harding, and Sheppard for Boyes + 4th liner might be attractive to St. Louis.
They get a goalie, a young player who might fit in with their young core, and a cheaper RW in Miettinen, who might fit better in the current line-up than Boyes, who doesn't do much if he isn't scoring, as reflected by his demotion to the 4th line at times last season.
They lose no part of their core nor part of their leadership. Sure, it's not a home-run deal for them, but they don't seem to be the kind of team that is looking for that. They are looking to add players who fit with their young team.
A Miettinen, Harding, and Sheppard for Boyes + 4th liner might be attractive to St. Louis.
They get a goalie, a young player who might fit in with their young core, and a cheaper RW in Miettinen, who might fit better in the current line-up than Boyes, who doesn't do much if he isn't scoring, as reflected by his demotion to the 4th line at times last season.
They lose no part of their core nor part of their leadership. Sure, it's not a home-run deal for them, but they don't seem to be the kind of team that is looking for that. They are looking to add players who fit with their young team.
No you misinterpreted my post. St Louis' problem last year had to deal with relying too much on younger players and the team as a whole not scoring. Because of that, the Blues would be looking for veteran leadership in any trade and this doesn't help. If you are going to give up on one of your top offensive threats, you want to get back something which will help out (either now or in the future). Let's face it, that's not Mittens because given the same ice time and lines Boyes would do a better job despite his struggles this year. The only way I can see St. Louis wanting to do this deal would be if they highly overvalued Josh Harding (although if any team would overvalue Harding, it's the Blues or whatever team DR takes over).
No you misinterpreted my post. St Louis' problem last year had to deal with relying too much on younger players and the team as a whole not scoring. Because of that, the Blues would be looking for veteran leadership in any trade and this doesn't help. If you are going to give up on one of your top offensive threats, you want to get back something which will help out (either now or in the future). Let's face it, that's not Mittens because given the same ice time and lines Boyes would do a better job despite his struggles this year. The only way I can see St. Louis wanting to do this deal would be if they highly overvalued Josh Harding (although if any team would overvalue Harding, it's the Blues or whatever team DR takes over).
Depends on what you mean by "problem". If you mean getting into the playoffs, and maybe hoping to get to the 2nd round, then you are right. But that isn't necessarily the road to the cup.
Maybe the Blues shouldn't make the playoffs next year. Maybe they should stay the course, and keep adding to the young core. Force those young players to step-up. Maybe in a few seasons, they can be a force like the Hawks or Pens before them - young teams that sucked for a while, but they played their young players, and watched the team improve as the young players improved.
Adding a few vets via free agency or trades isn't going to get St. Louis to the next level. Only time will.
No they are at the point where LA was last year in that veteran leadership is needed to hold the young core accountable. They overachieved in 2008-2009 and came back to earth this year, but the core itself is fine and on par with LA or Nashville as the best prospect group. Their top five or six prospects would each be the Wild's top prospect. This is year 5 for the rebuilding project and the time where dividends should start paying off.
However, they could hold serve and continue to depend on the core to develop. It's just that then your proposed trade still wouldn't help out the Blues. Either way, you should post that trade for the Blues to comment on because I'm curious as to what they think.
Well, getting a center is a priority, and I think Jokinen still has it somewhere. He looked good at points during the Olympics. Bouchard, Kobasew, and Jokinen should be able to put up on average 50 points together, which is better than we've had previously.
If we can't get a RW for Koivu and Brunette, then we can't get a RW for Koivu and Brunette. Put Mittens there another year I guess. Probably get the same kind of season out of them. Nothing special. But not terrible.
Then put Lats and Havlat with Brodziak full-time. Not a bad 3rd line.
Sure, like every year, we won't have a top-line, but we could roll three solid lines with guys each putting in 40-65 points. I'd take that any day over what we've had the last three seasons.
I think I'd prefer to see Kobasew with Koivu and Brunette rather than Miettinen. Just send him to the front of the net, I think Kobasew would look better than Miettinen on that line, but that's mostly because I hate seeing Miettinen with Koivu and Bruno.
I think Minnesota needs to have a long term plan than a short term plan and I think this off season will be simply a stepping stone to a long term plan.
In short, we have too much money tied up in useless contracts that don't benefit the team.
Basically inform Backstrom to submit a list of teams he wouldn't mind being traded to at the start of the season.
Sign Koivu to a 12 year, 66 million dollar contract with a No-trade clause at the start of the season. Inform Koivu he is now the permanent captain of the Wild.
Place Bouchard on the LTIR list at the beginning of the season.
Trade Brunette, Miettinen, Kobasew at the deadline. None of these players should factor in to our long term plans for the Wild.
For Brunette, a mid-tier prospect and a mid-tier draft pick (3rd, 4th)
Mitts, a third or fourth round pick
Kobasew, a terrible deal to being with (seriously, horrendous deal) a mid round pick.
Sheppard should be quietly shopped around.
Gillies should be quietly shopped around (Toronto?)
Sign Lats to an extension of 3.25 million for 5 years.
Barker if he doesn't progress by the trade deadline should be quietly shopped throughout the season.
And then we go into the 11-12 season younger, leaner and cap space a little more wiggly.
Poor Koivu, he gets bait and switched like none other. Here, take all the money we're saving by lowballing the **** out Backstrom but then we're going to suck for another three years.
On the plus side, our prospect pool will finally be respectful if all those third rounders pan out.
Poor Koivu, he gets bait and switched like none other. Here, take all the money we're saving by lowballing the **** out Backstrom but then we're going to suck for another three years.
On the plus side, our prospect pool will finally be respectful if all those third rounders pan out.
Third rounders have done fairly well actually for Minnesota in recent years. 2nd rounders and 1st rounders have not.
BTW if we move Backstrom, we move more money to bring in quality players to play with Koivu.
We keep giving away third rounders like they are candy. Other than the Hackett pick this year (which we had to trade up to get), have we had another third rounder besides Clutterbuck since the lockout?
EDIT: Yes, Kirstofer Westbloom in 2005.
Yes, because everyone wants to play in Minnesota. Remember how well that worked for Dougie Ballgame?
We keep giving away third rounders like they are candy. Other than the Hackett pick this year (which we had to trade up to get), have we had another third rounder besides Clutterbuck since the lockout?
EDIT: Yes, Kirstofer Westbloom in 2005.
Yes, because everyone wants to play in Minnesota. Remember how well that worked for Dougie Ballgame?
Was it really DR or was it also JL that players' didn't want to play for?
Stoner, Clutterbuck, Hackett (if he develops right), Olvecky (was good for a spot), Veilleux all came out of the 3rd round.
It was the combination of mediocrity and the system not being as successful as it was in New Jersey. However, at one time DR sold Minnesota as a desired place where free agents wanted to come as a "managing expectations" schpiel right before Rolston and Demitra walked and the "desired" crown jewel was Andrew Brunette.
If we are going to discuss third rounders who came before the lockout (which is not "the last few years"), I'll still take the first and second rounders over them. Marian Gaborik, Mikko Koivu, PMB, Nick Schultz, Harding; hell I feel so confident I'll throw in Kyle Wanvig and Patrick O'Sullivan.
If we are going to discuss third rounders who came before the lockout (which is not "the last few years"), I'll still take the first and second rounders over them. Marian Gaborik, Mikko Koivu, PMB, Nick Schultz, Harding; hell I feel so confident I'll throw in Kyle Wanvig and Patrick O'Sullivan.
Really? Wanvig never did anything only we called him up because we had no other player. What about Kassian? What about Fiala?
PMB? Really? Everyone wants him away.
But Lemaire did cause a lot of free agents to walk away.
