Speculation: 2020 Offseason

[AKL]

What's the Wild's plan with Eric Staal? I could see him fitting in perfectly on the Leafs third line with one year remaining on a pretty affordable contract.

I don't think he wants to play in Toronto. And unless you have a replacement top 6 center for us, he won't be on the move until the trade deadline at the absolute earliest.

 

[Minnesnota]

I'd see Eric being okay with playing for Winnipeg or Edmonton if we traded him at the deadline.

Edmonton could play him as their 2C and keep Drai at the wing since he's terrible defensively. Winnipeg could use a 2C outright and I'd imagine if they're in a playoff spot come the deadline, they would be interested in him.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Haha, true im from Adelaide, had no idea you natives hated it so much, ill stop.

Adelaide Crows. One of best kits in sports.

 

[Beastieboi]

Adelaide Crows. One of best kits in sports.

Love the Crows!
It's been a tough few seasons though,
Coach got murdered by his son, lost the grand final, mass exodus of players and now sitting last place this season with 13 losses and no wins.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Love the Crows!
It's been a tough few seasons though,
Coach got murdered by his son, lost the grand final, mass exodus of players and now sitting last place this season with 13 losses and no wins.

That first one is beyond crazy.

At least, Walker is still changing up his hair and mustache.

 

[BagHead]

What's the Wild's plan with Eric Staal? I could see him fitting in perfectly on the Leafs third line with one year remaining on a pretty affordable contract.

He's still our best center, yet I would happily see him traded for a decent value. Like a 1st round pick. This team needs to rebuild, and I wish they'd traded him the first time they were offered a 1st rounder, rather than extend him. I'm not a "tank guy", and I think a winning culture is better than getting tons of high 1st round picks, but we don't really have a winning culture and Staal isn't going to retain his value much longer; he's getting old for a hockey player.

 

[HotDish]

I don’t see Staal being traded unless the Wild are a lottery team by the trade deadline. Even then I think his M-NTC will have as many potential playoff teams he can guess.

the Wild are the closest team to Thunder Bay. He has said in the past that it feels like he is at home here. I think he has a few years left in him. I don’t think it will be with the Wild though.

 

[KaprizovEntitlelist]

He's still our best center, yet I would happily see him traded for a decent value. Like a 1st round pick. This team needs to rebuild, and I wish they'd traded him the first time they were offered a 1st rounder, rather than extend him. I'm not a "tank guy", and I think a winning culture is better than getting tons of high 1st round picks, but we don't really have a winning culture and Staal isn't going to retain his value much longer; he's getting old for a hockey player.

Even if you wish, wild simply under this ownership isn't going to happen.

Spurgeon getting resigned to 7 years deal sealed that a rebuilding isn't happening

 

[2Pair]

He's still our best center, yet I would happily see him traded for a decent value. Like a 1st round pick. This team needs to rebuild, and I wish they'd traded him the first time they were offered a 1st rounder, rather than extend him. I'm not a "tank guy", and I think a winning culture is better than getting tons of high 1st round picks, but we don't really have a winning culture and Staal isn't going to retain his value much longer; he's getting old for a hockey player.

When you say that this team needs a rebuild, what exactly do you have in mind?

Are thinking maybe they add a couple of young guys to the 4th line like Sturm and Hartman?

How about turning over the 3rd line to your trio of 22-23 year old forwards like Greenway, Kunin, and Eriksson Ek?

Maybe they could get rid of Granlund, Coyle, Niederreiter, and Zucker and replace them in the top 6 with Fiala, Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Donato, and Rask?

Maybe try to add a 1st rounder, or even a prospect or two?

Probably wouldn't hurt to add a couple of young goalies either?

 

[Dickie Dunn]

Planned or unplanned rebuild? At this point, any re-build will be the unplanned "wow, they got bad fast" type of rebuild. Like 2Pair mentions above, trading Granlund/Nino/Zucker/Coyle was the rebuild.

 

[TaLoN]

I don’t see Staal being traded unless the Wild are a lottery team by the trade deadline. Even then I think his M-NTC will have as many potential playoff teams he can guess.

the Wild are the closest team to Thunder Bay. He has said in the past that it feels like he is at home here. I think he has a few years left in him. I don’t think it will be with the Wild though.

Less than 100 miles difference in the distance to Thunder Bay between St. Paul and Winnipeg. Pretty sure he'd be happy with both... especially since Winnipeg doesn't involve border crossing.

 

[BagHead]

When you say that this team needs a rebuild, what exactly do you have in mind?

Are thinking maybe they add a couple of young guys to the 4th line like Sturm and Hartman?

How about turning over the 3rd line to your trio of 22-23 year old forwards like Greenway, Kunin, and Eriksson Ek?

Maybe they could get rid of Granlund, Coyle, Niederreiter, and Zucker and replace them in the top 6 with Fiala, Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Donato, and Rask?

Maybe try to add a 1st rounder, or even a prospect or two?

Probably wouldn't hurt to add a couple of young goalies either?

Did I make the claim that no attempt has been made to rebuild, or did I instead say that Fenton opted not to trade Staal at a time where he could fetch very good value, which is too bad because we need to rebuild? Maybe it would have been clearer if I'd put the words "continue to" in front of rebuild? Well, let me be clear now, since you're attaching meaning to my words that simply wasn't intended: What I was saying was that, for a rebuilding team, it was a bad idea to re-sign an aging veteran like Staal when a 1st round pick was the return, especially at Staal's age, an age where a fall off in production is becoming inevitable and that 1st round value may no longer be there by the next "rental trade" date. It's not a bad idea to have some vets around, in fact it's a very good idea, but not this many, and not at the cost of 1st round picks.

I also mentioned that this team lacks a winning culture, a feeling I've had for a while now, and that Guerin seems to have confirmed. That's a lot harder of a thing to build than personnel.... unless it's a 1st line center.

Planned or unplanned rebuild? At this point, any re-build will be the unplanned "wow, they got bad fast" type of rebuild. Like 2Pair mentions above, trading Granlund/Nino/Zucker/Coyle was the rebuild.

Which is exactly why Fenton deserved to be fired, outside of his inter-office attitudes. He did that rebuild, (lets not talk about the "value" he got for those players) and then finally got offered good value in a trade, but chose instead to re-signed an older player rather than continuing the rebuild? Just so many perplexing moves.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Which is exactly why Fenton deserved to be fired, outside of his inter-office attitudes. He did that rebuild, (lets not talk about the "value" he got for those players) and then finally got offered good value in a trade, but chose instead to re-signed an older player rather than continuing the rebuild? Just so many perplexing moves.

Yes. Fenton tried to be on both sides of the road on got squished.

He should have traded Staal for a 1st and drafted a high quality guy. He should have asked Koivu and Suter to go to contenders and ship them out for young players. He should have never signed Zucc. He should have tanked and been asshole enough to tell Leipold it was needed.

 

[Bazeek]

Centers of Interest
This list was compiled from Elite Prospects depth charts for each team. Inclusion in the list doesn't imply that they'd be available or desirable, but I tried to leave off obvious non-starters. Ages range from old-and-busted to guys that are still a year or two from the NHL.

If there are names missing that you think merit inclusion, let me know.

Metro
Carolina - Geekie, Suzuki, Drury, Rees
Columbus - Jenner, Wennberg
New Jersey - Zajac, Zacha, McLeod
NYI - Nelson
NYR - Strome, Chytil, Andersson
Philadelphia - Patrick, Frost, Rubstov
Pittsburgh - McCann, Blugers
Washington - McMichael, Protas

Atlantic
Boston - Krecji, Frederick, Studnicka,
Buffalo - Reinhart, Mittelstadt, Cozens, Asplund
Detroit - Veleno
Florida - Borgstrom
Montreal - Danault, Domi, Poehling
Ottawa - Tierney, Anisimov, Brown, Pinto
Tampa - Cirelli, Barre-Boulet, Walker
Toronto - Nylander, Kerfoot

Central
Chicago - Strome
Colorado - Newhook
Dallas - Faksa, Dellandrea
Nashville - Johansen, Bonino, Tomasino
St Louis - Schenn, Bozak
Winnipeg - Lowry, Copp, Roslovic

Pacific
Anaheim - Henrique, Steel, Zegras
Arizona - Schmaltz, Stepan
Calgary - Monahan, Bennett, Backlund, Lindholm
Edmonton - Nugent-Hopkins, Marody
Los Angeles - Kempe, Thomas, Madden
San Jose - Couture, Hertl, Chmelevski
Vancouver - Sutter, Gaudette
Vegas - Glass, Krebs

 

[thestonedkoala]

I'd add Geekie to Carolina.

 

[BigT2002]

Without any context, I'm at a loss at what the Wild will do. I'm sure GMBG wants to flip it on its head though. The issue, you can't burn another year of Parise/Suter and now the Russian Rocket for a rebuilding year. I hope they find that fine line somewhere in there. Not sure they will be able to without some massive concessions.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

This is the article I’ve been waiting for

 

[AKL]

This is the article I’ve been waiting for

“There’s always risks with goalies taken with a high selection, and the history, if you go through it, it’s not always the first goalie selected being the one that develops into the top-flight goalie,” Brackett said. “It can be a late-developing position, but it’s risk-reward. The goalie this year is certainly a special talent, and you don’t want to be wrong if he turns out to be the legitimate No. 1 and you didn’t take him.

“So it is a measured risk, for sure. But, positionally, it can be one area that can develop late and even a goalie maybe that hasn’t pronounced his skill at this point as a 17- or 18-year-old could still continue to develop or grow into a No. 1. It is definitely a tricky position to evaluate. It’s very technical, but I do agree that the goalie here at the top half of this draft has certainly put himself in rare air for consideration.”

So that's the quote from former goalie turned scout Judd Brackett.

Looks like Askarov is ours guys.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

This is the article I’ve been waiting for

give us the details good sir.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

So that's the quote from former goalie turned scout Judd Brackett.

Looks like Askarov is ours guys.

lets write it in stone now so we can be happy when we don't take him.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

So that's the quote from former goalie turned scout Judd Brackett.

Looks like Askarov is ours guys.

A little bit of my chipotle bowl came back up when he started talking about Askarov

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

lets write it in stone now so we can be happy when we don't take him.

No real tidbits in players aside from Askarov. A disappointing article. Brackett said he thinks we’ll have to opportunity to get a center or centers at the draft. He likes our prospect pool. Likes that he’s going to be given the autonomy he felt he didn’t get in Vancouver. Talked about his life outside hockey a bit.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

No real tidbits in players aside from Askarov. A disappointing article. Brackett said he thinks we’ll have to opportunity to get a center or centers at the draft. He likes our prospect pool. Likes that he’s going to be given the autonomy he felt he didn’t get in Vancouver. Talked about his life outside hockey a bit.

fair enough. hopefully he can find a diamond in the rough in rounds 2 and 3.

 

[2Pair]

So that's the quote from former goalie turned scout Judd Brackett.

Looks like Askarov is ours guys.

That's just a whole lotta words to say absolutely nothing.

I think Brackett has enough of an ego that he will think he can find goalies later in the draft

 

[HotDish]

So that's the quote from former goalie turned scout Judd Brackett.

Looks like Askarov is ours guys.

Center please...