Player Discussion Kevin Fiala

[Dickie Dunn]

They'd need to lose about 80-85 goals to really crash hard down into the 21-22' Black Hawks neighborhood. But they only need to lose about the 14-15% goal scoring increase from 21-22' to fall back into the Predators/Jets neighborhood and that seems almost a certainty if they trade Fiala. Given the shaky D and shakier goaltending, that 253 goals against number could shoot up and now we're talking year 1 of a 3 year free fall.

They have a helluva lot of work to do to keep this from crashing. I'm not in favor of it but it might happen regardless. This was the year, imo.

 

[ProfessorMcFatty]

A fair question with no answer, he obviously has the skills but many a player can have hot and cold playoffs and some just don't perform, hard to say what he is yet but arguments can be made both ways. Having an off playoffs doesn't mean he can't perform in the future, outside of the mental lapses the kid has everything you want in a player. Most of this stuff is out of our hands anyway, many have accepted that he might be gone no matter how much better he makes the team by being here. I just hope whatever we get in return is enough to get this team a cup in the near future.

I wonder how much better the team would have performed against not St. Louis, given their abysmal track record. If we'd have played, say Colorado, would the numbers have been better? Probably still an elimination, but I wouldn't be surprised if we'd have put up more points.

 

[Golden Gophers 4649]

I'm not convinced they drop back a ton. That being said if they can get a younger, cheaper forward on the upswing like Dawson Mercer they could be better next season. That would require Boldy to take another step to say north of 55 points. Rossi comes in and is a legitimate 2nd or 3rd line center and whomever they do acquire for Fiala chips in 25 goals.

The other part would be are guys like Beckman or maybe one of the defensmen ready to play.

 

[f7ben]

Anyone thinking losing Fiala doesn’t hurt this team badly doesn’t watch hockey. You don’t just lose players who are top 20 in the whole league and recover without replacing them which is impossible to do. Guerin has screwed this up so bad I’ll never support him again. He chose absolute trash like Goligoski over Fiala. f*** Guerin

 

[57special]

Also overlooked was that Zucc had the best season of his career by a long shot. We'd be crazy to expect that to happen again as he heads into his mid/late 30's.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Also overlooked was that Zucc had the best season of his career by a long shot. We'd be crazy to expect that to happen again as he heads into his mid/late 30's.

Especially since he appears to be injury prone.

 

[BagHead]

Also overlooked was that Zucc had the best season of his career by a long shot. We'd be crazy to expect that to happen again as he heads into his mid/late 30's.

I think this is actually true of most of the roster. This team reminds me of the 16-17 team. who were one of the top offensive teams in the league. Most of the team had career years offensively. Coyle, Nino, and Granlund all had career years. Zucker saved his for a year later, but even his 17 point jump wasn't enough to overcome all those other guys falling back to Earth.

Staal -> Zuccarello
Granlund -> Fiala
Coyle -> Gaudreau
Nino -> Hartman
Koivu -> JEE (should be consistent, just like Koivu was)
There aren't very good direct comparable players for Foligno, but I'll be surprised if he's a 23 goal scorer again.

I hate to say it, but I think last year's team may be even more of an anomaly than the 16-17 version. Then again, I expected them to fall back to Earth THIS year, so I guess we'll see!

 

[HotDish]

Anyone thinking losing Fiala doesn’t hurt this team badly doesn’t watch hockey. You don’t just lose players who are top 20 in the whole league and recover without replacing them which is impossible to do. Guerin has screwed this up so bad I’ll never support him again. He chose absolute trash like Goligoski over Fiala. f*** Guerin

Do you really think it was Fiala or Goligoski?

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

I don’t think it’s an overly outlandish statement to say that Fiala could’ve pushed for 100 points this season if he was playing with quality linemates the whole year. Send him to Ottawa where he will play 20 mins a night, too powerplay constantly, with other good players, and I think he could do something special. He’s closer to a kap level player than people think, he just has his deficiencies more overstayers because we’ve also seen him play pretty poorly earlier in his career

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Do you really think it was Fiala or Goligoski?

the way Russo pitches it on twitter, a lot probably think that way. resign merril/goligoski/greenway instead of resigning fiala.

 

[Spurgeon]

Do you really think it was Fiala or Goligoski?

There was a pretty easy way to keep Fiala around for at least another season. With how the team performed this season, Guerin should have focused on extending the window for another season by minimizing his cap allocation of depth positions.

Goligoski, Jost, and Merill could have all been replaced by league minimum contracts (saves about $3M). Kahkonen could have been kept over Talbot and re-signed for cheaper (saves about $1.5M).

That $4.5M would have been enough to keep Fiala, Dumba, and Zucc on this roster next season and wouldn’t have sacrificed anything but depth guys and an aging goalie.

Guerin has signed some great value contracts (Hartman, Gaudreau), but he wastes their impact by giving unnecessary cap to #6/#7 defensemen and 4th line players.

——————————————————

Fiala @ 8 years $8M AAV
Dewar @ 2 years $1M AAV
Kahkonen @ 2 years $2.25M AAV

Zucc - Hartman - Kap
Boldy - Rossi - Fiala
GREEF
Dewar - Gaudreau - Duhaime

Brodin - Dumba
Kulikov - Spurgeon
X - Addison

Kahkonen
X

$4.1M for 3LD, backup, and an extra skater. I’ll wait until I see the return on Fiala, but I really don’t know why the above roster wasn’t the plan.

 

[57special]

@Spurgeon for GM!

 

[HotDish]

the way Russo pitches it on twitter, a lot probably think that way. resign merril/goligoski/greenway instead of resigning fiala.

See merril/goligoski/greenway vs Fiala makes more sense. Personally I would've kept Fiala but i'm not the GM.

 

[Goose312]

There was a pretty easy way to keep Fiala around for at least another season. With how the team performed this season, Guerin should have focused on extending the window for another season by minimizing his cap allocation of depth positions.

Goligoski, Jost, and Merill could have all been replaced by league minimum contracts (saves about $3M). Kahkonen could have been kept over Talbot and re-signed for cheaper (saves about $1.5M).

That $4.5M would have been enough to keep Fiala, Dumba, and Zucc on this roster next season and wouldn’t have sacrificed anything but depth guys and an aging goalie.

Guerin has signed some great value contracts (Hartman, Gaudreau), but he wastes their impact by giving unnecessary cap to #6/#7 defensemen and 4th line players.

——————————————————

Fiala @ 8 years $8M AAV
Dewar @ 2 years $1M AAV
Kahkonen @ 2 years $2.25M AAV

Zucc - Hartman - Kap
Boldy - Rossi - Fiala
GREEF
Dewar - Gaudreau - Duhaime

Brodin - Dumba
Kulikov - Spurgeon
X - Addison

Kahkonen
X

$4.1M for 3LD, backup, and an extra skater. I’ll wait until I see the return on Fiala, but I really don’t know why the above roster wasn’t the plan.

The problem with league minimum players is they usually suck. Especially on the blue line. Kulikov on the 2nd pair, Addison paired with a Benn level partner, Kahkonen as the starter, a goalie worse/less proven than Kahkonen as the backup, and having to nickel and dime all season to prepare for performance bonuses from Rossi and Boldy all add up to what sounds like a nightmare season. I guess at least we wouldn't have a shortage of scapegoats to complain about, I'm sure Guerin being one as the players he brought in under this scenario get pummeled nightly.

 

[Digitalbooya]

There was a pretty easy way to keep Fiala around for at least another season. With how the team performed this season, Guerin should have focused on extending the window for another season by minimizing his cap allocation of depth positions.

Goligoski, Jost, and Merill could have all been replaced by league minimum contracts (saves about $3M). Kahkonen could have been kept over Talbot and re-signed for cheaper (saves about $1.5M).

That $4.5M would have been enough to keep Fiala, Dumba, and Zucc on this roster next season and wouldn’t have sacrificed anything but depth guys and an aging goalie.

Guerin has signed some great value contracts (Hartman, Gaudreau), but he wastes their impact by giving unnecessary cap to #6/#7 defensemen and 4th line players.

——————————————————

Fiala @ 8 years $8M AAV
Dewar @ 2 years $1M AAV
Kahkonen @ 2 years $2.25M AAV

Zucc - Hartman - Kap
Boldy - Rossi - Fiala
GREEF
Dewar - Gaudreau - Duhaime

Brodin - Dumba
Kulikov - Spurgeon
X - Addison

Kahkonen
X

$4.1M for 3LD, backup, and an extra skater. I’ll wait until I see the return on Fiala, but I really don’t know why the above roster wasn’t the plan.

Then next year what happens when Boldy is asking for $7M AAV and the dead cap increases by $2M? Even if you let Dumba walk it’s a huge issue.

That roster basically has to hope that Wallstedt is ready ASAP for starter duties in the NHL.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Then next year what happens when Boldy is asking for $7M AAV and the dead cap increases by $2M? Even if you let Dumba walk it’s a huge issue.

That roster basically has to hope that Wallstedt is ready ASAP for starter duties in the NHL.

You trade a 35/36 year old Zuccarello with an expiring contract, and make 2 scoring lines out of Kaprizov+Fiala+Boldy+Rossi.

 

[MNRube]

Any of Holtz, Pinto, Faber, Turcotte, Mercer plus draft capitol would work for me.

I do think Fiala is valued less than someone with his skills and stats should be. He seems to have a selfishness and/or a stubbornness to him that doesn’t jive with a lot of no nonsense hockey people like BG. Could be wrong, but feels that way

 

[DeagleJenkins]

See merril/goligoski/greenway vs Fiala makes more sense. Personally I would've kept Fiala but i'm not the GM.

i dont disagree id keep fiala over a lot of current roster players but im also not the GM. i dont care how difficult it is to sign someone or how bad of an attitude they have. as much as character matters, sometimes you also need that one douche who can put up a ton of points and be a bit selfish instead of always worrying about everyone else.

 

[Digitalbooya]

You trade a 35/36 year old Zuccarello with an expiring contract, and make 2 scoring lines out of Kaprizov+Fiala+Boldy+Rossi.

How do you plan on replacing Dumba?

 

[MNNumbers]

Then next year what happens when Boldy is asking for $7M AAV and the dead cap increases by $2M? Even if you let Dumba walk it’s a huge issue.

That roster basically has to hope that Wallstedt is ready ASAP for starter duties in the NHL.

This is a valid concern, but anyone who thinks that Guerin is actually thinking that far ahead hasn't been watching.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

How do you plan on replacing Dumba?

I'm content with a Brodin, Spurgeon, Middleton, Addison top 4. I would've preferred at Addison had gotten more NHL time in 2021-22 prior to making that leap, but oh well.

 

[ShortPeter6]

How do you plan on replacing Dumba?

He is not really that hard to replace. He can’t shot anymore and is injured a lot. He is not that great defensively. Although I have been a Dumba hater for 3 years now.

 

[Digitalbooya]

I'm content with a Brodin, Spurgeon, Middleton, Addison top 4. I would've preferred at Addison had gotten more NHL time in 2021-22 prior to making that leap, but oh well.

Middleton wasn't on that team mock up. It was Kulikov and his contract expires at the end of the year.

 

[Digitalbooya]

He is not really that hard to replace. He can’t shot anymore and is injured a lot. He is not that great defensively. Although I have been a Dumba hater for 3 years now.

Strongly disagree. Dumba can shoot, but he hasn't been put in a position to use that shot since 2018-19.

"Not that great defensively." - Person who probably thinks Addison would be a sufficient replacement

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Middleton wasn't on that team mock up. It was Kulikov and his contract expires at the end of the year.

Well, that mock up isn't something that can happen, since the Talbot/Kahkonen ship has sailed. Going forward with the options we currently have, I could stomach it.

This year:

Kaprizov - Hartman - Zuccarello
Boldy - Gaudreau - Fiala (8M)
Greenway - Eriksson Ek - Foligno
Duhaime - Dewar (900k) - Bjugstad (900k)
Deslauries (750k)
Parise buyout

Brodin - Spurgeon
Middleton (X) - Addison
Kulikov - Goligoski
Merrill
Suter buyout

Talbot
2G (Y)

~$4M to spend on Middleton and a 2nd goalie. Only requires a Dumba + Jost trade. Could probably even keep Jost around if you wanted to.

Next year:

Kaprizov - Rossi - Hartman
Boldy (6.5M) - Somebody (X) - Fiala
Greenway - Eriksson Ek - Foligno
Four 4th liners totaling 3.5M
Parise buyout

Brodin - Spurgeon
Middleton (~2) - Addison (Y)
Goligoski - Merrill
Somebody (900k)
Suter buyout

Goalie of some sort (Z)
Wallstedt (925k)

~$6.2M to spend on a center between Boldy/Fiala (X), Addison's bridge (Y) and goalie to pair with Wallstedt (Z).