Minnesota Wild General Discussion VI

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TaLoN

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May 30, 2010
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Really? Seemed like whenever they had Wild camp or his college was playing, it was non stop how great this kid was going to be with the Wild? Maybe I'm not remembering it then.
When he had his 5 game chip off coffee here, fans around here were starting to call him a bust already because he still feeling the game out.
 

2Pair

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Oct 8, 2017
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How often does the expansion draft need to be explained around here? JFC now we've reached the point where Tuch was going to be the next Gaborik?
 

Bazeek

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Jul 26, 2011
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Some of this seems like revisionist history. That whole 2016-17 season was a perfect storm of poor decisions made for understandable reasons.

In mid-Feb 2017 the Wild were at the top of the Western conference by a healthy margin, Staal was stepping up as a real 1C, Granlund suddenly looked like the player we'd been hoping for, Nino and Coyle were having their best seasons and Zucker wasn't that far behind. Dubnyk was in peak form behind a defense that was as good as any in the league. On top of all that, we'd just watched Kunin, Greenway, Eriksson-Ek and Kaprizov kicking butt at the WJC's. For once it seemed like damn near everything was going right.

We all know how well the Hanzal trade turned out, but at the time Haula as the 3C looked like the weakest link on the team. It was an overpay, but under the circumstances I still think it made sense to make a push that year, even with the threat of the expansion draft hanging over their heads.

Then they hit Jake Allen and everything went as bad as it possibly could have. At that point giving up a forward prospect (which we seemed to have plenty of) to have Vegas take a center that didn't have a future with the team seemed like a pretty slick move. I remember literally nobody complaining about giving up Tuch at the time; most were amazed that Vegas would take him over Kaprizov, or that they'd make the deal at all instead of pushing for a defenseman.

The whole thing sucks, but it's a great example of just how badly things can go even when you're acting rationally.
 

Engebretson

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Nov 4, 2010
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And when he didn't make the WJC as a returning eligible player.
There was a lot going on there at the time. Tuch had hurt his knee during the US WJC summer eval camp and was sent home early. When the season started at BC, his linemates got jumbled with Bracco bolting to the OHL and Colin White's line running white hot at the time. After the WJC snub, he had been close to a PPG production between December and February that season and ended up improving on his total stats and production from the previous season.

There was a lot of criticism directed USA Hockey too for that snub. Tuch's first half of the season wasn't great, but I believe the reasoning was because he was a Top 6 guy and USA Hockey needed their "grind lines" for the bottom 6. I think we got the bronze that year mostly being willed to victory by Matthews, Tkachuk and Werenski. I remember wishing Tuch had made it and would have been put on that line instead of DeBrincat. If I'm remembering right, DeBrincat got ejected from the Canada game and mostly did nothing the rest of the tournament.
 

W75

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Oct 22, 2011
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Now I think franchise is in a situation where they need to rebuild or at least retool. One problem might be that Suter / Parise aren't willing to go through that at this phase of their career. But they have NTCs and long lucrative deals.

That shouldn't dictate the direction of the team though. Window closed, things didn't go as planned, tough luck. Game over.

Management and ownership should be planning the future now. Might mean few seasons without the first round exit.
 

Dr Jan Itor

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Dec 10, 2009
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Now I think feanchise is in a situation where they need to rebuild or retool. One problem might be that Suter / Parise aren't willing to go through that at this phase of their career. But they have NTCs and long lucrative deals.

That shouldn't dictate the direction of the team though. Window closed, things didn't go as planned, tough luck. Game over.

Management and ownership should be planning the future now. And that might mean few seasons without the first round exit.

This is pretty much where I'm at. We made a very respectable push at it from 2012 to 2019. Now it's time to adjust.
 

P10p

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May 15, 2012
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Especially when you consider the biggest strength that the Wild have typically had was a strong blue line pipeline, you would think they would have favored saving their forwards whenever possible. Many on here were strong advocates that Tuch was going to come in and provide a scoring touch and flare that the Wild haven't really seen since Gaborik. Haula was often looked at as the Wild's second strongest center in terms of being able to transition between Offense/Defense or Special Teams. He was the "guy" they put on players like McKinnon.

Half this team is skating with weights on their ankles most of the time it feels like.

If by many you mean you were i'll take your word on it. But many in the normal sense would be wrong.
 

PuckInTheNards

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Feb 4, 2008
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Earlier today I wondered if the Wild could go the rest of the season without winning another game. Now I wonder if we can go without scoring another goal.

Seriously, how the f*** are we still in a playoff position?
 

NHL1674

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Aug 8, 2008
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Apparently all anyone can talk about at the Xcel is that we are going to have nearly new team next year. I just hope Fenton doesn't screw up these trades.
 

Wabit

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May 23, 2016
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Apparently all anyone can talk about at the Xcel is that we are going to have nearly new team next year. I just hope Fenton doesn't screw up these trades.

It'll be almost the same team, or GMPF is going to be taking a huge loss in trades. Everyone; except Spurgeon, Brodin, and Dumba (because none of this stink is on him); has tanked their trade value.
 

57special

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I don't know. I would think that GM's would see what Nino has done since he has left here, and surmise that other Wild players could do something similar.
 
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DANOZ28

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May 22, 2012
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going back to expansion , i would have forced pommer to waive his expansion protection or traded him before expansion happened to save a spot for dumba. then i would have left unprotected staal ; brodin; haula ; coyle and only suffered losing one nhl player instead of 2. ( i said this before expansion). now were stuck with an aging team that's middle of the pack when healthy. we need to be bad for atleast 2 drafts to get some new young talent in here. other than a miracle trade i don't see any other answer.
 

Saga of the Elk

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May 31, 2008
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going back to expansion , i would have forced pommer to waive his expansion protection or traded him before expansion happened to save a spot for dumba. then i would have left unprotected staal ; brodin; haula ; coyle and only suffered losing one nhl player instead of 2. ( i said this before expansion). now were stuck with an aging team that's middle of the pack when healthy. we need to be bad for atleast 2 drafts to get some new young talent in here. other than a miracle trade i don't see any other answer.

Considering how many defensemen were shaking around post-expansion, losing Brodin might have been the best route in retrospect. He's good but ultimately the replacement cost for a middle-pairing guy, even a very good one, is far less than a competent third line center and a top-six power winger.
 

keppel146

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Jun 4, 2010
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Why do I see 60 GP on the schedule, but count 28 or 29 on the Wild calendar? Am I out of it?.. I could see the Wild only winning 5 games the rest of the season.
Update:ignore, there was definitely some calendar overlap on the weeks. Dumb layout. Wonder what 70 points is historically in the draft.. 10th OA?
 
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Wild11MN

First round losers
May 28, 2013
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going back to expansion , i would have forced pommer to waive his expansion protection or traded him before expansion happened to save a spot for dumba. then i would have left unprotected staal ; brodin; haula ; coyle and only suffered losing one nhl player instead of 2. ( i said this before expansion). now were stuck with an aging team that's middle of the pack when healthy. we need to be bad for atleast 2 drafts to get some new young talent in here. other than a miracle trade i don't see any other answer.
You can't force him to waive or magically find a trade partner willing to take on Pominville when there's no chance other teams would want to protect him either.

But the expansion draft is in the rear view mirror (can't wait for the next one).
 
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