News Article: Minnesota Wilds Drafting History!

[Frederik95]

Hey everyone. I finally finished up the final part of a major project I been working on for the past 2 weeks, and it involves the ups and downs from all the drafts the Wild has been involved in (that can be judged). From Mikko Koivu to Tyler Cuma. From great steals to awful mistakes and players that were let go too soon.
Also, what is the best and worst draft pick the Wild has ever made, and should I have included the later years as well.

The Drafting History Of The Minnesota Wild - Overtime Heroics

Click to read more...

 

[Minnewildsota]

You lost me at Darek Boogard.

 

[MuckOG]

2005: Pouliot
2006: Sheppard
2007: Gillies
2008: Cuma

Ugh.......

 

[Frederik95]

2005: Pouliot
2006: Sheppeard
2007: Gillies
2008: Cuma

Ugh.......

yeah.... That part just hurt to write and see.. So many players were available and we got those 4...

You lost me at Darek Boogard.

Mind if I ask why?

 

[thestonedkoala]

Mind if I ask why?

Derek

 

[mahnster]

Derek

Boogaard

 

[thestonedkoala]

2005: Pouliot
2006: Sheppeard
2007: Gillies
2008: Cuma

Ugh.......

To be fair; Pouliot and Sheppard were selected around were they should have been. Pouliot was a massive boom or bust prospect that carved out a respectable NHL career. I don't think Minnesota's problem was necessarily drafting, but development. I always wondered what would Pouliot be like in a different system or Sheppard.

Cuma was just injury prone. He was good, but had bad knees IIRC.

Boogaard

Yes, but you spelled it as Darek in your article.

 

[Frederik95]

To be fair; Pouliot and Sheppard were selected around were they should have been. Pouliot was a massive boom or bust prospect that carved out a respectable NHL career. I don't think Minnesota's problem was necessarily drafting, but development. I always wondered what would Pouliot be like in a different system or Sheppard.

Cuma was just injury prone. He was good, but had bad knees IIRC.



Yes, but you spelled it as Darek in your article.

ohhhhh danm! That I can only apologize for. Should have proofread the names properly. I will do better when it comes to names in the future, and thanks for letting me know the mistake

 

[MuckOG]

To be fair; Pouliot and Sheppard were selected around were they should have been. Pouliot was a massive boom or bust prospect that carved out a respectable NHL career. I don't think Minnesota's problem was necessarily drafting, but development. I always wondered what would Pouliot be like in a different system or Sheppard.

Cuma was just injury prone. He was good, but had bad knees IIRC.
.

I'm not suggesting that any of those guys were "reaches"....just that we literally got nothing out of them; whether that be due to poor development or injury. The salt in the wound is seeing who was drafted after these guys.

 

[Minnesnota]

It's all development. Those guys all should've been serviceable long-time NHLers, some were, some sucked ass.

Ultimately it came down to a piss poor player development department. I haven't paid attention to how much it's changed over the years but you can draft superstar after superstar if you can't develop the in-betweeners or assemble a roster with good depth players you'll never be a championship caliber team. Edmonton is the perfect example. Incompetence beyond belief up there.

 

[thestonedkoala]

I'm not suggesting that any of those guys were "reaches"....just that we literally got nothing out of them; whether that be due to poor development or injury. The salt in the wound is seeing who was drafted after these guys.

I wanted Kopitar so badly.

 

[ThatGuy22]

I'm not suggesting that any of those guys were "reaches"....just that we literally got nothing out of them; whether that be due to poor development or injury. The salt in the wound is seeing who was drafted after these guys.

Gillies was a terrible pick. Let's pick the guy who if he reaches his ceiling is a decent 3rd liner. 30 points his draft year, and we take him in the first round.

 

[Victorious Secret]

I wonder if Gillies ever grew into his man body....

 

[DANOZ28]

cuma got injured you have to factor that in (not gm's fault) aj thelen? bueller? back then i was younger and just assumed gms & mgmt knew what they were doing , now i know some are dumber than dirt. ps i think we traded up for gillies!

 

[TaLoN]

cuma got injured you have to factor that in (not gm's fault) aj thelen? bueller? back then i was younger and just assumed gms & mgmt knew what they were doing , now i know some are dumber than dirt. ps i think we traded up for gillies!

Agreed on Cuma. He was a good player and was tracking for a really good career. One of the smoothest skaters I've ever seen, and his game was built around that skating. 2 knee injuries later, he lost that ability which in turn sunk his career.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Gillies was a terrible pick. Let's pick the guy who if he reaches his ceiling is a decent 3rd liner. 30 points his draft year, and we take him in the first round.

To be fair; that was a terrible draft all together and Gillies was considered a top 30-60 pick in a weak draft year. I think the hope was more of a Foligno type of player.

 

[GuerinUp]

Hey everyone. I finally finished up the final part of a major project I been working on for the past 2 weeks, and it involves the ups and downs from all the drafts the Wild has been involved in (that can be judged). From Mikko Koivu to Tyler Cuma. From great steals to awful mistakes and players that were let go too soon.
Also, what is the best and worst draft pick the Wild has ever made, and should I have included the later years as well.

The Drafting History Of The Minnesota Wild - Overtime Heroics

im surprised there was no mention of michalek in this. or was he undrafted? i dont remember. i just remember we had him in the ahl and gave him up for like nothing and he turned out to be quite good

 

[thestonedkoala]

im surprised there was no mention of michalek in this. or was he undrafted? i dont remember. i just remember we had him in the ahl and gave him up for like nothing and he turned out to be quite good

He was undrafted, and I was pissed when he was traded.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

By and large, players are going to become what they are going to become on their own. No amount of team-focused development is going to turn James Shepard into Claude Giroux.

Pick the right guys and then don't get in their way.

 

[thestonedkoala]

By and large, players are going to become what they are going to become on their own. No amount of team-focused development is going to turn James Shepard into Claude Giroux.

It depends; Sheppard's issues were because of his skating. I don't think he'd become an elite center, but a top 6 with the right coaching and the right work could have been feasible. I also wonder about his injuries as that ATV accident derailed his career.

 

[hockeyenthusiast10]

Hey everyone. I finally finished up the final part of a major project I been working on for the past 2 weeks, and it involves the ups and downs from all the drafts the Wild has been involved in (that can be judged). From Mikko Koivu to Tyler Cuma. From great steals to awful mistakes and players that were let go too soon.
Also, what is the best and worst draft pick the Wild has ever made, and should I have included the later years as well.

The Drafting History Of The Minnesota Wild - Overtime Heroics

This is a fun read, but as others have mentioned, some simple proofing or fact checking would make it so much better. (i.e. spelling of Derek Boogaard, The Wild drafting Pouliot 4th overall in 2005, Price going 5th)

Again, fun read though and great to see others perspectives

 

[TaLoN]

It depends; Sheppard's issues were because of his skating. I don't think he'd become an elite center, but a top 6 with the right coaching and the right work could have been feasible. I also wonder about his injuries as that ATV accident derailed his career.

Sheppard also gained the reputation of not being coachable in the first place. After all, he was playing hockey since he was 3.

I disagree the ATV accident derailed his career... it was just the final nail in the coffin of his career.

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

My favorite thing to show the ineptness is even with our big hit on Haula, you can't give the scouts credit because they picked his own teammate Fallstrom before Haula in that draft which was as laughable then as it is now.

 

[GuerinUp]

My favorite thing to show the ineptness is even with our big hit on Haula, you can't give the scouts credit because they picked his own teammate Fallstrom before Haula in that draft which was as laughable then as it is now.

Then they let him go to vegas because "hes only a 3c" even though he had shown he can do more at every level prior and he puts up 55 points in 76 games

 

[57special]

Early on Russo mentioned that Haula would never be more than a fourth liner, and I couldn't help feeling that he was parroting what was being said behind the scenes by the YeoBots, who also lived to bench Zucker and marginalized Nino, while playing aging, broken down vets.

Haula is probably a really good third liner at best, but he's a third liner who can play C. That's got some value. He's slowed down some because of injuries, but he was also really fast back when he was on MN, and initially on VGK.