thestonedkoala
Going Dark
- Aug 27, 2004
- 28,255
- 1,617
With the trade deadline behind us, the playoffs in front of us, and off season on the horizon, I thought it would be a good time to kick off the off season plans for Minnesota as it's never too early to discuss this organization and its long term needs.
Right now, we know Harding is pretty much done. It's sad to hear but we got to start planning for after Harding. We also know that Dany Heatley is going to be looking for a new team after June. We are budging up against the cap, so getting Heatley and Harding off the books would be great for the organization. We also got to start planning for Pominville, Setoguchi, Gilbert and what we want to do with them. We also have Cal Clutterbuck, Justin Falk, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Steven Kampfer, Tyler Cuma coming up for contracts. And as much as we want to get rid of Scandella, Kampfer, and Cuma, we have ZERO defensive depth.
Our cap space minus Dany Heatley, Cal Clutterbuck, PM Bouchard and Matt Cullen at forward comes out to 27.903 million. Defensively we're not going to see much of a dip in the cap, which comes out to 15.188. Finally, goaltending wise, we have Kuemper and possibly Harding but Harding should be gone. We also got Parrish's buyout at .928 million. We'll be sitting comfortably at 44.919 million in space.
So what do we need?
1/ Center depth and badly. As much as we want Mikael Granlund to make an impact now, he looks like a two/three year project. If Matt Cullen decides to hang them up (which is unlikely) or move on (also unlikely but who knows), Minnesota has Koivu, Brodziak, and Konopka as centers. With Granlund, Graovac, Phillips, and Haula in the minors. Granlund being the only known there and even he might have to swing out to wing if he can't get comfortable at center.
2/ Goaltending. We can hope that Backstrom decides to come back. Why wouldn't he? But after Backstrom, we have an erratic goaltender in Kuemper (we only have one year of hard data on him. His first year was meh) and an unknown in Gusty. If we are to push for the playoffs, we'll need to get a backup like Theodore in here so we don't wear Backstrom down.
3/ Depth defense. A lot of defense. Not in the NHL but also in the AHL. With Gunnarsson and Dumba coming over and up, this shouldn't be as bad but we need a good second pairing and hope Gilbert rebounds. If he doesn't, the Wild are going to be a very, very bad spot. But our defense needs to be made over from 3-7 because Suter and Brodin are going to break down.
Those are the three biggest needs right now for the organization. Our first pick should be a defenseman in the draft, we shouldn't trade Clutterbuck (Bulmer has been more of a project than we wanted and we don't have a lot of talented gritty guys in the AHL. Bus should help, maybe if he can translate over) and we should be looking for Brodie's replacement sooner than later (Larsson, we hardly knew ye).
Right now, we know Harding is pretty much done. It's sad to hear but we got to start planning for after Harding. We also know that Dany Heatley is going to be looking for a new team after June. We are budging up against the cap, so getting Heatley and Harding off the books would be great for the organization. We also got to start planning for Pominville, Setoguchi, Gilbert and what we want to do with them. We also have Cal Clutterbuck, Justin Falk, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Steven Kampfer, Tyler Cuma coming up for contracts. And as much as we want to get rid of Scandella, Kampfer, and Cuma, we have ZERO defensive depth.
Our cap space minus Dany Heatley, Cal Clutterbuck, PM Bouchard and Matt Cullen at forward comes out to 27.903 million. Defensively we're not going to see much of a dip in the cap, which comes out to 15.188. Finally, goaltending wise, we have Kuemper and possibly Harding but Harding should be gone. We also got Parrish's buyout at .928 million. We'll be sitting comfortably at 44.919 million in space.
So what do we need?
1/ Center depth and badly. As much as we want Mikael Granlund to make an impact now, he looks like a two/three year project. If Matt Cullen decides to hang them up (which is unlikely) or move on (also unlikely but who knows), Minnesota has Koivu, Brodziak, and Konopka as centers. With Granlund, Graovac, Phillips, and Haula in the minors. Granlund being the only known there and even he might have to swing out to wing if he can't get comfortable at center.
2/ Goaltending. We can hope that Backstrom decides to come back. Why wouldn't he? But after Backstrom, we have an erratic goaltender in Kuemper (we only have one year of hard data on him. His first year was meh) and an unknown in Gusty. If we are to push for the playoffs, we'll need to get a backup like Theodore in here so we don't wear Backstrom down.
3/ Depth defense. A lot of defense. Not in the NHL but also in the AHL. With Gunnarsson and Dumba coming over and up, this shouldn't be as bad but we need a good second pairing and hope Gilbert rebounds. If he doesn't, the Wild are going to be a very, very bad spot. But our defense needs to be made over from 3-7 because Suter and Brodin are going to break down.
Those are the three biggest needs right now for the organization. Our first pick should be a defenseman in the draft, we shouldn't trade Clutterbuck (Bulmer has been more of a project than we wanted and we don't have a lot of talented gritty guys in the AHL. Bus should help, maybe if he can translate over) and we should be looking for Brodie's replacement sooner than later (Larsson, we hardly knew ye).
