Jdes91
Registered User
- May 23, 2020
- 22
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Why did they miss the playoffs in 2004 after making the conference finals in 2003? Did their offense run stale? Did them getting eliminated by the Avalanche in 2008 begin their decline?
What happened to the Wild in 2004, and 2009?
- Thread starter Jdes91
- Start date
Demitra was no longer on the team in 2009 and Gaborik played 17 games during the regular season. Those two were a huge reason why the Wild made the playoffs the previous two years.
a79krgm
Registered User
In 2009, both Demitra and Rolston were left out thanks to Doug Risebrough's inability to sign either player in the offseason. A fatal void at the center position developed. Peter Olvecky, Dan Fritsche and a young James Sheppard were asked to play big minutes. Gaborik opted for surgery and only played 17 games during the regular season. This was another serious miscalculation on Risebrough's part as he thought Gaborik would wait until the offseason to have his surgery.
The Wild only finished only two points out of the playoffs. Large credit should be given to Jacques for keeping the team competitive despite loss of talent. For this effort Lemaire's contract was not renewed and young Todd Richards would take the helm in the next season.
The Wild only finished only two points out of the playoffs. Large credit should be given to Jacques for keeping the team competitive despite loss of talent. For this effort Lemaire's contract was not renewed and young Todd Richards would take the helm in the next season.
The Wild’s record with Gaborik in the lineup in 09’ was 11-4-2. He returned for the final 11 games of the season where Minnesota went 7-3-1. In those 11 games he had 10 goals 8 assists. When he was healthy, he was one of the best players in the league. Sucks how often he was injured and that we couldn’t get him more help.
As previously mentioned, 2003 was special. A team that played WAY over its head. A team FAR better than the some of its parts because of a genius behind the bench.
In 2004, the GM showed he clearly didn't understand that fact, thought he had really built something and refused to make any changes.
Literally only GM Doug Risebrough was shocked when the team fell back to earth the following season. There were a lot of angry fans going into the season based on lack of offseason moves.
That's false. Risebrough had a 5 year plan that got interrupted by the playoffs. His intentions was more or less becoming competitive by 05-06. They weren't that bad either as they had a record of 30-29-20-3. They also had 83 points, which was good for 10th in the conference. You could tell Riser had a plan, because at the end of 03-04, he sold ff a good chunk of the team.
Brad Brown, Brad Bombardir, Sergei Zholtk, Jim Dowd, Jason Marshall, Darby Hendrickson - a lot of veterans were traded at the end of the season. That was Risebrough's plan all along.
The goal was to be competitive in 5 years. The 2002-2003 season threw a lot of the plan out the door. But he stuck by it. It would have been idiotic for him to build around a team that overachieved with a bunch of older players. Most of the team was back in 03-04 (don't know who he re-signed in the off-season. You can criticize him for some inaction in 05-06 (the lockout kind of interrupted his plans as well), but this was the question of 04, not 06 and he continued to trade and move off older players in 05-06.
His goal wasn't to be "competitive" in 5 years, but to be a contender in 5 years.
The only reason his plan was thrown out the door was because he CHOSE not to continue building.
That is indefensible no matter how much you try to defend it
It was inexcusable at the time, it's inexcusable today, and he only proved later when he finally had a "competitive" team, he had no clue how to build a contender.
He should have continued driving his car as he planned that year, he chose instead to park the car completely. Then was shocked when the car didn't go anywhere. That's how completely out of touch he was.
Nobody said build AROUND that team, but resigning guys like Hendrickson instead of building a better team with better players in general was beyond idiotic. He should have been trying to build around Gaborik, not leave him on an island.
Competitive is being a contender. You're just splitting hair.
Huh? Are you actually saying that he should have traded Walz in 2002-2003 for a first round draft pick? Like should he have traded guys in 2002-2003 for draft picks to continue building the team? He did continue building by trading guys that weren't in the future, for draft picks. You can fault him for having a bad scouting department or bad development teams, but he actually did something that only Fenton has actually done - and that is to take guys that aren't in the future and trading them for future.
Not at all.
The Wild were clearly not a contender this year, but they played competitive hockey.
BIG difference.
Your timeline is off. I said AFTER 2003 playoffs, he did nothing, he should've done a LOT more... Resigning Darby Hendrickson in the offseason was moronic. The guy was clearly done as a player. Instead, DR said he made so few changes because "the players earned it"? Come on... complete copout.
So, should they have just not tried to make it to the Stanley Cup playoffs, because they aren't contenders?
Your timeline is off. After the 2003 playoffs, he had ONE UFA and that was Cliff Ronning. They had a few other guys like Ladislav Benysek, Hnat Domenichelli, Derek Gustafson, Jay Henderson, Lubomir Sekeras, and Tony Virta. After 2004, Hendrickson (along with all the other guys traded) were UFA. He signed Alexander Daigle, but his roster was pretty much set in 03-04. Guys were going to be gone at the end of the season in 2004, because many of them were either old or UFA.
I asked, are you actually saying that Risebrough should have traded Walz in 2002-2003 when he was offered a 1st round pick?
That's what you're defending GMDR for doing in the 2003-2004 season. NOT TRYING.
Absolutely, if he was EVER offered a 1st round pick for Walz, he should've taken it. Walz was never worth a 1st in his career.
He was a great character guy, loved what he brought this team when on the ice, but would've taken a 1st and ran if ever offered at any point of his career here.
He should've been giving away players for a bag of pucks instead of continuing to ice players that weren't off NHL caliber as he was.
Every offseason, he should've been moving out old useless crap for either prospects or at least more viable low end NHL talent.
You don't build by hopes and dreams, you build by doing.
If you're not building, you're collapsing in sports. Standing pat will always lose ground. You need to make some moves just to stay equal to where you were. Sometimes you take steps back to get better in the long run, but even THAT involves making moves to some degree.
If you disagree with that, our conversation is done as you and I won't see eye to eye.
Except GMDR did something that Fletcher didn't (and Fenton nor Guerin had the chance too) and knew that he was rebuilding a team and actually traded UFA off for future picks.
Except in the past, when I said the Wild should have traded Walz for a 1st, you defended not trading him. Russo (I believe) confirmed the rumor that in 2002-2003, Minnesota was offered a 1st for Walz and didn't take it.
Riser moved useless crap at the deadline when prices were pretty high, especially during that time. He knew the value of guys like Brown, who had little value during the offseason but had much higher price at the deadline.
Are you going to defend Fletcher for not moving useless crap or Guerin. At least Fenton tried to move the needle a bit.
Because you keep changing it around. I have argued in the past that Minnesota should have traded Walz in 02-03, even if it scuttled their playoff plans and you have argued against it.
I never argued against it. You may have argued with SOMEONE about it, never me.
I remember arguing against you in the past about trading Walz and scuttling the playoffs in 02-03 so that they could have another 1st round. I remember quite a few arguments with you that you have changed your mind on. You have done a huge 180 on Riser.
Sorry, you're misremembering.
As for my thoughts on DR, it's been very clear since the offseason after those playoffs where I stood. I was wait and see through the 2003 playoffs, by the start of the 2003-04 season I was on the fire DR train.
What was funny, you wanted him fired before 2003 playoffs, then argued with me about him after, endlessly defending him.
We're done here.
Dr Jan Itor
Registered User
The 02/03 run had very little to do with interrupting anything. It shouldn't have affected DR's "plan" in the slightest. If it did, that's on him. Yes, we got a later pick than we would've otherwise, but it ended up being one of the best drafts of all time and we pulled a really good player out of it.
In 2004, terrible post-1st round drafting caught up to them. In 2009, terrible drafting everywhere caught up to them.
In 2004, terrible post-1st round drafting caught up to them. In 2009, terrible drafting everywhere caught up to them.
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