Clearly, DM is tied up with something really important and can't post, so I'll provide the update. The Oilers just lost their fifth game in a row, allowing 26 goals in those five games. I don't mean to imply that that's bad, I mean to imply that that's absolutely putrid. If the Oilers had an actual team and not an assemblage of prima donnas who won't stoop to playing defense, this wouldn't have happened. But it did, and I know DM would have wanted you all to know.
This is for you @thisistheshow - Jim Rice was actually a pretty good player.
@dallasactuary said:
Clearly, DM is tied up with something really important and can't post, so I'll provide the update. The Oilers just lost their fifth game in a row, allowing 26 goals in those five games. I don't mean to imply that that's bad, I mean to imply that that's absolutely putrid. If the Oilers had an actual team and not an assemblage of prima donnas who won't stoop to playing defense, this wouldn't have happened. But it did, and I know DM would have wanted you all to know.
Thanks for the update. 😉
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
Relax. He's simply putting the finishing touches on that 4-Nations scrapbook. It's hasn't been an easy slog, you see, as during regulation of the Final game, McDoncic was in contention with Adam Fox and Kreider as the worst player on the ice (until overtime) with OurHero banking 6 turnovers, 0 takeaways and 0 puck battles won. Then the harrowing nature of that euphoria being dampened by having to then witness the real best player in the world for 2+ years take home the MVP over the guy who scored the game winning goal in a Finals game. In other words, no time to fret about an Oil-slick when being the hardcore hockey guy that he is, also has no appetite for anyone's surface level analysis.
Golly. Gone missing like every single sports team in Minnesota, like well, in all of human history. 1 single championship amongst 4 major professional teams and decades and decades of failure and mediocrity. And then there are the fall guys of the Big Ten, what are they named? The Go-phers? More like the lose it all of the time-phers. Yikes, it is tough to be a Minnesota fan I know bc I am a Trail Blazers fan. I feel your pain Minnesota.
HST, you will love what Gretz, the great one said about our McD:
“Wayne Gretzky anoints Oilers star Connor McDavid the next great one: 'He's the best player in hockey”
Too bad the Oil lost the final again. Florida looked unstoppable and was clearly the best team in making adjustments through the series. That says alot about their coaching staff and we could be looking at more from them in the years to come. Oil has to do something about the goalie situation next year if they want another chance. Injury to Hyman did not help, but clearly Florida was dang good and probably did not matter. Kudos to both teams in the Cup finals.
Too bad the Oil lost the final again. Florida looked unstoppable and was clearly the best team in making adjustments through the series. That says alot about their coaching staff and we could be looking at more from them in the years to come.
what adjustments were those? All 4 lines play the same style all the time, regardless of a regular season game on Nov 19th or Game 7 of a Cup Final. Same heavy forecheck, constant dump ins and recover system. Nothing changes aside from the shuffling of the 4th line/reserves like Boqvist, Gadjovich, Greer etc playing one night and then sitting the next. The real credit is for the GM (Zito) and scouts piecing this team together through trades (Tkachuk, Bennett (acquired for a 2nd rounder), Reinhardt, Beak Marchand, Seth Jones) and waiver moves (Forsling).
What you should be concerned about other than the recent comments from McDoncic and the potential hesitation in signing a new deal on July 1st (though you probably aren't an Oil fan anyway, just one of McDoncic) and of course him taking no accountability for the other side of the ice as per the norm despite watching Hyman and RNH play strong D every single night and then his willing participation in Barkov choking him out over the last two games), is the Oil had two extra players (Evander "Sorry No Refunds" Kane, and Frederic) who never played one regular season game with the Oil and thus didn't count against the cap due to the loophole in the CBA where there is no cap during postseason (and the Oil are now under investigation for gaming the Kane "injury" situation), yet they couldn't win with said extra two players and despite the series going six, weren't really in this series after Game 1 (only led in the series for a total of 31 minutes). They chased the entire series, worn down, and they were already the oldest team in the league. Now they're going to have to deal with the McDoncic situation while working to also extend Bouchard. Goalie issues are further down the list of problems they're now facing. .
I like Rossi and think he is a fine second line center. He's on the small side, but he had great puck skills and plays well defensively. Like just about everybody who gets on a line with Kaprizov (see Ryan Hartman), his scoring has jumped this year. Speaking of Kirill, he's having surgery and will miss at least a month. Hope this isn't going to be a recurring problem, he's a little guy.
sounds like there might be something brewing with Minny and Vancouver for Rossi centered around the Canuck's 1st rounder next week (15th overall) + an additional roster player.
It's time for Bill Guerin to deliver victories beyond the first round.
I'm no hockey expert but outside of Kaprizov & Faber with possibly one or both of goalies, I don't think there's any player on their roster that is so good that they cannot live without.
I like Guerin's good ole' boy approach but I do wonder if he's so hellbent on piecing together a team a certain way that prohibits him from making really big moves?
@estang said:
It's time for Bill Guerin to deliver victories beyond the first round.
I'm no hockey expert but outside of Kaprizov & Faber with possibly one or both of goalies, I don't think there's any player on their roster that is so good that they cannot live without.
I like Guerin's good ole' boy approach but I do wonder if he's so hellbent on piecing together a team a certain way that prohibits him from making really big moves?
The main thing I see preventing him from making a big move was, of course, no cap space in the past, and now, availability of a great center.
Hopefully Boeser signs here. He's a solid player, not a center, but not really a superstar.
I really like Rossi. Guerin doesn't want little guys, although he did offer him $5M a year for 5 years. Since Rossi seems to be our best player to offer in a trade, the leaves us needing TWO centers.
Bennett will probably resign with Florida, Tavares (love this guy) is 34 years old, do we throw a ridiculous offer at him? How much longer will he be great?
I think Rossi is better scorer than any of the centers out there considering age.
Anyone familiar with Mason McTavish? He's a RFA center with good size. A swap of RFA's?
Defense seems to be fine with Buium and Jiricek coming. Hoping Brazeau can develop, it took Erickson Ek a couple years to get there.
GO WILD!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
@estang said:
It's time for Bill Guerin to deliver victories beyond the first round.
I'm no hockey expert but outside of Kaprizov & Faber with possibly one or both of goalies, I don't think there's any player on their roster that is so good that they cannot live without.
I like Guerin's good ole' boy approach but I do wonder if he's so hellbent on piecing together a team a certain way that prohibits him from making really big moves?
I would say Boldy is pretty close to untradeable, and he could be moved back to center if need be. I mean if you watched the 4 Nations tourney you can pretty easily say that both Boldy and Faber were 2 of the 4 best US players on the ice (along with Brady Tkachuk and Slavin).
it was pretty clear up until last season that Billum was trying to recreate the 1999-2019 Boston Bruins. 2 interchangeable goalies, 4 goonish players on the roster at the same time, acquiring bigger, but unfortunately slower d-men like Middleton, Kulikov, Benn, Merrill, an aggressor approach etc. Then Duhaime and Dumba were dealt, goons like Deslauriers and Reaves were left to walk, Ratboy Evason fired. A half a season before Jordan Greenway was dealt to Buffalo, Guerin called him "untouchable" when there were a bunch of teams calling at the prior trade deadline trying to acquire him. Since then the approach seems to have changed. It would seem now the plan is to try to just compete while threading the young players through.
With the current roster, I don't think he could go back to the Bruins style, or the off-shoot of that style which was the Cup era Kings, Vegas, and now Florida. All pretty similar, Florida just managed to roster a bunch of guys who were all willing to play that aggressive forecheck/dump in/recovery system and be unselfish about it. Boldy, Eriksson-Ek, Hartman, Trenin, Foligno and maybe a couple of the 4th liners/reserves could play that style, but there would need to be at least 2 additions to the top 6 to make that close to working.
Bennett will probably resign with Florida, Tavares (love this guy) is 34 years old, do we throw a ridiculous offer at him? How much longer will he be great?
Anyone familiar with Mason McTavish? He's a RFA center with good size. A swap of RFA's?
GO WILD!
Tavares will likely be back with the Leafs who are moving on from Marner.
Ducks would be more likely to move Trevor Zegras who Pat Verbeek doesn't seem to be a big fan of. Otherwise if they keep Zegras, they're pretty well set in the top 2 centers with future Sasha Barkov clone-Leo Carlsson and Zegras as the top 2 centers with top prospect Lucas Pettersson just signed to his entry level contract last week on the way too. Plus, were McJesus to pass on the Oil extension, the Ducks, Hawks, and Sharks would be the top 3 cap space teams to come calling.
Rossi might end up staying in Minnesota, unless Guerin just gives him away.
He's just too small, unless you already have a big team and need a skill guy to go with the big guys.
Guerin wants BIGGER players.
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
yeah but with Tavares, Bennett, Nelson, Duchene etc all already off the free agency board, it's now a seller's market which is presumably why Billum didn't accept that Vancouver offer. That said, bigger doesn't necessarily mean a stronger player, or they play a heavier game (or are more difficult to de-possess the puck from). There are plenty of 6'4 and taller guys like your old friend Alex Tuch and fellow Sabre, Tage Thompson (who is 6'6), or probably more famously - joe Thornton at 6'5, 240 that don't always use that size, aside from their reach, which is probably the reason why Buffalo passed on Rossi.
@lanemyer85 said:
yeah but with Tavares, Bennett, Nelson, Duchene etc all already off the free agency board, it's now a seller's market which is presumably why Billum didn't accept that Vancouver offer. That said, bigger doesn't necessarily mean a stronger player, or they play a heavier game (or are more difficult to de-possess the puck from). There are plenty of 6'4 and taller guys like your old friend Alex Tuch and fellow Sabre, Tage Thompson (who is 6'6), or probably more famously - joe Thornton at 6'5, 240 that don't always use that size, aside from their reach, which is probably the reason why Buffalo passed on Rossi.
True.
The Wild had Nino Neidereiter and Charlie Coyle at one time. Both should have been better with their combination of size and skill.
As much as I like Rossi's skill with the puck, he's so small, he literally bounces off guys he tries to check.
I'm not thrilled with the idea of watching a bunch of lumbering monoliths play hockey, but there are very few big guys with skill, toughness and intensity. The league is getting bigger, but I'm not sure it's getting better.
I believe a lot of the blame for the Wild's early exits in the playoffs is too many little guys and Guerin is trying to get bigger. So far he's replaced a bunch of small average players with larger average players.
Jiricek might be big, talented and aggressive, Brazeau is huge, but needs work and might not even stay here.
We're pinning a lot of hope on signing Boeser, he's not huge and he's not a top scoring threat, but he would be a good addition. Unless Guerin can figure out how to make a big trade, I'm not seeing a huge improvement in the roster this off season. 😞
The Wild's biggest need is a guy who can win faceoffs! Our PP & PK are lousy and a great faceoff guy would be a big help!
GO WILD!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
@JoeBanzai said:
Rossi might end up staying in Minnesota, unless Guerin just gives him away.
He's just too small, unless you already have a big team and need a skill guy to go with the big guys.
Guerin wants BIGGER players.
Well, they just drafted a 5'7" 160 pound center in the draft named Benak. The Athletic gave the Wild a C+ for their draft which is about as bad as you get for draft grades.
Today, they make a head-scratching trade for a veteran winger from Detroit that made nearly $500K a goal last year out of Russia - not much tread left on his tires.
@JoeBanzai said:
Rossi might end up staying in Minnesota, unless Guerin just gives him away.
He's just too small, unless you already have a big team and need a skill guy to go with the big guys.
Guerin wants BIGGER players.
Well, they just drafted a 5'7" 160 pound center in the draft named Benak. The Athletic gave the Wild a C+ for their draft which is about as bad as you get for draft grades.
Today, they make a head-scratching trade for a veteran winger from Detroit that made nearly $500K a goal last year out of Russia - not much tread left on his tires.
It has been an underwhelming off-season so far...
There weren't a lot of top free agent centers who moved this off season. Most resigned with their teams.
They had no 1st round draft pick;
2nd round 6'2" right shot defenseman.
No 3rd round pick.
4th round, the small center you mentioned, a 6'1" winger, and a 6'3" winger.
5th round 6'4" left shooting defenseman.
Judd Brackett apparently didn't see a big center available in the draft. I would rather see him pick better players than just go for a center.
The Wild also traded "future considerations" for Vladimir Tarasenko. A former All Star and a quality forward. His shooting percentage for the 3 seasons before last was 13.5. It dropped to 8.3 last year with the Red Wings. He's 33 years old and in the last year of a contract. Seems like a low risk move. If he's over the hill, he moves on.
I'm betting he has a good/great year!
They also made a qualifying offer to Marco Rossi. He might get traded. But so far no one wants to give up much for a small center who wants a BIG RAISE. Buffalo backed off a trade. even though they need a center badly.
GO WILD!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
The Wild had Nino Neidereiter and Charlie Coyle at one time. Both should have been better with their combination of size and skill.
As much as I like Rossi's skill with the puck, he's so small, he literally bounces off guys he tries to check.
I'm not thrilled with the idea of watching a bunch of lumbering monoliths play hockey, but there are very few big guys with skill, toughness and intensity. The league is getting bigger, but I'm not sure it's getting better.
I believe a lot of the blame for the Wild's early exits in the playoffs is too many little guys and Guerin is trying to get bigger. So far he's replaced a bunch of small average players with larger average players.
Jiricek might be big, talented and aggressive, Brazeau is huge, but needs work and might not even stay here.
We're pinning a lot of hope on signing Boeser, he's not huge and he's not a top scoring threat, but he would be a good addition. Unless Guerin can figure out how to make a big trade, I'm not seeing a huge improvement in the roster this off season. 😞
The Wild's biggest need is a guy who can win faceoffs! Our PP & PK are lousy and a great faceoff guy would be a big help!
GO WILD!
I think a lot of the "big" guys = success is overblown. Florida's current size is a part of it, sure - everyone on this year's Cup winning roster is at least 6'0 aside from Beak Marchand, but it's not as important as their system - the multi-time now mentioned ~ All-4-line heavy forecheck/dump-in/puck recovery expo. Just looking at the best teams of the salary cap era, they all had some bigger guys, but none of the others, save for the Kings and then Vegas' collective blueline were all that big or "heavy". Sure it would be better if Rossi were at least 6'0 but if you had say Kopitar or some other excellent 1st line center, Rossi on the 2nd pair wouldn't be such a big deal. Or if you had a legit 1st line center in house and then moved Boldy back to the middle, or you wanted to run Eriksson-Ek as your 2nd line C, Rossi could conceivably be an excellent playmaking RW like a Zuccarello or Marty St Louis. If Minny could acquire a Bryan Rust - 25 goal worker bee type for a LWer, I think that would make an excellent 2nd line. I understand not wanting to pay him $7m a year on a 5 or more year deal, but if he were surrounded by some skilled size, it wouldn't be as noticeable. Given what the contracts are right now (and with the Cap projected to rise a total of roughly 19 mill over these next 3 years), $7 mill for a playmaking RWer wouldn't be awful.
I would say there has been some copycat-ing of Vegas' blueline during their cup year among a handful of teams, maybe more in the near future....ie a lot was made of the fact that all 6 of Vegas d-men were 6'2 and taller. But that blueline has stayed intact since then and they lost in the first round in 24 and then was booted again in the CSF this year. The Bruins and Kings had similar size on their d-core during the 2010's, the Blackhawks had Seabrook, Hjalmarsson at 6'3, 6'4 respectively. The Penguins back-to-back Cup winning team had Hainsey, Ian Cole and Dumoulin at 6'3 or taller etc. You probably don't want to have more than one d-man at Mighty Mouse Spurgeon's size, but no one is going to trade or not draft Quinn Hughes because he's small. You still want defensemen who can skate the puck out of their own end and not rely on flip passes up the walls or down the middle. You saw how some of these slower guys got buried ie Chris Tanev (Leafs) absorbed 109 hits in only 2 rounds. Florida doesn't have a burner on the back end, but Seth Jones and Forsling and then Nate Schmidt on the 3rd pair can move around just fine.
You also saw what ALL DAT SIZE can turn into up close because you saw the Wild during the Fletcher/Yeo era try to copy Boston even before Guerin arrived with that big/heavy roster of the early to mid 2010's. I'll go ahead and assume you don't want to be reminded of the Justin Falk, John Scott, Kurtis Foster, Nate Prosser, Clayton Stoner, Cam Barker, Skoula, Scandella era.....guuuh. That certainly didn't work out well and they all had the same thing in common....bad at skating. Then you saw the issues Boston had over those 20 years of continuing to run it back with their blueline(s) and subsequently how much of a struggle it was to score ~ because when you have those types of defensemen, it usually requires the forwards to hang back for support passes and to help get the puck out of their own end. That's the type of roster building that leads to a lot of 2-1, 1-1 multi-OT games that wears everyone down. It's one thing to have size, but it's another to have size with puck skill, skating ability etc. Bigger defensemen can certainly be beneficial with the extra reach to break up passes/plays, but you also have to have the guys capable of physically getting there, and in position to stick check or create puck battles etc.
No one way to win, but I think if you have a strong defensive system that the majority of the roster buys into, and maybe another thing in common with a lot of the best teams of the Cap era is the value in having plus defenders in your top 6 forward group. Red Wings had Datsyuk & Zetterberg down the middle. The Hawks' 1st line was Toews/Hossa/Saad. That's two Selke contenders + a well above average Saad so that was better than any other team's checking line and they were the 1st line. LA also had plus defenders in Kopitar, Justin Williams, Dustin Brown, Pearson, and even Jeff Carter and Toffoli were solid. Tampa had Point, Hagel, Killorn, Palat and even Kucherov would step up his defense in the playoffs. and Florida also has two Selke winners/contenders in Barkov and Reinhardt plus Bennett, Tkachuk and a solid Verheaghe.
This to me is one of the Oilers main issues no matter how many Oil fans blame the goalies. When they separate their top 3 centers and run McJesus, Leon and Nugent Hopkins down the middle, that leaves only Hyman as the only plus defender in their top six. That gets even more exposed when the opposition has some scoring on their 3rd line like Florida does with Lundell and Beak Marchand. A 37 year old regularly torched them in that series. I also think people think of the Oil as this speedy team because of McJesus and Leon, but aside from those two, there really isn't much speed. Frederic is solid at 80th percentile, everyone else is kind of meh - RNH is 72nd percentile, Hyman is 68th percentile, Bouchard only 58th and everyone else is average or below. That's been underreported which is odd because anyone watching that series should have seen that the Oil really struggled to get the puck out of their end after Game 1, and especially in the last 3 games, unless McJesus or Leon had the puck in open ice.
The Wild also traded "future considerations" for Vladimir Tarasenko. A former All Star and a quality forward. His shooting percentage for the 3 seasons before last was 13.5. It dropped to 8.3 last year with the Red Wings. He's 33 years old and in the last year of a contract. Seems like a low risk move. If he's over the hill, he moves on.
I'm betting he has a good/great year!
The problem with the trade, at least from the Minnesota perspective, is that he costs nearly $5m a year and Detroit retained none of that salary. They literally gave him away. He was HORRENDOUS last year for Detroit despite getting lots of playing time. I expect he'll be a little better for Minnesota but I'd be shocked if he hits 15 goals.
The Wild also traded "future considerations" for Vladimir Tarasenko. A former All Star and a quality forward. His shooting percentage for the 3 seasons before last was 13.5. It dropped to 8.3 last year with the Red Wings. He's 33 years old and in the last year of a contract. Seems like a low risk move. If he's over the hill, he moves on.
I'm betting he has a good/great year!
The problem with the trade, at least from the Minnesota perspective, is that he costs nearly $5m a year and Detroit retained none of that salary. They literally gave him away. He was HORRENDOUS last year for Detroit despite getting lots of playing time. I expect he'll be a little better for Minnesota but I'd be shocked if he hits 15 goals.
His shooting percentage was dramatically lower than it had been for almost his entire career.
Either he's done, or he bounces back and scores at a better level.
There were virtually no great players who didn't resign with their current teams. The Wild basically got him for nothing.
We also signed Nico Sturm who was a top 5 faceoff guy. This is a very good move for the penalty kill, and possibly the power play too.
GO WILD!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
Comments
Clearly, DM is tied up with something really important and can't post, so I'll provide the update. The Oilers just lost their fifth game in a row, allowing 26 goals in those five games. I don't mean to imply that that's bad, I mean to imply that that's absolutely putrid. If the Oilers had an actual team and not an assemblage of prima donnas who won't stoop to playing defense, this wouldn't have happened. But it did, and I know DM would have wanted you all to know.
Thanks for the update. 😉
Happy to step up!
Relax. He's simply putting the finishing touches on that 4-Nations scrapbook. It's hasn't been an easy slog, you see, as during regulation of the Final game, McDoncic was in contention with Adam Fox and Kreider as the worst player on the ice (until overtime) with OurHero banking 6 turnovers, 0 takeaways and 0 puck battles won. Then the harrowing nature of that euphoria being dampened by having to then witness the real best player in the world for 2+ years take home the MVP over the guy who scored the game winning goal in a Finals game. In other words, no time to fret about an Oil-slick when being the hardcore hockey guy that he is, also has no appetite for anyone's surface level analysis.
Golly. Gone missing like every single sports team in Minnesota, like well, in all of human history. 1 single championship amongst 4 major professional teams and decades and decades of failure and mediocrity. And then there are the fall guys of the Big Ten, what are they named? The Go-phers? More like the lose it all of the time-phers. Yikes, it is tough to be a Minnesota fan I know bc I am a Trail Blazers fan. I feel your pain Minnesota.
HST, you will love what Gretz, the great one said about our McD:
“Wayne Gretzky anoints Oilers star Connor McDavid the next great one: 'He's the best player in hockey”
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/wayne-gretzky-crowns-oilers-star-connor-mcdavid-next-great-one-hes-best-player-hockey
Too bad the Oil lost the final again. Florida looked unstoppable and was clearly the best team in making adjustments through the series. That says alot about their coaching staff and we could be looking at more from them in the years to come. Oil has to do something about the goalie situation next year if they want another chance. Injury to Hyman did not help, but clearly Florida was dang good and probably did not matter. Kudos to both teams in the Cup finals.
what adjustments were those? All 4 lines play the same style all the time, regardless of a regular season game on Nov 19th or Game 7 of a Cup Final. Same heavy forecheck, constant dump ins and recover system. Nothing changes aside from the shuffling of the 4th line/reserves like Boqvist, Gadjovich, Greer etc playing one night and then sitting the next. The real credit is for the GM (Zito) and scouts piecing this team together through trades (Tkachuk, Bennett (acquired for a 2nd rounder), Reinhardt, Beak Marchand, Seth Jones) and waiver moves (Forsling).
What you should be concerned about other than the recent comments from McDoncic and the potential hesitation in signing a new deal on July 1st (though you probably aren't an Oil fan anyway, just one of McDoncic) and of course him taking no accountability for the other side of the ice as per the norm despite watching Hyman and RNH play strong D every single night and then his willing participation in Barkov choking him out over the last two games), is the Oil had two extra players (Evander "Sorry No Refunds" Kane, and Frederic) who never played one regular season game with the Oil and thus didn't count against the cap due to the loophole in the CBA where there is no cap during postseason (and the Oil are now under investigation for gaming the Kane "injury" situation), yet they couldn't win with said extra two players and despite the series going six, weren't really in this series after Game 1 (only led in the series for a total of 31 minutes). They chased the entire series, worn down, and they were already the oldest team in the league. Now they're going to have to deal with the McDoncic situation while working to also extend Bouchard. Goalie issues are further down the list of problems they're now facing. .
sounds like there might be something brewing with Minny and Vancouver for Rossi centered around the Canuck's 1st rounder next week (15th overall) + an additional roster player.
It's time for Bill Guerin to deliver victories beyond the first round.
I'm no hockey expert but outside of Kaprizov & Faber with possibly one or both of goalies, I don't think there's any player on their roster that is so good that they cannot live without.
I like Guerin's good ole' boy approach but I do wonder if he's so hellbent on piecing together a team a certain way that prohibits him from making really big moves?
Erik
The main thing I see preventing him from making a big move was, of course, no cap space in the past, and now, availability of a great center.
Hopefully Boeser signs here. He's a solid player, not a center, but not really a superstar.
I really like Rossi. Guerin doesn't want little guys, although he did offer him $5M a year for 5 years. Since Rossi seems to be our best player to offer in a trade, the leaves us needing TWO centers.
Bennett will probably resign with Florida, Tavares (love this guy) is 34 years old, do we throw a ridiculous offer at him? How much longer will he be great?
I think Rossi is better scorer than any of the centers out there considering age.
Anyone familiar with Mason McTavish? He's a RFA center with good size. A swap of RFA's?
Defense seems to be fine with Buium and Jiricek coming. Hoping Brazeau can develop, it took Erickson Ek a couple years to get there.
GO WILD!
I would say Boldy is pretty close to untradeable, and he could be moved back to center if need be. I mean if you watched the 4 Nations tourney you can pretty easily say that both Boldy and Faber were 2 of the 4 best US players on the ice (along with Brady Tkachuk and Slavin).
it was pretty clear up until last season that Billum was trying to recreate the 1999-2019 Boston Bruins. 2 interchangeable goalies, 4 goonish players on the roster at the same time, acquiring bigger, but unfortunately slower d-men like Middleton, Kulikov, Benn, Merrill, an aggressor approach etc. Then Duhaime and Dumba were dealt, goons like Deslauriers and Reaves were left to walk, Ratboy Evason fired. A half a season before Jordan Greenway was dealt to Buffalo, Guerin called him "untouchable" when there were a bunch of teams calling at the prior trade deadline trying to acquire him. Since then the approach seems to have changed. It would seem now the plan is to try to just compete while threading the young players through.
With the current roster, I don't think he could go back to the Bruins style, or the off-shoot of that style which was the Cup era Kings, Vegas, and now Florida. All pretty similar, Florida just managed to roster a bunch of guys who were all willing to play that aggressive forecheck/dump in/recovery system and be unselfish about it. Boldy, Eriksson-Ek, Hartman, Trenin, Foligno and maybe a couple of the 4th liners/reserves could play that style, but there would need to be at least 2 additions to the top 6 to make that close to working.
Tavares will likely be back with the Leafs who are moving on from Marner.
Ducks would be more likely to move Trevor Zegras who Pat Verbeek doesn't seem to be a big fan of. Otherwise if they keep Zegras, they're pretty well set in the top 2 centers with future Sasha Barkov clone-Leo Carlsson and Zegras as the top 2 centers with top prospect Lucas Pettersson just signed to his entry level contract last week on the way too. Plus, were McJesus to pass on the Oil extension, the Ducks, Hawks, and Sharks would be the top 3 cap space teams to come calling.
RE: the Rossi talks
https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/countdown-to-free-agent-frenzy-vancouver-canucks-to-stay-busy-1.2327076
not a center, but Peterka would have been a nice pick up.
Rossi might end up staying in Minnesota, unless Guerin just gives him away.
He's just too small, unless you already have a big team and need a skill guy to go with the big guys.
Guerin wants BIGGER players.
yeah but with Tavares, Bennett, Nelson, Duchene etc all already off the free agency board, it's now a seller's market which is presumably why Billum didn't accept that Vancouver offer. That said, bigger doesn't necessarily mean a stronger player, or they play a heavier game (or are more difficult to de-possess the puck from). There are plenty of 6'4 and taller guys like your old friend Alex Tuch and fellow Sabre, Tage Thompson (who is 6'6), or probably more famously - joe Thornton at 6'5, 240 that don't always use that size, aside from their reach, which is probably the reason why Buffalo passed on Rossi.
True.
The Wild had Nino Neidereiter and Charlie Coyle at one time. Both should have been better with their combination of size and skill.
As much as I like Rossi's skill with the puck, he's so small, he literally bounces off guys he tries to check.
I'm not thrilled with the idea of watching a bunch of lumbering monoliths play hockey, but there are very few big guys with skill, toughness and intensity. The league is getting bigger, but I'm not sure it's getting better.
I believe a lot of the blame for the Wild's early exits in the playoffs is too many little guys and Guerin is trying to get bigger. So far he's replaced a bunch of small average players with larger average players.
Jiricek might be big, talented and aggressive, Brazeau is huge, but needs work and might not even stay here.
We're pinning a lot of hope on signing Boeser, he's not huge and he's not a top scoring threat, but he would be a good addition. Unless Guerin can figure out how to make a big trade, I'm not seeing a huge improvement in the roster this off season. 😞
The Wild's biggest need is a guy who can win faceoffs! Our PP & PK are lousy and a great faceoff guy would be a big help!
GO WILD!
Well, they just drafted a 5'7" 160 pound center in the draft named Benak. The Athletic gave the Wild a C+ for their draft which is about as bad as you get for draft grades.
Today, they make a head-scratching trade for a veteran winger from Detroit that made nearly $500K a goal last year out of Russia - not much tread left on his tires.
It has been an underwhelming off-season so far...
Erik
There weren't a lot of top free agent centers who moved this off season. Most resigned with their teams.
They had no 1st round draft pick;
2nd round 6'2" right shot defenseman.
No 3rd round pick.
4th round, the small center you mentioned, a 6'1" winger, and a 6'3" winger.
5th round 6'4" left shooting defenseman.
Judd Brackett apparently didn't see a big center available in the draft. I would rather see him pick better players than just go for a center.
The Wild also traded "future considerations" for Vladimir Tarasenko. A former All Star and a quality forward. His shooting percentage for the 3 seasons before last was 13.5. It dropped to 8.3 last year with the Red Wings. He's 33 years old and in the last year of a contract. Seems like a low risk move. If he's over the hill, he moves on.
I'm betting he has a good/great year!
They also made a qualifying offer to Marco Rossi. He might get traded. But so far no one wants to give up much for a small center who wants a BIG RAISE. Buffalo backed off a trade. even though they need a center badly.
GO WILD!
I think a lot of the "big" guys = success is overblown. Florida's current size is a part of it, sure - everyone on this year's Cup winning roster is at least 6'0 aside from Beak Marchand, but it's not as important as their system - the multi-time now mentioned ~ All-4-line heavy forecheck/dump-in/puck recovery expo. Just looking at the best teams of the salary cap era, they all had some bigger guys, but none of the others, save for the Kings and then Vegas' collective blueline were all that big or "heavy". Sure it would be better if Rossi were at least 6'0 but if you had say Kopitar or some other excellent 1st line center, Rossi on the 2nd pair wouldn't be such a big deal. Or if you had a legit 1st line center in house and then moved Boldy back to the middle, or you wanted to run Eriksson-Ek as your 2nd line C, Rossi could conceivably be an excellent playmaking RW like a Zuccarello or Marty St Louis. If Minny could acquire a Bryan Rust - 25 goal worker bee type for a LWer, I think that would make an excellent 2nd line. I understand not wanting to pay him $7m a year on a 5 or more year deal, but if he were surrounded by some skilled size, it wouldn't be as noticeable. Given what the contracts are right now (and with the Cap projected to rise a total of roughly 19 mill over these next 3 years), $7 mill for a playmaking RWer wouldn't be awful.
I would say there has been some copycat-ing of Vegas' blueline during their cup year among a handful of teams, maybe more in the near future....ie a lot was made of the fact that all 6 of Vegas d-men were 6'2 and taller. But that blueline has stayed intact since then and they lost in the first round in 24 and then was booted again in the CSF this year. The Bruins and Kings had similar size on their d-core during the 2010's, the Blackhawks had Seabrook, Hjalmarsson at 6'3, 6'4 respectively. The Penguins back-to-back Cup winning team had Hainsey, Ian Cole and Dumoulin at 6'3 or taller etc. You probably don't want to have more than one d-man at Mighty Mouse Spurgeon's size, but no one is going to trade or not draft Quinn Hughes because he's small. You still want defensemen who can skate the puck out of their own end and not rely on flip passes up the walls or down the middle. You saw how some of these slower guys got buried ie Chris Tanev (Leafs) absorbed 109 hits in only 2 rounds. Florida doesn't have a burner on the back end, but Seth Jones and Forsling and then Nate Schmidt on the 3rd pair can move around just fine.
You also saw what ALL DAT SIZE can turn into up close because you saw the Wild during the Fletcher/Yeo era try to copy Boston even before Guerin arrived with that big/heavy roster of the early to mid 2010's. I'll go ahead and assume you don't want to be reminded of the Justin Falk, John Scott, Kurtis Foster, Nate Prosser, Clayton Stoner, Cam Barker, Skoula, Scandella era.....guuuh. That certainly didn't work out well and they all had the same thing in common....bad at skating. Then you saw the issues Boston had over those 20 years of continuing to run it back with their blueline(s) and subsequently how much of a struggle it was to score ~ because when you have those types of defensemen, it usually requires the forwards to hang back for support passes and to help get the puck out of their own end. That's the type of roster building that leads to a lot of 2-1, 1-1 multi-OT games that wears everyone down. It's one thing to have size, but it's another to have size with puck skill, skating ability etc. Bigger defensemen can certainly be beneficial with the extra reach to break up passes/plays, but you also have to have the guys capable of physically getting there, and in position to stick check or create puck battles etc.
No one way to win, but I think if you have a strong defensive system that the majority of the roster buys into, and maybe another thing in common with a lot of the best teams of the Cap era is the value in having plus defenders in your top 6 forward group. Red Wings had Datsyuk & Zetterberg down the middle. The Hawks' 1st line was Toews/Hossa/Saad. That's two Selke contenders + a well above average Saad so that was better than any other team's checking line and they were the 1st line. LA also had plus defenders in Kopitar, Justin Williams, Dustin Brown, Pearson, and even Jeff Carter and Toffoli were solid. Tampa had Point, Hagel, Killorn, Palat and even Kucherov would step up his defense in the playoffs. and Florida also has two Selke winners/contenders in Barkov and Reinhardt plus Bennett, Tkachuk and a solid Verheaghe.
This to me is one of the Oilers main issues no matter how many Oil fans blame the goalies. When they separate their top 3 centers and run McJesus, Leon and Nugent Hopkins down the middle, that leaves only Hyman as the only plus defender in their top six. That gets even more exposed when the opposition has some scoring on their 3rd line like Florida does with Lundell and Beak Marchand. A 37 year old regularly torched them in that series. I also think people think of the Oil as this speedy team because of McJesus and Leon, but aside from those two, there really isn't much speed. Frederic is solid at 80th percentile, everyone else is kind of meh - RNH is 72nd percentile, Hyman is 68th percentile, Bouchard only 58th and everyone else is average or below. That's been underreported which is odd because anyone watching that series should have seen that the Oil really struggled to get the puck out of their end after Game 1, and especially in the last 3 games, unless McJesus or Leon had the puck in open ice.
The problem with the trade, at least from the Minnesota perspective, is that he costs nearly $5m a year and Detroit retained none of that salary. They literally gave him away. He was HORRENDOUS last year for Detroit despite getting lots of playing time. I expect he'll be a little better for Minnesota but I'd be shocked if he hits 15 goals.
His shooting percentage was dramatically lower than it had been for almost his entire career.
Either he's done, or he bounces back and scores at a better level.
There were virtually no great players who didn't resign with their current teams. The Wild basically got him for nothing.
We also signed Nico Sturm who was a top 5 faceoff guy. This is a very good move for the penalty kill, and possibly the power play too.
GO WILD!