it sounded like the plan to start the season is Hartman at 1C with Kaprizov and Zucarello.
Worth pointing out, this was the worst line combo for Kap last year in terms of offense AND defense.
The org knows Zucc is completely washed and this is the only way they know how to use him at all. Sad that we're doing more to build a team around Zuccarello than we are Kap.
I think you're spot on - the fact that your comments are marked controversial is hilarious to me.
It's interesting to me how when it comes to our injuries last year how many people ignore trends. The Wild for years now have been trending to more and more injuries, for longer stretches. We have a lot of older players with histories of missing minimum 10-20 games every year, and as you point out when you lean as hard as we do on hell even our top 3, not our top 6, you HAVE to expect more injuries.
Also, Gus putting up one great year and one bad year doesn't mean next year he'll have an average year. That is, not how this works haha. Gus doing so poorly last year means either A.) he was in his head and going through growing pains, in which we can expect a bounce-back, or B.) teams figured him out, he was unable to adjust and grow, and he'll likely be bad again. And MAF has been a bottom of the league goaltender for years now. Dude should have retired after Vegas.
For some reason I can't reply to half of the comments in this chain. So I'm just kinda reply dumping here.
Boldy and Ek with Kap was our primary first line - that's not secondary scoring.
Rossi is, and it's concerning how much smoke there has been of BG looking to trade him. Even if he never trades him, the fact that BG doesn't see how important Rossi is to our drastically needed secondary scoring gives insight to how he (mistakenly) views this roster. Hartman can give us some secondary scoring, but that requires him to post career high shooting percentages, which asks a lot. His only 2 20+ goal careers were 14.2 and 12.1, when he normally averages around 8-8.5.
The last three we certainly hope can be that, but this is definitely counting eggs before they're hatched. If all these three work out, yes we could be in a good spot. I would definitely argue if you have to include those three on your list for scoring, though, then we are not currently in a good spot.
Grizz is correct here; for anyone else that wants to see the numbers for themselves.
Some (not) fun facts about our offensive lines and their scoring:
Zucc not only featured on the worst scoring line, he also along with Hartman featured on the worst Kaprizov line (offensively and defensively)
Only two lines posted 10+ goals all year (both of them being Kap lines)
Of our top 4 producing lines, 3 of them feature Kaprizov
Just the top 2 Kap lines outscore EVERY OTHER non Kaprizov line, 48-38
People are sorely misunderstanding what we are missing for "secondary scoring". It isn't Boldy putting up more points on the first line with Kap. It's the fact that the REST OF OUR TEAM COMBINED scores less, significantly less, on the ice than just two of our Kap lines. And this isn't even our top 6 vs our bottom 6, this is our top 3 vs our bottom 9. This is horrendous and this is what costs us games, first and foremost. Not lack of physicality and grit (though the fact that we suck in that department as well doesn't help). Every team out there has access to these numbers. They understand this. And it's why the Wild have been doomed to never get past the first round thus far in the Kap era, and will continue to be doomed without making drastic changes to how the roster is built. This is why I have heavily critiqued the signings and extensions BG has handed out. It signals a terrible failure of understanding why this team is not performing.
Yeah I'm with ya there.
Something that is making me feel crazy, though. I keep seeing the sentiment "the Wild knew the Flyers didn't want to pick Buium, why'd they trade up are they stupid".
I'm a big a critic of BG as anyone. But I loved the aggressive move to go get a guy that they clearly badly wanted, and likely was badly wanted by a lot of teams under us. Do all of these people think that Philly wasn't talking to anyone else about trading down? We traded that third round pick to ensure nobody leapfrogged us to snatch it, and I think it was a great move.
Just so bizarre seeing how common that sentiment is, when obviously Philly would have been talking to every other team out there shopping that pick for a coveted player, but I keep seeing even from this guy "I DON'T GET IT".
TBF when doing these things it's much better to err on the side of being conservative and lowball the increase in cap than the other way around.
And simultaneously, it would be a miracle to get Rossi at a 5x2. No way he signs a contract like that, there'd be no reason for him to do that. I don't see how he doesn't get a deal similar to Boldy - potentially bigger, because as cap go up so does the new salaries.
I mean to be fair that's what the logical thing would have been to do.
he’s always come off as super snarky on Twitter
As we all know, the worst possible crime to commit.
The Wild weren't THAT unlucky when it came to injuries, particularly amongst forwards. Sure, we were top third for injured. But the vast contributor to that was Spurgeon being out the entire year. You'll also note that the Avs, Leafs, and Vegas had worse luck in terms of injuries.
I broke this down elsewhere, end of the regular season, where I compared our depth scoring to other teams in the league. In comparison, our depth scoring was similar (arguably worse) to CHICAGO. Zucc's lines not being with Kap contributed for 6 total goals, despite playing over 200 minutes. Three of your guys in your list have not played. Freddy is regularly whipped here for never being a scoring guy. Same with Mojo. Foligno when he pots 10 is considered to be having a great year for him. Rossi should end up being a great scorer, but Guerin has been trying to get rid of him.
The only guy on that entire image you provided that has proven capable of regular scoring away from Kap is Hartman, who's two good/great years of scoring are complete anomalies in shooting percentages for his career. The other one, Rossi, Guerin has had us wondering if he'll even be on the team next season. How do you look at that group and see significant points?
It's the Wild fan classic. Scrappy guy who is almost out of the league has a single swansong year, suddenly he's the most important man ever, must lock him up long term, over 4 mil, NMC/NTC. Suddenly half our cap is sunk in immovable anchors like this and everyone is wondering HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN
Zucc has been over 60 pts the last 3 years.
Know how many of those last year were even strength? 30. He had 12 TOTAL goals last year, 7 of which were even strength. 30 points and 7 goals is not top 6 scoring, that's laughable. Know how many goals his lines that DIDN'T consist of Kap contributed for? SIX. That's over 200 minutes of play, and his entire line contributed for six freaking goals. These are HORRID numbers.
Rossi is a great scorer, I agree! And by all accounts, Guerin has been shopping him. Hartman is fine for 20 goals, totally fine depth scoring. Not great, fine. Foligno is a career 10 goal guy, and outside of one season, 10 goals is a big year for him. Not anywhere close to be called a scorer of any kind.
I agree our goaltending has been an issue. Both of whom were guys that Guerin wanted and went after. Our PK wouldn't be such an issue if we didn't keep signing and extending these grit guys who can't stay out of the box, and instead went after guys who spent that time putting goals on the board. I broke this down elsewhere, but our depth scoring is amongst the very worst in the league. Almost all of our scoring last season was completely dependent on Kap. Rossi was an exception to this, and to reiterate, Guerin wants to be rid of him for that!
but he's a solid scorer for stretches.
No, he isn't. He was a good scorer for literally one season when he was playing with Kap. 20 goals, 40 points is fine, I'm not knocking it. But that is not solid scoring to hang your hat on. Particularly when his best two scoring seasons ever have also been the two complete anomalies when it comes to his shooting percentage in his entire career. It's far more likely for him to do worse than better.
the bottom 6 already has scoring potential when healthy.
They do?!
I'm not a GMBG hater like a lot of this sub
C'mon, there's like four of us who dare criticize him here and eat downvotes regularly for it. Let's not pretend liking Guerin gets you persecuted or something in these parts, hah.
Guerin has been telling you guys for years now who a "Guerin guy" is. Most importantly, it's a person who he's friends with, played with. Second most important, it's a player with GRIT and INTANGIBLES/60. It's not a skilled player like Rossi who apparently is too small, despite picking him knowing he was too small. He prefers a guy like Stramel who is increasingly looking like he won't even be good enough for the AHL.
Speaking of, anyone else been wondering how wildly different last years' draft was? Especially in comparison to this year? Last year was so out of left field from Judd's philosophy, it made no sense to me. This year was a Judd classic though. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts, Last year Guerin went over Judd's head on picks to get "his guys" (Stramel). When that was met with a bunch of pushback and is already looking like a total bust, he let Judd run the show again. This signing right here shows that to me.
Judd wants skill guys. Guerin wants GrIt. He's stuck in the past and the reason the Wild have been "successful" is that he was lucky enough to come in when Kap did. Without Kap, this is a bottom barrel team full of Guerin guys and Brackett picks that he's trying to get rid of.
Zucc isn't a scorer. Every analytic, every stat will show that Zucc is the biggest passenger in the league that gets points by existing on the same line as Kap.
Three others on your list haven't played a day in the NHL. And Rossi from the sounds of it is a guy that Guerin doesn't even particularly want.
So if Guerin is coming into our next four years thinking "we have 3 proven guys I like who can score and that's more than enough", well I'd like to ask what he's smoking.
And I mean since when can you "have enough scoring"? I'm pretty sure you win games by scoring. Take a look around the league, folks. Every contending team builds a roster that can score on you on every single line. 6 guys who can score is not too much, hell a lot of these teams would tell you it's still not enough. And they'd be right.
The Wild would only be getting Laine if CBJ were to retain half, and I think that we could make that happen. The Wild aren't winning a Cup next season, so I honestly don't see any reason not to take a flyer on Laine. If he busts out and has a monster year, great maybe we can get some decent playoff hockey, and the following season our cap penalties are gone and we can finally make some real noise. Suddenly we're a damn scary team.
If he legit can't play, we're not any worse off than where we're at now. As for the following year, honestly we've already got 4 mil anchored to Foligno and another 4 mil anchored to Zucc. What's another anchor? Again we aren't winning a Cup with these kinds of contracts without taking a risk somewhere. The Wild have always played it safe, and it's always resulted in the same. Seems like the perfect opportunity to take a swing at something when we're not going to be doing much of anything anyway.
All this talk about how we can't get this guy or that guy, because they aren't "Guerin guys". If Rossi isn't a "Guerin guy", we have to ask - who the fuck is?
Because Rossi did everything asked of him. He worked his ass off. He improved at everything he needed, and keeps pushing for more. He bounced back after nearly dying of Covid for christ's sake. If that isn't what our GM is looking for, we need to seriously be questioning what the hell our GM wants exactly.
Nah, not robbed at all. Honestly pleasantly surprised with how many points he got - there was a huge gulf between him and Hughes. Only person not named Bedard to get first picks, and took a quarter of them.
Any rookie who scores at a PPG pace is going to have the Calder as their's to lose.
I haven't been up to date with Laine - why'd he only play 18 games last year?
Age is not a criteria for the Calder though, they're both rookies and that's all that matters.
Age is not a criteria (and shouldn't be), but what matters is whatever the voters feel matters.
And let's be real here, if you had two clones of a player post identical seasons but one was 18 and one was 21, yeah you're giving it to the 18 year old.
If Faber were the younger one, there'd be no lack of people in here making the argument that Faber should get more consideration for being 18 vs 21.
I’m also seeing so many different people saying that if we take the exact definition of what the Calder award means, Faber should absolutely receive the Calder this year.
What do you mean by this?
I'm still kind of whatever about the off side challenges. We could end up going either way on it and I think I'm fine on it.
Challenging a delay of game though seems backwards to me. The point of the call over the glass was to keep teams from doing it intentionally, thus speeding up the game. But now we're introducing this, which will slow the game back down. We all know that every time this gets called, coaches and players are going to drag out their line changes as long as possible so they can scrutinize their ipads. And then when it's challenged, it will take another chunk of time for all the refs to look it over.
I dunno. It sucks when this gets called against you and it's wrong, but it happens so rarely. Like I said, seems funny to implement a rule to speed up the game and then introduce new rules to that rule that will slow things down just as much again.
Atkinson would be friggin awesome on our second line - sign me the fuck up.
Seems to be at least on this sub more and more. Lot of the time it's not even enjoyable to discuss these things, because people aren't interested. They just downvote what they don't like to hear in an attempt to bury it and move on.
Next to the number of points it says your post has, if a little red cross shows up that means it's "controversial" - meaning that it has a good chunk of downvotes, with a few upvotes.
Is Matt Boldy our secondary scoring threat?
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