The Wild have navigated the buyout penalty really well.
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50 Comments
The fact that Talbot wanted out of Minnesota and they got Gustavsson back in that one for one trade is larceny.
Great overview Shannon of my home team. I still have lots of concerns around Billy G and his continued "grit first" over scoring goals method of building a team and still worry he hasn't given Kap enough support for him to want to stay. The new "5 yr plan that's 2 years in" announced this off-season is very concerning to keeping a guy like Kap who wants to win a cup now, not 3 years from now. I also worry Billy will give away a great player in Rossi who continues to be a Top 6 guy on pace for over 65 pts that doesn't get the respect he should… often the first to get moved down to a 3rd line role that isn't deserved. If Billy keeps Rossi, stops signing grinders and realizes it takes 3 scoring lines to win in todays NHL there is hope. As far as this year goes, it feels a little like fools gold. Gus has kept them in it with his great play but the team continues to struggle to score and the real contenders average 2.75 to north of 3 goals per game and this club doesn't have the scoring depth to do that. Time will tell.
NHL Officials who can't find their whistles: Hold my beer.
Judd bracket and bill guerin have done so much. I screamed and went nuts when we traded up to draft wallstedt and buium. Jiricek fills the only need they had for the future. Blue chip young players at every position. They have serious potential to be a dynasty if they give rossi, kaprizov, and jiricek 8 year deals
It’s going to be a fun deadline and offseason for Wild fans
Asa a Wild fan I’ll believe it when we get out of the 1st round.
It’s been a long road…when you think back to the first several years we came away with Gaborik and Koivu and honestly it’s fairly embarrassing to have one retired jersey and it’s Koivu’s who nobody can convince was anything more than a good, but not great NHL Center. He seemingly was a good Captain, but it didn’t matter…he didn’t have success on the ice.
We drafted horribly the first several years and as fun as it was to watch Lemaire’s lunchbox crew have success it cost us a lot of draft capital when we needed to build a team. So we have crappy draft picks and we draft crappy…what do you do? You overpay for Parise and Suter and those contracts were legal at the time and the Wild (and others) got penalized for them. The Wild are just another example of you can’t build a Stanley Cup contender via Free Agency, it has to happen through the draft.
The Wild have been building this pipeline and relevancy for 2-3 years. Once the cap restrictions leave and the remaining plug in prospects are ready, they will be a bitch to play against for a 4-5 year span. Buium, Yulov, Jiricek, Wallstedt, Spacek, Kumpulainen, Height, Haight, Ohgren, Lambos, Peart, and it goes on and on. Even Stramel is showing signs of life. They have a ready prospect pool and a long term prospect list. Great days are here, this year unexpected but shows what is around the corner 💯…
Spurgeon I think becomes expendable after this season. If he waives the NTC
Hartmans contract seemed like he's got it because of him being versatile and also as a little bit of a thank you for scoring 60+ and desperately centering the top line on 1.7 mil. Appearantly he doesn't like moving around so he would probably re-sign at a lower cap hit or similar if the cap keeps going up. Very useful 1/12 despite being an asshole.
Unless they move Rossi, Khusy is the odd man out. I think he got the skillset to be a 2d line center on a lower half team and he probably wants more opportunity than the few minutes he's getting. It's becoming clearer by the weak he is somewhat wasted on the 4th line.
Great analysis as always! The biggest difference in this team compared to 21 and 22 is the fact that John Hynes completely changed the mentality of the team.
I think the issue with the ‘talking heads’ is that they just run out of time. It must be mandated somewhere (at least in the broadcasts I watch) that they are required to spend no less than 50% of their time discussing the Leafs.
With the first Great Expansion (1967), many people on the Canadian prairies became Minnesota North Stars fans. It may not be the same ‘franchise’ now, but it’s the same location. I’d love to see Minnesota win the Cup, even though they’re not my favourites.
Cap hell has been, well, HELL for us. As this season approached, I was still all doom and gloom, bummed about this final big cap hit year, not really expecting much. All my hope was for the '26 season. But now? NOW it's like that meme, dude sitting one one side of the bus in shadow, while bro on the other side is in the sun, all smiles. That's me right now
Wild & Guerin would have the Cash to go hard on #96 Rantanen, IF he really wants to get paid?
Damn this guy must watch a lot of hockey content to know who the barrows beauties are that is like a minnesota centric show.
There isn't a bad contract on the team from the looks of this… Kind of amazing.
wild also has prospects coming like ohgren and riley heidt and danilla yurov. Very excited for Yurov who is likely coming next season unless he signs another one year extension in the KHL.
Minnesota deserves the CUP!
This team has been a pleasant surprise, and I agree that they could be dangerous for quite a few years to come.
Excellent video, I look forward to the next one!
Minnesota could be fun to watch in the playoffs. Winnipeg I will believe when I see it.
The MN WILD are the best team to ever exist and that will ever exist. DONT YOU FORGET IT!!
Why are you not a fan??? What is wrong with you??
I love how well the team is performing. I hope they can keep their core players and stay healthy. Although it's been a long time, I still feel a bit bitter about the Dallas Stars taking the name with them to Texas. I will always be a North Stars fan and remain hopeful that the team will wear the emblem again someday. If that happens, I would buy that jersey immediately.
I think Kaprizov will take up much of that cap space when he resigns
#NormGreenStillSucks
Rantanen is another possible UFA for the Wild. The Avs probably can’t afford what he’s asking and the Wild might be one of the few teams that can shell out $14 million
Trenin's not scoring, but he's still been good. Other than that I mostly agree with the takes.
I still have some concerns, namely our inability to beat the great teams in the Central, consistent secondary scoring past Kaprizov and Boldy, and obviously the injury things. Still, first in the league right now somehow. I'm gonna just ignore the hammer over my head and enjoy this.
You need to mention the Buium and Yurov will likely join the team this spring…
Minny means Minneapolis. The Wild play in St. Paul and the rest of Minnesota does not refer to itself as Minny. We are Minnesota. Sorry. Just something that bothers me and many other native Minnesotans. This all started with those stupid NHL guys who never cover us. Glad we got coverage with The Hockey Guy. Best coverage of the NHL for sure.
This is a positive comment
For the love of god let Merrill go
i can say so much bout guerin. guerin had the balls to by out 2 stars when most wont buy out 1. minney needed a serious culture change. guerin has done that. hes got a superstar in kaprizov and 1 heck of a young core mixed with solid veteran leadership and players. 15mill dead cap and top of the standings this season is remarkable. #InGuerinWeTrust
The wild could get mcdavid for 15M lol
gustafsson is a guy who was blessed by getting far far away from ottawa
Appreciate the jersey! I would love to see those on ice for a game.
Kaprizov has next year and that’s it so we gotta sign him this summer. I would extend him right now. 10/140-160. He’s an absolute superstar.
Love to see two young swedish goalies on the same team! Both from my beloved goalie-factory Luleå HF aswell!
Despite the future freed up money, they are basically all already spent without making the team stronger across the board. Its resigns on Faber, Rossi, Lauko and Middleton. The following year you need to pay Jiricek, Gustavsson and Kaprizov. Then they will still be stuck with Foligno and Trenin at too high a cost unless Trenin starts performing more in line with his costs. Foligno is fine, but getting older, same goes for Johansson. They won't be able to replace a Zuccarello at the cost he has. So it's a good team, but a good team that will most likely still be missing overall depth and are very dependent on their top lines and forward progress of young players. Hard for me to see them contending for the cup unless those youth players really are something even though they seem like a team thats going to be undersized at some point in the near future.
But at what cost to the fans? Heck i used to be able to attend at least 10 home games a year what with me living walking distance of the X arena. But now with ticket prices and concessions it’s one game. Sad.
The playoff struggles for the past decade plus have been misery, and I have basically been in the mindset they need to get to 2025 for probably the past four seasons. If the success continues though I would love to see them at least make a run at it like Florida did two seasons ago, and then reload for a Cup push next year.
Would be nice to have a team in Minnesota that has a dynasty, finally!
Boldy will have 100 point seasons. 7 million is an incredible deal.
dont call us minny
Wild need to keep Rossi – screw getting a big time player with that extra cap space – keep the team together. We got a good thing going on so far this season.
Still have Yurov and Riley Heidt coming up in the pipeline. No on Marner on a massive salary matching KK because that's what he'll ask for.
Yurov's contract will look like Boldy's or Ek's. The positive cap situation could flip rather quickly overspending on acquired players, its been a masterclass of Draft, development and cap building.
Best thing management can do is keep the purse close and ensure ample cap for extensions on our stock.
MN a tax free state?! We wish! It's one of the highest
I appreciate the video. I'm a bigger Vikings fan than anything else in Minnesota but I love learning about hockey. Can't beat the atmosphere of a game of hockey in Minnesota. I feel like I learn so much about my team by watching your videos. You are helping to make me a bigger and bigger fan of the Wild. Hockey just doesn't get the coverage that football gets and sometimes I find it a little challenging to get good info on my team. This has become my #1 source but I will check out the podcast you talked about.
I do not have any high hopes as a minnesota fan until the cap hell is over. But that being said it is awesome to see them play this year
Minnesota seems like the place to be in right now. Oh how I miss it. I wish I could move back home!
We are cautiously optimistic this year
It’s crazy to me that there was no way we could have kept Fiala a few years ago and BG got us Faber in return and he stepped from the U of M to the playoffs against Dallas like it was nothing. He has been an absolute all star for us. LGW!