MINNESOTA WILD’S OFFSEASON WISHLIST #nhl #rossi #trade #draft #utah #tnt #vegas #freeagency #ohl

MINNESOTA WILD’S OFFSEASON WISHLIST #nhl #rossi #trade #draft #utah #tnt #vegas #freeagency #ohl

with no first round draft pick a budding superstar demanding a huge contract and an AHL team in need of a head coach Minnesota Wild’s GM Billy Garren is going to be very busy in the next few weeks So today we’re going to take a look at the Minnesota Wilds offseason wish list Hey everybody welcome in to Clearing the Bench is your one-stop shop for hockey content If you go ahead and hit your subscribe button right now you’ll be sure to be in on all of our future videos Well right now Billy Garren’s probably one of the more busy GMs in the National Hockey League Right now they have no first round draft pick They’ve got a budding superstar in Marco Rossi who has just come out and said he is looking for a new deal in the 7year $7 million per year range That is the exact number that Matt Baldy gets right now from the Minnesota Wild And you know just as a comparison around the league Tage Thompson makes $7.1 million per year When you look at what Marco Rossi has done so far in his NHL career he’s overcome the injury problems and he seems like he’s on the right track Uh Rossy’s got 100 points in just 185 regular season games When you look at a couple of bigname upand cominging superstars in the NHL and I’m going to talk about three guys on the Utah Mammoth right now Logan Kulie has 109 points in 157 games Dylan Gunther has 110 points in 148 games And in Clayton Keller’s first 167 games in the NHL he had 114 points So with 100 points in 185 games uh Marco Rossi is right around there He could be just as good as those guys in the next two or three years When you look at you know Billy Garren’s options uh considering that he buried um Rossi into the fourth line in the playoffs I don’t think he thinks very highly of Rossi or his future I think that he is not going to be a guy that Rossy’s going to I think he’s going to be bottom six from here on out if he were to stay in Minnesota Uh I think his best bet would be you know Billy Garren look to trade him at the draft And it’s very interesting when you look at the numbers that Marco Rossi put up Okay he had 120 points in just 56 games for the Ottawa 67s in 2019 and he led the OHL in scoring If you were to put him up against the guys going this year Michael Bisa had 134 points this year So it’s only a 14point difference And you know people are talking about Michael Misa possibly being the number one and for sure being number two or number three in this year’s draft So if Marco Rossy were to go in this year’s draft in my opinion I would think he would probably go anywhere in you know the four to six range at the very worst Uh when you look at other guys that had big years in their last season in the OHL you’re talking about John Tavvaris had 134 points Patrick Kane had the most with 145 But again Rossi had 120 So you’re not that far off in terms of the numbers going When you look at teams that could potentially want Marco Rossi there’s going to be a pretty good list of teams interested in him Now that you know what he wants as far as a contract 7* 7 I think it’s going to shave some of the teams off And I think it’s going to increase interest in other teams When I look at teams that have multiple draft picks and could you know possibly package up draft picks and a prospect to get a guy like Rossi uh the Nashville Predators are picking at 2326 They’re not going to give up five I don’t think for Rossi but you could package up 23 and 26 to get a higher first round pick and then trade that pick to Minnesota for Rossi Seattle is sitting right there at number eight I think he would be an excellent addition for them Uh the one thing about Seattle is they’ve picked all forwards so far So them taking on another uh big high-profile forward at this point I’m sure they would be very interested in acquiring Rossi but they need to start drafting defenseman in Seattle But again when you look at this year’s draft and if Rossi were to go I couldn’t see him being really outside of the top five It would just be shocking if he were So you know look the Utah Mammoth are drafting four Would they want to swing for the fences You just make a straightup trade Number four four Marco Rossy And now you’re plugging them in with all them young upandcoming superstars And again you got Gunther Keller I think Keller’s only like 27 and Kulie and Gunther are in their early 20s So Rossi Kulie and Gunther would be a very formidable offensive force to deal with in the future Um again the fact that Rossy was buried on the fourth line in the playoffs says that they don’t think much of him in Minnesota So I would think for sure he is going to be on the outs We’re going to follow it closely and as the weeks get closer to the draft I think we’re going to see something happening real quick Then let’s move over to their next big project They’ve got to get a new head coach in Iowa Their AHL affiliate Brett Mlan just left to be an assistant coach on Adam Foot’s Vancouver Kuk’s staff So now that Iowa needs a new head coach you know you look around there’s not a whole lot of time You just got a few weeks until you really want to start getting your off season programs in motion And when you look at Iowa the Wild’s AHL affiliate the last couple of years they have ranked been ranked at the very bottom of the AHL rankings But ironically the Minnesota Wilds prospect pool is currently ranked second in the NHL Iowa’s power play and penalty kill were terrible the last two years And under uh Brett Mlan Iowa was only 5774 and 16 So it could be a little bit of addition by subtraction When we look at who could replace Mlan as their new coach Ben Simon is a name that I’m seeing bantered about as a possibility He’s 46 years old He was an assistant coach the past two seasons in Iowa after he was the Grand Rapids head coach for five seasons So he’s definitely got some head coaching pedigree I think with so little time to really make a jump or a big search especially with you know the Rossi situation the draft free agency coming up I think that Iowa may just pull the trigger on Ben Simon and name him as their new head coach When we look at the draft coming up again Minnesota does not have a firstrounder When we look at the guys on their roster and how they can improve this team this off season uh Capri off’s making $9 million and you’ve only got him this year He’s a UFA in 2026 27 He was injured this year but you know when the guy plays he could be a league MVP when he’s healthy But you know you got to take those injuries into consideration and you’ve got to really wonder you know do you wanna sign him to he’s going to be looking for 11 million a year at that point So that’s going to be another big question that Billy Garren’s got to answer Matt Zukarelloo is currently 37 years old He made 4 million this year and he is a UFA after next year They’ve got Matthew Baldi locked up through 2028 29 They’ve got Joel Ericson EC locked up through 2028 29 But I don’t think those are you know enough horses to get you not only into the playoffs but making significant you know progress in the playoffs You look at some of their older players Felino Hartman Freddy Gro Gus Nyquist those guys are all over 30 years old And again none of them are moving the needle in an upward trajectory When we actually look at the draft uh the things that I think they could do if they wanted to acquire a firstrounder obviously Rossy’s going to be the guy you know you could see if you wanted to try to sweeten it up a little bit by maybe you know adding uh a future prospect which you know they’ve got quite a few It says they’re number two in the prospect pool moving forward in the NHL So there’s got to be a couple of guys down there that you could package up uh and try to move up When we look at their goalending Yesper Walstead is their goalie of the future Uh I don’t know I think that they’ve got um Guffin just one more year and he’s going to be looking for a big payday So we’re not sure where Walstead’s progress is going to be at that point and if they would resign Gustoson as well Moving back to the draft um other teams that I think would be definitely interested in a guy like Marco Rossi the New York Islanders and I am not talking about the draft at all I’m talking about just a straightup trade I think a guy like Matt Barzel he’s gone stale in New York I just don’t see him on an upper trajectory at all in New York anymore And I think he would be a guy that you know a change of scenery would probably do him some good Um again if they were to you know just trade Rossi you know straight up for a draft pick I think you’re looking in the top five to eight range They’ve got to add something to this roster and it’s got to come soon They’re in no man’s land You know barely making the playoffs And again this year that Central division is going to be much improved Chicago is going to be improved Utah is going to be big- time improved They’re going to be you know making a push for the playoffs St Louis is going to be big- time improved with Montgomery behind the bench So uh Billy Garren’s got a lot of decisions to make this off season And the off seasonason and I’m talking about is like just a total of like three weeks until the draft and free agency Um again he’s got to figure out the Marco Rossi situation He’s you know he could be killing two birds with one stone if he were to trade you know Rossi and then let’s say traded him into the top 10 Now you’re picking up a firstrounder that you don’t have this year Uh as far as the roster goes they’ve got to get this roster younger for sure are a lot of guys on the opposite side of 30 And as far as down in Iowa they’ve got to get that situation figured out as well And they’ve got to start getting some of these prospects into the AHL system so that you can see these kids growth and Minnesota’s going to have them just in their backyard So there you have it There is a look at the Minnesota Wilds off season wish list Billy Garren is going to be a very busy guy Let me know what you think down in the comments section Let me know what you think the Wild are going to do this off season If you’re an Iowa Wild fan let me know what you think they should do with the head coaching position If you could please hit your like button hit your subscribe button and as we always do here at Clearing the Benches let them know you’re out there

With no first round draft pick in the 2025 NHL entry draft, a budding superstar who is demanding a huge contract extension and an AHL affiliate with no head coach Minnesota wild general manager Bill Guerin will have a very busy NHL off-season.
Marco Rossi wants a contract worth the amount Matt Boldy and Tage Thompson are earning per season. The Minnesota wild AHL affiliate the Iowa wild need a new head coach as their previous bench boss Brett McLean has left to join Adam foots staff with the Vancouver Canucks. #nhl #nhlhockeyislife #nhlteam #draft #hockey #nhldraft #trade #newyorkrangers #crypto #podcast #ranking #avalanche