yave1964 Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 PRESEASON OUTLOOK Many thought they were a bubble playoff team for a Wildcard. Many thought they were due to slip. Kind of right down the middle. FINAL RECORD 39-33-10 88 points, 6th place in the Central. Missed the playoffs by 10 points. STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR The 'State of Hockey' was not kind to the Wild. In 2023 they had the 7th best home record, in 2022 they had the third best home record, last year the home club was nearly futile, falling hard to the 23rd best record at home in the league. HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR Honestly after the coaching change the team played pretty well. After Evason was taken out back and put against a wall under Hynes they played much better, going 34-23-6. The highlight was from November 28 until Christmas they went 11-3-0 with Gustafsson playing some damn fine goal. LOW POINT OF THE YEAR The glacially slow start which cost Evason his job, they went through a six game losing streak in November ending with an embarrasing 4-1 loss to the Wings cost him his job and brought John Hynes in to be the coach. They sat at 5-10-4 and had their backs badly agaisnt the wall. WHAT WENT RIGHT Kaprisov (46-50-96) had an absolutely brilliant year. Matt Boldy started slow but ended up with 29 goals. Eriksson Ek netted 30. Zuccarello had nearly a point per game. Hartman did a solid job as a 2C. Faber developed into a power play defender. Marco Rossi showed signs that he is filled with a ton of potential. Brodin had a very underrated season as a shut down defenseman. Gustafsson was acceptable in net, Wallstedt stepped into the NHL an d his last two starts looked like the real deal. WHAT WENT WRONG Fleury looks to have hit the end of the line. Addison was dispatched to San Jose for essentially nothing because he was awful. Johansson took a big step back. Vets like Foligno, Maroon and Bogo were insignificant. Goligoski took a huge step back. Quality was not there, very little secondary scoring, nobody outside of Faber did anything from the blueline offensively. FREE AGENTS A nothingburger here. Goligoski is an UFA and wont be missed, nobody else of significance. Kind of goes for next offseason as well the Wild have little cap space but the team is set for the next several years. TOP ROOKIES Wallstedt is the future in net, he may have one more year in the A or could get pulled into the tandem as a 1B with huge upside. Carson Lambos has been slow to develop but they may count on him next season. Daemon Hunt will be given a fair shot at taking Goligoski spot. Samuel Walker is potentially a 3rd line winger with some scoring upside. They have a fiar amount of decent draft picks still playing overseas so they arent likely to stick next year but they could contribute within a few years in different roles. Not a top of top tier talent but servicable usable players if nothing else. OFFSEASON QUESTIONS What to do with Fleury? Can you/Do you find another home for him? If he is gone it leaves Wallstedt/Gustafsson in net which is damn solid. Do you ride out the salary Hell that comes from releasing Suter/Parise or do you deal Zuccarello for flexibility to allow you to fill team needs (skilled defenders) or do you ride it out for yet another year. My honest opinion of this team is the young core of Kaprisov, Rossi, Boldy, Faber, Eriksson Ek and Wallstedt is a damn solid core to build around but salary cap hell means they have to build from within and i just dont see what is coming up through the pipeline as enough to move the needle. I kind of see them in the same position as last year, if the kids have career years they are in the wildcard bubble, if it doesnt go right they are an also ran. Not sure how that is going to change. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icechipper Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 Wouldn't hold breath on Sammy Walker. Think he's a RFA......7th round pick, AHL seems to be his ceiling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Icechipper said: Wouldn't hold breath on Sammy Walker. Think he's a RFA......7th round pick, AHL seems to be his ceiling. I watch quite a lot of AHL, probably much more than I should lol. Walker is a decent specialty player, I think if he gets a fair shot at the NHL he could be a Dan Cleary type, second power play, second P/K unit, third liner, 40 or so points a year. Good work ethic from what i have seen. Not expecting him to be Rossi lol but i do believe if given a fair shake and used right he could be a decent player. I know he is smallish and can be pushed around but he has drive. Edited June 19 by yave1964 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confrontational Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 How many more years do you guys have Kap before he tests the waters...? Him and his agent are no doubt looking at this and wondering about missed opportunities... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllaZilla Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 4 hours ago, Confrontational said: How many more years do you guys have Kap before he tests the waters...? Him and his agent are no doubt looking at this and wondering about missed opportunities... Kaprizov is a UFA after the 2025-2026 season. And his NMC kicks in this season. So unless the Wild do an about face and start going deep into the Playoffs, I see him walking after the 2025-2026 season... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confrontational Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 ^^ And how many more years on Suter/Parise...? I ask because I'm assuming if those $'s are freed up after next year, Kap will be looking at some of that to stay - the rest to get some key help for him... But, no doubt he's going to be a hard one to deal with because he has the upper hand - much like how he was with his agent on the front end of all this... Bet it's going to be a distraction next year with our players wondering if he's staying or leaving... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllaZilla Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 2 hours ago, Confrontational said: ^^ And how many more years on Suter/Parise...? I ask because I'm assuming if those $'s are freed up after next year, Kap will be looking at some of that to stay - the rest to get some key help for him... But, no doubt he's going to be a hard one to deal with because he has the upper hand - much like how he was with his agent on the front end of all this... Bet it's going to be a distraction next year with our players wondering if he's staying or leaving... This is the last season of the $14.7M dead money cap hit. Next season the dead money cap hit drops to $1.7M. But Faber will get about an $8M/season raise so that will chew up a chunk of that. Plus Rossi will get a raise. Probably a $3-4M bridge deal, providing the Wild don’t unload him at the draft. Middleton and Chisholm will need raises. So yes, the major cap hit will go away, but it will be chewed up by raises. Whether any of these new guys step up and get the team deeper into the Playoffs remains to be seen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icechipper Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 No room for the new guys..... As things stand. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreaseAndAssist Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 On 6/19/2024 at 1:02 PM, yave1964 said: I watch quite a lot of AHL, probably much more than I should lol. Walker is a decent specialty player, I think if he gets a fair shot at the NHL he could be a Dan Cleary type, second power play, second P/K unit, third liner, 40 or so points a year. Good work ethic from what i have seen. Not expecting him to be Rossi lol but i do believe if given a fair shake and used right he could be a decent player. I know he is smallish and can be pushed around but he has drive. I watch quite a bit of AHL hockey too. And Sammy isn't NHL material. He didn't even deliver enough in the clutch to help make Iowa a playoff team. He wasn't looked to to bail the Minnesota Wild's season out last year and they were supposedly desperate to make it. I don't think Walker has much of a future other than in Iowa. I've heard he's a good teammate and works hard. But he isn't gritty enough to play a Bottom 6 role in the NHL and he doesn't use his speed (his one stellar asset) as much as he should. And most of all...if he wants any NHL future, he has to be more consistent game to game, shift to shift. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreaseAndAssist Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 On 6/20/2024 at 5:03 PM, IllaZilla said: This is the last season of the $14.7M dead money cap hit. Next season the dead money cap hit drops to $1.7M. But Faber will get about an $8M/season raise so that will chew up a chunk of that. Plus Rossi will get a raise. Probably a $3-4M bridge deal, providing the Wild don’t unload him at the draft. Middleton and Chisholm will need raises. So yes, the major cap hit will go away, but it will be chewed up by raises. Whether any of these new guys step up and get the team deeper into the Playoffs remains to be seen. 100%, anyone thinking the team will have a ton of cash to thrown out there will watch it go away very quickly due to raises to young players. We won't be able to afford outside help. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. We may have had some $$$ to do it with, but that "money" went to #17, #36, #38 and to a lesser extent #89 most of whom who got NMC's to boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreaseAndAssist Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 On 6/20/2024 at 1:56 PM, IllaZilla said: Kaprizov is a UFA after the 2025-2026 season. And his NMC kicks in this season. So unless the Wild do an about face and start going deep into the Playoffs, I see him walking after the 2025-2026 season... A very real possibility. The point of no return is literally in the next week. After that...they have to convince him to sign...or they might have to watch and let him go somewhere else. IMO; it may not be the craziest thing to assess it and then make a move if you really feel its not even close...because no GM, not even Bill Guerin can afford to let #97 walk for nothing at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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