This would be a solid roster (I really like the center depth). I have no idea about most of the value so I'm not even going to try to comment on that. Out of curiosity, what attracts you so much about Risto? I like him too but I'm just wondering what your thoughts are about him.

Edit: Also I think I'm a lot higher on Dubnyk than you are. Let me pull up some stats about him that are very interesting, I'll post them below in this post

Edit 2: Ok from Russo's piece on The Athletic about Fenton requesting no trade lists from our vets (as a formality),

"Dubnyk, 32, has three years left on a deal that pays him $4.333 million annually. Since Jan. 15, 2015, Dubnyk leads the NHL with 231 games played and 20 shutouts, is tied for first with a .923 save percentage, is second with 134 wins and second with a 2.26 goals-against average."

Those are pretty impressive stats to me. There's a common narrative (which does have some truth to it, but I'll comment about that in a moment) that Dubnyk's stats are largely inflated by the play in front of him. As I mentioned, this is somewhat true but it's not like every goalie can put up good numbers with solid defensive play. I can't think of any examples of goalies putting up bad numbers under good defensive play off the top of my head (maybe Steve Mason for the Jets?), but why fix something that isn't broken? I also get that stats aren't everything, and Dubnyk is absolutely prone to some very soft goals, but he was one of the most consistent pieces we had last season. I think the smart play is to try and trade for a younger goalie to groom to be Dubnyk's successor. Let me know your thoughts about this!

BIG, physical, do-it-all, right-shot defensemen are extremely rare! How many exist in the NHL??? Maybe 3 or 4 who are elite... That's why I want Risto. Plus, he is signed to a reasonable contract ($5.4 mil per) for 4 more seasons.
I have nothing against Dubnyk, but I consider him to be very similar to many players on the Wild roster...a very good to great regular season player, but one who wilts in the post season. I just don't think Dubnyk is a goalie the Wild can win a Cup with.

Plus, this roster is loaded in the two of the three areas needed to win a Cup - down the middle and on the blue line. It might be weak between the pipes, which is why I asked for Ottawa fans input about Anderson. If there are other goalie options out there, I would pursue them as well.

I would not have any interest in this from buffalo. I dont want any major assets used to acquire a goalie.

Of course no from Buffalo.

With Ottawa needing to get to the cap floor, maybe they would also take Tyler Ennis in this deal.

That's a fair assessment of Dubnyk. I also would love Risto, and I'm wondering if there's a way we could possibly trade Dumba to Toronto for Nylander and acquire Risto from Buffalo to replace Dumba. I really do not want to trade Dumba, however. Maybe I'll have to play around with that idea (I just don't know what we'd have to give up to Buffalo to get him if we aren't sending Dumba/Spurgeon in return and if it would even be worth it).

I do not want to trade Dumba, but if trading him and Spurgeon got the Wild Risto and Nylander (Toronto's Nylander) it would be worth it. The Wild would have to do something else, though...to get another RHD.

This is the exact problem I find when I try to make trades for Nylander using Dumba. I don't really like any of the RHD on the Leafs so adding one in a trade with the Leafs wouldn't make sense. Swapping Nino or Zucker for Faulk is an option but to get Risto we'd probably have to use one of them, if not both, and then our forward depth is shot. Every time I'm on this site I'm so glad I'm not a GM, lol.

Please Rank the following RHD ... all of which have been talked about as options for the Wild... just curious about how you value the different pieces.
Dumba, Spurgeon, Risto, Faulk, Ceci, Karlsson, Zaitsev, Larsson, Mi. Stone, anyone else that I have missed in the recent weeks that is a valuable add to the list... if you prefer, you can rank them twice... once in an absolute sense (meaning Karlsson is the best player that we have all talked about) and one in a realistic sense (Risto (or whoever) is the player that we should most try to acquire (or keep in the case of Dumba/Spurgeon). Due to the nature of the players, qualifiers are welcome (meaning if we get X then we don't go for Y).

That's a great list and I would be happy having any of them on the Wild.

I'm going to leave Karlsson out of this, because he is in a class by himself and a completely unrealistic option for the Wild.

Here is how I rank the players as how I believe they would be best fits for the Wild: Risto, Dumba, Larsson, Faulk, Spurgeon, Stone, Ceci, Zaitsev. The last 3 are players I haven't seen as much of, so it's a little more of a guess with them.

interesting that it is Larsson over Faulk... I am not quite as high on Risto and higher on Faulk...
Also, are you at all concerned about trading for Wennberg with his injuries this year? Seems like Granlund to me... high skill, high ceiling, great vision and passing ability, but will he hold up long term?

I think Larsson is the better all-around defenseman and Faulk would be a bit redundant with Dumba on the team. Why I like Risto so much is because of a couple things: 1) His contract. He has 4 years left on a deal making $5.4million per. I think he would command $7million+ per year if he was a UFA. 2) He's the rarest of defenseman...a BIG, mean and nasty RHD who is also highly skilled. There are maybe 4 or 5 players like him in the NHL.
As far as Weinberg is concerned, I would definitely do my due diligence to learn more about his back issues from last season and concussion issues in previous seasons. Why I covet him is because (again), his contract. He has 5 years left on a deal paying him $4.9million per. 2 way centers who can produce offense like he can (last year was a down year/injury-riddled season) are also rare. Comparing him to Granlund is fair. I value Wennberg more, however, because he plays center...and centers are hard to find.
IMO, both Risto and Wennberg offer tremendous value because of their play, their utility, and their contracts.

I live in Ohio, and agree that having Wennberg would be an instant improvement if he is healthy. He's not as small as Granlund, so perhaps all will be well. I wanted Fletcher to trade for him the summer that we brought Staal in (that definitely turned out surprisingly well). Being in the Wennberg market perhaps makes me over-biased towards him... but being objective is unrealistic. And if we could bring in Anderson with Wennberg I would be willing to give up Zucker and a high prospect.

In fact, I would probably prefer to have a healthy Wennberg (and his contract stability as you stated) over Panarin. Go ahead people... bring on the pitchforks.

AND... Nationwide Children's Hospital would be happy to have Zucker and his wonderful Give16 campaign.

Hypothetically, if you offered Zucker and Kunin for Wennberg and Anderson and the Jackets countered with wanting Granlund and Kunin...would you do it?

I would hate to lose Granlund, but I probably would do it. 59 points from a 22 year old center is hard to come by. I would say the 35 points last year is the anomaly. More importantly to my decision is that it pushes Koivu into a true 3C position (assuming we were to keep Staal again), so I think that makes it worth it.

But I would prefer to add a pick (would a 3rd do it?) to Zucker and keep Granlund if I could. I really like the forward group that you have here.

That's a little harsh on Dubnyk when he's one of the few that showed up the last 2 Playoffs. 6 of his 10 games with 2GA or less, and one blowup bad game. 6 of those 10 games the Wild scored 1 or 0 goals, Hasek wasn't even good enough to make up for that. The Dallas series he was playing with a broken (thumb?) bone in his stick hand.

Good team you built, but won't make the Playoffs due to awful goalies.

I like Khudobin as a backup, but you are correct about the starter. My plan a week or so ago was to acquire Grubauer...

Even in Dubnyk's good/great playoff games he lets in a softy...and I just don't think the Wild's makeup is strong enough to bounce back from them. You can see it in their posture and body language when Dubnyk lets an easy one squeak through. It's as big of an indictment on the team as it is on Dubnyk...but, I just don't think he is nearly as good as his numbers say he is. IMO he is an average starting goalie in the NHL.

Meh he makes enough big saves on what could/should be goals it offsets it imo. Still he's holding up his end of the deal in the last to Playoffs. It really doesn't matter if he allows 0 or 10 goals if the rest of the team can't score at least once. He's really the least I'm worried about upgrading on the roster (Suter would be the other, but his injury is concerning).

We disagree about this.