Harkins, Virtanen, 1st for staal and 6th

I'm honestly at a huge loss as to what the Wild are this year. They play games like tonight and beat some of the best teams in the NHL, but then turn around to drop duds against some of the worst teams in the NHL. Maybe that's a good thing for the playoffs since generally good teams make the playoffs? I have no idea. I think I still remain in the "burn it down" camp since I don't see this team even making the SCF, but I could see Fenton buying at the deadline.

As for the trades, I think JEE is expendable with the Rask acquisition. I wouldn't hate a JEE for Puljujarvi swap, although I'd rather just make it 1 for 1 and leave Brown and Kassian out of it. I'm not necessarily a fan of Brown, I just don't think Kassian is worth the almost $2M he's paid.

I don't think any team would be willing to give that much up for Staal. Last year, they absolutely would have, but teams aren't dumb they know he isn't quite that player anymore. You could probably get a 1st and a 4th for Staal and a late pick (5th or 6th).

I also think this is a robust return for Zucker. Remove the 1st and it's much closer, but still probably not realistic. I like Philly as a trade partner for the Wild since they have so many center prospects, but I'm not sure we are great partners for them since they will most likely be rebuilders.

I don't see how JEE is expendable. Staal is old and an UFA. Koivu is old and has 1 year left on his deal. Coyle isn't a good center and has 1 year left on his deal; plus I think he'll be gone before the season starts next year. 4C has been filled by rental FA. There's nothing else in the pipeline.

The flyers are bad this year which means two things. 1. They are likely selling which means they would be looking for picks and prospects not giving them up. 2. Their first round pick will likely be top 10 which makes this deal even more lopsided in Minnesota’s favor.

I don't think Winnipeg touches Staal for that asking price. Not because he's not good enough, but because he'd probably be 3C and some PP time on the Jets, maybe see a little time at 2C but not much. & that's way too high of a price for a 3C rental. They did it with Stastny and saw him walk, I doubt they'd wanna do that again

He's expendable because we now have three 2/3C's. I used to not think Coyle was great at center, but he was easily our best center during his stint there this year. So Coyle is a 2/3C, Rask is a 2/3C, and JEE's ceiling IMO is a 3C. I'd take a more offensively gifted right shot center in Coyle over JEE, and there's no way we move Rask at least for a couple years. By the time we consider moving Rask I imagine we'd have another prospect center waiting. We need a 1C, that's the number one priority. So once you get that 1C, where does JEE fit in? If you trade Coyle in the offseason, then obviously you keep JEE.

I've become extremely frustrated with JEE, he's one of my least favorite players on the Wild. This definitely gives me bias, but holy moly the guy is an enigma when it comes to offense.

Joel Eriksson Ek was suppose to become a 2nd Line center but they took him over Brock Boeser I would’ve expected Fletcher to draft a home town boy

Yeh that deal would be in Minnesotas favor but if Paul Fenton would decide to tear it down I was trying to get at least 1st and a B+ Prospect

How is Coyle the best center? He had like 5 good games followed by complete garbage. His 0p and -10 in in his last 4 games against bottom feeders sparked the Rask/Nino trade as much as anything. It's the story of Coyle's career; a good spurt followed by garbage.

JEE might not be great, but at least you get the same game from him every night. He'll find the 10g/20a game that Coyle currently is as a center.

You misread what I said. I said during that time span that Coyle was at center, he was our best center. My point is that we currently have 5 middle 6 centers (Staal, Koivu, Rask, Coyle, and JEE), and we aren't trading Koivu or Rask anytime soon so that makes two of Coyle, Staal, and JEE expendable. That's all I meant by what I said. I honestly don't ever see JEE becoming a 30 point center. You might as well have a jersey for whatever team we play against for him when he's in the offensive zone since he turns the puck over so frequently.

Yep, I wanted Boeser but we did need a center. Flahr ran our drafts so technically they were his picks, but JEE was a classic Flahr pick: decently high floor, low ceiling, generally regarded as a "safe" pick since they are guranteed to play in the NHL but might not be a very good NHL'er. Personally I can't see JEE becoming anything more than a 3C.

Coyle was at center for those awful games too. The Parise/Coyle/Kunin line was good until Coyle stopped matching the compete/effort level of Parise and Kunin. He became a total passenger (again).

JEE (and most everyone else) is much better whenever he's not on a line with Coyle. From the TDL last year until now, whenever he's with Coyle his o-zone game is completely nonexistent.

Fair enough!

As a Flyers fan, I have interest in Zucker but the 1st round pick would have to be too 10 protected

Jee is easily expandable he hasnt done anythin at the nhl level. Hes starting to play a little better but he isnt going to be much more then a 3c or 4c. russo tweet yesterday about what happens whe fehr returns is Ek going down. maybe a change can help him out. Wild aee either going to have to just completely tank to draft a 1c 2c or make a masive blockbuster for a young 1c 2c which doesnt happen. coyle didnt play terrible at center when he was there. also kunin could be a option to play center.

Kunin hasn't even been playing center in the AHL. The Wild have had a hole at 3C since they lost Haula. If JEE fills that hole going forward then so be it.

Coyle is gone sometime in the next 2 offseasons. I don't see him re-signing (or the Wild paying him UFA prices) even if they don't trade him. If they did re-sign him he'll be Brodziak 2.0 playing over his head as a top-6 C. Koivu could be gone in 2 summers. Staal could be gone this summer. The start of the 21 season could have Rask and who as their centers?

JEE has crap value right now. Why trade him for the loose change he's going to get? His next contract should be nice and low. He really has more value to MN, in hoping he turns into something than he does to any other team via trade. Even if Staal re-signs (or they manage to get Duchene to sign as a UFA), you play JEE at 4C next year and don't have to worry about finding another Fehr/Cullem/Winnik as a UFA. The Wild have gotten lucky with taking a flyer on guys and them working out. These signings could just as easily turn out to be another Quincey or Hendricks.