Eriksson Ek at #2C and Hartman at #2RW?

Why move Hartman or Ek? Let Boldy and Fiala play 2 LW/RW with Hertl and allow Ek and Hartman to stay where they’ve been effective.

Hartman is our 2C and I’m changing Boldy is our 2RW

I'm a little confused, are you saying the extension has already been agreed upon? If so I think Hertl could get a lot more in the open market (he should get over $7M easily, probably closer to $8-8.5M AAV). Also Sharks fans have long said the Sharks will be looking for a high-end center prospect in a Hertl trade and at this point Khovanov is a borderline B level prospect, if not a C.

?????

But this is an end-of-this-season construction, and Boldy hasn't played a game at the NHL level yet. Surely he won't be playing #2RW until next season?

What he said; spot on. Sharks would counter with Marat K instead of Khovanov who isn’t all that intriguing.

Well if it’s Marat, then everything else drops off besides the 1st. You don’t just simply swap Marat in for Khovy and keep everything else.

IMO, Marat and a 1st is probably a reasonable package, but MIN shouldn’t be making that move. Sharks will be able to get that level of value from someone, though. Just shouldn’t be MIN.

Pretty much summed up. Hertl is a badass, but this type of move would be a step in the wrong direction for the wild. Only way it would make sense for them is if it included greenway and fiala going back so they could resign hertl, but those 2 players wouldn’t make sense for San Jose.

Just not great perspective trading partners. Imho

If the choice is Rask or Boldy, I really don’t know why you don’t give Boldy a shot (apparently he might debut against BOS). The last stretch of games have shown you the lack of depth on the team and why a move like this is putting the cart before the horse. But if you do make it, you’ve got to give the guy ripping up the AHL a shot. There’s no contractual downside and that line would put him in the best place to succeed.

Just so I clearly understand what your lineup would be, could you please lay it out for me? I get that your second line would be Fiala - Hertl - Boldy but who would be on your first and third lines? I thought that you guys have been successful to date with Kaprizov - Eriksson Ek - Zuccarello on the first.

Hartman's been there the bulk of the year, and working well to boot.

Consider it the Kaprizov effect if you want, just like with Rask last year. But unlike Rask, Hartman is a player with actual skill. He's by no means a legitimate 1C, but a versatile middle-sixer nonetheless that'll get the job done. Think of Trocheck out of Carolina, same type of scenario here too.

Ek was moved back onto a line with Foligno and Greenway somewhere around week 2 or 3 mark into the season. Hartman's centered Kaprizov and Zuccarello ever since. They've got good chemistry together, and Fiala needs a center more badly than Kaprizov does.

This is why Wild fans keep saying we need a top-six center and not more bottom six plugs that we already have in spades.

Top 9 Lines would look like this.

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Fiala-Hertl-Boldy
Greenway-JEE-Foligno

The 4th line could consist of any one of Duhaime, Sturm, Pitlick, Bjugstad, Gaudreau and Rask. All of whom can play both wing and/or center.

Before getting paired with kaprizov, ever game hartmans line (whichever it was) was driving play offensively and also defensively responsible. His line out chanced and out produced their opponents almost every game. He was scoring and putting up points ar a healthy rate before kaprizov. That just turned it up significantly. As a pair kaprizov is playing at a 100pt/season clip and hartman is in the 75pt/season range. So both stepped it up playing together but were still solid contributors apart.

@OldNYIfan this is precisely what I’d do. Now with Rossi coming up and Rask on waivers, it looks like they won’t be in the market if Rossi is half as good as we think he is. The real question is whether Evason smartens up and keeps Freddy away from the top 9.