Definitely will cost more. Interesting tweet from Russo today as well.

Sources close to Giroux and flyers say this isn’t true

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 15, 2022

You are either really overvaluing Freddy G or really undervaluing Giroux.

This is a no-brainer yes for MN.

Kaprizov for scott laughton, morgan frost and a 2nd?

Russo mentioned that Minnesota isn't interested in Claude. Mostly because they don't see him as A C. When looking at Claude, there's a reason he's been more successful at wing then C

I don't remember him specifically saying that the Wild aren't interested, he just speculated that he didn't think Giroux is a fit because he has primarily played wing the past 4-5 years (though please correct me if I' wrong)

Recently I talked with him at Wild's home game and asked him and he flat out told me, wild coaches and their analytical team told Guerin that in regards to why he's not fit for C and why philly has kept him @ winger for years

I was more comparing Freddy G to Compher

Its funny that Compher + Kaut + a second doesnt get shredded but when you look at players and their analytics, just because its Freddy G it gets destroyed.

Dont get me wrong that one is brutal too, i think the avs will give up compher, barron and a 1st

I was just going off what I have seen most that hasn't been destroyed, I honestly have no idea what real value is going to be for Giroux and will be the first to admit it so tried to find a deal as close to that as I could.

You're correct, he said "Plus, the Wild may not even have true interest in Giroux."



And yet they traded for Marjo. Cool story though.

Freddy G's stats are getting bloated by how good Boldy/Fiala are together. He's really just in the right place at the right time currently. Having 2 wings that could be ppg players and not having to play against other teams' bottom-6, 2nd pair d-men.

He's not a ppg player, like he's been the last 8 games. He's a guy that will PK, be responsible, and chip in 20p from a bottom-6 spot. You'll call it a good year for him. He's not a player you can look at in a vacuum, it's the whole picture that needs to be looked at to get a more accurate view of what he brings and what his worth is.

And Bonino.

Put Parise at center for the PP.

They view a guy who is playing wing in the KHL as a future center for the Wild. Drafted Rossi over Lundell as a center.

Didn't play Boldy last year in the Playoffs.

I'll just stop there.

I dont disagree with those observations at all, but I believe this was last updated last week, feb 8th, so takes out both the CAR game and MTL game, which inflated it a little bit, don't get me wrong, he's a poor mans Ryan Hartman, just so happens to be on the same team.

Bonino is a center, so not sure your point there.

Can't argue on any criticism of Parise's ice time.

One guy got COVID and had a severe reaction losing a year of development, the other didn't. Rossi is doing just fine in Iowa, though you'll criticize his Height/60 because reasons. Him being in the AHL probably has more to do with letting his ELC slide than his game at this point.

Nothing wrong with making a rookie earn their spot, not like he was the piece they were missing to go deep in the playoffs.

Bonino got moved to 4th line wing because he failed at center in MN. Same as MarJo failed at center in MN. Rask, Hartman, JEE, and Sturm were the centers last year. Only 2 of those were players supposed to be centers when the season started.

Height matters at the center position, especially at the extreme low side. To say otherwise is foolish. If Rossi was Strome (CHI) size it wouldn't be an issue. On the flip side if Strome was Rossi size he wouldn't be in the NHL.

Everything about Rossi's game screams a Zucc type of winger. Sure Boldy/Fiala or Kap Zucc can drag him around like the have for Rask or Freddy G. But if a Cup is what you're after Rossi is not the promised land at top-6 center.

This current management group has been pretty awful at evaluating centers.

And that kind of thinking is why Point fell as far as he did. lol

Point isn't 5'8".

Also if Rossi was a week older he'd have been a 3rd-5th round pick as just another ppg+ OHL FWD. Not a top-10 close to 2ppg FWD.

I would like to subscribe to your blog, badhockeytakes.com where I can read about Spurgeon being the Wild's 4th best defenseman, the current team being more like the losing streak they had in November instead of the team with the 3rd best goals for/4th best point % in the entire league, and read about Fenton's expertise at acquiring centers by trading for Rask and *checks notes* drafting noted winger Matt Boldy. Right on.

Fenton's impact on this year Wild FWDs: Fiala, Boldy, Hartman, Sturm, Zucc, Dewar, and Rask. Looks like the 1C and 4C to me. 3/4 of the scoring lines wingers too. Last year Fenton accounted for 3 of the 4 centers. Drafted McBain also. Fletcher gets credit for all rest of the FWDs except Freddy G.

Evason is also Fenton's coach. Fenton was only here for 14 months.

Spurgeon has been the 4th best d-man. It's not really a hot take. I'm not sure how else to classify a guy who is 6D (5v5 ToI), PP specialist (by far the highest PP ToI), and getting the least amount of tough matchups.



To make it easy, Guerin's impact (29 months) on the team is: Talbot, Freddy G. Kulikov, Merrill, Goli, Addison, and a ton of dead cap. Cole was his best addition for last year's team.

Not a center, not a center, wasn't a center when Fenton was GM, center, not a center, not a center, and shouldn't be a center. McBain hasn't played a single NHL game yet, so who knows if he's a center yet. Are we giving credit for prospects being in the system or no? You go back and forth on this.



Evason has been a good hire, but he too is not a center. If Guerin was the idiot you make him out to be, he would have let Evason go and hired his own guy so not sure what your point is.



Your bad take was Spurgeon was the Wild's 4th best defenseman when he was given the (at the time) highest AAV in team history, sorry should have clarified in case you forgot your own words. He's had a rough year with injuries, so the chart doesn't surprise me.



And the Wild having a prospect pool that has jumped up each year since Fletcher left Fenton bare cupboards and he had a hit (Boldy) and miss (Johansson) draft to help get some prospects back in the system. Meanwhile pretty much everyone except you agrees Guerin's team has had 2 solid drafts and are ranked top 10 if not higher in most analysts rankings gets overlooked by you again because the players are still developing. You can't give credit to a GM for a drafted player who hasn't played yet (McBain) without giving credit for the other players who haven't been drafted long enough to make an impact (Rossi, Wallstedt, Lambos, Hunt, O'Rourke, Peart, Khusnutdinov, etc). You also like to point out the dead cap while also ignoring the fact the team hasn't played this well in years and there's definitely something different going on in the locker room with guys like Suter, Parise, Koivu, and Staal gone. It's almost like the choice to let new guys be recognized as leaders was a good one and addition by subtraction is certainly a thing.

Funny how guys who aren't centers, suddenly now are because they were forced to be. Also funny how Guerin has done nothing for the FWDs yet gets all the credit for this team.

You brought up the that Fenton drafted of no centers, not me. I was just adding a counterpoint. I didn't add longshots like Khovanov (So many ACGMs had him penciled in as the 3C him after he spiked a good year in the CHL), Giroux, and whoever else.

Spurgeon was tracking that ToI and usage before he was injured. He wasn't a top-10 d-man when his contract was signed. He's nowhere near a top-10 d-man now. Maybe 1 season in his career has he even been the best d-man on the Wild. Would you rather have Fiala + Dumba + Addison and a few million in cap, or Spurgeon + Fiala or Dumba + Addison and a few million in cap though the buyout years? That is what the Spurgeon contract means for the team/cap.

The culture change is something that Fenton did as much or more than Guerin. Adding highly skilled FWDs in place of the 2010 draft class that wasn't good enough year after year. GMBG finished that off with his Zucker trade (better return than Fenton would have gotten). Some of it is just the natural progression of younger players coming into their own. And having an elite player for the first time ever in team history helps. This is by far the best FWD group MN has ever had.

There are 3 holes on the team that keep it from being mentioned with the TB quality teams in the league: scoring line center (Freddy G), 2nd pair d-man, and goalie (Talbot).
-Talbot is an upgrade from Dub, no doubt, but he's just not the guy that will win a you a Cup (maybe Kahk can but it's unlikely).
-Boldy/Fiala might be good enough to drag Freddy G along with them, he's actually the least of my concerns for the team.
-The lack of a 2nd pair LD is my main concern for this team. Brodin is the only LD on the team I'm okay with pairing Dumba and Spurgeon with to play top-4 duties. He just can't play 40+ mins a night to make that happen. Goli has a great stats line this year, but it doesn't match the eye test or his adv stats numbers. Goli, Kulikov, and Spurgeon (to a lesser extent Dumba) are all the same type of d-man. They aren't guys put together and get quality d-zone play. Put Suter in Goli's spot and I would like this d-corps a lot better.

I mentioned them not being centers because they weren't when Fenton was GM (y'know that year they missed the playoffs). You can't give him credit for finding a center if he found a wing and someone else saw they could play center. Fenton drafted a center (Boldy) who didn't work out as a center and ended up a wing. He used a #12 overall pick to do that, when he could have taken Newhook who seems to be able to be a center at the NHL level. You mentioned you think Rossi projects to be more of a Zucc type of wing, so are we holding Fenton and Guerin to the same standard because by your own standard if Rossi ends up being Zucc 2.0 that's fine but yet somehow you act like Rossi is a bust already when he's at least still playing center against adult men in the AHL and playing well.

Spurgeon's been dealing with injuries all year, not just when he was out. It happens, Brodin has had his time dealing with injuries too. I'm not sure why you're asking about Addison when he wasn't on the roster when they extended Spurgeon. Dumbest logic ever. I'd wager GMs make far more decisions based on the actual players they have in the NHL and how ready their prospects are instead of guessing who they might be able to trade for. To answer your question though I'd rather have Fiala + Spurgeon + whatever assets they can get trading Dumba and Addison. Not sure how the Wild view their defense but most fans seem to view Addison as the Dumba replacement when he's basically another Spurgeon that may not have the same ceiling so why do you need him? I get acquiring him if that was the best prospect Pittsburgh had, but I don't see how he fits into the roster currently. Dumba isn't as bad as he used to be defensively, but if he's not producing a bunch of points he's probably not needed at his cap hit and they can move on from him.

Can't argue on the roster as a whole being healthier than it's probably ever been. A bit of a stretch to say they NEED to address goaltending this year though. Talbot and Kahkonen have been fine overall and they've won a few games the team in front of them didn't deserve to win. Fiala and Boldy could use a center with more offensive upside, I think most fans would agree. Goligoski also has been fine, but finding another Soucy type who can play up in a pinch is always ideal for the playoffs because injuries happen. Personally my TDL wishlist for the team is a center who can bump Gaudreau down to 4RW and a bottom pair defenseman. If they need the cap this summer, find somewhere to send Talbot and find a veteran to back up Kahkonen.