ALERT: Bill Guerin SCOUTING Trade Targets as Wild STRUGGLES Continue | Is Nick Robertson the Answer?
The Minnesota Wild have rattled off two wins in a row, but let’s be honest, we really haven’t learned anything new about this team. Hey, this is Matt Baldi and you’re listening to Locked on Wild. Hey, this is Marcus Fino and you’re listening to Locked on Wild. You’re Locked On, your daily podcast on the Minnesota Wild, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is happening everybody? Welcome in to another episode of Lockown Wild, your daily Minnesota Wild podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team each and every day. And we thank you for making Lockdown Wild your first listen each and every day. As well, make sure you subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. Today’s episode of Locked Wild is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. On today’s episode of Lockdown Wild, we are going to dive into the last two games for the Minnesota Wild to determine whether we have learned anything about this team or not. We’re also going to talk about the lack of consistency for this Minnesota Wild team through the first few weeks of the season and continued questions regarding development of young players and uh opportunities for young players to get into the roster uh into the lineup. Honestly, fizzling. My name is Seth Topal, host of Lockdown Wild, credentialed media member for the last three seasons. uh and bringing you credentialed access to Locktown Wild this year. And we’re joined on a uh victory Michi Wednesday by Alex Mleti. Just crazy schedules again this week, Alex. But uh as we always do, we we uh we’re getting you on here on a Wednesday. Just like football, you know, sometimes you get a Friday game, sometimes you get a Wednesday game. Like Mac football, right? Yeah. Exactly. Uh the Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 in overtime. Uh a game that if you would have um if you would have not told me, I would have assumed that it was the Wild that were playing on the second night of a backtoback. But before I even finish that sentence, how many times have we heard that sentence played out over the last few years? It’s just every time you’re in position to, you know, pounce on a team that is tired, having played a game the night before, having gotten into the cities around 2:00 a.m. and uh still played, still got a point out of it. Uh it gets it gets irritating. It gets annoying. It gets tiring to see this team put in situations where and you’re not going to do it every time. I’m not I’m not asking for perfection here, but just asking for a little bit more, I guess, than what we’ve seen the last two games because I I don’t know. I don’t know that the performances from the last two games in my mind warrant a huge pat on the back and a huge sigh of relief that uh that things are back to where they should be, that order is restored because it’s still basically the same team that we’ve seen playing here for the first few weeks of the season. Yeah, if they were playing better teams, they would have not they wouldn’t have at least they wouldn’t have beaten Nashville. Uh Vancouver, you know, they they’re banged up, but Nashville’s awful against the backup goalie and uh Stampos hadn’t done anything all season and he gets what it was a.3 left at just Yep. just ridiculous. They didn’t even have Roman Yosi who was always a wild killer. It’s uh just Yeah, that’s that’s a team that you shouldn’t let like get a get a point. And they’re lucky, you know, Marcus Jojo gets the the game winner even though it wasn’t even his shot wasn’t even in the net outside of the net, but they went on a technicality which was just crazy. And you know, it there just has been there’s been so much that has happened here in the early part of the season. Uh we now know that um Jared Spurgeon offered some suggestions to John Hines as to what is uh what is ailing this team at this current moment. Jared, huh? Chat GPT Jared. Yeah. Like I that kind of alarms me that we’re at this point in the season and if if the head coach can’t fix it, what what makes you think the players are going to be able to fix it? Like the head coach for a long time. It’s what? Yeah. Like that that just that hit me wrong. and um you know the the whole asking for more toughness from the team um that they now who they are you know you can’t change guys like it and we we talked about this earlier this week so the everydayers have already heard this message but there just it just feels like on pretty much every level there’s a disconnect in this organization like there just is no messaging that lines up. And um you know, you’ve got your draft strategy is one thing, your free agent and roster uh cultivation is another, and your head coach is asking for even a third thing. So, it just it’s not lining up. Um it’s not lining up. And this is why like this is why I’ve been so critical early on this season is we’ve we’ve seen this I think we’ve seen this play out to the extent that the success is possible and I have had the the wool pulled over my eyes two or three times and it’s to the point now that I just I don’t think I don’t think I’m going to get fooled again. Dysfunction. How many times have we’ve seen that over the past couple of seasons? And we thought we were done with that once the buyouts were were done, right? That was supposed to clear everything up and it, you know, it seems like they’re back to square one. Yeah. And the there’s been huge messaging and look, I I don’t have a I don’t have a problem with the approach here really at all uh in turning the page. And yeah, October was bad, but we’re we’re on to November. We’re 2 and 0 now in November. You’ve got the you got the hat now. That is the uh the the victory celebration item. Um I’m I that that is all well and fine, but you can’t just you can’t just look at what happened in October and be like, “Oh, ha, psych. Gotcha. we uh we’re playing much better. Like you have put yourself in a position now to where you basically have to thread the needle the rest of the season in order to get into a playoff spot. 100%. And there’s the teams that in the past that were pushovers, they’re not pushovers anymore. And their their young talent is ready and hungry to to make the playoffs. Look at I mean Anaheim just smoked the defending champions and uh cutter Gotautier hatrick. Yeah. I mean, these these young guys, the next generation is ready to to take over and you you look how good, you know, Utah is playing and people didn’t expect them to be where they are and that’s pushed some some teams down and, you know, Colorado’s still still up there and Dallas and yeah, it’s going to be just a battle to, you know, get get to a wild wild card spot. We saw it took uh a Joel Ericson uh you know miracle um to make it last year and it seems like it’s going to be even a harder climb this season and that was that as has been mentioned on other shows. You know they they put themselves in that position with as good of a start as they had. If they would have had any worse of a start, you probably don’t make the playoffs at all. No. No. And uh you know even even though they’re getting like two points, they’re letting teams get to that overtime point and that it’s going to make you know the standings just haywire this this season. It seems like there’s so many games going to that overtime and allowing uh you know you know to turn into a three-point game which is you know kind of you know ridiculous. We talked about it in the postcast uh postgame after the the Sabres or the uh the Predators win. The Wilder minus 11 in 14 games and five on five goals this year. Yeah, it’s not sustainable. That’s not that you play like that the entire season, you’re not a playoff team. Yeah, that that is that is nightmarish. Yeah, 100%. And you know, this goes back to this team being a oneline team right now and at times, you know, it looks like you have three uh third lines out there. You know, fourth line is irrelevant because it’s almost an an AHL line basically right now. Well, let’s uh let’s dive into that a little bit because there’s been a uh a notable decision made that has coincided with the winning streak. I guess all it took was getting Ben Jones in the lineup to be able to truly unlock soft guru what this Minnesota Wild team is. So, we’re we’re going to look at because we talked about it in yesterday’s episode. So, perfect kind of piggyback point is what is what is the plan? What’s the strategy? What’s the approach for Danilla Eurovv? Or is it just hey, we’re winning now. We’re just going to keep riding with Ben Jones. We’re We’re going to dive into that. Yeah. Have the uh have some uh press box hot dogs with Damon Hunt. Poor poor Damon Hunt. We’ll talk about all that as we continue today’s episode of Locked on Wild after this. Today’s episode of Locked Wild is brought to you by Rouette. Let’s be real. Making excuses doesn’t solve anything. We’ve all heard them before. It’s just stress. I’m tired. Or it happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. That’s where Rouette comes in. rouette.com offers fast acting, doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rusei makes it easy to get started, too. You just connect with a boardcertified doctor 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms, no in-person appointments. So visit rugit.com/lockdown NHL to get 15% off your first order. That’s rugg.com/lockdown NHL. And don’t forget to use our code locked on NHL so they know we sent you. Rouette, stop making excuses and start making moves. Welcome back to today’s episode of Locked on Wild. Once again, we thank you for making Lockown Wild your first listen each and every day. Uh, make sure to like and subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week as we’re into we’re into the part of the season that I like to call my wheelhouse with just breaking down the day-to-day news. Nobody can uh nobody can hit you with more than uh Locked on Wild can. So, make sure to subscribe. Uh, Alex, I’m going to read you a series of numbers here, and I want you to tell me what these numbers signify. 7 minutes 2 seconds, 5 minutes 43 seconds, 8 minutes 29 seconds. It’s your fourth line. Uh, minute calculations. Bingo. You are correct, sir. and um for Nashville on the other end. So Nashville had Michael Bunting, Matthew Wood, young Bunning prospect for the Predators. Michael Bunting, Matthew Wood, Azie Whisblat, and uh Fedor Schvitzkov were all the lowminute total players for the Predators in this game, and they all played over 10 minutes. So I I am honestly asking here. Tyler Pitlick is is in he’s in the lineup at this point for Nikosterm, but what are you getting in five minutes and 43 seconds in nine shifts? What are you getting in nine shifts during the course of a hockey game from that spot? What benefit is that? Yep. It’s not benefiting the team. It’s not benefiting Tyler. He’s been in the league a long time. It, you know, just you’re overworking some of the guys in the upper, you know, lines and uh yeah, it’s not good for for anybody really. And then the decision was made a couple games ago. We’re We’re going to sit We’re going to sit You’re off. It’s a breather. It’s not a punishment. It’s not a demotion. We’re going to sit him because we think that Ben Jones gives us a better chance to win faceoffs at this point. Mindboggling. I And I don’t even think his play has been been bad. I don’t I don’t get it. I I at this point I I am frankly appalled. Why’d you bring him over if you’re not going to play him? The the funny part too is we were talking in the post game and I said he had two faceoffs. They actually took one away. One face off. So you’re tell me like here’s how you boil it down. So what John Hines is saying is that the one face off that Ben Jones won the Wild is worth more than anything that Danilov was bringing to the lineup. There’s no upside with with Ben Jones. You play play the guy you drafted that high. It it it just doesn’t make uh make much sense. And uh you know they’re Hines is going back to his old ways by saying that the veterans are more trustworthy than than your prospects that you drafted high. So again, there’s that uh you know dysfunction between scouting and going just you know with your gut with veterans that some of them clearly shouldn’t even be in the NHL. I’ve got another number for you. 31. That is the number of games that Ben Jones has played at the NHL level without a single point. What’s what’s he doing up here? And it just it it’s makes no sense. Like I’m I’m honestly asking like I I just I don’t understand what and this is you know this is something that the Wild have they they’ve done this with other players like this is not just like a Tyler Pitlick thing and I’m sure Tyler Pitlick is a great teammate and so I’m not like I’m not trying to and weren’t weren’t some of these guys signed specifically to help Iowa? They they needed Iowa needed veterans because they’ve been so bad with with their young players and now you’re signing you’re you’re calling up those guys that were meant just for Iowa. Yeah. And I like I I felt bad in the post game. I had somebody ask, “What do you think of Zeve Williams play this year?” And I I don’t know how to answer that question. hard to get an honest assessment especially when he’s getting sheltered minutes and off uh you know like you said um high high u you know high danger you know situations or you know on special teams that sort of thing and not being on top units it’s hard to when he should be on in those type of minutes and I Like do do they watch this team play? Like does the coach does the coaching staff watch this team play? Yeah. You look at Zeve and he brings the energy. He I mean he was a let that’s what what he did in college is going to translate to the NHL and it it might not look pretty all the time but you need that on this team. He is an engine for sure. If you shut off the in arena ambiance and atmosphere, if you gave somebody that was watching a game like this a pair of headphones, you you’d have people that’d be falling asleep in the stands. Yeah, it’s not it’s not a fun brand of hockey right now for sure. But I just I don’t know. The more that I think about this, the more that we see, cuz another thing that we’ll talk about here after the break, Bill Garren has already started scouting for names to bring in to help this roster and it is exactly who you would think it would would be. So part of me, and this like I go back to this too, like you think about Bill Garin, the player, hit one of his teammates in the head with a stick at practice. So we’re talking like lunatic. Yes. Crazy. I believe the acronym is B AF. Bad A Mfer. one of the most intimidating players you’ll find. And I kind of wonder if this is what he wants, if this is his, you know, we we have spent all this time talking about building this roster towards contending. I’m kind of wondering now if if this is what the end goal was, if this is what the dream was, was whatever this is. Yeah. How about uh and maybe maybe Jack Roselvic saw the warning signs and he’s like, “No, I’ll just go play with Conor McDavid.” He, you know, now he’s starting to score a lot. He’s on their top power play. Yeah. Maybe he saw the warning signs and was like, “No, I am not I’m not signing with Minnesota. It might be a great place to live, but I am I I’ll go I’ll go even further north and go to Alberta and go play with McDavid and Dryidle sounds uh a ton better.” But yeah, you’re you’re right. If he’s making phone calls and God knows what uh you know, if he’s looking for like Ryan Reeves type players, uh you know, Ryan White, remember him? Oh my goodness. Martin Hanzel. Some of these some of these names that have come come through in trades, you’re just you shake your head. Nick Robertson. Oh my. It’s Teeu. Teemu Jason. Yeah. Let’s uh let’s we’ll we’ll talk about that after the break because that is actually accurate that the Wild have checked in on the services of one Nick Robertson. And so we’ll uh we’ll talk after the break. Here uh here here we go again. Today’s episode of Lockown Wild is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back. There’s no better place to get in on all of the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. The Timberwolves have rattled off a couple of wins in a row. So, it’s not too late to cast your crystal ball to the end of the season and say, “I think this Wolves team’s going all the way to the NBA finals.” You can pick them to win the division. There are a wide assortment of futures bets at your disposal, all through FanDuel. And right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Final segment of today’s episode of Locked on Wild. Once again, we thank you for making Locked on Wild your first listen each and every day. Uh again, make sure to like on YouTube and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. So, let’s just start right there, Alex, where we left off before the break. Um Michael Russo confirming in the latest worst seats uh in the house podcast that the Minnesota Wild have indeed checked in and been told not available on Nicholas Robertson. Nick Robertson, who is 59 180 and is literally everything that the Minnesota Wild have at this point. He’s a middle to bottom six player. He doesn’t provide you a ton in the way of scoring. He hits occasion. I I I am here. Here we go again. It’s a band-aid again. It’s a band-aid on the right wrong spot. It’s like It’s like you’ve got a gash on your arm and you’re putting band-aids on your knee. It It makes no sense. They They have to be scouting the guy. It’s I mean, Toronto doesn’t even know what to do with him. And this comes after it was reported that the Wild have kicked tires on Pavle Zachcha and Casey Middlestat. And again, same thing. Middle six at best. They’ve had middle six players at best. Yeah, it there’s no physicality from either of those two either. you know, they get pushed around in Boston and Zaka’s so inconsistent, too. That’s probably why he is looked at on the on the trading, you know, block as well. And it leads me to this question of when Matt Sarello comes back, are we really going to go to the point that, well, hey, Marcus Johansson’s having himself a pretty good year. We don’t need to find anybody to play on the middle on the second line. Marcus Johansson, this version of Marcus Johansson, I promise you, is different. I promise you this version of Marcus Johansson is different from the five others that we’ve seen. The one other of which had a 42 game span a couple of years ago in which he recorded one shot or fewer in 42 of 73 games played. But this is different. Trust me, this time is different. How can it be sustainable just with with the history and he’s now older? Uh so I I I can’t see it being sustainable. We’ll see. It’s it’s amazing that he’s actually produced, but uh yeah, it doesn’t seem highly likely that’ll be sustainable. And so I just I just wonder at this point like what what is what is the and what what version of Zukarella are we going to get too because I mean he already had to go under the knife. So did Nico Sturm. Are they going to be 100%. Who knows? It it seems like this could be it for Zukarella in his NHL career. Maybe he’d go back to play in Norway, but it seems like he’s on the last run of things here as well, but hey, is he gonna be able to keep up and Sterm’s coming off a back you never that is never a good sign, especially at the center position, too. It’s legitimate questions, but assumption is, I think, another big theme for this organization is after 2021, 2022, everything’s going to be fine. They just assumed that everybody was going to run it back. Everybody was going to have the same statistical output that they did in 2021, 2022. And then that didn’t happen. in 2023, 2024, it was like, well, we got to get back to 2021, 2022. And here we are in 2025, 2026, and the thought is still, well, we got to get back to 2021, 2022. Like, and and some of those guys got the, you know, the extensions without, you know, with the no trade uh sweetener attached to it. And you know, you’ve seen uh you know, Felino Hartman just disappear. It you know, you need the those are guys that are have been relied upon in the in the past and to bring you that energy and they’ve been really silent here lately for sure. Yeah. There there have been there are several players that have been just quiet. They sh themselves. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I just I look like statistically right now. Here’s a list of players that currently have zero points. I I’ll include one. Actually, I’ll go to two or maybe three. Um Jared Spurgeon in 14 games, three points. Yakov Trenan in 14 games, two points. Jake Middleton in 14 games, one point. Danelli Yurov in 10 games, one goal. Zack Begoian, no points in five games. Hunter Height played two games, got nine minutes a night and was shipped out. Liam Ogran played five games, averaged nine minutes a night, he was shipped out. David Urechek has no points in 10 games. Marcus Felino is no points in 13 games. Nuts. Ben Jones is 0 for five. Tyler Pitick is 0 for eight. Sounds like a twin Minnesota Twins lineup. Boy, that’s We don’t have time for the desolation over there, but uh we we have plenty of desolation to focus on over here. Um, yeah. I like I there just is which is this this is why I circle back to people saying, “Hey, give them some credit. Give him some credit after the last two wins.” No, not with the competition that was in front of you. You know, Vancouver had so many guys that aren’t regulars in the lineup and Nashville. Nashville’s awful. Yeah. I I just like go do the if you can beat if you can beat Carolina, that will perk my interest. That’s a cup contending team. But if we’ve learned anything about this Minnesota Wild team over the last few seasons, consistency is not in the vocabulary. It’s the wild thing. roller coaster. If if they’re being consistent at all, it’s in the fact that they’re inconsistent. So, you can’t build on momentum that Yeah. just like you think they’re going to build on the momentum and then it turns into a six, seven game losing streak and then everybody kind of starts feeling sorry for themselves and oh, everybody’s being so negative and it’s like and poor poor Brock Brock Faber, he’s always the one that has to fall on the sword, too. It’s like that guy beats himself up more than anybody. I guess that is one of the spots and we’ll I’ll be actually I’m actually kind of curious so I’m going to do a dive into this. Uh that’s been one of the bright spots. So I I’ll we’ll end on a positive. Yes, that has been one of the bright spots over the last several games is that it seems like Brock Fabers kind of turned the corner. Um so I’m very happy about that because as you said, Alex, he is one of the most accountable players on this team. and he takes losses personally, beats himself up like few do and he is one of the few that kind of has done he’s done something about it. It’s amazing and he’s still very young. So he’s, you know, he’s got future captain written all over it, that’s for sure. But as far as anything else goes, this team, they’ve scored 36 goals in 13 games. That’s You can’t be a playoff team with that. And and like you said, the five on five numbers. Yeah. Minus 11 and five on five in 14 games. And Matt Zucarella and Nico Sturm aren’t, you know, that they aren’t just going to be the magic elixir. Marian Gabri’s not walking through that door. He already did for the 25th anniversary celebration, but it wasn’t to lace up his skates. You have got to find some way, whether a prospect or otherwise, you have got to find a way to figure out how to score five on five goals. Whether it be more accurate shooters, finishers, and I’m not talking about like and get out of here with the size thing. You don’t we that is all we have heard about this roster over the last few years and they’re still the smallest team in the NHL. 100%. And then you trade for a guy like David Urechek who’s 6’4 but doesn’t use his body at all. First round pick. It was four. It was four draft picks. I think it was a first and a second and a couple of others and you’re playing him as a third pairing. Now his play has been but um again like zero points there. There is no point in even there’s no point in having any of the young players on the roster if this is if this is the utilization like you know we could we could find we could carve out six minutes for Liam Ogren to play at the NHL level. Well then keep him in Iowa. Yeah. It makes no sense for him to be where he is. He seems like the most likely trade candidate here for sure. Yeah. for probably I I don’t even know at this point. What’s Ryan Reeves up to scoring goals against the Wild? Bill Garren had a had a had a seat from the press box for that. I’m sure he was licking his chops. He had no idea. Um that’s that’s going to do it for today’s episode. Uh so we thank you for joining us here for yet another edition of Lockown Wild. If you missed it during the postgame, I think it’s pretty evident I’ve entered my villain era of uh of wild coverage at this point. Cruella Daytop. Yeah, I you know, you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I guess I have hit that point. But I it it’s not an enjoyable watch right now. and it is relying on the same things to magically fix themselves that have not fixed themselves for several seasons and that just gets that just gets frustrating. So, uh we’ll continue to cover the team whether they figure it out or not. Uh so, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. We got you covered with new episodes every Monday through Friday. As part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, we are your team every day.
The Minnesota Wild’s two-game winning streak masks deeper problems that refuse to go away. Despite victories over Nashville and Vancouver, the team’s five-on-five goal differential remains nightmarish at minus-11 through 14 games, exposing fundamental flaws in their offensive structure and roster construction.
Host Seth Toupal and guest Alex Micheletti dissect the Wild’s troubling pattern of inconsistency, questionable lineup decisions, and organizational dysfunction. Why is Danila Yurov sitting while Ben Jones—pointless in 31 career NHL games—gets ice time? What’s the plan for developing young talent when veterans like Tyler Pitlick play under six minutes? The coaching staff’s messaging conflicts with the front office’s draft strategy, creating a disconnect that threatens Minnesota’s playoff hopes.
Bill Guerin’s reported interest in Nick Robertson and other middle-six forwards raises more questions than answers. With Marcus Foligno pointless in 13 games and key players underperforming, can the Wild thread the needle to reach the postseason? Discover why this Minnesota Wild team needs more than October’s mulligan to fix what’s broken—watch now for the unfiltered analysis Wild fans need to hear.
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24 comments
They may have won last night but they didn't deserve it I don't know what answer is this team is struggling in all aspects and it's hard to watch
Can we get a guy to win a face off unreal
I've been saying Robertson would be a good fit
How would you fix this ? Do we even make the playoffs?
Seeking Average grinders and absolutely refusing to play top prospects top minutes. Hynes is INCOMPETENT. If they extend JOJO I will never watch another Wild game. 😂😂
Since I don’t have a team; all I can say is wow. Across the whole of the NHL what a difference a summer can make. As far as summer and preseason team predictions/anticipations, I don’t think this season is really going the way anyone thought for any team so far. But it’s sure fun to watch and discuss
Thank for the shows everyday 👍👍
I think the Wild will continue to improve. They played a good first period last night, and in my opinion, Jiricek's giveaways in the second period threw off the entire rhythm of the team. People want Hynes to play the young guys. Jiricek is an example of what happens when you play them. How much better other prospects would do if they were brought up is anyone's guess. Last year, we were one offsides away from winning the first round. Should they make the playoffs this year, the expectation should be that they move on to the second round.
Lapanta says it is just a matter of time til Ben Jones breaks through!😆😅🤣😂🤣😂🤣
So the question is how can this stinky skunk change its stripes? Haven't had a new scent in almost 4 years! Dumped two speedy gutsy grinders that were extremely utilitarian, who were getting done what a 4th line should and in place of them, BG created a neverending turnstyle of AHL Lifers, neverwillbes and injury proned disabled cripples. It's MADDENING!!!
Fire hynes asap
Hynes is clueless on how to play his lines…I mean good God you play pitlick 5 effing minutes and jones playing 31 NHL games without a point??? But then ohgren rots away in iowa and yurov sits in press box
And on the coaching capuano is worthless and whoever the other assistant names are.
Lol Alex micheletti I laughed so hard on the twins comparison 😅😅
Narratives change all the time. If people remember back to their draft years, many scouts liked Nick more than Jason Robertson. Jason was taller and a better shooter, but was a bad skater and didn’t have much all around game. Nick is a good skater and puck carrier, can playmaker and score, with the real knock on his draft stock being his size. He’s had a real tough time in Toronto but I think it’s largely due to him getting buried in their lineup. This season he’s playing top six for the first time since his first stint with the leafs and he has 3 goals and 4 assists in 12 games. Not a game changer but not as bad as you make him sound. A majority of prospects come along very slowly in the NHL, dudes like Boldy are an anomaly.
Seth, the numbers don’t lie. This team is not good. We need to realize we need to really have a true rebuild. We are a HC, a couple Asst Coaches, new systems, a 1C, 2 top 6 wingers, and 2 big size (one top 4) defensemen away from a cup contending.
Hynes doesn't know how to develop a 4th line. Ideally you want 4th liners out there on the PK so your star 5 vs 5 guys can rest. I wouldn't trust any Wild 4th liners this season to fight penalties. They are all basically worthless.
Guerin can go .
Who are some GM’s that we can get that Canada and Minnesotans like?
I figured if they couldn't beat a tired team senseless they should do some massive trades, can't expect the smallest team in the NHL to play gritty, that's going to lead to injuries. They need to get bigger, and should have done it yesterday. They barely won, not worth more than a shrug.
This team is FAR from one trade away from “having an answer” If they think they are that’s one of the problems itself They are fielding seven players in their forward group who are either tweeners or are old and slow enough they don’t deserve to player higher than the fourth line this teams management is stuck in amber, thinking the same aging cast is superior to developing young, faster players
I hope we start winning so u whine less
Love villain seth
Uff this was hard to watch.. Some whiny whiny stuff.
The best case scenario would be for the Wild to finish bottom 5 in the league this year and finally draft a #1 center. Billy G and Hynes would be fired as well in this dream. But since we live in reality, we will see Billy make a massive mistake like trading all our assets for Kadri or Panarin…
If I were GM I would move Boldy to 1st line center since there is no other way we are getting a true 1st line center without tanking. Then I'd try trading Rossi for a guy like Dylan Holloway and I'd try trading Ek + an asset for a second line center that can actually shoot the puck and produce off the rush like Shane Pinto who honestly has 1st line center potential as well.
It would be nice to trade Brodin and Spurgeon because I find them too soft but the problem is finding good enough pieces to replace them with.
We can probably get a 3rd round pick for Hartman at the trade deadline. We gotta hope someone will take Trenin off our hands as well. Foligno can't get traded until this offseason… offloading that contract will be hard… I'd like to see a whole new 3rd and 4th line next year.
Hopefully Zuccarello and Tarasenko aren't given contracts for next year. The 1st year the Panthers won the cup, they had 11 new guys on their team. That's the kind of change I wanna see.
For the young guys: I agree that Yurov was doing well and should get more ice time (not healthy scratches). I think Zeev is making the expected amount of mistakes and learning well, IMO he should be getting time on PP1 to really let him let those offensive instincts shine. I’m not sure he’s ready for top four minutes at even strength just yet but getting there. I wanted Jiricek to work this season but it’s obvious he’s not ready and he is hurting the team a ton with those turnovers and bad decisions. Plus he still can’t skate well.. I really hoped he’d improve skating more over the summer but not really. I think Jiricek needs to go to Iowa asap and bring in literally any other right Dman. 😢