STRATEGY: Integrating Marco Rossi, Ryan Hartman, Vladimir Tarasenko for OPTIMUM Play #minnesotawild

STRATEGY: Integrating Marco Rossi, Ryan Hartman, Vladimir Tarasenko for OPTIMUM Play #minnesotawild

On today’s episode of Locked on Wild, with key pieces out of the lineup, we’ll discuss how the Wild can integrate them back in and Hey, this is Matt Holdy 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. Hello, I’m Seth Toppel. Welcome to Locked on Wild, part of the Locked On podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Locked on Wild is your daily Minnesota Wild podcast. We are your team each and every day and we thank you for making Lockown Wild your first listen each and every day. As well, make sure you follow us on all of your favorite audio platforms, whether it be YouTube or Apple or Spotify. We’re glad to have you along for the season. So, make sure to uh drop us a like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. Today’s episode of Lockdown Wild is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and you can win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. On today’s episode of Locked Down Wild, we are going to take a look at how the Wild can integrate pieces currently out of the lineup back in and still click on all cylinders as they have. We’ll then take a look at a couple of big games coming up for the Wild, including a matinea on Friday against the Colorado Avalanche. That should be a mustsee game. and we’ll take a little time to size up the rest of the central division. The Nashville Predators are on the brink of collapse, or you could argue that they already have. And a new trade proposal should absolutely send Blues fans into an absolute fit. Uh so we’ll talk about all that here on today’s show. My name is Seth Toppel, host of Locked Down Wild, credentialed media member, bringing you inside access for the last four years, and we’re joined on a uh Tuesday edition of the show by Alex Mleti. Floating edition once again, but we uh we get him in. That’s that’s the main thing. And Alex, the team’s playing really well right now, 91 and one, and they got a lot of different areas on this roster that have clicked, but you’re doing this without a couple of key fixtures in the lineup in Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman. And we got to have a conversation, I think, about Vladimir Terasenko and kind of where he fits into all of this as well. So, I wanted to start today by just looking at kind of the ideal placements for where these guys slot back in because with Marco Rossi, he is an undeniable uh top six center, but you’ve got Danilla Eurovv playing in that spot right now. And I know he’s not getting, you know, a huge amount of minutes, but he certainly looks like he’s comfortable playing in that spot with uh with Carill and with Matt Sarello. So, you know, you you’ve got yourself uh you got yourself some options once Rossy’s ready to return. Yeah, this is great uh for your off’s development and you know, playing with fellow Russian Krill makes things easy for anybody, right? And uh Ziggurella just is is so calm out there and he already has the the chemistry with with Capri Soft, so it makes it just overall really easy to to play well. But you you also have to you know Europe up as the young guy have to just just play your game. Don’t don’t do anything crazy and that you should have success with those you know type of players out there. So we’ll I want to go through the players first and then we’ll kind of try to fit them back in. Uh Ryan Hartman obviously um will come back in and he’ll probably be playing more of a bottom six role. But you’re talking about a guy that can give you some versatility. I think with as well as Denil Yurov has played, you’re probably looking at Hartman being more of a wing or Yurov being a wing with Hartman. But the versatility and uh the versatility in the defense is uh is certainly something that can add to the puzzle once once Hartman returns. Yeah, I like your off with with Hartman. you know, if you know, if you know, if Hartman comes back soon enough and uh then you you know, you slot Rossi back up with with Capri Soft and and Zigguro. I just think that makes a lot of sense. And, you know, and you know, if they start to struggle, you can, like you said, they’re so versatile. You can switch things back up and if Rossi has to play the third line, so be it. But, you know, it’s it’s all about winning. It’s uh you know, there’s no these guys are pros. There’s no hurt feelings. I I don’t think they especially with the way things started, you just want to ride the momentum and and keep it going because as as we’ve seen things can change super fast and uh you know you’re seeing teams run through the injuries. Uh look at Winnipeg you know if they don’t have Hleuck it it gets disastrous really quick for them because they don’t really have a reliable you know backup behind them. So it, you know, you just have to have to keep plugging along. And thank goodness, you know, Yes. and Gus, no injuries with them. They’ve been doing it without without them being injured. So, uh, they’ve just been plugging in guys left and right and, you know, one guy comes back and then another another goes out. It’s perfect title on on the episode here, the musical injury chairs. Yeah. just they in and out, in and out, in and out. We we know that once Rossi and Hartman are ready to return that that’s likely going to mean Ben Jones and Tyler Pitlick back to Iowa. What is going to be interesting is what happens with Liam Oakran when Vladimir Terasenko is ready to return because I think that’s the matchup between those two. I think that’s the the really interesting kind of roster battle at this point. Um because once once Hartman and Rossi are back, your fourth line is going to be Sturm, Felino, and Trenion. And I I think that is I think that’s perfectly fine. Um I I think honestly that’s that’s going to be even better than what we’ve seen over the last few years. As far as the fourth line goes, you likely are going to have some combination of Hartman Eurovv or try this on for size. If you’re comfortable with Danilurov playing with Carell Capri off right now, do you go Yurov at the 1C, Rossi at the two, and E at the three? We’ve seen that before, right? So, or at least we’ve seen Ek play in the bottom six just uh to make things things work. You could, you know, Ek is the best defensive forward on the team, too. So, if he has to play a checking line, so be it. And as we’ve seen, he takes basically every demanding face off, no matter what the situation is, what you know, what time, he’s always going to be out there for a critical draw and can get off the ice after, too. So, that was kind of Yeah, that’s like the numbers defensively for EC this year have been great. Um the offense, you know, is still kind of coming along, but defensive numbers. Yeah, that’s that’s what’s critical. And I’m I’m sure he’ll take he’ll take all the wins over the amount of goals he’s he’s scored. And, you know, shutting guy shutting down the the new studs of the league and like, you know, Leo Carlson and, you know, Cabbrini over the over this little stretch here was was really impressive. Yeah. And I I again I’ll go back to it. I truly am going to be fascinated to see what happens between Terasenko and Ogrren. I think we know that it’s probably going to be Terasenko that wins that spot, right? But you’re looking at putting him in probably a third line role now because I don’t He didn’t like that in Detroit. He didn’t like that in Detroit. So that’s you know he started to pout in Detroit. Is he gonna do the same thing here? You know, the only thing he’ll he’d really like in that type of situation is he’d probably still get power play time. Not on not on the first unit, doesn’t seem like anymore, but second unit the scraps that that they get. And this whole little stretch here of games too has been interesting because we thought we would never see Ogrren again, but then he was kind of forced to to come up and, you know, has played hard. uh you know to to try to to stay in the lineup. Do you keep playing him to to show off to other teams, you know, all the scouting that’s been been going on? Uh yeah, it’s just Yeah, it’s uh it’s a predicament that uh that Hines is in for sure and with with Garen, too. And uh I I saw that Garen’s been been at seen at some some games. I saw that he was in Montreal the other night. that could be double duty, you know, for in the, you know, Olympic, you know, maybe looking at Cole Caulfield and and stuff like that. Uh, but, uh, you know, he’s also out there trying to make better trades. Yeah, he he better he better make that team. They they need the the scoring. I know he had a quote out there that uh if you can’t check, this this isn’t the type of tournament for you. But you have to you have to have the skill out there. I I’ll take I’ll take all the Clayton Kellers, the the Cole Caulfields of the world. You need that skill, too. We got to just stop letting team personnel in front of microphones, right? It never goes well. We just got to stop. Christmas in July. We’ll never forget that one. Oh boy. Uh so what it what it does though, the positive spin on this is is you have gotten back to having depth now. is once these guys come back and they they’re still, you know, they’re still a ways away. We’re still in week to week mode, but at some point they’ll come back classic. Yeah. We we don’t know what that means. We don’t know what any of the injury designations mean. It’s like the um it’s like the opening to Whose Line Is It Anyway? Welcome to the Minnesota Wild where the injury designations are made up and the points do matter. spin the wheel again for for when when they think they would actually come back, but it it’ll give it’ll give them some depth and you know you I think you can make some compelling cases on on any of those routes. So, let’s do this. When particular players come back into the lineup, comment below as to what you think the line combinations should be. Uh we’ll uh we’ll save the best responses and we’ll get to those later on here in the week. Uh when we come back, we’re going to take a look at the upcoming games for the Minnesota Wild. Uh they have a big one coming up on Friday, but uh don’t overlook Chicago who is uh lurking. We’ll talk about that as we continue today’s episode of Locked on Wilds after this. Today’s episode of Locked on Wild is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on 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 helps keep every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. From a hockey perspective, I always like to lean with the anytime goal scorer. And since the Wild are playing Chicago uh tomorrow, Carell Capri off loves to score himself some goals against Chicago. So go that go Carroll Capri off anytime goal for your $5 bet. And if that hits, you’ll be much much richer than that because 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. Welcome back to today’s edition of Locked Wild. Once again, we thank you for making Lockdown Wild your first listen each and every day and for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. Alex, let’s look at what’s coming up for the Wild because uh they have lurking next week. We’ll talk more about this next week. They’ve got the West Coast Ringer on the way as they’ll be playing in order Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle in order next week. So before that, we get a little central division slice as the Wild will be at Chicago tomorrow, 7:30 p.m. and then a 2:30 matinea Black Friday special against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, followed by a game against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Uh don’t overlook Chicago. They are a uh pluckucky team this year. They’ve got Conor Baddard. It’s not as easy as just banking the two points. Much like we’ve seen with the San Jose Sharks, they’ve been playing so much better and uh that young uh core of of guys that they’ve grouped together through really good drafting is is starting to to make the team and they don’t want to lose anymore. And Bard, I I’m sure you saw that goal the other night against Calgary. The his release is just on a whole whole another level. love to see some of the golfers uh former golfers playing well for them too. Sam Renzelle and Oliver Moore and they’re getting getting better goalending. They have you know former Wild Ryan Donado too. So we we’ll be we’ll be seeing him. Andre Barovski. So they have some tero Terrain. So, they have some veterans mixed in uh with this young core that they want to to see and grow instead of being in Rockford and they’re letting them they’re letting the young guys play. What a what a shocking development there. And uh you know I remember when we were doing the Central Division coaching rankings and I had Blill up really high and I just I just thought he’d bring a calming presence to that organization and u so far so good the return on investment for him after some of Rocky coaching before he was hired. uh that Colorado game on Friday. Is there a better group of four goalenders in the NHL than what you’re going to get between the two teams on Friday? It’s it’s amazing. And uh credit to Wedgewood, too. It looks like he’s being looked at for team Canada. So, you know, good on him. And uh the Wild goalies are are are playing fantastic. And you know, you got potentially maybe two Canadian goalies uh up for up for up for Colorado. And uh you know, Kale Mars is just looking like another Norris win for him. He’s just on another level. And uh Marty Nichas is you know, he got that big deal with them and he’s he’s playing at another level. And you know, Nathan McKinnon, he’s such a great leader. He demands them to be on top of things every single game. And if you’re not uh up to par, you know, he’s going to he’s going to let you know. It doesn’t matter who it is. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 different players that already have double digits for points uh for the uh the Avalanche. And how about Brent Burns? 11 points. He’s got two goals through 22 games, but he’s playing 20 minutes a night. As a 40-year-old, he’s a plus six. As a 40-year-old, he keeps himself in such great shape. You know, if you don’t if you don’t stay in in the shape that he is, you you aren’t going to have that type of production and last that long and the amount of minutes that he’s, you know, putting in every night. and it’s not easy as we know in in in the you know in that uh environment uh in up in Denver and so yeah kudos to him and he’s bringing you know some great leadership and some minutes that they definitely need on that back end and then we finish the week with a game against the Buffalo Sabres at home. Second night of a backtoback is I I can’t figure them out. They were horrible. They were horrible to start the year. They’ve kind of started to put it back together, but they still have a long way to go. Tage Thompson Tuck. Yeah, it’s the tease, but it’ll be that’ll be one where it’s like you can’t you can’t take it for granted. uh you have to you have to kind of will some energy out of um out of the reserves for that game because it’ll be second night of a backto-back. Thankfully, it’s a night game after an early afternoon game most likely. Yes, sir. And uh yeah, they just uh you rely on your goalending so much on those, you know, back end of the back to backs because, you know, your forward and defensive group is is tired. And so you just have to make the the easy saves and if you have to swallow a puck uh and and get a, you know, a face off, so be it to to limit limit the rebounds and, you know, kind of battle. seems like they try to just get get the point and then who you know whatever happens in overtime happens but uh it’ll probably be one of those grind out games for sure. Yeah, that’ll be a that’ll be a grimy one after what should be a fun Friday with a ton going on in the sports world. So, make sure to uh tune in. Uh, it’s going to be easier to find this game than it will be to find the uh the Black Friday Netflix game. It’s on Netflix, isn’t it? For football or for hockey or Yeah. Yeah, for football. Football. Yeah, I think it’s it might be Amazon Prime. Who knows? It’s there. There’s so many so many streaming things out there. It’s uh it’s insane. I wish you could just go back to just having it all together, but uh it’s a different world in 2025. I would rather have Jordan Bennington than multiple streaming platforms to watch uh different games. And evidently uh Jordan Bennington can be had because the St. Louis Blues are open for business. And we got to talk about may maybe the most hilarious trade proposal uh that I have ever seen that will put Blues fans in the blender. Uh we’ll uh we’ll talk about that in full detail as we continue today’s episode of Locked on Wilds after this. Today’s episode of Locked on Wild is brought to you by Game Time Hockey season is in full swing and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. 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Terms apply. That’s code L O C K D O NHL for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. final segment of today’s edition of Locked on Wild. Once again, we thank you for making Lockown Wild your first listen each and every day. Make sure to hit that like button if you’re watching on YouTube. Uh YouTube numbers continue to uh to rise through the roof. So, uh make sure to tell your friends if you have friends that are Wild fans looking for a daily podcast covering the team. I know I know one I know one that might be of uh of interest to them. So just uh make sure to hit subscribe. Just search Locked Wild and you’ll find all of our platforms that uh that you can view the show on. Alex, we have to talk about this. Uh the St. Louis Blues have kind of started to put the word out there that they’re open for business. And NHL rumor report, which uh I follow on X, said the following. The strongest speculation ties Jordan Bennington to Edmonton. The Oilers are also seeing if they can get a defenseman out of St. Louis at the same time. The potential deal would most likely be built around Stuart Skinner going back to St. Louis. That was from Sportsnet. Nick, uh, is it Caprios? Caprios. Yeah, Caprios. Yeah. Um, that would be that would be the crulest twist of fate of all. Blues fans have already been just Bennington is such a roller coaster. Could you imagine Skinner? It would be even worse. I those poor Blues fans. Look at look at how Skinner’s been playing for Edmonton. You mostly you have to hope that your offense can put up five or six goals or else you’re you’re doomed because Skinner puts you in the hole so quick. It’s it’s crazy. Uh Skinner started against Dallas uh in tonight’s game, the only game. He did not make it out of the He did not make it out of the second period. He uh he gave up four goals on eight shots. And let’s just let’s just take a tally here. Number of times that Skinner has not finished a game. Uh one, two. Well, it’s two, but um gave up. He was absolutely shellacked in a nine to one win for Colorado over Edmonton. He started that game and the loss to Dallas. He is sitting at a 3.39 goals against average this month with an 876 save percentage. Horrendous. That is not NHL quality. That’s that’s AHL. But it’s funny that St. Louis finds themselves at in this predicament of like our formula is not working. No, we got to do something to kind of change it up. uh they find themselves obviously in a little better spot, but kind of the same sort of thing that Nashville is dealing with right now is another team that just, you know, they they assembled the Avengers of NHL free agents and it has gone horribly wrong over the uh over the course of the last two seasons. And this year, uh there were a couple of players that were interviewed earlier in the year and they’re like, “Yeah, it feels like the vibe is better on this team.” team and I’m like, well, you guys are worse off in the standings than you were last year. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s the vibes are like I don’t know. They just uh these guys got big big deals and then have stopped scoring completely and then defensively they’re they’re horrible too. So, it’s uh you’re really trapped because look, they were a team that has been a playoff team, but now these young teams want to take their spots. So, team like that, if Winnipeg doesn’t have a healthy hellbuck, watch out because that’s another spot that these young teams want to scoot in and get a wild card spot or, you know, if they’re in the Pacific, uh they want to take one of those uh Pacific spots, too. And look at Utah. I mean, Logan Culie had four goals last night against Vegas. They just dominated Vegas. And so, these teams are not afraid of the the teams that have always been at the top. They they they’ve been getting great goalending. And then these young guys are so skilled in their scoring. So, watch out the rest of the Central and West. And as far as trades go for the Minnesota Wilds, th this is kind of the thing I wanted to spotlight here. So, we at at this point in the season, we’re we’re entering the latter stages of November. You have had the St. Louis Blues say we’re open for business. You’ve had the Vancouver Conucks say that they are open for business. I would imagine within the next week or two, Nashville will be in a similar story. Um, the Toronto Maple Leafs, I don’t know if anybody has checked on them lately, but they are in last play last place in the uh the Eastern Conference. Obviously, not having Austin Matthews really hurts you. But this was this is what we were waiting to see is who fell out, who fell out and said, “All right, we’re not going to be able to do it this year. So, we got to we got to sell off some assets.” And so now that we’re kind of at this point at the end of November, if there’s a move to be made by Bill Garren, this is probably the time where he starts to really pick up some steam on that. No doubt about it. And now that those teams are kind of falling out, too, they want to be in the Gavin McKenna race. So, you’re really gonna see some teams say, “All right, you can have our veterans.” But, uh, you know, for example, I saw today that the asking price for Ryan O’Reilly might be a first and another high prospect. I was like, “Oh my goodness.” So, the prices might be price like it might be really high if you really want to to get somebody. So yeah, if you think you can can be in the cup race, which it seems to be more wide open than in in recent years and so yeah, it just could be really interesting too because we have the Olympics coming up and what if there’s injuries in that? Remember we saw Shade Theodore get hurt in the for nations. So I’m sure these GMs are like please no injuries uh at uh at the Olympics because some of those guys at the Olympics could get you know could get traded. So yeah, it’s going to be it’s going to be a wild uh wild stretch here and uh with the condensed schedule too. We you know we’ve se we’re seeing so many backtobacks and yeah potential for for injuries there and uh our teams willing to give up these you know these high draft picks or first round draft pick where it could potentially you know be a Gavin McKenna if you win the lottery. Yeah, it will uh it will be very interesting to see how it plays out. Um I uh I guess we’ll just have to uh we’ll just have to wait and see. But um you just hope that you just hope that some team that has something of intrigue kind of falls out of the race and then you can uh Yeah, if we I mean if we’re see if we’re seeing Garen scouting this early, you know, he’s he’s still looking looking out there for maybe potentially in a couple weeks or more so near the trade deadline. just getting an early look at uh at what what could potentially be out there to Yeah, like you said, we’re we’re going to have more teams uh get uh get in give up uh tank mode. You hate to see it, but they are going to do that. It’s it’s crazy that Vancouver’s really out there saying that already. And the potential of a you know Quinn Hughes getting moved would be like earth earth shaking. And uh we’ll we’ll see if that happens. Could you imagine Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber, and Zeve Buham on the same roster? That that I mean they there was communication between Vancouver and the Wild for Rossi, but uh Garen took a look at the Vancouver roster and he wasn’t uh really impressed for what he could get back for Rossi. You know, sometimes the best move is not making a move, right? So, yeah, we’ll we’ll we’ll see. That’s very true. To be determined indeed. Well, that will do it for today’s episode here on Locked on Wild. Once again, if you have not already, make sure to like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. We’ve got new episodes for you every Monday through Friday right here on Locked on Wild, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. We are your team every day.

Minnesota Wild gear up for a crucial roster reintegration as Marco Rossi, Ryan Hartman, and Vladimir Tarasenko eye their returns. How will Danila Yurov’s breakout impact the top-six center rotation, and can the Wild maintain chemistry with key pieces rotating in and out? Seth Toupal and Alex Micheletti weigh lineup options and debate whether Tarasenko or Liam Öhgren offers more upside in a jam-packed forward group.

Central Division drama heats up with the Nashville Predators facing collapse and the St. Louis Blues signaling they’re open for business—could a Jordan Binnington-for-Stuart Skinner trade send fans into a frenzy? Upcoming matchups against Chicago, Colorado, and Buffalo promise high-stakes hockey, with Connor Bedard’s Blackhawks and the Avalanche’s deep offense in focus. Get insider perspective on Minnesota’s trade targets and playoff aspirations as the race for roster depth intensifies.

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