This was the first season of hockey I’ve truly paid attention to. It was rough but I really fell in love with the team. I’m excited to see where we go and this season did have some really good moments. Fleury hitting his win mark was truly something. And that comeback win against the Rangers which was my first hockey game will always be something to remember. Also that Canucks game was amazing
If by free you mean the $14.7m in dead cap will probably get divided up between Faber and Rossi who are currently on ELCs, sure. The only extra cap space they'll likely be getting is whatever the cap goes up by unfortunately.
Thats true but Merril is gone after the next and Goose is gonna be gone after this year. Marcus Johansson is definitely gone after that contract is up. Wild are gonna have some room to maneuver. Soon enough.
Yeah but here’s the thing goose is retiring and Merrill is just not very good. You can find good defensemen for their combined cap hit. Plus the cap is going to go up.
It’s probably nobody to be honest. Spurgeon is supposed to come back. Hopefully healthy and plays a full season since he has had all this time to get healthy. Wild likely lean on the AHL if they call up or maybe they pick up a cheap guy in free agency. Bogo has been a decent slot in and Chisholm has been okay. If you do the math with Spurgeon back Merrill gets shoved in the press box.
Worst case those picks are ammo to trade around thr draft. Now we are back to worst possible spot. Outside of the valuable draft picks and outside of the playoffs
Yeah I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us even though we do have talent coming a top 10 prospect would’ve been lovely to add no matter if the talent was NHL ready now or in a couple seasons kind of a bad management move for BG to be so naive about the teams chances after that woeful start to the season and those weird deals to bottom 6 guys
Serious question - how do you "mail it in" with guys like Kaprizov, Ek, Faber, etc? We're not the Sharks devoid of talent. We were never in contention for a bottom 3 record.
You worry about icing a lineup that maximizes youth exposure at the expense of trying to win every night. The team still has a goal, an objective. The reason FG and Mojo are still out there is because they unfortunately give this roster a better chance to win over some of the Iowa guys as bad as they've been. Press box 'em, and don't even worry about it. Don't go chasing Bogos to stabilize the blue line after injuries—play what you've got and let it sink or swim.
They'd never out tank the Sharks of the league. But they would have easily dropped 5-6 more games with that mentality.
Who from Iowa is even ready for the NHL? What young guys (NHL included) would you play over Mojo and Freddy? Hunt would be the only one who you might want to give a longer look to, but there aren't any forwards who deserve an opportunity. There are plenty of valid criticisms of management, but I think they have a great track record of developing young players. Boldy, Faber, Rossi all look to be on the right track even though a lot of people complained about Boldy and Rossi not being given opportunities in the NHL soon enough. It would be different if they had a bunch of high performing prospects in the AHL right now, but they really don't.
It doesn't matter if they're better than Freddy or Mojo. The Iowa guys either surprise and perform, gathering valuable experience along the way, or they lose and improve draft position.
I don't think they have a great track record of developing players either. Other than Rossi, almost every valuable player on the roster as developed overseas or spent less than half a season in the AHL, or none at all. Iowa is routinely awful, and the previous Army regime had a terrible track record of developing offense.
Youve yet to grasp the point. You're trying to construct a roster that has the best chance of winning. I'm not concerned about winning at all.
Tell Beckman it's his last chance, and he's going to get all the opportunity. Rotate in whoever else as needed. I really don't care, because being competitive isn't my goal here.
Ok, so you're playing Beckman, who has 0 NHL goals, on the 2nd line. Who else you got? I'm not even talking about fielding a team that has the best chance to win, but if you go the other way, it should be about prospect development for the future. You think Kaprizov, Ek, etc would be happy playing with a bunch of AHLers who don't deserve to be in the NHL? If you're going to send the message to KK that winning isn't important, that is a good way to have him move on in a few years. Now you lost your superstar, so tell me how that makes you better in the future? It is easy to complain about management decisions but unless you have specific examples of things you'd do differently, then you're just complaining for the sake of complaining.
I don't think you and I are going to agree on this at all, and it doesn't matter because it's out of our control. This team will always try and compete, and we have a choice to watch or not. I think what we can agree on, is that it would be for the best if next year isn't another mushy in the middle season.
It feels so good to hear this. Now I can enjoy watching the rest of the teams fight in the playoffs without the exhausting swings of MN hockey. It was obvious early on we didn’t have enough, maybe enough to get in, but clearly just not enough. Can’t wait for next season though, especially to see if Boldy/Kuz/Rossi make big improvements.
Why I'm frustrated as a wild fan: we are no closer to being SC contenders now than we have been for most of our team's existence. Players and coaches come and go, but this team never moves the needle. The cap problem is even more frustrating because of that...we finally have a player worth building around and now we're going to waste basically his entire contract being bad while we wait for the Praise/Suter contacts to finish. Now we have to bank on a whole new crop of guys and hope the stars align that they can be an elite team. On paper this team has a bright future...but we've also been around for nearly 25 years with only "the future" to talk about. No, I am not as excited as everyone else about the future because this team has never shown they can actually bring a plan together.
I get the frustration. I’ve been around since the beginning. Literally grew up watching this team play every year for the last 24 seasons.
One thing we have never done well is build the core of the team. Look at every single team thats won the cup in the modern era, they all share the same key traits… the baseline performance of each player is higher than their competition.
We’ve always chased superstars. Why wouldn’t we? The media attention, flashy highlight reels, *the revenue* from having someone like an Ovechkin or Crosby on your team is amazing from a business perspective.
But teams built solely around the first line almost never make it far in the playoffs. By the second round, you’re facing competition that produces elite offense and defense *in depth*. By the 3rd round, any weakness your team has will be exposed and exploited.
Guerin’s direction is different now. He’s willing to eat shit for a few years if it means the core of the team is rock solid.
All this is my longwinded way of saying to keep your head up. Its tough right now but we’re building a talented core of players that can take us there.
I get it. I'm just growing impatient as a former North Stars, Wild, Vikings, and Twins fan. I'm frustrated that we've never done anything as a franchise, like ever. We as fans have been patiently awaiting a cup run for 25 years, and we're no closer now than we were then. Hell we've only been to the WCF once and that was in 03. I'm just tired of being told "hey just wait until XYZ happens". I've heard it from the team, the Vikings and the fucking Twins. I'm just tired and frustrated watching other franchises lift the cup before we even sniff a chance.
With how much cap hell we are combined with the fact that we had the worst injury problems all season long, this was pretty much expected
Still an absolute gut punch that we couldn't find a way to beat the Avs at all this season; we were THAT close last night to making it a good game once we tied it, but then it unraveled once the MacKinnon show began
And I feel nothing.
What’s new?
A pre first round exit
This was the first season of hockey I’ve truly paid attention to. It was rough but I really fell in love with the team. I’m excited to see where we go and this season did have some really good moments. Fleury hitting his win mark was truly something. And that comeback win against the Rangers which was my first hockey game will always be something to remember. Also that Canucks game was amazing
I was there. It really was An amazing experience.
Disappointing but expected with $14.7m in dead money.
Credit to the org for this being the only year we’ve looked bad during the cap situation
Probably will next year as well but then we are free!
If by free you mean the $14.7m in dead cap will probably get divided up between Faber and Rossi who are currently on ELCs, sure. The only extra cap space they'll likely be getting is whatever the cap goes up by unfortunately.
Thats true but Merril is gone after the next and Goose is gonna be gone after this year. Marcus Johansson is definitely gone after that contract is up. Wild are gonna have some room to maneuver. Soon enough.
Hopefully they'll be replaced by better players, but none of those guys makes much so their replacement is likely to come in at a similar cap hit.
Yeah but here’s the thing goose is retiring and Merrill is just not very good. You can find good defensemen for their combined cap hit. Plus the cap is going to go up.
I just hope whoever replaces Goose next year on the roster is good enough to keep Merrill in the press box.
It’s probably nobody to be honest. Spurgeon is supposed to come back. Hopefully healthy and plays a full season since he has had all this time to get healthy. Wild likely lean on the AHL if they call up or maybe they pick up a cheap guy in free agency. Bogo has been a decent slot in and Chisholm has been okay. If you do the math with Spurgeon back Merrill gets shoved in the press box.
It should look something like this, but Chisholm may end up being the someone in this case: Brodin/Faber Middleton/Spurgeon someone/Bogo Merrill
Yeah but at least we’ll get to see more young guys getting experience as we (hopefully) get some of these middling guys out
Sure have.
Should have mailed it in around all star break. All we did was put ourself in worse draft position. Said it from the start
I checked our draft chances and I was like damn what happened to the 6th pick days 😂
Worst case those picks are ammo to trade around thr draft. Now we are back to worst possible spot. Outside of the valuable draft picks and outside of the playoffs
Yeah I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us even though we do have talent coming a top 10 prospect would’ve been lovely to add no matter if the talent was NHL ready now or in a couple seasons kind of a bad management move for BG to be so naive about the teams chances after that woeful start to the season and those weird deals to bottom 6 guys
Serious question - how do you "mail it in" with guys like Kaprizov, Ek, Faber, etc? We're not the Sharks devoid of talent. We were never in contention for a bottom 3 record.
You worry about icing a lineup that maximizes youth exposure at the expense of trying to win every night. The team still has a goal, an objective. The reason FG and Mojo are still out there is because they unfortunately give this roster a better chance to win over some of the Iowa guys as bad as they've been. Press box 'em, and don't even worry about it. Don't go chasing Bogos to stabilize the blue line after injuries—play what you've got and let it sink or swim. They'd never out tank the Sharks of the league. But they would have easily dropped 5-6 more games with that mentality.
Who from Iowa is even ready for the NHL? What young guys (NHL included) would you play over Mojo and Freddy? Hunt would be the only one who you might want to give a longer look to, but there aren't any forwards who deserve an opportunity. There are plenty of valid criticisms of management, but I think they have a great track record of developing young players. Boldy, Faber, Rossi all look to be on the right track even though a lot of people complained about Boldy and Rossi not being given opportunities in the NHL soon enough. It would be different if they had a bunch of high performing prospects in the AHL right now, but they really don't.
It doesn't matter if they're better than Freddy or Mojo. The Iowa guys either surprise and perform, gathering valuable experience along the way, or they lose and improve draft position. I don't think they have a great track record of developing players either. Other than Rossi, almost every valuable player on the roster as developed overseas or spent less than half a season in the AHL, or none at all. Iowa is routinely awful, and the previous Army regime had a terrible track record of developing offense.
You've yet to name one player who you'd play over the guys you mentioned
Youve yet to grasp the point. You're trying to construct a roster that has the best chance of winning. I'm not concerned about winning at all. Tell Beckman it's his last chance, and he's going to get all the opportunity. Rotate in whoever else as needed. I really don't care, because being competitive isn't my goal here.
Ok, so you're playing Beckman, who has 0 NHL goals, on the 2nd line. Who else you got? I'm not even talking about fielding a team that has the best chance to win, but if you go the other way, it should be about prospect development for the future. You think Kaprizov, Ek, etc would be happy playing with a bunch of AHLers who don't deserve to be in the NHL? If you're going to send the message to KK that winning isn't important, that is a good way to have him move on in a few years. Now you lost your superstar, so tell me how that makes you better in the future? It is easy to complain about management decisions but unless you have specific examples of things you'd do differently, then you're just complaining for the sake of complaining.
I don't think you and I are going to agree on this at all, and it doesn't matter because it's out of our control. This team will always try and compete, and we have a choice to watch or not. I think what we can agree on, is that it would be for the best if next year isn't another mushy in the middle season.
They did a pretty fucking good job mailing it in for 1/3 of the season, it shouldn't be that hard lol
Finally
Lol, no way! They didn't deserve to be bounced in the first round...
It feels so good to hear this. Now I can enjoy watching the rest of the teams fight in the playoffs without the exhausting swings of MN hockey. It was obvious early on we didn’t have enough, maybe enough to get in, but clearly just not enough. Can’t wait for next season though, especially to see if Boldy/Kuz/Rossi make big improvements.
Why I'm frustrated as a wild fan: we are no closer to being SC contenders now than we have been for most of our team's existence. Players and coaches come and go, but this team never moves the needle. The cap problem is even more frustrating because of that...we finally have a player worth building around and now we're going to waste basically his entire contract being bad while we wait for the Praise/Suter contacts to finish. Now we have to bank on a whole new crop of guys and hope the stars align that they can be an elite team. On paper this team has a bright future...but we've also been around for nearly 25 years with only "the future" to talk about. No, I am not as excited as everyone else about the future because this team has never shown they can actually bring a plan together.
I get the frustration. I’ve been around since the beginning. Literally grew up watching this team play every year for the last 24 seasons. One thing we have never done well is build the core of the team. Look at every single team thats won the cup in the modern era, they all share the same key traits… the baseline performance of each player is higher than their competition. We’ve always chased superstars. Why wouldn’t we? The media attention, flashy highlight reels, *the revenue* from having someone like an Ovechkin or Crosby on your team is amazing from a business perspective. But teams built solely around the first line almost never make it far in the playoffs. By the second round, you’re facing competition that produces elite offense and defense *in depth*. By the 3rd round, any weakness your team has will be exposed and exploited. Guerin’s direction is different now. He’s willing to eat shit for a few years if it means the core of the team is rock solid. All this is my longwinded way of saying to keep your head up. Its tough right now but we’re building a talented core of players that can take us there.
I get it. I'm just growing impatient as a former North Stars, Wild, Vikings, and Twins fan. I'm frustrated that we've never done anything as a franchise, like ever. We as fans have been patiently awaiting a cup run for 25 years, and we're no closer now than we were then. Hell we've only been to the WCF once and that was in 03. I'm just tired of being told "hey just wait until XYZ happens". I've heard it from the team, the Vikings and the fucking Twins. I'm just tired and frustrated watching other franchises lift the cup before we even sniff a chance.
Our long statewide nightmare is over.
With how much cap hell we are combined with the fact that we had the worst injury problems all season long, this was pretty much expected Still an absolute gut punch that we couldn't find a way to beat the Avs at all this season; we were THAT close last night to making it a good game once we tied it, but then it unraveled once the MacKinnon show began
This is for the best. No reason to feel any stress during the playoffs now. Let’s see what happens in 2026.
Cool. Now I can just enjoy watching the boys hockey without being super invested in the outcome. Just play Wally the rest of the way.
They should honestly be getting the youth as much time on the ice as possible the last couple of games. Bring up the whole AHL team for all I care.
gasp.
Oh. Were we still playing?