Dan Wallace: Shutout Again Story of This Wild Team

Thanks for a great year of blogging Dan and I sincerely thank you for keeping us informed on everything Wild. There is no doubt a shakeup is in order and whether it is a GM or not I sure hope BB is not back because he is not the guy for this group. I would try and bring in AV from the Rangers but one thing for sure I want a guy with a proven record and not a rookie coach. BB did not get the most out of Niederreitter or Coyle, however you have to wonder where this team would have finished if healthy. Niederreiter, Coyle, Parise, Spurgeon, Granlund, Suter and Dubnyk all had injuries that derailed the team. Plus very questionable coaching and player management. I hope you are right about Ennis. IMO Staal, Zucker and Dumba had amazing years and trading Dumba would be a huge mistake. Thanks again Dan, see you MnGump, Gus and all next year.

Thanks for a great year of blogging Dan and I sincerely thank you for keeping us informed on everything Wild. There is no doubt a shakeup is in order and whether it is a GM or not I sure hope BB is not back because he is not the guy for this group. I would try and bring in AV from the Rangers but one thing for sure I want a guy with a proven record and not a rookie coach. BB did not get the most out of Niederreitter or Coyle, however you have to wonder where this team would have finished if healthy. Niederreiter, Coyle, Parise, Spurgeon, Granlund, Suter and Dubnyk all had injuries that derailed the team. Plus very questionable coaching and player management. I hope you are right about Ennis. IMO Staal, Zucker and Dumba had amazing years and trading Dumba would be a huge mistake. Thanks again Dan, see you MnGump, Gus and all next year.

My two cents: as much as I didn't like Boudreau making excuses for a loss that laid the blame outside his own team overall he is a good coach. The problem is that Minny is on the wrong side of the build now. The team can work with the same coach/gm if they are willing to do a reset.

For the Jets in 2015 the team had pushed and made the playoffs and probably could have tinkered with the edges and made it again, however, it was decided that the team had given all they had to give and didn't have enough horses to be a real contender. They let a number of serviceable veterans go and made room for young players, suffered some growing pains, won a draft lottery and trusted the process.

The changes needed are on the ice more than in the boardroom or coaching staff.
Are the Wild a good team? (yes) Can they win a round with group similar to current team? (yes) Do they have an upside strong enough to win a championship? (I don't think so). The Parise/Suter window is time limited and even with both present it hasn't been enough to carry the team deep, they need renewed depth.

I will also preface this by extending a huge THANK YOU to Mr. Wallace! You have no idea how appreciative I (we) am/are to have someone writing for HB Wild and the State of Hockey that is in tune and always up to the task of essentially daily blogs! So again thank you!

As far as this squad goes, I am personally for big changes. Time to move on from the old "future" of the Wild. Zucker had a great regular season, but I am ready to move on from his services. I think it's time to get some quality pieces in return for him as well as Coyle and Nino. These guys combined for a whopping ZERO points in the post season. IMO that is totally unacceptable as the 3 of the 4 corner stones of what is/has supposedly been the "future" of this franchise. Fletch went out of his way to make sure these guys were protected and they failed to show up for the post season.

Chuck Fletcher: GONE. Bruce Boudreau: GONE

Personally, I think its just time to blow this thing up. Playoffs are all great and everything, but I'd rather not make the post season than make it and continually appear to be the team that doesn't belong there. Last post season was bad enough, this one was pretty humiliating to say the least. Time to start over.

Whether or not I agree with you all the time, just want to say I respect the passion and hard work put into all these Wild blogs Dan. Side note, same goes for respecting the passion of MnGump, despite how often we've gotten into it over the years.

As a Blues fan, I can't say I'm sorry to see the Wild lose, they are definitely more of a rival than Jets are. But at the same time, as Blues fan, I know just how much it sucks, it never quite working out for the Cup, and feel for you guys.

Whether or not I agree with you all the time, just want to say I respect the passion and hard work put into all these Wild blogs Dan. Side note, same goes for respecting the passion of MnGump, despite how often we've gotten into it over the years.

As a Blues fan, I can't say I'm sorry to see the Wild lose, they are definitely more of a rival than Jets are. But at the same time, as Blues fan, I know just how much it sucks, it never quite working out for the Cup, and feel for you guys.
- Antilles

Classy words Antilles. Apreciated and reciprocated.

Some hard but truthful words. Seems like the Cup winning teams the past few years have either gone through huge rebuilds or huge free agency changes. Take Chicago for example. There were some lean years. They moved a lot of veteran players and built a team through the draft and trades.
With the ultimate goal of winning the Cup, one can't be happy with just making the playoffs. It's like sitting in traffic. To win the ultimate prize it might take some big moves.

Some hard but truthful words. Seems like the Cup winning teams the past few years have either gone through huge rebuilds or huge free agency changes. Take Chicago for example. There were some lean years. They moved a lot of veteran players and built a team through the draft and trades.
With the ultimate goal of winning the Cup, one can't be happy with just making the playoffs. It's like sitting in traffic. To win the ultimate prize it might take some big moves.
- MNHawksfan

Well stated hawk

I was pulling for the Wild(but also for WIN! sucks when the two teams you want out of the west get together in the first round)
As I see it..... The problems with the type of re-build you guys need, Is that you cannot show loyalty to aging players. And you need to be ready to suffer through a few lean years to get the pieces you need. Let the aging vets contracts expire, fill their spots with promising young-ins, get your cap to min. levels, and pick up good/great pieces from cap strapped teams. And don't let one good year de-rail your plan.
The two hardest parts of this for the fans are the lean years, And not re-signing vets. Fans in general love them some vets. But the "new" NHL is not about vets anymore(as it used to be) It is all about the entry level contract!!!

Just as with the Rangers, it should be an interesting off season up North there regarding some roster changes, despite the salary cap increasing a few million dollars in amount to just +/- $80M. The Rangers had begun so in shedding some cap space back in February to go under a re-tool mode in both, becoming younger and also to compete for a return to the playoffs next season.
The Wild have 6 players with a minimum $5M cap hit comprising $38M in cap space, who are locked in for at least 2 more seasons, among which includes a little over $20M of cap locked up for even longer in Parise & Suter, and of lesser length in Niederreiter. Add that to the $13M+ tied up in those with just under $5M cap hits, with 3 players in Ennis, Brodin, and Dubdnyk. That's over $51M total cap space assumed by just 9 of the 23 maximum roster players, making it likely that a move or two to shed of some cap space will be necessary to improve the team balance throughout overall, especially goal scoring wise for when it counts the most.

I will echo all the sentiments that have been posted on here. Thank you Dan for all the blogs that you have done, keeping all of us Wild fans well informed, and giving us a place to play GM, air out our complaints and, at times, throw praise on the Wild. Now we all get to start making our plans on what the Wild need to do during this off-season to improve...well, after this week I guess, as I am tied up trying to wade through the NFL draft.