Tony Dean: MNWild Offseason Prep and Organizational Prospect Rankings Update

IMO the Wild should try to package Granlund and Spurgeon to an Eastern Conference team. I'd like to see the Wild go after Anders Lee personally. Then try to sign Carl Soderberg to a modest 3 year deal. Move Coyle to the wing where he is much more effective. Then give Graovac the Haula/Granlund treatment and give him every opportunity to make the big club. Bigger at center with more skill, and a younger faster power forward in Lee to compliment Parise.



Parise-Graovac/Soderberg-Lee

Zucker-Koivu-Coyle

Vanek-Graovac/Soderberg-Pominville

Cooke/Schroeder-Haula-Fontaine

Tony Dean! Missed you buddy!
Great post, and pretty spot on.
Do you have sense of the cohesiveness of the team and if a shake up would be positive or negative? Seems to me Spurdgen is well liked.

how close would a spurgeon/haula for mantha/helm trade be do you think?

IMO the Wild should try to package Granlund and Spurgeon to an Eastern Conference team. I'd like to see the Wild go after Anders Lee personally. Then try to sign Carl Soderberg to a modest 3 year deal. Move Coyle to the wing where he is much more effective. Then give Graovac the Haula/Granlund treatment and give him every opportunity to make the big club. Bigger at center with more skill, and a younger faster power forward in Lee to compliment Parise.



Parise-Graovac/Soderberg-Lee

Zucker-Koivu-Coyle

Vanek-Graovac/Soderberg-Pominville

Cooke/Schroeder-Haula-Fontaine
- mnhockeyguy

man not me. not big on either Lee or Soderberg.

Tony Dean! Missed you buddy!
Great post, and pretty spot on.
Do you have sense of the cohesiveness of the team and if a shake up would be positive or negative? Seems to me Spurdgen is well liked.
- Tom Dusome

very Kind Sir! I think Spurgeon is certainly well liked BUT beyond making this team better via trade this would be business decision because Spurgeon is making 3.6mil this year and is a UFA next year. The Wild has Brodin and Scandella locked up long term on very reasonable contracts with Suter, Dumba, Folin, Olofsson, and Labbe in pipeline.

how close would a spurgeon/haula for mantha/helm trade be do you think?
- joco0501

Mantra anything would get two thumbs up from me. Detroit certainly will be looking for a puck mover and Spurgeon should be on their radar!

how close would a spurgeon/haula for mantha/helm trade be do you think?
- joco0501

I doubt it, replace Haula with Granlund

Didn't Harding retire a few weeks ago?

I'm not sure there was a Wild meltdown against Chicago. In my opinion, the Blackhawks are a better team, period. Are they a sweep better than the Wild? Maybe not, but Chicago is the better team right now and that's that.

There are some things to fix on the existing roster first. In my opinion, shoot the puck! Too many times did we see one extra nifty pass to the slot that got picked off by one of the several waiting defenders when there was a good shot from elsewhere. And by shooting, I mean hit the net, Pominville! So many jokes here, none of them appropriate. In other words, more shooters = better PP. You can't have 40% of your 1st PP unit not willing to shoot the puck (i.e. Koivu and Suter).

I really think Granlund could take a step in the right direction so long as he stops deferring to the veteran players for shots. He has a good shot and when he plays low, he can make some things happen with his nifty stickwork. Maybe putting him on a line with the other "kids" would make him think that shooting is ok. I don't think I'm ready to call Granlund a bust. Through 158 career games (or 1st 3 seasons), Granlund has 88 points. Compare that to Henrik Sedin who had 104 points through his first 3 seasons, but also played a total of 242 games. I think it takes time for the European players to learn how to score in this league and I'm willing to give Granlund more of an opportunity to do that. I really think he has too much skill to not come around. I think a line with him, Zucker, and Coyle or Niederreiter could be dynamic as they're all hard workers. I'm not sure if that'll ever happen, but I think he can still develop as the scorer they need him to be as long as he stays healthy.

As far as Spurgeon goes, I think they "need" to trade him now. If they can get somebody young and potentially dynamic, I believe that upgrades the offense from top to bottom. I've seen rumors linking Spurgeon to Edmonton for Yakupov, but I'm not sure that deal gets done. Edmonton is most likely taking McDavid, but they still need defense to win games and the fact is, they don't have it. Getting Spurgeon on the backend and adding McDavid makes them much better than having McDavid and Yakupov in my opinion. I'm not suggesting that's the trade, but that's the type of trade that needs to happen for Spurgeon.

I'd do what I could to get rid of Cooke and would be completely comfortable with them bringing back Brodziak and Bergenheim to go along with Fontaine as a 4th line. Other than that, this team needs a bigger body that can play a sound game and grap the occasional opposing goon when needed.

We'll see how the summer shakes out. Great write up, Mr. D!

Spurgeon's salary is $3.6M next year but his cap hit is only $2.66M.

Didn't Harding retire a few weeks ago?
- edmhatescal

Stories came out May 12 but were all expected to retire nothing official yet.

I like Arvin's idea of moving Granlund to a line with Zucker and Coyle/Nino. But then who plays with Parise and Pomminville? And if Coyle does move back to the wing, then the team is looking at 2 centers to acquire, unless they feel that Graovac is ready to take over the 3C spot. Personally, I'd rather see him start the year off in Iowa and make sure last season wasn't a fluke.

New cap site - http://www.capfriendly.com/

I like Arvin's idea of moving Granlund to a line with Zucker and Coyle/Nino. But then who plays with Parise and Pomminville? And if Coyle does move back to the wing, then the team is looking at 2 centers to acquire, unless they feel that Graovac is ready to take over the 3C spot. Personally, I'd rather see him start the year off in Iowa and make sure last season wasn't a fluke.
- SotaPopinski

They could try Haula. I don't like the idea of them trying to put Haula in a grinder/energy role. That's trying to turn him into something he's not. The guy has always been a pretty good two-way player. Playing him in a fourth line center role that is largely asking him to play more physical than he can isn't working. And it's wasting his speed and offensive abilities.

They could try Haula. I don't like the idea of them trying to put Haula in a grinder/energy role. That's trying to turn him into something he's not. The guy has always been a pretty good two-way player. Playing him in a fourth line center role that is largely asking him to play more physical than he can isn't working. And it's wasting his speed and offensive abilities.
- Chinaski

I don't see that ever happening. Going from Yeo's doghouse to 1C?? That and I don't have much confidence with him succeeding in that role. His FO % is horrendous and he's softer than Granlund along the boards/with the puck.

I don't see that ever happening. Going from Yeo's doghouse to 1C?? That and I don't have much confidence with him succeeding in that role. His FO % is horrendous and he's softer than Granlund along the boards/with the puck.
- SotaPopinski

I can't disagree that Haula has areas of his game he needs to improve. I'm just still left wondering how effective he can be in this league when, in my opinion, he seems to be more miscast in his role. Playing with better offensive players would hopefully take much of their possession play off the wall where he is weaker and move it into open ice where they can use their speed and offensive abilities better. Much easier said than done but the way this team is built they just don't have the size to put the game on the wall all the time. They need to find ways to maximize their speed and get their better offensive players more chances.

We probably need to wait and see what Fletcher does in the next month anyway. He could shake up the roster quite a bit or basically bring back the same team.

What?!!!! The Wild were eliminated?!

Although they didn't call him a straight out bust I did read somewhere that the Wings organization has serious concerns about his lack of progression and painted a pretty dim picture at the likelihood he can make it as a regular in the NHL.