Dan Wallace: Zuccarello and Hartman?

I know there's been some negative talk about what Fletcher left but you have to be kind of excited at the amount of cap space the Wild have. If the article I read was correct, the Wild have the most money available in the division? At least the potential is there to add to a team that was a 100 point team just 2 years ago

ZUUUUUCS!!! Hell yes, would love to see him in the green and red! Stand up dude, and fun to watch

Wild are already the oldest team in the league, and have 15m wrapped up in the declining years of Parise & Suter long term. Adding Zuc's for 6m seems like a desperation move because they struck out on names like Duchene & Panarin.

Too much money for a guy who should be on the third line of a team in Cup contention.

You can have the most cap space in the entire nhl but that cap is useless when nobody wants to play in Minnesota

Wild are already the oldest team in the league, and have 15m wrapped up in the declining years of Parise & Suter long term. Adding Zuc's for 6m seems like a desperation move because they struck out on names like Duchene & Panarin.

Too much money for a guy who should be on the third line of a team in Cup contention.
- Antilles

My thoughts exactly. Why pay this much cash and award this much term for an older 50-55pt guy?

It’s like Fenton actually thinks this roster is even close to playoff contention.

Wild are already the oldest team in the league, and have 15m wrapped up in the declining years of Parise & Suter long term. Adding Zuc's for 6m seems like a desperation move because they struck out on names like Duchene & Panarin.

Too much money for a guy who should be on the third line of a team in Cup contention.
- Antilles

Agreed, i like Zucarillo, but not at that price and term for his age. All we've heard from Fenton is "youth and speed"... this quite obviously doesn't fit that narrative.

I guess i don't get why he can't just commit to an actual "rebuild"... At some point sooner than later he's going to have to start phasing Suter and Parise out as well as Staal, so adding yet another aging player contract at 5 or 6 years is just prolonging the future success of this squad.

I just don't see how this is going to work out. Hartman is now going to take the place of Mayhew/Rask as the 4th line RW. There is no WAY that he should be on the 3rd line. I like Zuccarello, as I have read that he has played RW in the past, and he should be a decent playmaker that might help get Zucker going again. If the Wild is thinking of making MZ the 2nd line C, they again will have almost 75% of their roster having to play their off-wing sides. That's all well and done if it is being done down in Iowa, but not at the NHL level. There is still a glut of LWs on this roster in the forms of Parise, Zucker, Fiala, Greenway, Donato and Foligno. The only top 9 right handed RW is Kunin....who the Wild think should be playing C!

I know this is an NHL site, but I just have to put this out there. What is wrong with the people that are hired to be GMs in Minnesota pro sports? Is there something in the water that makes them not do the correct things to improve their teams? Fenton is creating a roster of almost strictly LWs...I guess he is hoping that the NHL will declare the RW position illegal for the coming seasons. Rosas with the T-Wolves has not lived up to the promise of making things happen. Wolves will be going into the next season will almost the exact same roster...except 1 player (Rose) who actually did something last year. He's gone. The Twins brain-trust is sitting on their hands to stop themselves from doing anything. Even my 6 year nephew can see that the Twins need pitching help, and they have both the money to commit and stocked farm system for trades. But nothing get done. And the Vikings gave ridiculous money to a QB that is .500., and basically hand-cuffed the team from adding what they really need.

Yeah, over payment is needed to bring talent to the Wild, Wolves and Twins, I get that. But go ahead and overpay! It will put butts in the seats to bring in that extra cash flow to cover for the overpaying. Do what is needed to make championship teams.

Difficult to disagree with any of that Gus. Twins could have acquired one or both of 2 high profile pitchers without losing ANY players or prospects and as you said, "sat on their hands"... Now they're going to be forced to move assets if they want to improve the pitching roster.

Honestly could care less about the Wolves, and as a life long Vikings fan, i've become extremely apathetic to anything that goes on over there...

Wild are my go-to for sports teams and it's extremely frustrating to be a Minnesota hockey fan let alone Minnesota sports fan in general.