Dan Wallace: Not So Fun Times

I would propose a Benn for Parise deal.

It would shake things up. Pieces added to balance salary.

The New North Stars and the Stars are in similar situations. There are no easy answers here

I would propose a Benn for Parise deal.

It would shake things up. Pieces added to balance salary.

The New North Stars and the Stars are in similar situations. There are no easy answers here
- jcragcrumple

I would never give up Benn for Parise.

I would never give up Benn for Parise.
- keithward

I think you'll feel differently within a year and a half

Same amount of years left on the deal, and the Stars would save $2m. The contract is going to be immovable soon, if it isn't already

The Sabres are my team - I really have no skin in the game here

Benn for Parise? There is not one GM in the league that would make that deal.
Both have five years left on their deals.
Benn is 30 and will be 35 at the end of his deal
Parise is 35 and will be 40 at the end of his deal
Benn scored 27 goals last year and it was considered a "down" year
Parise scored 28 goals last year and it was considered a "bounce back" year.

Benn for Parise? There is not one GM in the league that would make that deal.
Both have five years left on their deals.
Benn is 30 and will be 35 at the end of his deal
Parise is 35 and will be 40 at the end of his deal
Benn scored 27 goals last year and it was considered a "down" year
Parise scored 28 goals last year and it was considered a "bounce back" year.
- BernardShakey

Both are hitting the wall hard.

Are you confident that Benn is going to rebound? I'm not at all. Saving $2m would help the Stars. They will be trying to get out of that contract within a year or two. By then, it will be too late.

As for the wild, yeah, they're taking on more salary, but they need to shake the core

Did you mean Jordie Benn?

It's Time...

Hey Gus, do you think Tampa would give up Point for Dumba and Zucker? Or Dumba and a pick?

Hey Gus, do you think Tampa would give up Point for Dumba and Zucker? Or Dumba and a pick?
- MnGump

This is definitely a trade worth exploring. Or Barkov and Huberdeau for Dumba, Zucker and a 1st.

I know what the problem is the players are baking rather than playing hockey.


"This team is old and significantly slower than they were even last season. They are only baked out by the fact that their defense is quite mobile and jumps into the offense very well."

Gump, I think you know that I would rather not trade Dumba, and would rather give up Spurgeon. But looking at that, Dumba & Zucker would be too expensive for the Bolts to take on, so they would have to throw someone else like Alex Killorn or Tyler Johnson to make the cap stuff work. And I am pretty sure BG doesn't want to give away this upcoming years #1 pick. But the more I think about it, yeah, the only way the Wild are going to get a C that could be a true 1st line C is probably giving up Dumba. Seeing a line of Kaprizov/Point/Kunin (at least until Boldy is here, then he prolly replaces Kunin) would be a nice start to improving everything about this team.

How about...Suter/Spurgeon/Donato/Eriksson-Ek and a 2nd round pick for Point/McDonagh/Shattenkirk/Verhaeghe. Cap-wise, contracts come to about $150,000 in difference. I think this heavily leans towards the Wild and the only real selling point would be is the Suter/Spurgeon pairing a better one than the McDonagh and Shattenkirk pairing. IMO, S&S would be better than M&S.

The way I am looking at all of this, is that the Wild NEED to get younger and faster, that the way of the NHL today...and future. So really what needs to be done is players like Parise, Suter, Staal and to a smaller extent Spurgeon need to be traded away for "potential". Whether that comes in the form of picks are really, really young players, that depends. But on the flip side, what NHL would make that kind of trade? None that I can think of since Fenton is not a GM anymore. I didn't include Koivu in here since his contract is up after this year and I have a ton of respect for him. Let him play out his final year and then decide if he would like to play for another team to continue his career and just decide its time to hang up the skates. I also didn't include Zuccarello here as we haven't had a real chance to see what he can bring on this team.

As for a Huberdeau/Barkov trade, I don't see Florida wanting Dumba that badly. The real enticement on a trade like that is the #1 pick, which I truly believe BG will not trade away as the Wild need a huge youth movement.

The situation is basically all of what Dan says. BG is going to need "magic" to move the contracts on vets. He is going to get back the Victor Rask's of the NHL and that the Wild probably be bad...very bad...for the next couple of years. And that causes to problem of convincing Kaprizov to stay with the Wild after he comes over. BG will have his work cut out for him in showing KK that there is a real plan to make the Wild a SC caliber team.

The Wild should be dumping players only for draft picks or good young cheap prospects.

It's time to let the D run, get Suter down to 15min a game and let Dumba, Hunt, and Spurgen get into the offense. I would rather loose 8-5 then watch the boring game and loose 4-1. And why is Suter on the powerplay????