Dan Wallace: Arrived?

And waiting in the wings

Rossi
Addison
Boldy

Going to be good for a long time

Good.. but not great. The Minnesota curse.

Good.. but not great. The Minnesota curse.
- 10inchTerror

The Wild stand to be good for many years. I’m not sure how they take that next step to become a contender, or elite top 5 team, that can compete for the Cup multiple years in a row. Their draft position has never been ideal and will only get worse with more success.

Outside of internal growth, the Wild really could use a good trade that’s lopsided in their favor. Guerin is a solid GM, but he’s got to find someone to prey on - difficult proposition currently. But a little luck can go a long way. As an Avs fan, two examples stand out - the Lindros trade that set them up for Cups around the millennium and the Duchene trade that paid huge dividends. In both cases, the Avs management found a trading partner who was somewhat desperate and felt their window of opportunity was fast approaching. I’m not sure who that currently is.

The obvious contracts hamper them some, but become more meaningless as the years go by. Getting rid of Fletcher was the single most important step - Philly fans have no idea what’s in store for that team in the near future.

And the biggest sign of a different team in MN is the lack of a complete breakdown this year. Everyone’s been waiting for it and it’s not going to happen. Interesting times in Minny for sure.

Good for the Wild. Exciting news. Trending up

Well i have to say i was a big skeptic of Billy bringing in Cam Talbot after publicly expressing how bad the Wild goal tending was.... but Wow, Talbot has looked like a top 10 goalie this season, granted he's had his hiccups, but i don't see how anyone could have expected the level of play he's produced thus far.

I'm really not all that surprised by the Wild's record this year. And I can honestly say I figured Talbot would look good in the net for the Wild. They have generally always been a real good defensive team. The goaltending has been the problem. If you take out the season that Dubnyk came to the Wild, he has gradually gotten worse every year. The problems with Dubnyk...1) never would steal a game for the Wild and 2) always seemed to give up 1 or 2 VERY soft goals. The Wild have been one of the better teams at limiting opponents to high scoring chances. But on the flip side, Dubnyk killed that with soft goals. All Talbot needed to do (and continues to need to do) is stop the shots that he should be stopping. Albeit, I didn't expect him to steal a game here or there, but he has done that as well. It's a pretty good tandem the Wild have in goal right now.

And the improvement of the overall game for the Wild....SPEED. Today's game really seems to be a lot about speed. Just look at the Avs, great team speed. No wonder they are a top team in the NHL. Guys like Fiala, Kaprizov, Hartman, Johansson...and even Sturm have that element to their game. Maybe not the most skilled group of guys (some have tremendous skill), but they have speed on the ice. And it's not just the rush to the net, but back-checking also. The Wild's defense is not left out on an island after an offensive rush...most guys are getting back to help on D, which makes the transition of offense that much easier. All except Kaprizov, I have noticed lately that he is not the quickest back on D, so I am hoping that that part will just come with time. Rask is normally coming back, or even already back...but that's because he's so slow that he never made it through the neutral zone in the first place.

Speaking about speed... at the risk of reopening old wounds... Watching Vegas this season i've more than noticed how freaking fast and speedy Alex Tuch is... Wow that guy has some zero to fast in a hurry...

Wish the Wild still had him...