Bleacher Report - Articles by Paul C

Minnesota Wild Off-Season: Revamp and Reload

Paul C — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:52:18 -0400

Greetings, Minnesota Wild fans. After a disappointing season of not making the playoffs, the Wild have entered the 2009 off-season with holes in management and team.

First hole the Wild have is management. After Lemaire quit and Risebrough was fired, the Wild had their work set out for them.

Dan Fletcher as the new GM should prove to be a relatively good idea, and only time will tell on whether Todd Richards will be a good new head coach.

The Wild also have quite a few holes to fill in the team itself, so we’ll start with the obvious: Marian Gaborik. It was no big secret Gabby didn’t want to play in Minnesota anymore, and it was no big secret Dan Fletcher wasn’t going to re-sign him.

With Gaborik running to the New York Rangers, the Wild had a big hole to fill. To be perfectly honest though, I’m sick of Marian also.

After being injured pretty much all season, Gabby was no help to the Wild. Granted, he came back at the end and helped out, but we still didn’t make the playoffs.

Minnesota doesn’t need Marian Gaborik anymore. We were battling all season without him. So, when we upgraded to Martin Havlat, we got a player that could reliably play the majority of the games in the season, while providing a big scoring punch.

Minnesota didn’t entirely fill holes in the NHL draft, but what they did do was gain a lot of home town support. Drafting Nick Leddy in the first round was a gutsy move, but guarantees that even more of Minnesota will be following the Wild now that they have a hometown boy, even if he doesn’t play for the Wild until a few years later.

Greg Zanon wasn’t necessarily a hole, but was an upgrade. What Greg brings to the table isn’t necessarily a scoring touch, but what he is, is a cheaper and more consistent version of Martin Skoula. No more oops moments, now that Zanon is in the lineup.

With the Wild claiming that they probably won’t be going after free agents in this year’s market, what they are doing, is trying to get Saku Koivu into the team. Saku would be a really nice second-line center, with his brother Mikko manning the first line.

There have been rumors of Pierre Marc-Bouchard playing second-line center, but until I see him play it, I won’t believe it. Even still, I’d prefer seeing PMB play wing, rather than taking face-offs. Just sign Saku, and keep PMB on the wing.

If Saku gets signed by the end of free agency, the Wild should be set for the upcoming season. After a narrow miss of the playoffs, the additions that Martin Havlat and Saku Koivu (maybe) on the team should be enough to propel them in.

Watch out for potential trades, but at the same time, be prepared for this current Wild team (with maybe Saku), to enter the regular season.

Wild About the Playoffs: The Minnesota Wild's Final Playoff Push

Paul C — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:38:08 -0400

Hello Wild Fans! Remember back in the day, way back in November, when the Minnesota Wild were supreme? With a 14-8 record, they were at the top of their division. However, soon after that fast start, the Wild soon settled into a pattern of mediocrity.

Such mediocrity was most importantly characterized by Gaborik’s injury. Gabby has been out since December, and is looking to start playing by this Sunday. This may be the catalyst to get the Wild out of their slump of mediocrity.

Gabby has proven to be a valuable asset to Minnesota’s wins throughout the seasons when he’s healthy, and now that he’s healthy, he may be able to help them with their scoring problems.

However, the Wild should not rely upon Gabby’s return to spark their final playoff push. If they are to become a tough playoff contender, they must learn to have a team deep enough to continue without their “star” player.

Thus, the entire Minnesota Wild team must start breaking out of their mediocrity now, or else it may be too late, even when Gaborik returns.

Some obstacles unfortunately, are currently blocking the Wild’s final playoff push. The biggest obstacle is the difficulty of its upcoming schedules. Six of its next 11 games will be on the road, thus meaning that the Wild will need all the wins they can get in order to keep up with opponents.

Nine of the 10 games the Wild are playing are against Western Conference opponents, and every win propels them closer to the potentially enviable playoff spot.

If the Wild are able to gain third place, they would in all likelihood be in the best position possible. Unfortunately however, based on how well Calgary has been playing as of late, it would be more realistic to say that the best position would be either in fourth, fifth, or seventh.

Currently within the standings, the fourth place team is Vancouver, fifth place is Chicago, and seventh place is Edmonton. The Wild have the best chance at making seventh or eighth place, and seventh would be the best.

Detroit will probably run away with the Conference Championship, but San Jose will easily make second. The Wild this year have compiled a 2-2 record against San Jose, even despite the absence of Gaborik and other miscellaneous players.

Thus, to have start the playoffs against San Jose, despite being heavily favored to lose, Minnesota may actually fare better than playing against Calgary or Detroit.

I briefly highlighted this earlier, but it is incredibly important that the Wild find their ‘lil scoring niche, and start producing soon. Most recently, the Wild were shut out by the Devils 4-0, and throughout the season, have been struggling to produce.

Owen Nolan so far is the only player to go over 20 goals whereas teams such as Detroit, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia have more than three 20+ goal scorers.

In fact, going down the scoring ranking sheet, Owen Nolan is ranked 90th in goal scoring in the NHL. Come on Minnesota, you can do better than that.

On the points list, you have to go down 38 places, in order to find the first Minnesota player. The second Minnesota player doesn’t even show up until 65 places later. Come on Minnesota, you can do better than that.

What the Wild need to do, is pick up their scoring pace in earnest urgency. If they don’t, they may not be able to score enough goals, even despite solid defense and all-star goaltender Niklas Backstrom.

The Wild in all reality, need not improve upon defense, special teams, and goaltending, but the biggest hole to fill is in production.

Despite once again being one of the most dominating defensive teams in the NHL, it is important for the Wild to realize that whichever team scores the most goals will win the hockey game, rather than the team that has the highest penalty kill rating, or whichever goalie has a lower GAA.

This year’s final playoff push should be a good one, so Wild fans, buckle into your season ticket seats, and grip your TV remotes, because these last 11 games will sure be a Wild one.

The Minnesota Wild Trade Deadline: Expectations and Concerns

Paul C — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:58:09 -0500

Hello Minnesota Wild fans, and all other fans of the NHL. Every year, as the trade deadline nears, we see blockbuster trades such as last year’s Marian Hossa trade from Atlanta to Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, such trades are rare occasions in the NHL, so as much fun it is to see, don’t expect the Wild to do anything daring like that. Rather, look for the Wild to search for trades that will help create a deeper team, while not trading away key future players.

What the Wild may also do, is to trade for players that would better fit within the Wild system and team chemistry. Not a while back, we saw the Wild trading for the likes of Dan Fritsche, who has been fitting into the Wild system better than Erik Reitz did.

The Wild should additionally be careful though, not to trade off their promising young players. Even though they may have a good chance at making the playoffs, they shouldn’t destroy their next few seasons by trading off all their young guns for a run at the cup.

Luckily (or not so luckily, your opinion), the Wild don’t have many trade rumors flying around their heads. There is one player that seems to have rumors of trades around him however: Marian Gaborik.

After undergoing surgery in late December, Gabby should be back anytime now, and seeing that he doesn’t plan on staying in Minnesota, the Wild may send him to another team for some other valuable player.

The best bet for the Wild to regain their lost scoring touch though, is to resign Gaborik instead of trading him for someone they believe can give the Wild that scoring touch. Gaborik is returning soon, and as can be seen by what he can do when healthy, the Wild should be back on track scoring wise in a week or so.

Besides not trading Gaborik, the Wild should also be careful not to repeat last year’s trading deadline results. With the ability to go far into the playoffs, the Wild acquired Chris Simon, for a sixth round pick. Granted, a sixth round pick isn’t entirely valuable, but Chris Simon was worth far below that of a sixth round pick.

What the Wild didn’t need last year (and most importantly this year), was another enforcer. At the end of last season, Minnesotahad three enforcers: Boogaard, Simon, and Fedoruk. While Fedoruk provided a small amount of fourth line scoring and Boogaard policed the ice, Simon proved to be relatively useless.

Similar to last year, the Wild do not need another enforcer this year. Boogie does a good enough job to not have to depend upon another enforcer. Thus, if the Wild were to trade for another player, it better be a good two-way player that can merge well into Jacques Lemaire’s system.

Unfortunately for the Wild, they also have some concerns with other teams within the NHL, more specifically within the Northwest Conference. Calgary seems to have run away with the division lead, but if the Wild can pull in a strong finish, they may be able to claim that coveted top three playoff spot.

The Wild may also need to rely on some lucky trade breaks in regards to their division rivals. The Wild should watch out for Calgary and Vancouver building up its team with better players, while keeping an eye on Edmonton, who has been playing well as of late.

Thus, it is essential that the Wild either trade for players that improve team chemistry and add depth to the team, or not even trade at all.

It would definitely help the Wild if Calgary and Vancouver made bad trade breaks, but seeing how both organizations are solidly led by their respective GM’s, it would be more helpful for the Wild if Calgary and Vancouver didn’t make any trades at all.

So, keep your fingers crossed, hold your breath, and keep on hoping that the Wild will do the right thing, and with some luck from opposing team trades, maybe propel themselves into a strong playoff start.

The Minnesota Wild: Top Five Games For The 2008-09 Season

Paul C — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:07:21 -0500

Once again, it's time to drop the puck for another exciting season of Minnesota Wild Hockey. With all 82 games the Wild are playing this year, finding good games to watch can be difficult. So without further ado, here's the top five games to look forward to this season (in order of appearance date)

1. Nov. 18 2008: Minnesota Wild @ Pittsburgh Penguins: It'll be interesting to see how the revamped Wild match up against last year's Eastern Conference Champions. With a new Wild team sporting additions of Owen Nolan, Marek Zidlicky, and blue liner Marc Andre-Bergeron, we'll see how they match up against a Penguins team that already highlights Crosby and Malkin, along new addition Marian Hossa.

2. Nov. 24, 2008: Minnesota Wild vs. The Washington Capitals: Everybody likes Ovechkin, unless you don't like action. The Caps currently boast one of the most exciting teams in the NHL with a combination of Ovechkin and Semin. The Wild should win this game, but not without ending with a likely five goal game (But with Gabby's groin, probably not all 5 from him.)

3. Dec. 28, 2008: Minnesota Wild vs. The Chicago Blackhawks: The Blackhawks sport one of the best talented young teams in the NHL with the likes of Kane, Sharp, and Toews. Backed by veterans Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith, the Blackhawks eerily resemble what the Wild were some two years ago. So, it'll be exciting to see the Wild play a team similar to one they were not too long ago.

4. Jan. 31, 2009: Minnesota Wild @ The Vancouver Canucks: Soon after the All Star Break (6 days to be exact), the Wild will set up to play at GM Stadium against their division rival the Vancouver Canucks. With the Wild on break for a week or so, a division game against a rival would probably dictate the course the Wild run for the rest of the season as long as they solve Luongo, they're set to go.

5. April 3, 2009: Minnesota Wild vs. The Calgary Flames: Last but definitely not least, the Wild face off in a rematch with Calgary on exactly the same date as last year. Last year, the Wild ended up clinching the Northwest Division with that win, and more likely than not, it will come down to the wire again this year too. If it does come down to the wire, a win against Calgary may propel Minnesota to yet another Division Championship.

With the playoffs in mind, the Wild will prove to be a formidable opponent to all comers. Along with a rejuvenated team and a solid regular season schedule, a playoff future for the Wild seems imminent. As long as the Wild take care of business and win the games they have to win, Minnesota fans don't have to settle for only 82 games.