2021 Offseason

[TheLeviathan]

I'm excited for this team's future, here's what I would do this offseason: (admittedly, I'm an idiot compared to Mr. Guerin who has done amazing work since taking over)

Expected Salary Cap: 81.5

Wild Salaries already committed: 59.5 

Cap Space: 22M

First act: Buy out Victor Rask so his punishing brand of hockey to viewers is relieved.  Fans rejoice in the streets.  (Saves 2.67M this season with a buyout of 1.33 this year and next)  Cap Space: 24.67

Second Act: Trade Matt Dumba to Florida for Pick 27 and their 3rd Round Pick  (I love Dumba actually, but I think his injury last year has resulted in a player who will never quite be the same.  Plus, you can't deal Spurgeon or Suter.  Brodin is a beast.  He's the guy left)  Cap Space: 30.67

Expansion Draft: Use the 7-3-1 Protection  Protect Parise, JEEK, Fiala, Zuccarello, Greenway, Sturm, Fogliano, Suter, Brodin, Spurgeon, and Kahkonen

This leaves Seattle to choose from Soucy, Talbot, or Hartman.  They'll choose Soucy without a doubt.

Cap Space is now 33.5M

Resignings:

Marcus Johansson: Bye

Nick Bonino: 2 years 6M

Nick Bjugstad: Bye

Victor Rask: I just wanted to say bye again enthusiastically

Kevin Fiala: 6 years 36M

Kaprizov: 4 years 20M (I'd go more, but I don't think he will)

Joel Eriksson Ek: 5 years 25M

Ian Cole: 2 years 7M

Remaining Cap Space: 11M

Free Agency and Trading:

Trade a 3rd and a 4th to Montreal for D Joel Edmundson (Big, physical, smooth skating guy on a reasonable deal.  Adds serious size to the blue line) Cap:7.5

Sign Philip Danualt to a 5 year 27.5M deal (Center with good defensive chops, can win faceoffs, and has decent size) Cap: 2M

That last 2M will be for filler guys and a little wiggle room.

Lineup:

Suter-Spurgeon

Brodin-Addison

Edmundson-Cole

Kaprizov-Danualt-Zuccarello (No Rossi here because I think this line is too small with him.  Danualt is an ideal fit for these two)

Parise/Greenway-Ek-Foligno  (Bumping up Parise assuming he's still here.  If he's gone....all the better, but he fits with this group)

Boldy-Rossi-Fiala (Finally....Fiala plays with people who don't suck)

Sturm-Bonino-Hartman (This fourth line can score, grind, frustrate the hell out of people.  In other words....they'll make you fall in love with them)

Odd guy out right now: Greenway or Parise.  I'm not sure how this plays out, but I hope it's with Parise out and Greenway back with that line

[Vanimal46]

We finally struck gold finding a game changing goal scorer in Kaprizov. That alone changes the whole outlook of the organization. We’re set up well to get younger and faster, with a solid D core and 2 good goalies. 
 

Michael Russo wrote about the upcoming decisions this summer. There’s so many moving parts in hockey contracts. He writes that Parise will be an ongoing issue if he doesn’t accept that he’s in the veteran role player phase of his career. 
 

I wonder if Seattle would view Dumba as a good face of the franchise type guy as they start their organization? He’s a highly respected person on and off the ice, and would take a large contract off our hands. Addison could/should be ready to take on a full time role on the NHL team, and the rest of the unit is established. 

[TheLeviathan]

The Parise thing is impossible to predict without being behind the scenes.  Ideally, in my eyes, you find a way to get rid of him.  He's not a bad player, but dumping that contract would be a godsend.  It's the biggest question to me.

Rossi and Boldy are coming and that means Johanssen and Rask are gone.  There may be other prospects available to call up too.  There are a lot of moving parts only because Guerin retooled the roster with a bunch of expiring contracts so he could rebuild it.  

I can't wait to see what Kaprizov and Fiala can do with some competent players around them.  Between the two of them they had only one competent player helping them (Zuccarello) otherwise they created all of their production with a bunch of scrubs.  

[Vanimal46]

What if we offered Putin like… 5% of team control? If this has any substance, I will be heart broken. 

[LVTwinsfan]

Congratulations to the Minnesota Wild and the Vegas Golden Knights on great seasons. I believe the newly formed Honda West division was the best division in the NHL. I would love to see that division stay but I also would love to see everything get back to normal next season, so I’m sure that means all NHL divisions will be back to normal. Before I go any further let me explain myself a bit. I was born in Duluth and moved to Las Vegas in 1989. My wife was born in Finland so I must admit she’s a bigger hockey fan than me.  We did follow the Wild until Vegas got a team, and we went to two Wild games which was cool because we knew all the players on both teams. The Wild has always had Vegas’s number, they’re really the only team in the NHL that has done that, except for Montreal.  Vegas first season was in the fall of 2017 shortly after the mass shooting at Mandalay Bay that claimed 58 lives. In their first home game Vegas gave a such a heartwarming tribute to the victims and as a result any remaining doubts I had of supporting this team quickly disappeared and I became an instant fan. Truth be told being born in Duluth my favorite hockey team since I was a child has of course been the UMD Bulldogs. If any of you make the trip come see the Wild play at T-Mobile Arena. It’s the best hockey venue in the NHL. Always a playoff atmosphere and always a large percentage of visiting fans. I remember a game I attended against the Wild in 2019 the Let’s go Wild chant in the 3rd period was so loud it was like their home. Fun night for visiting fans and their were thousands of them. Wild jerseys everywhere. Thanks for listening, until next season…

 

[Vanimal46]

@LVTwinsfan That’s awesome you have a local team to root for that’s doing things right. NHL wanted Vegas to be a fun destination for hockey fans all over North America to travel to. Clearly it’s working well. Out of curiosity, do you think the formula could work in LV if the market is saturated with every big 4 sports team? 

[LVTwinsfan]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

@LVTwinsfan That’s awesome you have a local team to root for that’s doing things right. NHL wanted Vegas to be a fun destination for hockey fans all over North America to travel to. Clearly it’s working well. Out of curiosity, do you think the formula could work in LV if the market is saturated with every big 4 sports team? 

Basketball would work, but baseball? I think it might. Oakland A’s are looking at moving, here.  I think you might get the same dynamic with a large pct. of visiting fans. Hockey here is fantastic, and thousands of visiting fans, the Wild travel real well. One thing to know, ticket prices are high. You can’t get hockey tickets for less than $150 and expect to pay $200 at least for good seats. They clamped down a bit on Season ticket holders scalping their seats. If you sell too many of them you’ll lose them. I think that drives the price even higher. Baseball tickets should be a little better. They would need a state of the art retractable roof ballpark, which they would do, I’m sure it would be great. And now they have an NFL team here, that’s unbelievable. I played golf once a few years back with Mark Perlman, a line judge in the NFL. He lives in Lake Havasu Az., He used to live in Vegas but NFL rules wouldn’t allow refs to live here in season. I assume that rule is out now but who knows. I definitely want Vikings tickets when they play here. But I could sit through a Raiders game against anybody, football games are a lot of fun.

[HrbieFan]

Highly doubt Rask is bought out or moved. He was not horrible this year and BG is a fan of him. Maybe Francis will do BG a solid and take him off his hands for a 2nd. 

[TheLeviathan]

I disagree.....Rask is garbage.  He literally does nothing well.

[Vanimal46]

I understand Parise, but Suter as well? Very interesting. 

[Vanimal46]

 

[TheLeviathan]

Whoa...I am shocked by that.

[TheLeviathan]

That allows this team to keep Dumba and be players in FA.  It will hurt next year and the year after on the cap, but after that it's a huge relief for the team in terms of opening roster spots.  It's just a lot of dead money but maybe the new TV contract will make that hurt less.

[TheLeviathan]

So this year they would've counted for 15M, but now they'll count for 4.6M so they save 11.4M this year on the cap

Next year: they save 2.4M but carry 13M in dead cap

Year after: $0 savings, 15M dead cap

4th year: 13.4M in savings, 1.6M in dead cap

Next three years: 1.6M in dead cap hits

I hope Billy has big plans for that 11M!!!!

[Vanimal46]

20 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

So this year they would've counted for 15M, but now they'll count for 4.6M so they save 11.4M this year on the cap

Next year: they save 2.4M but carry 13M in dead cap

Year after: $0 savings, 15M dead cap

4th year: 13.4M in savings, 1.6M in dead cap

Next three years: 1.6M in dead cap hits

I hope Billy has big plans for that 11M!!!!

Jack Eichel has a $10 million cap hit this upcoming season… If they want to make a move for a 1st line center. 
 

Russo was on KFAN this morning, I’m sure he’ll be on most of the day. According to him, Parise and Suter were never asked to okay a trade out of Minnesota. Parise is relieved, and Suter is shocked. 

[TheLeviathan]

Just now, Vanimal46 said:

Jack Eichel has a $10 million cap hit this upcoming season… If they want to make a move for a 1st line center. 
 

Russo was on KFAN this morning, I’m sure he’ll be on most of the day. According to him, Parise and Suter were never asked to okay a trade out of Minnesota. Parise is relieved, and Suter is shocked. 

I am also shocked.  He was still a good player.  Maybe they expect those minutes over the years to catch up to him?

[a-wan]

If this was the Twins the people screaming about cheap ownership would be deafening. From what Russo said on KFAN it sounds like Guerrin just wanted to rid the team of Suter and Parise for salary the next two years, but also their annoying "I want to help run the team" attitudes.

[TheLeviathan]

With FA netting us Goligoski, Kulikov, and other filler parts it seems pretty obvious to me that Guerin wants to change the locker room culture and take a run at a cup in about 3 years.  2024 the dead cap is gone in time to start extending the young players they are banking on.  This team is clearing the decks so that Rossi, Khusnutdinov, Boldy, Khovanov, O'Rourke, Addison, and Wallstedt are the future of the team and have a chance to get big minutes.

I expect a fun team, but probably not a Cup contender for a few years.

[a-wan]

Kaprizy is signed and appears to be vaccinated with a FDA approved vaccine. If Boldy and Rossi force their way onto the roster the season might not be too bad.