/soothe to all the minny fans

next time make a forum post

Fenton will go join Peter Chiarelli to watch their former teams crash and burn for years to come.

It'll be nice to not be a laughing stock of the league. Hextall intrigues me a ton as a replacement, he did a hell of a job filling Philly's prospect pool.

You and me both. Hextall is patient though, which might cause an issue with Parise wanting to win now and Leipold wanting the revenue from his annual 2 home playoff games. I really hope they hire him though..

That's my worry as well, but holy moly the guy has found a really good NHL player in every single draft. Here's a rundown of the best players he has drafted each year:

2014: Sanheim, Lindblom
2015: Provorov, Konecny
2016: Hart
2017: Patrick, Frost
2018: Farabee

Almost all of those guys went in the 1st round, but that's a pretty insane pool of talent to have. Provorov could be a Norris winner someday, Sanheim looks like a really good #2/#3 defenseman, Lidnblom has shown flashes of top 6 talent, Provorov could be a Norris winner someday, Konecny is definitely a top 6 player maybe even a bonafide 1st liner if he takes another step forward, Hart could be a Vezina winner someday, Patrick was the consensus #2 player after NJD took Hischier and he hasn't lived up to the hype but he does have a ton of talent, the jury is out on Frost and Farabee but both look like potential studs. I'd be so damn happy if we had players like that in our system. Hextall has made pretty solid trades, too. I'd really like if we hired him.

Added a poll.
What do you you think @tansor ?

wild are not edmonton or ottawa, long way to go.

now is probably the best time to tear down completely. zucker, spurgeon, dubnyk etc can get a great return.

You like Hextall that much? Hmm..what about a guy like Mark Hunter? Former Leafs assistant GM.
Imo he would be a great addition to the Wild.

Go read some of Charlie O'Connor's articles on The Athletic from last November, when Hextall was fired. He and Owner CL won't be a pair that can work together.

I do. He wasn't perfect but he's proven he can draft well. Don't think we will go with another up-and-coming GM again, even if that idea is irrational and based off of one guy (Fenton). Leipold's comments have revealed he wants an experienced GM.



I'll have to check those out, but according to Russo, Leipold is going to interview Hextall Wednesday. He's definitely a patient GM, but I like his philosophy of building from the draft and within rather than signing big-fish free agents to contend.

But how is that going to work when Leopold wants a contender right away? I mean...that's kind of why Fenton was fired right? Cause the two couldn't agree on which direction to go.

You know i respect your opinion and what you have been saying for the last few months makes so much sense but after what just happened, why hire a guy who will want to draft and rebuild when the owner wants the exact opposite?

I dont think Leopold going for draft and rebuild direction.
But what is the list of "now" GMs???

Please dont say Cheiralli.
How about Lombardi??

Honestly, I have no idea. It would probably create conflict between Hextall and Leipold, lol. I just think this team needs a major overhaul, I don't see any way the Wild win a cup in the next 5 years unless Kaprizov puts up Kucherov numbers when he comes over, Dubnyk catches lightning in a bottle and posts Vezina numbers, Parise returns to 35-goal scoring form, Dumba pots 25+ goals and emerges as a Norris candidate, Fiala finally breaks out into a 60-70 point player, Zucker shows his 33 goal season wasn't a fluke, Spurgeon keeps on being Spurgeon, and our other young players (Donato, Ek, Kunin, Greenway) take another step forward. Basically, we'd have to have a Cinderella run of a season to even have a shot at the cup and I have zero faith that something like that happens. Tanking for a season or two could go a long way towards restocking our prospect pool/priming us for future cup runs and maybe we get lucky and land Lafreniere or one of the Swedish wingers in the next draft. All of that said, I can't see Leipold letting that happen.

Kind of a rant/tangent there but that's basically why I want us to hire somebody that wants to build through the draft/semi-rebuild to make us competitive for years to come rather than making the playoffs only to exit in the first round.

I heard Waddell interviewed for the Wild GM.

Yep, I'm not a fan of Waddell at all. I think he got all the credit this year for the team Ron Francis built. Sure, there's the Nino for Rask trade, but I think that was much more a matter Fenton's stupidity than Waddell making a genius move. He traded Skinner for peanuts (regardless if Skinner's "time was up in Carolina" or not, since Canes fans have defended that trade using this excuse), he moved Noah Hanifin, a standout stud 22 year old defenseman, and Elias Lindholm, a near ppg player last season, for Dougie Hamilton, who is a solid player but is now 26 and saw a dip in production in Carolina, Michael Ferland, who is a good middle 6 winger but he walked in free agency, and Adam Fox who didn't even want to play in Carolina. I'd call Calgary a clear winner of that trade. Waddell also did a pretty bad job in Atlanta which gives me more concern.

I'm really hoping we go for one of the young analytic-minded GM candidates. As a big fan of stats, they never tell the full story, but the game is trending towards using analytics. I think hockey will be a lot like baseball in the next 5 years where it'll be seen as archaic to not use analytics as a tool to evaluate players. I was excited when we interviewed Dubas last summer for that exact reason, but obviously he's no longer an option.