If your goal is a lottery pick, playing Kunin and Ek at center above Koivu is a solid plan. If you're trying to make the playoffs like Leipold wants, Koivu is still the 2nd best center on this team and it isn't even close.

No idea why Fenton would go after a guy like Zuccarello. Literally makes no sense given the direction the Wild were going.

Makes 100% sense. Their owner wants playoffs and Zuccarello was the best forward who would come to Minnesota. The young guys they traded core players for won't immediately replace the same scoring, so Zucc helps in the meantime. People think the team is rebuilding... Sadly they're not.

Hartman however...

Hartman however what?

Owner wants playoffs yet allowed the GM to trade Granlund and Coyle hmm.

Makes no sense that they signed him. They don't have a roster spot for all of their forwards, so they bring in one who isn't a significant upgrade and commit a couple years to him? Zuccarello is at least a noteable immediate upgrade, even though his contract will hurt before it's over.

I didn't say his trades were awesome. Not sure how much he spoke with Leipold but Fenton was convinced Fiala was on the verge of breaking through. Guessing he started second guessing that when he signed Zuccarello because Granlund's points will be hard to replace.

Coyle underachieved badly on the Wild, he never did anything when the team needed it. He had a good playoffs run for Boston, but look at his playoff history for the Wild.

Gotcha, well Hartman has okay numbers in the past but yeah he seems like a decent depth piece that the Wild have plenty of already.
He seems like he would've been a better signing for some other team.
I really don't know what the Wild are doing, like it's highly doubtful that Suter or Parise are going anywhere so shouldn't they be trying to add significant pieces to go for it while they're still contributing players??

I doubt it's a coincidence that Russo published an interview where Parise expressed his frustration and Fenton was fired a few days later. It'll be interesting to see who they hire and what direction they're given from day 1 to try to get the team back to being competitive again (at least in the regular season). They currently have season tickets available, which hasn't been the case in years so I doubt ownership is completely oblivious to fan apathy.

Its gonna be interesting to see what they do next.
Hearing Hextall is a possibility for the GM job and he likely would be a good hire but is he the best choice for them if they want to go for it? Like is he a good GM at getting a team over the top or retooling them to contend? Idk maybe he is but off the top of my head I can't remember if his history as a GM indicates that he's good at that or is he just good at building through the draft. It sorta seems that there's a lot of GM's that are one or the other and few that are a combination of both.

I want them to hire him, but I don't think his style would mesh with Leipold's vision. He already was fired from 1 team for being too patient.

i thought ek played well as the 2nd line center when koivu went down. i hate to agree but yea koivu is still the 2nd best center on the team. but i dont think he should be the 2nd line 3rd is where he should be. I didnt want to put a young player on the 4th line so i put koivu there. Honestly having koivu or ek/kunin isnt going to change whether this team is a playoff team or a bottom 10 team. I dont see koivu as the big part that is to push the team closer to playoffs

i agree with granlund but coyle never really stood out. im a big coyle fan but its almost a even swap of player coyle to donato.

I think Hartman is going to replace JT Brown maybe even by training camp if the Wild don't trade him before. Either way I don't think there is anyway Brown comes back after this year.

I'd like to see them pick Kunin or Ek to be their 3C and even out the usage of their top 9. Have Koivu focus on the PK and have Kunin or Ek focus on the PP. Koivu (assuming he's healing ok) is still a useful player but he can't play 20 minutes a night anymore and neither can Staal.

I was thinking the same thing about Hextall, I think they need to poach Armstrong from the Blues somehow.

Not a Wild fan but I really think they need to make a couple bold moves and go for it before Parise and Suter seriously decline. I'd rather my team try and if they fail then so be it but staggering along in a seemingly directionless mediocrity would be frustrating as ****!

Just my $0.02.

Yeah, since Leipold is unwilling to let the team bottom out now, might as well go all in with this group and see if they can get further. I doubt Parise and Suter play out their contracts, so the cap penalty from them retiring early might be catalyst enough to finally let the roster bottom out and get some early draft picks.