Even though you're in our division, was really pulling for the Wild to get the #1

Appreciate the gesture. Sadly I think we're in for another 5-10 more years of mediocre hockey

Deep breath, trust Guerin.

Why ruin a good thing? Keep the mediocrity going forever!

I do, but I just don't see this current core getting anywhere

I agree that the Wild need to focus on plugging some important pieces in but ensuring they are 25 years old or younger. Retool on the fly, but plug in young guys to lead the team moving forward even at the expense of missing the playoffs a year or two in a row.

Yeah, but the ninth overall in this draft could be the next Bo Horvat. Add Kaprizov and Boldy, maybe Firstov . . .

This right here is the problem. Our owner is hell-bent on the fact that our team is just a few tweaks away from a cup. He's been saying this to season ticket holders for like 10 years but nothing has changed. He doesn't want us to miss the playoffs and I can't see him being very comfortable with us missing them again. That being said, that's exactly what we need to do to get some high-end players in our system, particularly at center.

Unfortunately we need a Petterson, not a Horvat. We have our Horvat with Eriksson Ek. I'm hoping Rossi falls but knowing our luck we'll take the goalie and he's caught in a KGB firefight or something stupid like that...

Strome for Brodin makes a lot of sense for both teams as long as brodin can be extended. Hawks would have to move Maatta or De Haan in order to accommodate the trade though. Would Minnesota want Maatta as part of the trade?

I agree. I've liked what I've seen from Strome during the play-ins. His skating is honestly worst than advertised which was already bad (straight line speed is good though to be fair), but he's extremely talented and he has really good vision/playmaking skill. I think of any of the perceived available centers, he's my favorite option.

What about Maatta and Strome for Brodin?

I don't love it mainly because we'll need the cap to re-sign Kaprizov and Fiala, but it's possible we'd still have enough space. I'd have to make a Wild AGM to see how it would work. What do you think Strome deserves on a 5ish year deal

I think you're in the Holtz-Lundell-Perfetti-Quinn stratum. And one of the other teams may take Sanderson, Schneider or the Russian goalie.

I think a team will take Sanderson ahead of us, which assuming Lafreniere, Byfield, and Stuzle go top 3, and Drysdale goes top 5-7, we're guaranteed one of Perfetti, Rossi, Raymond, or Holtz. I'd just take whichever one of those four falls to us.

We an Aho more than anything: a guy taken outside of the top 10 who panned out to be great.

My money is on Khusnutdinov being that guy this year

I think you'd want to bridge Strome 3 x $4M. On a 5 year deal, maybe $5M? Maatta is a cheap buyout at $680K if in a year you want to buyout or expose him to seattle.

I think we'd want a bit more than what I have here if we had to take on Maatta, maybe upgrade the pick to PIT's 2nd. Brodin became a lot more important for us since Suter had to sit out of our last game

I've bought into the hype that Detroit takes Perfetti at 4.

I think they should take one of Perfetti, Rossi, or Raymond. They need an offensive dynamo to complement Larkin.

Maatta doesn't have negative value and we can certainly move him. I was thinking the Wild would need him on the left side with Brodin gone and pretty sure he's a better option then Hunt.

Like I said the big issue is the cap. We need money to pay Fiala, Ek will be due for a decent raise, and if Kaprizov lives up to the hype I could see him being in the ballpark of Fiala. Maybe we can find takers for Dubnyk and Pateryn but if not we'er kinda sol.

Dubnyk is probably getting bought out, our goalies are gonna make like $2 million combined for at least two seasons if they go with Kahkonen and Stalock. Once Rask is off the books too there should be zero cap issues, and I assume a Zucc trade will be fully explored by that time too.

Winnipeg would have a little less than zero interest in that deal.