Chasing Goals on… The Anaheim Ducks

Posted on May 26, 2019 by
Can the Wild Find Goals from the Anaheim Ducks roster?

Can the Wild Find Goals from the Anaheim Ducks roster?

The Minnesota Wild are looking for goals or, more to the point, players who score goals. We already covered the Wild’s roster in the first part of this 31-part series! You can see that at Chasing Goals on The Minnesota Wild.

One of the problems with “Chasing Goals” is every team is trying to do the same thing. No team wants to give up a goal-scorer when they find one so this is no easy task for the Minnesota Wild and General Manager Paul Fenton. That being said, we are going to point out some options available to the Wild on each NHL team and the only limit we’re going to put on those options is they have to be able to help the Wild score goals next season so they have to already be playing or, at least, played some games in the NHL. We may point out some prospects that look like they could help but it’s very difficult to judge what a player can do in the NHL based on stats from even the AHL let alone NCAA Hockey & the Canadian Junior Hockey Leagues. The Foreign leagues are usually even more difficult to judge because they are top professional leagues and the prospects are usually not playing top line minutes so their stats reflect that.

Next up is….the Anaheim Ducks because we didn’t know what order to go in so good, old alphabetical it is.

Ducks and Pucks

Looking at the current Anaheim Ducks roster, there are only a few players that stand out as players that could immediately help the Wild next season, Fs Jakob Silfverberg, Rikard Rakell and Daniel Sprong.
Jakob Silfverberg: 28-years-old; Contract: 5 years, $5.25M Cap Hit
2019 Stats: 24 goals, 19 assists in 73 games; Power Play: 3 G, 8 A
NHL Totals: 117 G, 135 A in 492 gms; Power Play: 17 G, 23 A
Also has 8 Goals & 5 Assists while Short-Handed | Highlights

  • Doesn’t shoot enough and looks like a guy who scores goals but not really a pure goal-scorer.

Rikard Rakell: 26-years-old; Contract: 3 years, $3,789,444 Cap Hit
2019 NHL Stats: 18 goals, 25 assists in 69 games; Power Play: 6 G, 7 A
NHL Totals: 114 G, 127 A in 382 gms; Power Play: 25 G, 37 A
Highlights

  • Now this is a guy who looks like a goal-scorer. He has a great shot and scores in different ways but loves the wrist shot from the Ovechkin spot. The contract is nice, too.

Daniel Sprong: 22-years-old; Contract: 1 year, $.75M Cap Hit (RFA)
2019 Stats: 14 goals, 9 assists in 63 games; Power Play: 2 G, 5 A
w/Pittsburgh: 0 goals, 4 assists in 16 games; Power Play: 0 G, 1 A
w/Anaheim:  14 goals, 5 asssts in 47 games; Power Play: 2 G, 4 A
NHL Totals: 18 G, 10 A in 89 gms; Power Play: 2 G, 5 A
Highlights

  • Became a different player once he got to Anaheim. He started to shoot the puck. Likely was a bigger part of the team and made the most of it. He also scored 32 goals in 65 AHL games in 2017-18. Anaheim just traded for him last season so good luck prying him from their webbed feet.

Sam Steel: 21-years-old; Contract: 2 years, $863,333 Cap Hit
2019 Stats: 6 goals, 5 assists in 22 games; Power Play: 0 G, 2 A
AHL Totals: 20 G, 21 A in 53 gms; Power Play: 3 G, ? A
WHL Totals: 123 G, 215 A in 258 games
Highlights

  • If the Wild feel the need to trade Zucker, these are the type of players they should be trying to acquire. Players who are still on their entry-level contracts so they are inexpensive and can be put in a position to succeed.

The Chase

The Wild could pursue a player like Daniel Sprong but as it says above, there is no reason the Ducks would make that trade. This would be like one of those fantasy hockey trades that you receive from someone all year long that doesn’t ever think about what the other team would get in the trade. Why trade for Jason Zucker and his $5.5M cap hit when they already have someone cheaper that could very well produce the same or maybe even more than Zucker next season.

Does that mean it can’t happen? No, but the trade would have to involve other pieces and the Wild probably don’t have the pieces to make that trade.

So…we’ll move on to the Arizona Coyotes next time but until then, let us know what you think about the players listed above for the Wild to chase and/or any other players you think we may have missed.

Let us know what you think in the comments or on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) &…ALWAYS…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in Hockey In Minnesota, Minnesota Wild, NHL Hockey | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chasing Goals on….The Minnesota Wild – Finding Goal-Scorers in the Wild

Posted on May 18, 2019 by
Chasing Goals on....the Minnesota Wild

Can the Minnesota Wild Find Goals from Their Own Roster?

We start our Minnesota Wild Chasing Goals Series with…the Minnesota Wild! What? Yes. The first thing we have to do and what we imagine any general manager and NHL Hockey Operations department does is to make sure there aren’t already players within their organization that can score goals. There are going to be some players already on the roster and in the system who are goal-scorers and maybe some players that can turn into goal-scorers. If they can’t find them on their own team, how are they going to find them through the NHL Draft, Free Agency and from other NHL teams through trades?

What is a Goal-Scorer?

A Goal-Scorer is a player who Scores Goals. That’s simple enough, right? But, let’s set some things straight to start off with before we get into the thick of what the Wild or any other team can offer in terms of players who score goals.

First, every team is looking for players who can score goals. We often hear a scout or an announcer say a player has “an NHL Shot.” Well, that means they should be able to score in the NHL but….

Second, there’s a difference between a player who can score goals and a player who can do it by themselves, either with their speed, their hands (puck control), their hockey sense or a combination of any or all of those skills. There are different types of goal-scorers. There are shooters, speeders, muckers & grinders and receivers. Muckers & grinders tip shots & get rebounds by going to the tough, dirty areas in front of the net. Receivers are players who know where goals are scored from and/or how to be available for a pass for a one-timer.

Third, goal-scorers can rarely do it all by themselves. It doesn’t matter how good they are. They’ll always need help from their linemates and teammates to score goals whether it’s a playmaking player that gets them the puck or gets them space to score on their own. If you put a bunch of goal-scorers on the same line, they’d probably score some goals but they might all be unassisted goals because none of them want to pass the puck.

Obviously, they’d learn how to play with each other but, basically, what we’re saying is, it takes a combination of different players to score goals consistently as a line and every team has to figure out how their players fit together so they can have the most success.

Do the Wild Have Any Goal-Scorers?

No! Ha! That’s not true! They have players who can score goals. There’s Zach Parise, Jason Zucker, Eric Staal and Matt Dumba. We know those players can score and will score because we’ve seen them do it in the NHL. Will they continue to score goals at their current pace, whether that’s a good or a bad pace? You’d like to think so but it’s impossible to know but, they have the talent to keep scoring goals because they are goal-scorers.

But that’s only 4 players and one of them is a defenseman. There’s nothing wrong with a defenseman being a goal-scorer but they usually don’t score a ton of goals. Last season in the NHL regular season, there were only 29 defensemen who scored double-digit goals with only 1 player scoring 20 (Toronto D Morgan Rielly.) That’s not even one defenseman per team scoring 10 goals. Wild D Matt Dumba was 17th on that list with 12 goals and he only played 32 games.* Does having a defenseman as one of your top goal-scorers present a problem? Yes, and no. Yes, if there aren’t many other goal-scorers around him, kind of like the Minnesota Wild. But no, if he scores a lot of those goals on the power play. Having a defenseman as a goal-scoring threat actually could open up more chances for the other players on the ice. Obviously, the more players you have that can score goals, the better.
*It makes you wonder what Matt Dumba would’ve ended up with if he played all 82 games, doesn’t it? WOW! Half of those 12 goals came on the Power Play, too.

Secondary Goal-Scoring?

Secondary goal-scoring is goals scored from players who aren’t necessarily goal-scorers but score goals because they are good players. Mikael Granlund comes to mind as a player that scores goals but isn’t necessarily a goal-scorer. A goal-scorer wants to shoot first, never hesitates to shoot and rarely stops shooting the puck. You don’t have to tell Zach Parise to shoot the puck. He knows who he is. Granlund is a pass-first player and it’s sad because he should be a goal-scorer. He scored on some great shots this season for the Wild but he may have been traded largely because he looks to pass the majority of the time.

For the Wild, D Jared Spurgeon, F Mikko Koivu, F Marcus Foligno and D Ryan Suter are secondary goal-scorers. They will score sometimes but aren’t really being counted on to score goals. That’s a pretty sad list save for Spurgeon. There should really be more to that list but there should also be more to the primary goal-scoring list, too, and we wouldn’t be talking about it if there were more players on that list.

Nino Niederreiter was a primary goal-scorer and Charlie Coyle was a secondary goal-scorer that was supposed to be and should’ve been a primary goal-scorer for the Minnesota Wild. Nino struggled with injuries and holding his spot in the top 6 because he wasn’t scoring goals. Charlie has a tremendous shot but he doesn’t shoot. That’s why they were both traded and went from being core players with the Wild to being role players with Carolina & Boston.

Future Goal-Scorers Already on the Wild

So, that leaves us with what the Wild has for future goal-scorers, players who are currently on the team or are prospects who have the potential and the history of being goal-scorers. The Wild have a lot of players who have the ability and/or the potential to score goals but they either have yet to live up to that or are early in their NHL careers and are still figuring out their role or how to play at the NHL level.

Fs Ryan Donato, Luke Kunin, Jordan Greenway, Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson-Ek and Victor Rask (Yes, Victor Rask) have the chance to be primary goal-scorers because they’ve done it throughout their careers and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to keep doing that but, let’s take a closer look:

Ryan Donato
NHL-68 games (3 seasons)-15 goals, 19 assists
Wild-22 games (2018-19)-4 goals, 12 assists (5 PPA)

  • Has a great shot and likes to shoot
  • Not a great skater but has speed and gets where he wants to go
  • Competes for pucks and wins battles
  • 60 goals & 104 points in 97 NCAA games (Harvard)
  • 5 goals in 5 games for Team USA at 2018 Olympic Games

Luke Kunin
NHL-68 games (2 seasons)-8 goals, 13 assists; 40 PIMs; -12
Wild in 2018-19-49 games-6 goals, 11 assists; 27 PIMs; -9

  • Great shot; likes/wants to shoot
  • Good to Great skater with speed
  • 41 goals & 70 points in 69 NCAA games (Wisconsin)
  • 27 goals & 47 points in 76 AHL games; 6 goals & 8 points in AHL Calder Cup playoffs in 2019
  • Leadership qualities-been a captain everywhere he’s played except the pros; named Captain at Wisconsin as a sophomore; Captained USA U18 Team (’15) & U20 Team (’17) to Gold Medals; USNTDP Captain in 2015; Alternate Captain for U17 & USNTDP teams in 2014
  • Easy to see how much this kid wants to make it and why he’s a leader every time you hear him talk during or after a game; will mix it up to protect his teammates, drop the gloves if he needs to. He just loves to compete!
  • Asked to play for Teams USA at the 2019 IIHF World Championships – Next Game is tomorrow at 9am CST on the NHL Network

Jordan Greenway
NHL-87 games (2 seasons)-12 goals, 13 assists; 29 PIMs; -12
Wild in 2018-19-81 games-12 goals, 12 assists; 29 PIMs; -12

  • Big – 6’6, 227 lbs; knows how to use his body to protect the puck but is still learning how to do it consistently in the NHL
  • 28 goals & 92 points in 112 NCAA games (Boston)
  • Helped Team USA win Gold in 2015 (U18) & 2017 (WJC) on the same team as the guy above; 3 goals, 8 points in 7 games in 2017
  • Maybe not a primary goal-scorer but a better playmaker than people think.
  • Good skater but something he can improve along with his shot

Kevin Fiala
NHL-223 games (5 seasons)-48 goals, 56 assists; 80 PIMs; -3
Wild in 2018-19-19 games-3 goals, 4 assists; 10 PIMs; -12

  • Looks like he may want to pass too much but he can shoot it and has great hands
  • Called a “GameChanger” by GM Paul Fenton after trading for him
  • Good to Excellent speed
  • Needs to get better at the defensive side of the game
  • Probably tried to do too much in his new role in the top 6 or the Wild so he was turnover prone but a full offseason & training camp should make him more comfortable with his teammates
  • 36 goals & 89 points in 121 AHL games, 141 PIMs, -16
  • Played 2 games in the NHL at 19-years-old – 1 in the regular season, 1 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs
  • 5 goals, 1 assist in 18 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff games
  • Playing in the 2019 IIHF World Championships for Switzerland; has 4 goals & 2 assists in 5 games including 1 PPG, next game is tomorrow at 2pm on the NHL Network vs Russia & a certain other future WIld goal-scorer, F Kirill Kaprizov who, surprisingly has 0 points so far for Russia

Joel Eriksson-Ek
NHL-148 games (3 seasons)-16 goals, 21 assists; 46 PIMs; -4
Wild in 2018-19-58 games-7 goals, 7 assists; 20 PIMs; -7

  • 8 goals, 10 assists in 18 AHL games
  • Great skater; has a good shot but needs to shoot more
  • Tremendous on the forecheck and great two-way player
  • Stepped it up after Koivu injury looking like a different player, a player who belonged in the NHL
  • Captained Sweden’s 2017 WJC team to a Gold Medal scoring 7 goals and 9 points in 6 games
  • 21 goals & 37 points in 101 games in the SHL (Swedish Hockey League)

Victor Rask
NHL-362 games (5 seasons)-65 goals, 101 assists; 76 PIMs; -34
Wild in 2018-19-49 games-3 goals, 6 assists; 8 PIMs; -4

  • 17 goals, 27 assists in 86 AHL games
  • 47 goals, 57 assists in 101 WHL games (Canadian Jrs)
  • Helped Sweden win Gold at the 2017 World Championships with 2 goals & 5 assists in 10 games
  • Decent skater but something he can improve for sure
  • A normal offseason in a new place could do him wonders and a disappointing season likely has him very motivated to improve

In the Wild’s System

These are players that have or should play for the Wild in the near future. Fs Kyle Rau, Gerald Mayhew and Sam Anas are really the only ones that look like they may be able to provide some immediate help. Well, there is that Russian sniper named Kirill Kaprizov who will join the Wild in the 2020-21 season.

Kyle Rau
NHL-42 games (4 seasons)-2 goals, 3 assists; 6 PIMs; -4
Wild in 2018-19-6 games-0 goals, 1 assists; 0 PIMs; 0

  • 78 goals, 83 assists in 256 AHL games including 49 goals the last 2 seasons in 138 games (23 goals in 2017-18 & 26 last season); 4 goals in 11 playoff games
  • 67 goals, 97 assists in 160 NCAA games (Minnesota)
  • Captain for his JR & SR seasons in High School and College
  • Very good skater, good shot, very good to great compete level
  • Kyle Rau might just need more of a chance to stick for the Wild & with only 1 more year left on his contract, if he doesn’t get that chance in 2019-20, he’s probably gone.

Gerald Mayhew
NHL-Yet to make NHL Debut (3 AHL Seasons)
Iowa Wild in 2018-19-71 games-27 goals, 33 assists; 51 PIMs; 15

  • 49 goals, 50 assists in 160 AHL games
  • 52 goals, 67 assists in 150 NCAA games (Ferris State)
  • Hard to say much about him because I haven’t seen him other than highlights
  • He’s kind of the definition of development as he’s gotten better in every one of his 3 AHL seasons from 6 goals & 1 assist in 17 games after completing his SR season at Ferris State to 16 goals & 16 assists in 72 games in 2017-18 to 27 goals and 33 assists in 71 games last season AND 9 goals and 2 assists in 11 playoff games
  • He also signed an NHL contract with the Minnesota Wild on May 10th so he’ll be in his first NHL training camp in about 3 and a half months.

Sam Anas
NHL-Yet to make NHL Debut (3 AHL Seasons)
Iowa Wild in 2018-19-66 games-14 goals, 24 assists; 12 PIMs; -13

  • 52 goals, 75 assists in 196 AHL games plus 1 goal & 6 assists in 11 playoff games this season
  • 69 goals, 63 assists in 121 NCAA games (Quinnipiac)
  • Sam is only 5’8 and 161 lbs so he has a tougher battle because of his size but he has the hockey sense to score points.
  • It looks like he struggled this season but he missed more than a month between the end of November and early January. He still didn’t produce as much as he did in 2017-18 but he did improve in the 2nd have with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 41 games.
  • The majority of people will not think he can stay healthy or play in the NHL because of his size but he’s likely dealt with that for the majority of his life, too, so it shouldn’t stop him just like a certain Minnesota Wild player, D Jared Spurgeon, who is 5’9 & 167 lbs and he’s one of the best defensemen in the NHL right now.

Kirill Kaprizov
NHL-Yet to make NHL Debut
KHL in 2018-19-57 games-30 goals, 21 assists; 16 PIMs; +36

  • 88 goals, 80 assists in 236 KHL games, 112 PIMs, +57
  • Has an offensive feel for the game that maybe no Wild player has ever had before
  • Thought of as the savior of the Wild by many fans because he looks like he’s going to be that good; has one more year left on his KHL contract before he can sign an Entry-Level Contract with the Wild
  • Began playing in the KHL, the top professional hockey league in Russia, when he was 18-years-old; has improved every season in all but one season in his goal & point total but every year in his plus/minus
  • Captained Russia’s 2017 WJC team to a Bronze Medal while scoring 9 goals and 3 assists in 7 games
  • Won the Gold Medal in the 2018 Olympics scoring the Golden goal as part of his 5 goals & 4 assists in 6 games
  • Won the Gagarin Cup, the KHL Championship, this season with CSKA Moscow, which makes us think he has nothing else keeping him from coming over to North American after the 2019-20 KHL season
  • Playing in the current 2019 IIHF World Championships but has 0 points in 4 games. He began the tournament playing on the wing with Evgeni Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin as his linemates but the coach didn’t think it was working so he changed the lines, Russia’s next game is tomorrow (Sunday, May 19th) at 1pm against Kevin Fiala’s Swiss team on the NHL Network so….set your DVRs, ClutterPuckers!

We didn’t put recent Wild college free agent signee, F Nico Sturm, because we’re not sure he’s a goal-scorer but he could turn into one. He did score 36 goals & 67 assists in 118 NCAA games (Clarkson) but he’s also known as a Defensive Forward but we felt he should at least be mentioned because he can skate. He’s 6’1 & 207 lbs and sometimes players improve and excel when they play with more skilled players so he’s definitely one to watch.

There are some other players in the Wild’s system that look like they could turn into something special in terms of goal-scorers and players and most of them are from the last 2 drafts so it’s too early to know if they’ll be able to develop into NHL goal-scorers. Players who have been signed to Entry-Level Contracts like Fs Alexander Khovanov, Connor DeWar, Mason Shaw (just tore his ACL in the AHL playoffs), Ivan Lodnia & Dmitry Sokolov.

Then there are still other players who have yet to sign their pro contract who are still playing in Canadian Juniors or NCAA Division I Hockey. So, in the next 3-4 years, players like Fs Jack McBain (Boston College), Damien Giroux (30 goals in 67 games; 9 goals in 17 playoff games in the OHL for Saginaw), Shawn Boudrias (QMJHL-Cape Breton), Sam Hentges (St. Cloud State) and Nick Swaney (UMD).

So, what will the Wild do?

The rumors have flown often and for a while that the Wild will try to trade F Jason Zucker since he was “reportedly” very close to being traded to the Calgary Flames at last season’s NHL Trade Deadline but it somehow, again “reportedly” fell through. The question, though, is, Why? The obvious answer is because he wasn’t producing last season but pretty much nobody was producing last season except for Zach Parise and Zucker still scored 21 goals in a “bad” season.

Jason Zucker has scored 110 goals in 370 games in the last 5 seasons. All but 1 of those seasons he scored over 20 goals and 2 seasons ago he scored 33 goals. We know he’s a goal-scorer because we’ve seen him do it.

So, if you have a goal-scorer, why would you trade a goal-scorer? Is he a 30-goal scorer or is he more like a 20-25 goal-scorer? Does it matter? He’s 27-years-old with 4 more years left on his contract at $5.5M per year. Is he not exactly what the Wild are looking for? A goal-scorer in or entering his prime years? Do they believe he’s not good for the room?

What do they think they will get for him in a trade? Assuming what we hear is true and the Wild want to make the playoffs next season, they will want a player currently playing in the NHL so, are you going to get a younger, better player? We know Wild General Manager Paul Fenton is a big fan of “Hockey Trades” or player-for-player trades that are good for both teams. He made at least 2 hockey trades last season with Nashville in the Mikael Granlund for Kevin Fiala trade and with Carolina in the Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask trade.

It’s probably too soon to evaluate either of these trades because of the players involved and how their careers have gone up to this point.

Rask was already in the midst of a terrible season after falling out of favor in Carolina due to a weird injury early in the season and we’ve already talked about why Nino was dealt. He wasn’t producing for whatever reason, lineup consistency, confidence, etc… but he excelled when he got to Carolina because he was put in the top 6 with players that he & his game fit with. Rask didn’t look comfortable and then was injured, missing the majority of his time with the Wild so everyone looks at this trade as terrible for the Wild even if Nino wasn’t doing anything here, either.

The Granlund for Fiala trade actually looks better for the Wild because Granlund didn’t seem to fit in very well in Nashville, putting up just 5 points (1 goal, 4 assists (2 on the PP)) in 16 regular season games and 2 points (1G, 1A) in 5 playoff games while Fiala put up 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists (1G & 4A on the PP)) in 19 games with the Wild. This trade looks more even if you just look at points but it’s also trading a known commodity in Granlund who has put up points and been a major player for a player who is still looking to reach his potential in Fiala.

So, it’ll be interesting to see what Mr. Fenton pursues and, ultimately, receives for Zucker since the reporting world is saying this is happening. If you can’t tell, we’re not really in favor of trading Jason Zucker and we’ve pointed out why we feel that way.

But, this is why we’re doing this series. To find out who they could get in a trade, and what it will take to make that happen. We said last season that any and every player should be on the table to help this team improve and we saw Paul Fenton move 3 players that were part of the core of this team. Those weren’t tweaks. Those were major changes to the roster so the Wild’s Hockey Ops department have been looking & scouting players for quite a while. We just started so…uhhh….yeah. We’ll see how we do!

Let us know what you think in the comments or on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) &…ALWAYS…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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2018-19 Minnesota Gopher Hockey Preview – We Got The Motz!

Posted on October 6, 2018 by

2018-19 Minnesota Gopher Hockey Preview - We Got The Motz!

The Minnesota Gopher Hockey program is going through a transition. In college sports and really all sports in general, every season is a transition but in college sports, it’s usually a bigger transition because the best players and the biggest leaders could’ve ended their careers at the program.

For the Gophers, it is definitely a leader ending their career at the program as the coach for the last 19 seasons, Don Lucia, stepped down as the head coach of the Minnesota Gophers. The Don, as he’s affectionately known, was a big reason the Gopher Hockey program was one of the top programs in college hockey:
During his tenure at Minnesota, Lucia has helped his teams raise 14 banners to the rafters of Mariucci Arena, including back-to-back NCAA championships in 2001-02 and 2002-03. His Gophers squads have also captured eight regular-season conference titles and four conference playoff crowns. In addition, Lucia has led the Gophers to 10 25-win seasons and 12 top-three conference finishes. He is a four-time conference coach of the year, winning the award as part of the WCHA in 1993-94, 1995-96 and 2005-06 and earning the inaugural Big Ten Coach of the Year honor in 2013-14.

In the last 10 seasons, he may have been a big reason why they haven’t been one of the top programs in college hockey. The Gophers missed 5 out of the last 10 NCAA Hockey Tournaments including 3 straight from 2008 to 2011. They did make it 5 out of the last 7 seasons and barely missed this year because the stars aligned against them. Part of that is due to the parity of college hockey that has happened over that span as well.

That’s because it’s more difficult to stay competitive year after year. More players are leaving early. Players are then being recruited earlier. There are more destinations available to players. Most of all, though, is the competition is better overall. There are more teams that are capable of winning now. That means it’s a bigger step from Juniors to Division 1 College Hockey so it might take the freshman longer to figure out the college game, making it take longer for each team to be competitive in the season.

The B1G Ten Conference started in 2013. That season the Gophers lost in the NCAA Championship game but the rebirth of the Big Ten Hockey Conference didn’t do them any favors because they had it easy for the first 3 years, basically coasting to the conference title. They didn’t seem to battle-ready when it came to the NCAA Tournament anymore. Then, when it came to the point where there were no players left from before the return of the Big 10 (AB10, if you will), the Gophers finished 5th in the conference after losing 4 straight to Penn State. They missed the NCAA Tournament last year by like 1/1000th of a point in the Wise Pair Rankings.

Without the upsets, the Gophers would’ve been in. There was a 1 in 64 chance for the Gophers to miss the NCAA Tourney last season; 6 teams had to lose their games. From Don Lucia’s press conference:

Press Conference Don Lucia Steps Down as Gopher Hockey Head Coach YouTube

“There’s 1 out of 64 scenarios you don’t get in…we’d have to lose all these 6 games. If we lose all 6 of these games, the good lord’s telling me it’s time to do something else. Maybe it’s his way of telling Old Don it’s time to do something else.”

So The Don stepped down* and for a while, everyone was wondering who they could get to be the next head coach. Sure, people thought Bob Motzko but right after they had that thought, their next thought had put that out of their mind because nobody thought Bob would leave St. Cloud State, especially after building them into the #1 team in the nation.
*Don Lucia is still working for the University of Minnesota as a Special Assistant to the Athletic Director

But, low and behold, 7 days after The Don had stepped down, We Got The Motz!!! The St. Cloud State Huskies lost in their opening game of the tournament on Friday, March 23rd and on March 27th, Bob Motzko had agreed to become to the new head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey Team!

Do yourself a favor and watch Bob Motzko’s introductory press conference as Gopher Hockey’s new Head Coach. You’ll hear about how important relationships are to him, his weird relationship with Gopher coaches, how he started coaching and why he took the job, too.

Press Conference Bob Motzko Introduced as Gopher Men s Hockey Coach YouTube

The Motz is going to have this team play a speed-based game where they get on people so they are going to play fast with relentless pursuit of the puck. If you’ve seen how the Huskies have played and grown since Bob Motzko became their coach back in 2005, you know this team is going to play hard and play the right way.

If you need other examples, he was the head coach for USA Hockey for the last 2 World Junior Championship teams. The 2017 team won gold and the 2018 team won bronze.

Bob Motzko brought a new assistant coach along with him from St. Cloud in Garrett Raboin and he raves about his former player and former captain as a coach. Former Gopher player Ben Gordon is the other assistant coach. Ben Gordon was the associate head coach of the Chicago Steel of the USHL last season and previously worked for the University of Minnesota as the Director of Hockey Operations for the 2016-17 season. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Division III St. Scholastica College in 2014. Also, former players Ryan Potulny and Stu Bickel have joined the program as undergraduate assistants.

Who are the 2O18-19 Gophers?

First off, let’s see who left after last season. The biggest piece that left was current Buffalo Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt but close behind and possibly even bigger was defenseman Ryan Lindgren because both were underclassmen but they were already losing 2 senior defensemen in Jack Glover and Steve Johnson. Also leaving were forwards Mike Szmatula, Leon Bristedt, Luke Notermann, Nate Knoepke & Connor Hurley and goalie Nick Lehr. That’s 31 goals, 54 assists and 85 points they have to replace and that’s with Leon Bristedt having a bad year.

The good news is they have a lot of seniors and juniors on this team with 9 and 5, respectively so this team is experienced and should be able to replace those points with the skill they already have and the skill they have coming in with 8 freshmen, 3 defensemen and 5 forwards.

Expect a rebound year from senior forward Tyler Sheehy after battling through a back injury for most of last season limited him to 12 goals & 13 assists in 36 games. You should also expect a better year from sophomore forward Scott Reedy. Rem Pitlick should be the speedy, point-producing machine we know very well again. It’s hard to know what to expect for lines under the new coach. Will we still see that 4th line of Jack Ramsey, Darian Romanko and maybe Ryan Norman since they are all seniors and have shown that great compete-level and will get in on the forecheck and cause mistakes? If he does that, who will The Motz have on the 3rd line? The freshmen forwards will have to make at some point during the season even if it takes them some time to adapt to Division I College Hockey.

Stopping the puck can definitely help you win games and the Gophs have 2 experienced goaltenders coming back in senior Eric Schierhorn and junior Mat Robson. Will it be the senior or the junior in the crease when the season starts on Saturday night? Where will it go from there? One over the other? Ride one for the bulk of the season or will they split time and play one game each every weekend. Does the coach even know yet?

Schierhorn struggled for the first time last season. Those struggles made Lucia give Mat Robson an opportunity and he made the most of it, eventually taking over as the number one goalie for 14 of the last 21 games and 10 of the last 14. He was 7-5-1 with a 2.11 Goals Against Average and a .933 save percentage. Schierhorn was 12-12-1 with a 2.69 GAA & a career-low .901 save %. It’s easy to think Robson is the guy because of the much higher save percentage but it’s also easy to think some competition for minutes lit a fire underneath Mr. Schierhorn to show how bad he wants that net.

Miracle - That Kid In the Net Who Wouldn t Take the Test YouTube

“That’s my net, man. You can’t do that!…..They just scored 10 goals, Jim. Right now, it’s everybody’s net!”

Herb Brooks – Miracle

The problem area for the Gophers will be on the blue line. They have the least amount of experience. There’s senior defenseman Jack Sadek, juniors Ryan Zuhlsdorf and Tyler Nanne, sophomores Clayton Phillips and Sam Rossini and freshmen Ben Brinkman, Robbie Stucker and Matt Denman. Sadek, Zuhlsdorf and Nanne played in pretty much every game last season. Rossini played in 14 games and Phillips played in 11 as he joined the team around midseason.

It’s not good when half of your defense hasn’t played more than 14 games in their career and 1 will be a freshman who has yet to experience this level of hockey. They will plan for this, which means the forwards will have to be very good in the defensive zone at the beginning of the season and those players will get better as the season goes along.

That goes for the whole team as well. Playing the reigning National Champion Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in their rink and watching them raise the championship banner in front of a soldout crowd will be an eye-opener but, it will also be motivation to play and compete their butts off. If they fail or get crushed, they’ll learn from it and get better.

The last time Bob Motzko joined the Gopher Hockey program in 2001, they won 2 straight national championships. 2001 was Don Lucia’s 15th season as a head coach in college hockey and his 3rd season with the Minnesota Gophers. Can The Motz get it done that quickly again? I’m not saying yes to that question but I’m also not saying no because Bob Motzko will have this team playing good, fast, competitive hockey by December.

You just watch!

Check out these articles about the 2018-19 Minnesota Gophers Hockey Team, too:
USCHO Game of the Week Preview-Gophers at UMD Bulldogs – Dean Spiros Oct. 5, 2018
Gopher Hockey Preview from The Athletic – Eric Vegoe Oct. 2, 2018
Minnesota adds Gordon, Potulny, Bickel to men’s coaching staff – Oct. 1, 2018
Gophers Announce Captains for the 2018-19 Season – Sept. 27, 2018
How Bob Motzko became the Gophers New Men’s Hockey Coach – ANDY GREDER Mar. 29, 2018

Hey! THANKS for reading! #BringTheClutter in the comments. We want to know what you think, ClutterPuckers! You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+!

As always….

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in College Hockey, Gopher Hockey, Hockey In Minnesota | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A ClutterPuck Season Preview of the 2018-19 Minnesota Wild – How is Your Core Strength?

Posted on October 4, 2018 by
A ClutterPuck Season Preview of the 2018-19 Minnesota Wild - How if your Core Strength?

Will the Core be Shown the Door after the 2018-19 NHL Season?

The Minnesota Wild have made the postseason for 6 straight seasons. They are 1 of 3 teams to have that current playoff streak. You’ve heard that a ton this offseason. You don’t care.

Minnesota Wild fans are tired of hearing about regular season success. They want some success in the postseason. Any success? Would the fans be happy if their team got past the first round only to be ousted in the 2nd round, even if they took it to a Game 7? Maybe, but I doubt it. Happier? Yes. Happy? No.

Because of this, the majority of Wild fans wanted a drastic change to be made to this team with a blockbuster trade or two during the offseason. That didn’t happen and the word, “Tweak,” has been overused to describe what the Wild did (or do) to try to get this team over the postseason hump.

The Eyes Have It!

The drastic change the Wild fans were looking for may have happened at the top of the organization when they fired General Manager Chuck Fletcher and hired a new one in former Nashville Predators Assistant GM, Paul Fenton. Wild fans were excited because they thought the new GM would see what they see, that this team needed to be blown up. But, the new guys came in and realized this is a pretty good team and it’s not easy to make the playoffs consistently in today’s NHL.

Paul Fenton did put out feelers to every team in the league trying to see if they could make a trade to improve the team but nobody was offering anything of value so Mr. Fenton said no, “We’re not going to make a trade just to make a trade.”

Paul Fenton and the rest of the new hires to the personnel staff want to see how this team plays and go from there. Owner Craig Leipold wanted some “new eyes” to see his team and make adjustments (or tweaks) accordingly. How long will they watch this team before trying to make a move? Weeks? Months? Obviously, that will depend on how they begin the season. If they start hot and are winning, they’ll likely leave it for a while. If they start slow and look bad, the phone might be off the hook quickly.

In With the New

So, tweak it is! When the Frenzy of Free Agency began on July 1st, the Wild did most of their work on day 1: It was more quantity than quality, thus, the tweaking had begun:

  • D Matt Bartkowski – 1-year, $650K 2-way deal
  • F Mike Liambas – 2-year, $1.35M 2-way deal
  • F Eric Fehr – 1-year, $1M deal
  • F Matt Hendricks – 1-yr, $700K deal
  • F J.T. Brown – 2-year, $1.375M deal
  • D Greg Pateryn – 3-year, $6.75M deal
  • G Andrew Hammond – 1-year, $650K 2-way deal

They signed F Matt Read to a 1-year, $650K 2-way deal later in July. They added veteran depth to a team that needed some size and physicality but these signings should also help in the locker room.

If you remember last offseason, the Wild signed a lot of players that were on the edge of making an NHL roster. It was meant to make sure every player knew they had to earn their roster spots. Competition makes everyone better. A lot of those players are still with the organization, players like F Kyle Rau, F Landon Ferraro, D Ryan Murphy and not so young F Cal O’Reilly. Add to that some prospects that might be able to help if needed in F Sam Anas, F Justin Kloos, D Carson Soucy and even D Louie Belpedio and F Dmitry Sokolov, even though they are just starting their careers. You never know how they’ll do and if they could provide anything in their first season.

Also, they still have F Luke Kunin whose recovering from a torn ACL suffered late last season. He’ll need some games in the AHL in Iowa to get back into playing shape but he was with the big club for a reason when he suffered that injury.

There is also the additional presence of big 6’6, 227-lb Jordan Greenway that might make a difference this season. He’s been playing center between Charlie Coyle & Joel Eriksson-Ek and that line has looked very good in the preseason.

This is a Restricted Area

The Wild also had to sign restricted free agents D Matt Dumba & F Jason Zucker to new deals and with both players coming off great seasons, they had to be paid. Dumba put up 50 points on 14 goals & 36 assists including 2 goals and 10 assists on the power play in 82 games so the Wild signed him to a 5-year, $30 million deal. Zucker scored 33 goals and added 31 assists for 64 points including 7 goals & 9 assists on the power play in 82 games. He had only 6 power-play points in the 6 seasons (248 games) prior to last season. For that kind of output, the Wild signed him to a 5-year deal worth $27.5 million.

Those contracts mean everyone expects further growth from both players. Dumba can be a huge threat on the power play with that shot from the one-timer spot that Ovechkin & Stamkos have made famous over the last several seasons. He may have finally taken a step towards better defense as well. That’s something that has really propelled Zucker to more ice time. He now has the trust of his coach that he’ll play in all 3 three zones.

They also re-signed D Nick Seeler to a 3-year, $2.175M deal. He came up late last season and showed he was ready for a 3rd pair role with a simple defensive game with a little physicality added in, too.

Out With the Old

Out are Tyler Ennis, Matt Cullen, Daniel Winnik and a slew of minor-league forward depth players that should be able to be replaced without too much trouble. Losing Matt Cullen hurts more from a “wished for more” standpoint meaning we wished the team would’ve done more so he could’ve done the whole Won & Done thing for his career. Cully signed with Pittsburgh looking to do the Won & Done there.

The last year of Tyler Ennis’ contract was bought out which kind of hurts both in the salary wallet and on the ice. He just looks like he should be a better hockey player but, through mostly nobody’s fault but his own, he couldn’t find a role with the Wild last season so it wasn’t a surprise to see that happen. He signed a 1-year, $650K deal with Toronto and has made the team. That may have more to do with the William Nylander contract situation than what he’s provided but, to give him credit, he has looked pretty good with 3 points in about 4 games.

Winnik joined the Bruins on a player tryout deal and didn’t make the team so he just signed with a Swiss League team.

The Wild also traded D Gustav Olofsson to the Montreal Canadiens yesterday, getting back a forward in Will Bitten who’s 20-years-old, 5’10 and 170 lbs but he’s got a motor and, maybe more importantly, he has a 2-way deal so the Wild can add him to the Iowa roster without having to pay him NHL money.

How’s Your Health?

Staying healthy will go a long way to helping the Wild this season but, honestly, when is that not the case and how do you stay healthy playing a game like hockey?

Injuries ravaged the Wild last season. Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Marcus Foligno, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and the biggest one in their #1 defenseman Ryan Suter with that major ankle injury and that may have been the final straw.

This is the first time in 3 seasons that Zach Parise is healthy at the start of training camp, but now, “I feel like I’m back to the player that I was before this started a couple of seasons ago. I feel normal again.” A healthy Parise is a good thing but getting Ryan Suter back from that horrific ankle injury might be the biggest comeback. Will it take him a while before he’s back to the Suter everyone expects? He looked alright in his one preseason game but he was either a little worried about the ankle or his skating is still a ways away. It’s probably a little bit of both.

What can a healthy Parise, Niederreiter and Coyle do this season?

TRIAge?

One thing that might help the Wild stay healthy and/or get healthy when they need to is their new training facility. Can a new practice facility play a part in getting the Wild some playoff success? The Wild believes it’s a critical piece to the championship puzzle. With TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center, the entire way the Wild prepares is about to change. Everything from the way it practices, to the way it dresses, eats, recovers, prepares and trains is about to take a massive step forward. It’s always nice to have the best money can buy, especially when it comes to training and medical facilities and it’s just 6 blocks from the Xcel Energy.

Bruce Boudreau on TRIA Rink from the Town Hall Meeting:
“This is a phenomenal place. I mean, what Craig did to build this thing for this team. If you can’t be happy in there…with this facility, you can’t be happy anywhere. I’m surprised some of the young guys aren’t going to see if they can live there during the course of the winter. It has everything that we need to be successful and we’re getting everything that we do need to be successful so there’s no excuses at all.”

How’s Your Core Strength?

The core of a team is one of the biggest reasons why it does or doesn’t succeed. This why the Wild signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter back in 20012. They felt these two would mark the beginning of getting the Wild to the promised land of winning a Stanley Cup. It definitely hasn’t worked out like they had planned. Is that because of them and/or the rest of this team’s core? Their problem has been getting over the hump in the playoffs and for various reasons, that hasn’t happened.

It’s unfortunate but it doesn’t mean they will stop trying, that’s for sure. Chuck Fletcher is blamed for having the Wild in this position. Should he be blamed? Since signing #11 and #20, he was in a Win Now mode so he was always doing what he could to help the big club. Well, there were only so many prospects and draft picks and dealing those killed the team’s depth. Had they won a Cup, nobody would be complaining about this or, if they did, the response would be to just point at The Cup. Argument over.

The Wild’s AHL club, the Iowa Wild, has never made the playoffs in their 5-years in Iowa. This new regime is adamant about making the baby Wild into a winning team so they’ll do everything they can to keep their draft picks and use the draft and development model that new GM Paul Fenton used in Nashville.

New Team, New Season!

Every year is a new year with a new team. Minnesota fans are notorious for believing their teams will never win anything because “It’s the Wild. They’ll lose again.” Well, believe it or not, it’s a new team every year. If there’s just one new player, one new coach or some other change to the organization then, well, that makes it a new team.

This team made several changes from last season’s team. There are new players, a new assistant coach in Dean Evason, a new practice facility and new people in the management department. Yes, there are a lot of the same players but they also have another year of experience and they learned from that experience so, even they aren’t the same.

The big question is can any or all of those changes make a difference in turning this team into a contender for the Cup? Can a healthy Zach Parise, Nino Niederreiter & Charlie Coyle, veteran depth at the bottom of the depth chart & in the locker room and young players like Nick Seeler and Jordan Greenway be the difference this team needs?

What clicked last season for the Washington Capitals, a team that battled for 9 years in the playoffs with nothing but disappointments to show for it? They failed so often that people started expecting them to fail but they finally got over the hump last season and they now have a championship, a banner, rings and A LOT of videos to show for it. Does that sound familiar?

Can that happen for the Wild? Why can’t it? Everyone is expecting this team to fail but they have the talent to win and to win now. They have good goaltending, a great group of defenseman and good to great forwards that should produce more this season. They just have to get over the hump.

Gotta Win the War Before You Dance

The Central Division is stacked this season. You can make an argument for every team to make the playoffs from the Central but, at least two of those teams will not make the dance. Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis may have said it best when describing the Central Division:

“The West and especially our Central Division, each game’s a war and you have a little bit of a rivalry with every team. You can’t guarantee yourself a playoff spot. You really have to go out every night and compete and the divisional matchups are even more key from there.”

The Wild have to be ready from the start because the first game is against a Central Division foe and the Colorado Avalanche know as well as the rest of the league knows that there are no easy games, especially in the Central so…

Let’s Dance!!!

Hey! THANKS for reading! #BringTheClutter in the comments. We want to know what you think, ClutterPuckers! You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+!

 

As always….

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in Hockey In Minnesota, Iowa Wild, Minnesota Wild, NHL Hockey | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chuck Fletcher Out as Minnesota Wild General Manager

Posted on April 23, 2018 by
Chuck Fletcher Out as Minnesota Wild GM - April 23rd, 2018

Will changes at the top be able to get the Minnesota Wild over the hump?

The Minnesota Wild and owner Craig Leipold announced today that their General Manager for the last 9 seasons, Chuck Fletcher, will not be back. His contract was due to end after the season so they’ll just let him go and they’ll begin the search for a new GM immediately.

Being one of only three teams to make the playoffs in the last six straight seasons wasn’t enough to keep Chuck Fletcher the GM of the Minnesota Wild. That might seem wrong but just making the playoffs isn’t & shouldn’t be enough for the players or the fans and, the Wild might be lucky to have an owner in Craig Leipold that doesn’t think it’s enough, either. He wants his team to win a Cup for the deserving fans of the State of Hockey.

For whatever reason, the Wild have struggled in the postseason. For the first three of those six straight postseasons, the hump they couldn’t get over was the Chicago Blackhawks. The last three seasons, the hump has been getting past the first round. They’ve met a hot goalie, a hot team or a combination of both that has ended their season. Two of those teams won the Stanley Cup, if that matters and no, that shouldn’t matter, either.

It’s hard to blame the GM but, he is the man who ultimately built the team. It was Chuck Fletcher’s team so if his teams couldn’t win, it was time for him to go and for the Minnesota Wild to make a change to that philosophy and the best way to build a team. Chuck Fletcher deserves respect for building this team through a combination of the NHL Draft, Free Agency and through trades.

Were all his moves successful? No. Of course not but neither are all the moves from every GM in the National Hockey League. He did sign both F Zach Parise & D Ryan Suter to huge 13-year/$98M contracts in 2012. Without those deals, they don’t make the playoffs for 5 of those 6 seasons. He traded a 3rd-round pick for G Devan Dubnyk. Without that trade, they miss the playoffs that season and who knows about the following seasons.

A lot of fans question Fletcher’s trades & giving up so many draft picks but you have to give up something to get something and it seems the price is going up and probably why he didn’t make any big moves at this season’s trade deadline.

He also spent to the cap this season. That’s a good thing. It means he’s using every possible dollar he can to field the best team possible. He can’t predict injuries, especially all of the weird injuries the Wild had this season.

The bottom line is the teams Chuck Fletcher built each season didn’t get it done. You can say the blame shouldn’t all fall on him but he’s responsible for the teams he built. The hockey operations he built can only put a team together that they think can get the job done. Unfortunately, if they don’t develop into what they thought they could be and don’t get the job done, they then have to figure out both what to do with them and how to fix them.

It will be extremely interesting to see who the Minnesota Wild bring in to succeed Chuck Fletcher as the next General Manager and who that GM decides needs to go. In our opinion, every player should be on the table in trade talks as a means of improving this team so they can finally go on a run for The Cup.

The only player we can see as being “untouchable” is F Kirill Kaprizov, who is currently in the KHL through the 2019-20 season. There is no agreement between the NHL & the KHL so there is currently no way to get Kaprizov to the Minnesota Wild before then. He’s the type of player the Wild has rarely seen put on their jersey. Will that be when this team gets over the hump and has some playoff success? Well…hopefully, it will be sooner than that but…

It will be up to the players and the new GM to get them to that point.

We’ll be going over the Minnesota Wild’s season and previewing the offseason over the next couple of weeks so follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and let us know what you think and always….

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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