After a disappointing end to their season, what’s in store for the Minnesota Wild in the offseason? Read on for the latest.
What next for the Wild?
Re-signing goaltender Devan Dubnyk is the priority for MinnesotaWild GM Chuck Fletcher.
TWINCITIES.COM: Chad Graff examined what he considers the offseason “to-do list” for Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher. Re-signing goaltender Devan Dubnyk is the priority. Acquired at midseason, Dubnyk’s performance saved the Wild’s season. He’s an unrestricted free agent this summer, and Graff suggests if all goes well, Dubnyk will return as the Wild’s starter with Darcy Kuemper as his backup.
Finding a reliable goal scorer is another. Graff speculates Fletcher could trade defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who has a year left on his contract, to make room for Matt Dumba on their top-four defense. The third defense pairing could be overhauled. Fletcher must also re-sign restricted free agent center Mikael Granlund.
ESPN.COM: Craig Custance lists re-signing Dubnyk, buying out former starting goalie Niklas Backstrom and bolstering their offense as the three keys to the Wild’s offseason.
NBC SPORTS: Jason Brough notes the risk the Wild face if they re-sign Dubnyk to an expensive, long-term extension based solely upon this season’s performance. However, he also notes the Wild can’t afford to lose the Vezina nominee.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Dubnyk’s season-saving performance and his Vezina nomination provides all the ammunition his agent needs to push for a four-year, $5 million per season deal. Fletcher likely prefers a two-year contract worth $4 million annually. The Wild can’t risk losing him to free agency, but they also can’t risk overpaying for a netminder who might be a one-year wonder.
The Wild can free up cap space by buying out Backstrom, who is finally healthy after being ineligible for buyouts the past two years due to injury. They currently have over $57 million invested in next season’s roster. They’ll get over $2.7 million in additional cap space next season with a Backstrom buyout.
They’ll have sufficient room to re-sign key players like Dubnyk and Granlund, and perhaps enough to add an affordable scorer if one can be found via trade or free agency. The Wild do have several promising young players, so Fletcher could decide to be patient and look to within for those youngsters to improve. They could try to re-sign Chris Stewart, but he faded down the stretch and went goalless in the playoffs.
Spurgeon is a nice piece especially considering the UFA market this year, if Fletcher decides to dangle him his return should easily ne a guy to play in the top 6 unless we are talking about detroit then the return is Kindl or Weiss….
Kindle ya, maybe. But why would Minny trade Spurgeon for Weiss?
I’m pretty sure that was sarcasm. May it rest in peace.
Dam lol I usually pick up on that, my apologies.
lol
I have been advocating for teams to target Spurgeon & Ellis. I think Spurgeon can be had. He’s a smurf but a solid young up & coming #2 Dman & Minny does have cap issues facing them hard over the next 2 years. Ellis would be tougher to acquire now but in 2 years Nashville will be starting to experience cap issues of their own.
If Spurgeon saw 1st line PP time Minny’s PP would have improved significantly. Minny’s PP was terrible but they kept rolling out the same 4 forwards & Suter all year including the playoffs even though it wasn’t working yet it was more efficient when Spurgeon got minutes with the #2 unit.
Dubnyk had an amazing season. What Sean Burke accomplished with Dubnyk is truly shocking but if he wants more than 2 years at 4 million on such a short sample size I have to pass, maybe 4.5 for 3 tops. He started coming apart in the playoffs & his .908 save % is concerning.
I don’t feel you have to pay huge money to get an above average goalie considering there are only 30 starting gigs in the NHL. Hell go sign Niemi at 3.5 to 4 for 2 or 3 years. He’s a decent above average goalie. Minny has 1 of the best D’s in the NHL & a solid team at forward, 4 lines deep & more kids coming. They are going to make most goalies look good.
When you play behind Suter, Brodin, Spurgeon, Scandella & Dumba your going to post pretty solid #’s as a goalie. Minny’s forwards are solid 2 way players for the most part & are committed to a 2 way game.
I fully concur with you mister. A short sample size for goalies is buyer beware big time. Goalies in particular goes hot and cold. That’s just the nature of it. Very very few goalies are consistently world class (1st tier). GMs must not knee jerk and hand out long term contracts for big money when all this is commonly known. 2nd and 3rd tier goalies are plentiful and not much separates them. Any of them can also masquerade as 1st tier goalies for shorter periods. Either when they get hot or play behind a very good defense. It doesn’t change what they inherently are (from the larger sample size).
I like Dubnyk, and Hammond and all that. Huge respect for what they accomplished in little time. However, let’s face it, their respective teams were due for a breakout from their funk at that time. Both teams were inherently good and were begging for hot goaltending, which they got from the goaltending change. Those teams then rode the momentum for the rest of the season. Another example is Dallas who made a great late season push. Supposedly Lehtonen got hot after playing disastrously the first half. But was it hot goaltending or improved defensive play? Nobody seems to know for sure. No point in reading too much into Lehtonens hot streak.
So, to summarize, I believe there are lots of 2nd, 3rd tier NHL goalies that could play world class for shorter periods. No need to bring out the 4 year terms. IMHO the players deserve the money but GMs MUST then limit the term. The risk must make sense. There’s always other goalie alternatives. I think we could probably list like 10-15 interesting UFA, trade opportunities for 2nd, 3rd tier goalies. GMs must take advantage of that and not over-commit.
Your overlooking the fact that no matter how good a team is…it takes a new player time to get accustomed (a goalie can make or break a season single-handedly) and can even make a new GOOD goalie look bad; therefore causing you to question the decision to replace him; thus causing further knee jerk reactions, all of which could have been avoided if you stuck with that proven person. Now if the goalie is nominated for an award, you’d be an idiot not to.
The current cap and “potential players” pay/term (ones you want to give a chance to = 4-5mil and 4-5years) causes all teams to flip flop or commit. You can’t have both. Unfortunately teams need to decide now based on short viewings (3 years or less). This is the owners own doing and when it goes bad you get the leafs (lupul/clarkson/lyles/gardiner).
Toronto is in the same situation with Bernier. Id suggest sign him for stability and more time and damn the salary cap because I strongly feeel you should flip flop forwards not goalies and Dmen, if at all.
I agree with you. If you have a goalie that fits, stay with him. Like Bernier in Toronto is perfectly fine solution for now. No reason to break that up. But it’s important that GMs play their cards right. Goalies go hot/cold. There are many comparable goalies. No1 jobs are scarce. Hence a contract negotiation for that job shouldn’t be all goalie biased. That means Dubnyk shouldn’t get 4-5 years at 5M or whatever. There might be people that likes that contract. I’m not one of them. There has to be risk within reason.
The jury is out on high prized goalie Ben Bishop also. 2014 Vezina candidate. Plays on a great team (obviously). Hasn’t impressed most people with his play. Is he 1st tier goalie? Hmm. He makes money like he is. How will he perform going forward? Bishop got the money (£5.95M) last contract negotiation, HOWEVER Yzerman was smart to only commit for 2 years. While there is value with a known commodity, Yzerman understands the dynamic in this.
With 61.306 committed to 16 players in Minny, 9 forwards, 5 Dman & 2 goalies, even if they buyout Backstrom which I assume they will that only adds 2.7 mil for about 13 mil in cap space. If Granlund & Dubnyk eat up 8 plus but probaly closer to 10 of that it’s going to be very tight for Minny this season with the cap. The other RFA’s this season are Haula & Frolin who will have accept nominal raises on their qualifying offers.
Signing Vanek was a huge mistake. Doing so is going to force Minny to cut a solid asset like Spurgeon as the season following next Spurgeon, Dumba & Zucker are all RFA’s & will see significant raises & Vanek will still have 1 more year at 6.5.
If I’m Edmonton I’m all over Spurgeon. I would even consider giving up Pittsburgh’s 1st to make it happen.
Wild has to get bigger and nastier up front, top 6. Vanek just isn’t a difference maker anymore, overpaid with his current salary.
the goaltending situation in Ottawa just got more interesting today as they signed Boston University’s Matt OConnor to a 2 yr deal.
Wow. That was interesting. I think Hammond will sign also. Anderson just re-established himself as the defacto no1. Murray has alluded to that much. That leaves Lehner the odd man out. As soon as his concussion symptoms subside, he will get traded. I would think that O’Connor will be pegged in for no1 duties in their AHL affiliate, with possibility to be called up during season.