You know my stance on Willy, I absolutely love the kid. I do think this is a little bit of an overpayment, though. Get rid of the picks and it looks pretty good although you'd have to take a depth player from Toronto to make it work with their cap. If you really wanted to, you could trade them the 5th and maybe take both a depth forward like Leivo and a depth defenseman like Marincin. Only chose those two because of their handedness, we need right shot forwards and our depth at LD is a tad thin (adding one more makes it good in my eyes).

I've had my eye on Brodie the past couple weeks since he's in the doghouse right now. He could be a good Brodin replacement if we decide to trade him (Brodin had a great game yesterday hopefully he builds on that). He can also play on the right side which adds value. If he agreed to waive his NTC or if Minny isn't on it, it could be a decent pickup. With that said, I am not a fan of Bennett at all. Every time I watch him he just screams bust to me. I think we're giving up too many picks here and you could probably get Brodie for Coyle 1 for 1 just based off of Brodie's play as of late. Not sure if Calgary is willing to retain that much with Tkachuk's contract coming up, though.

We've discussed the Puljujarvi trade, I do like it even though Puljujarvi worries me. There were reasons he was drafted so high, after all. Maybe Koivu could do what he did with Granlund and take him under his "wing" (bad pun intended) to get some drive in his game.

I know close to nothing about Gudbranson other than the fact he's a shutdown RHD. Seems relatively fair to me just based off the fact that Brodin is a shutdown LHD and their contracts are nearly identical.

gonna skip most of the writing cause we talked about it. bennet is very close of being a bust maybe a change with him could help maybe not. gudbranson is a larger and strong player then brodin but like you said if brodin continues like he played last game it would be nice. gudbranson adds some more physicality to our defense which should help in playoffs. i can minus the picks to Toronto was just tring to push it over to get it done

If the rumors are true, sounds like Nylander trade talks have started and maybe with Nylander's contract demands he'd get a lower return. I'd be disappointed if Nylander were traded and it wasn't to the Wild. Carolina was the only team mentioned in the tweet by Pagnotta (who broke the Karlsson trade FWIW). Dubas was at the game yesterday and was talking to Fenton for about 15 minutes before the game according to Russo. I'd just be very hesitant to trade any picks if I were Fenton since we need those younger guys from the draft badly.

Sounds like Gudbransson could be decent then if Vancouver is willing to trade him!

im with you very disappointed if hes not traded to the wild. at the same time id be pretty up set at Toronto getting pesce hes so good. no happiness unless its the wild and with out trading dumba

Brodin is much better than gudbranson

i dont think its that much of a difference. is brodin and gud. i think brodin could have more offensive abilities but currently they super close

watching the game right now the wild seem to need larger defenseman they cant push anyone off the puck the brodin penalty. kinda a weak call but need someone to be able to push these guys off the puck

I actually think our defense has been good if not great. Our top 4 has played very well the past couple games and besides Seeler's turnover on Thursday I think our bottom pairing has been fantastic. I've been impressed with Pateryn, he's very physical and shuts down play well most of the time.

To me, it seems like our problem is scoring. We just can't bury chances, especially on the PP. We just stand around with the puck and cycle it without getting creative and fooling the goaltender into biting. Idk whether it's a lack of creativity, talent, or scheme but it has been very bad. Our transitioning has been much better than the first 5 games but it's still not great.

im happy with the defense just like to see them get bigger. absolutely happy with what we have. and yes scoring is once again our problem. pp has to be changed the first unit from all 5 lefty it just doesnt work. id like to keep dumba and suter together on the top unit for the 1 timer then sprugeon on the 2nd for the 1 time.

Yeah completely agree, I like Dumba and Suter together a lot whether it's 5 on 5 or on the PP. I don't like the all lefty either, you need some right shots near that left circle for the one timer, it's so much easier to aim on the offside. That's why I think we need a high caliber right shot forward so badly. Panarin would be perfect but no way he signs an extension here.

you getta watch gudbranson tonight see what you think after the game between him and brodin i know its only 1 game but you get to see him

I'm gunna try to watch as much as I can! It's a pretty late game and I have a ton of work to do this week so I probably won't get to watch it all. I'll keep my eye on him and Tanev, I think both could be Spurgeon replacement candidates if we decide to trade him.

I'm not sure why we'd even bother trying to replace Spurgeon from the outside. We still have Pateryn and Prosser as RD on the roster, Murphy/Belpedio could also be options as callups.

dont think any of those guys as of right now can be a replacment for spurgeon. im not really up with the prospects as i live in calgary harder to keep up but for atless for this season amd probably next year we would need a more stable defensemanto fulfill it.

Murphy isn't really a prospect (174 NLH games), and he filled in just fine last season for ~20 games when Spurgeon was out. I just don't see the need to make many trades just to re-shuffle the deck a little bit on defense. One of Brodin/Spurgeon can be lost to trade and absorbed from within the system imo.

My point wasn't that we'd have to replace Spurgeon from the outside, just that if we must then Tanev/Gudbranson are potential candidates. Of course, Pateryn, Prosser, Murphy, and Belpedio are all candidates as well. I'm actually sort of against replacing him externally, I think Pateryn is capable of playing on the 2nd pairing. He played almost 20 minutes per night in Dallas FWIW. Belpedio should get some looks in the NHL this year and maybe since Murphy is lighting up the AHL this year he's a serious option to consider.

I wasn't pointing to you specifically it's more the theory of a lot of the trades I see on here. Use Spurgeon to get a FWD and then turn around and trade a FWD to replace Spurgeon. The net sum of those trades usually end up equaling 0 or a negative number for me. It's the same as picking up a center and then trading away Staal in another trade. The Wild still end up with the same hole at 3C as they started with.

I think best case scenario we pick up a young right shot potential 1C (such as Nylander, Point, Patrick, etc.) and have them play 2C behind Staal this year, then next year hope they are ready for 1C minutes. Koivu is a perfect 3C and that's where I think his defensive abilities can shine. Not that those abilities can't shine at 2C, but I'd rather we have a young offensive 2C than a 35 year old defensive center. Just my two cents.

i might have to jump on the nylander trade alittle more now almost to the point of what has to be added to get him with spurgeon or brodin who ever toronto wants beside dumba i know it will be almost impossible but have to do it. dumba is by far one of the few players on this team that actually wants to shoot and looks like hes willing to shoot from anywhere and we need people like that

Completely agree. Seriously I know it's corny but go watch some Nylander highlights and try to find some where it shows the full play so you can watch his actions before he either scores or assists. This is a pretty good one for his goals but there are others out there for his assists. The guy enters the zone like lava through ice. His transition game is so good and he drives play with his creativity. His shot is also insanely quick. He doesn't have an Ovi or Laine type shot but his release is pretty close to Tarasenko's IMO (not quite as good but it's up there). Our offense is completely trash and for that reason I have no problem overpaying $1M for a dynamic offensive stud.

Do you subscribe to The Athletic by chance? There was an article written maybe a month or so ago about why Nylander is so good and what he does well. If you have a sub you should really check it out. If not I believe you can get a 7 day sub for free. In any event it's only like $3 or so per month if you visit this link right here (it's a 40% off promo if you "know" Michael Russo but he tweets it a lot and mentions it all the time on his podcasts"). Worth every dollar IMO!!