Mikhail Granlund is a completely different player than last year! Last year, he fell constantly and frequently with no contact causing it! He didn't add much to the offense and was slow. This year his vision is amazing, timing perfect and has really developed a connection with Pommenville.
Josh Harding has been terrific. His stats are sick! Very high save percentage and low GAA. Backstrom has sucked and looks old. If he plays like this the entire year, he will be a strong candidate for a amnesty buyout next summer.
Dany Heatley has been amazingly AWFUL! He's even slower and seems -in particular- to be be thinking the game much more slowly. One can see how his timing is just off. For example, he seems to want to make a particular play but is just a bit late executing it -frequently leading to a turn over. He's now on the 4th line and that is a generous move by Yeo.
Erik Haula and Jason Zucker are in Iowa and have been contributing down there. It will probably take a few injuries in the top three lines to get one of them called up. Almost all of the other youngsters on the Wild -Fontaine, Coyle, Granlund, Niederrieter, and Brodin look good. Matt Dumba looks reasonably good sometimes -for a 19 year old player- but other times seems lost. He can definitely be a liability on the ice and while it would be better for his development to be on the team this year, it would be worse for the team. Prosser has looked very good in the couple of games in which he's been able to play. Prosser is the "seventh" defenseman, but is surely more steady than Dumba at this point. My vote is to send him back to Red Deer.
This site discusses everything MN Wild and follows the development of their prospects. The real value of the site aren't my blog entries as much as the embedded statistics on MN Wild prospects that can be reached via the links on the right of the page. The site uses statistics from eliteprospects.com. Prospects are listed in order of their draft class. Click on the right of this page to view current and past statistics for each draft class. Visit often!
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Aeros moving to Iowa?
News and rumors are rampant tonight about the Aeros moving to Iowa. I will not comment until the news is official. #looselipssinkships
— Andrew J. Ferraro (@andrewjferraro) March 3, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
It's been five games and...
A bit of a disappointing start this year. Sure, they're .500 and "lead" the Northwest, but they should be better. First, Parise has been a stud. Scores a lot and constant energy. Suter is playing way too much and looks fatigued and sometimes lost out there. Setoguchi has been hit and miss -mostly miss. He brings occasional energy but only has 6 shots in 5 games. He refuses to go into the "dirty areas" to get a goal. I look forward to him being traded at some point this year. Speaking of trade, another person whom I see as giving no value to the team is Torie Mitchell. I can't believe the money that was given to that guy for what he "brings" to the team. He's probably untradeable.
The first line of Koivu, Heatley and Parise have been incredible. They've scored 10 of the 13 goals the Wild have scored thus far this year in the five games they've played. The other lines have enough talent, but haven't provided much to the scorer sheet. They complement each other perfectly.
So, I expect someone to be moved in the next few weeks. A roster spot has to be created for Zucker and/or Coyle from Houston. Who will it be? My bet is (in order of likelihood) Setoguchi, Prosser, Kassian, Cullen, Powe. PMB has been too good with the puck to move at this point.
So, I expect someone to be moved in the next few weeks. A roster spot has to be created for Zucker and/or Coyle from Houston. Who will it be? My bet is (in order of likelihood) Setoguchi, Prosser, Kassian, Cullen, Powe. PMB has been too good with the puck to move at this point.