Blog Philosophy

The main point of this blog is to provide a one-stop location for fans of the Minnesota Wild to follow their prospects. Of particular note are the embedded statistics for each of the players provided by hockeydb.com or eliteprospects.com. Indeed, the website was first put together so the author could more easily follow prospects that had not yet made the MN Wild roster! Hockeydb.com and eliteprospects.com do not have all of the prospects and their statistics on one page. Other features will be provided on the blog in the future and will likely include statistics of players who are on the Iowa Wild of the AHL or the Orlando Sun Bears of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) or the Quad City Mallards of the Central Hockey League (CHL).

Occasional blog entries will also be present on a variety of topics that move beyond prospects, but are certainly limited to hockey. Blog entries aren't always comprehensive and may certainly omit some points/analysis for brevity.

The author doesn't pretend to be an expert nor have the time or ability to watch every Canadian Hockey League, American Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League, etc, game. The author does, however, certainly feel that he knows quite a bit about hockey. Much of his commentary is as a result of reading a lot of news articles from mainstream media such as tsn.ca, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, etc... The author does NOT merely repeat what other blogs or others in hockey forums write as he has noticed a lot of moronic opinions out there... The author's views and predictions will sometimes differ than major media reports such as Michael Russo, but he does not have access to professional scouts, players or management officials to make more informed predictions some matters.

Comments -positive or negative, though always civil- on blog entries, or other features are welcome and encouraged.

Pictures are acquired from the internet and if they are protected and the copyright has been violated, notify if you are the holder of said copyright and it will be removed or you will be given appropriate credit. This is just a blog, not a vehicle to make money by using someone else's photos.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Follow the progress of Kirill Kaprizov, the Minnesota Wild's first Russian selection since 2003!!  He's in the top Russian league, the KHL.  Here is a link to follow his stats from the league in English. He is listed as being on the Metallurg Novokuznetzk, but when you go to the team roster (dated July 26th of this year), he isn't present nor listed as injured.

Curious.  Maybe coming to North America?????  Probably not, as he's shown on another page as being under contract until April 2017.  Maybe the contract isn't effective until the season starts??

Anyway, he's exactly the kind of pick the Minnesota Wild has needed a few more of:  high risk, high reward.  We have too many "character" guys that have low ceilings.  Hunter Warner?  12 points in 42 games in the USHL.  While it was a free agent signing (nobody drafted him), did he really have to be signed before he played a single game outside the USHL??  Pontus Sjalin?? a guy the NHL had no file on when the MN Wild drafted him -he was the only player in the entire draft who didn't have a link to their stats.  Alexandre Belanger -a guy who has always had a bad GAA and Save %.  However, in the 2015 draft they pass -even into the 7th round- on a guy who scores 43 goals in 61 games, Pius Suter.  Sure, others passed on him, but why not "waste" a seventh round pick on a guy like that?

Kirill Kaprizov


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