#tidbits and notes

[wildpolyculetruther]

Listened to Big Sexy’s press availability from today (6/9). Not too much of note just a couple tidbits.

It was an good decision for him because he believes in the team and what BG is building. Felt it gave him a great chance to win. Loves The Core (Bolds, Fabes, Quinn, Kirill), they’re still really young and hungry and they make it easy to follow them, jump on their backs. The team goes through walls for each other.

He acknowledged that he could have gotten more but why would he move when he has a team that believes in him and loves the guys, loves being with them.

He mentioned the wives/partners were awesome to his wife (🥹). He will be in Nashville training for a bit longer with some guys, go to Michigan for a couple weeks (he mentions it’s near Quinn) and then be in Minnesota early/mid-August (think that timeline is similar for a lot of the non Minnesota based guys) (he’ll be Minnesota based after this!)

[wildpolyculetruther]

32 Thoughts (6/22)

As you can imagine the majority of this is taken up by the Brady trade so I’m not gonna go into all of it.

Discussion of US born players on Canadian teams and being drafted by Canadian GMs. (It’s important to note that not all these moves are Canadian players to American teams. Larkin is on Detroit, as an example. I think it’s more about Olympics players winning gold and coming back to a mediocre team and being sick of it.)

They think Yzerman WILL trade Larkin (duh sorry there’s just not a scenario where you keep a guy who wants out so publicly. That’s a locker room destroyer). Larkin’s trade was around the same time and that Minnesota prefers Larkin over Brady in the first place. But basically sums up Detroit is insisting on NHL players back so I think that’s why it hasn’t been done yet.

Vlad has a new agent and he’s not coming back to Minnesota. This is what we’ve been hearing rumblings of seems pretty much confirmed now.

I think that’s it.

[wildpolyculetruther]

Random stuff from Russo (6/22)

Interview with Hynes

Just got back from planning meetings with Leipold, Guerin, etc.

Guerin and company laid out the plans (A, B, C) and what they were looking to do. No details obviously.

Talked about Bobby, really like him. He brings a lot of speed, tenacious. Looking to be able to commit. Acknowledged in a vague way his difficulty with his first playoffs.

Hunter, love him. Steady progress each time he’s called up. Good hockey IQ, has an edge he plays with, very competitive.

Charlie Stramel. Right shot center man with good progression over the years.

Those are the three highlighted. They’ll get strong looks during a shortened training camp.

Same stuff on Zuccy and Kirill. Discussion of the PK. Gus not back till November.

Carolina played to their identity and took a long time to get to where they are. Played fast, brought on players who played to their identity and fit in.

Vlad switched agents.

Wild’s offer was better, Brady wanted to go to Florida. But didn’t offer Wally.

Setting trade market values.

And from Joe Smith, ranking the prospects in trade offers. Not really much of interest.

[wildpolyculetruther]

News stuff (6/27)

Draft is over, Wild didn’t make any moves. Drafted some fun tall kids but unclear if any will make the show.

Russo’s latest is just another general round up. But this one has further bad news with Zuccy, seems the relationship is souring on both ends. Really unfortunate.

Yak is actively being shopped to clear cap space. Sturm as well.

Lots of talk about Bobby, he’s going to be a big piece in 26-27 season and lots of expectations for him.

Meanwhile in Detroit, Yzerman continues to just sit on his ass. Apparently Larkin gave him the list immediately after the season ended so this has been going on for a long time at this point. He’s insistent he doesn’t have to honor the request. So fun times in Red Wings land. Good luck to them.

Wild’s deadline for Larkin is likely the 30th. FA opens on the 1st.

[wildpolyculetruther]

Worst Seats in the House (6/17)

Literally had to fast forward 30+ minutes to get to the Wild JFC.

Zuccy, Vlad, Nick, Bogo: Russo thinks they’ve hit a break. That they just have so many potential trades and FAs that they just can’t or won’t do anything right now.

They are pretty sure Vlad is going to market - that he really liked it here but he will get paid more somewhere else. He was a bit of an unexpected surprise but they don’t think he sees a spot in the top 6 here.

Zuccy, Russo remains surprised that he’s not signed. LaPanta notes he could be signing now and they don’t know. They both point out that they’re now losing wingers as well as centers. LaPanta doesn’t see that Zuccy would be the type to chase money that if he does come back it will be here.

Cap space discussion etc. discusses the fact that Brisson is the agent for a bunch of the players they are interested in (and also Quinn’s agent).

Feel like it has to be a multi deal and multi team series of trades. To free up space and move cap space and assets around. This is partially why everything is at a standstill and a delay because they’re working on moving stuff around. (This is related to Larkin. They don’t feel like the Wild are interested in moving Wally, Brods, or Ekker and Detroit might want an NHL ready player back).

They don’t think they want to go “younger”. Meaning, they want players that are ready to contribute now etc etc same stuff we’ve been hearing.

Yak: potential for moving to clear up cap space. Weren’t happy with the playoff performance. Then a discussion of speed vs. size.

Goes on a rant against Kirill for asking for more money. Blah blah blah. God Russo’s hate boner for Kirill is so annoying fuck.

Not expecting an 8 year extension for Quinn (aka a shorter term etc etc etc same stuff). He thinks it would be shocking if he isn’t signed to an extension before the season. But he doesn’t think it’ll be 8.

I don’t know, not a great episode. Russo doesn’t have any information on anything. He’s been deep in the playoffs beat and hasn’t been talking to anyone in the Wild TBH or they haven’t been talking to Russo. Nothing new. I’m honestly getting so tired of his cynical bullshit BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY.

32 Thoughts on Friday.

[wildpolyculetruther]

32 Thoughts Podcast tidbits:

Quinn changed the game with his demand for a trade and now he’s “much happier” in Minnesota.

From Team USA, once you win the gold medal you just want to win the Cup even more. It kind of ignited something for all those guys. That’s what they think happened with Larkin. Plus the frosty/terrible relationship with the front office.

Detroit is not gonna be bullied/be backed into a corner. But they’re not gonna just sit Larkin; that’s not a realistic option anymore for teams. They’ll be pragmatic most likely will trade. But the question is whether they’re in rebuilding mode or not (basically, summing it up).

Dallas, Tampa Bay, New Jersey mentioned.

But Wild is the #1 team that everyone is eying. They have this trade written all over them. But he mentions that in the past few days he’s heard a lot of rumors they’re going to be able to re-sign Big Sexy (!). He doesn’t know if that changes anything with that. But he heard from GMs that’s the rumors.

He mentions Yurov, Stramel and something else and that it makes sense as a trade for Larkin.

Wonders about the further trickle down effect of the Olympics and how it’s changing the landscape and then won a gold. And that an elite doesn’t want to wait anymore, they want to win NOW. (this is basically the message that Guerin has been putting out as an enticement)