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Probie

Wild Firesale Could Mean Wings Benefit

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Taken From: sportsnationnetwork

I’ll be looking at some teams whose salary cap situations, place in the standings, or any other variety of reasons will cause them to part with some pieces over the summer, and how the Red Wings may benefit from their misfortunes. Click here for my look at the Philadelphia Flyers. Up next are the Minnesota Wild!

The Wild are in a really, really crappy spot for two simple reasons:

1. Their team isn’t any good.

2. They have a payroll that says they should be really good.

They finished in 12th place in the Western Conference, and only the pathetically bad Edmonton Oilers finished with fewer goals scored in the West.

Minnesota somehow managed to be tight to the salary cap all year long, with absolutely nothing to show for it. Aside from the high-spending New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs, who were directly below them in the NHL standings, every team with a worse record than the Wild’s was near the salary cap floor. There is simply no excuse for paying that much money out for that little results.

They have also missed the playoffs each of the last three seasons, after flaming out in Round 1 for the first two post-lockout seasons.

Normally, the GM would have already been sent packing in a case like this, but Chuck Fletcher only just completed his second year on the job, and is still trying to clean up the mess Doug Risebrough left him with.

Fletcher has made his intentions known to the rest of the league. He is having a sale, and everyone is invited.

If you’re Minnesota Wild property, and your name doesn’t start with “Mikko” and end with “Koivu”, don’t extend the lease on your apartment just yet.

Detroit’s needs are for a top 6 forward and at least one top 4 defenseman. Minnesota has exactly zero forwards whose play or contracts excite me, so we’ll skip to the D.

The Wild already have some good, young pieces on the blue line like Marco Scandella, Tyler Cuma, Chay Genoway, Clayton Stoner and Jared Spurgeon.

They are probably looking to add draft picks and prospects, because they have very little hope of competing in their division for a while. Vancouver is the reigning President’s Trophy winners, and went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Calgary isn’t the elite team they used to be but is always competitive. Edmonton is a team on the rise, and could be one of the heavy hitters really soon. Colorado has a good young core to build around. That leaves Minnesota way behind in just their division, let alone the conference or the league.

They won’t be looking to add veteran pieces to build for a championship run. They are starting from scratch. This makes just about all of their NHL blue liners available.

Nick Schultz is a rock on the blue line for them, a real shut-down type of defenseman. Think of Brad Stuart. They have virtually the same cap hit, although Wild fans seem to think Schultz is a bit over-paid, probably because he contributes little offensively.

Cam Barker is a guy I’ve always liked, even though he’s played most of his career so far for Chicago. The Blackhawks dumped him at the deadline a year ago in a salary cap move, but it also landed them stud defensive prospect Nick Leddy. Minnesota would probably take a redo on that one if given the option. Even still, Barker is a solid player who put up 40 points just two seasons ago, but seems out of place in Minnesota. He could be moved.

Marek Zidlicky has been a very solid offensive defenseman for a long time in the NHL, and in Europe prior to that. He has loads of experience, including representing the Czech Republic numerous times at the international level. He helped lead the team to a bronze medal at the 2006 Turin Olympic games. He’s slown down a bit recently, but he can still generate points.

Brent Burns is the stud of this group of defenseman, and the one I really hope the Wings take a run at. For those not familiar with Burns, I’ll give you the quick hits:

26 years old.

6’5″, 220 pounds.

Right handed shot.

Check that, right handed cannon, at nearly 100 mph.

2008 IIHF World Championship’s Best Defenseman

2011 NHL All-Star.

Excited yet? Thought so.

He played forward throughout his minor and junior hockey career, until joining the Minnesota Wild in 2003 where he was converted to defense by then head coach Jacques Lemaire.

The move has paid off in spades for the Wild, as the offensively-gifted Burns has put up basically a point every other game on a team that starves for offense. I can only begin to imagine what he’d do when he had guys like Nick Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg feeding him the puck, instead of Zidlicky, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, or Martin Havlat.

The Wild will probably want a lot for him, and he is a free agent following this season. Would the Wings wait until next year to take a run at him, or do they see him as too valuable to let him get to unrestricted free agency? With a cap hit of only $3.55 this season, they could have him at a great value for a season before he ultimately commands a big raise next year.

Burns is a guy that, if acquired, could form the beginnings of an elite top four for the future with Kronwall and Brendan Smith.

Brent+Burns.jpg

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Well I would like him better then some of the ufas this year, it could be worth a trade if you thought he would stay and not bolt at the end of the year...we would have the cap room next year I would think.

Edited by Probie

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Guest 13GoWings40

Burns? Yes please! Never knew he used to be a forward though, kinda makes me think he's what Wing's brass thought Ericsson would be.

Also as a side note, a few years ago I picked up Clayton Stoner in NHL 08 for my dynasty team and he was a beast. Glad to see the real Clayton is at least making it in the real NHL :clap:

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crymson has shut me down on multiple occasions for suggesting a trade for burns. He claims that Burns will walk the next year when he becomes a UFA and that we shouldn't give up assets for a one year rental. I think he'd resign, but hell, crymson's opinion seems to be the only one that matters.

Nevertheless, I want him more than anything this offseason. really truly a rafalski replacement and potential to help with the transition for life after nic. Imagine having something like this for the next 5 or so years:

Kronwall - Burns

Smith - Wisniewski

Kindl/UFA - Stuart

Thats pretty bullet proof imo without nic (if smith is really the stud we think he is). I think its important to have at least one rookie in the D lineup all the time, as 1) helps with cap, 2) prevents us from getting old and keeps guys that know the system going. The only reason i write "Kindl/UFA" is that i doubt if we traded for Burns that kindl wouldn't be going the other way in a package.

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Guest Crymson

Well, he probably is the most realistic option of the "pipe dream" defensemen.

Any firesale will not include Burns. He's a very skilled defenseman on a reasonable contract. If they get rid of him, they can kiss their next season goodbye.

crymson has shut me down on multiple occasions for suggesting a trade for burns. He claims that Burns will walk the next year when he becomes a UFA and that we shouldn't give up assets for a one year rental. I think he'd resign, but hell, crymson's opinion seems to be the only one that matters.

I think it would only be worth giving up assets for him if there were a 100% guarantee that he would re-sign. Unfortunately, there is, short of doing things that would qualify as tampering, no way to guarantee that. Holland would be foolish to partially mortgage the future for a defenseman who could leave after a year, or, worse, who could do badly in the Wings` system. This is why he will not trade for Burns unless the price is very low.

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Any firesale will not include Burns. He's a very skilled defenseman on a reasonable contract. If they get rid of him, they can kiss their next season goodbye.

It shouldn't, no. And fwiw I think Burns stays there, given the Wild tattoo he has on his back/etc. But who knows for sure what that team's management is going to do.. if they get enough value...

More realistic than the impossibility of signing a guy that's been registered for team-elected arbitration to an offer sheet, anyhow.

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If they are starting from scratch then nearly everyone is moveable. The key as someone mentioned is that there are a lot of teams that cold "OUT TRADE" the Wings for Burns or Clutterbuck. Higher draft picks being that. Also I think if Burns were to be traded here, Smith would be leaving, which unless MInnesota just wants Hudler and Kindl (:lol:) then why not wait to see if he opts for UFA after next season? This is the ultimate pipedream after net season: Stuart/Kronwall/Burns/Suter/Wisniewski/Smith. Now that is pipedreaming at it's best! But hey, Obama proved that anything is possible and yes we can! Can what? I don't know, but Yes is the answer! :lol:

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I would give Hudler, Emmerton, Kindl and a 2nd rounder for Burns in a heartbeat

Switch Emmerton with Mursak and change that 2nd to a first and that "might" entice their GM to not hang the phone up on you. Did you see at all what teams were getting at the trade deadline for crappy players?

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I know this is off topic, but two avatar questions here:

@DatsYerBerger: That is Jokinen in your avatar right? What happened in the game for him to actually act like that? Thats Fu**ed.

@DirtyDangles: Who is the chick in your avatar?

Back to the topic at hand...Yeah Burns sure would be the right fit though for a right handed shot, and his physicality would help nick if paired with him. Burns would be better option then Wiz although it wouldn't cost us anything to pick him up this offseason.

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If Minny is looking to rebuild, Burns is a piece to build around. We'd need to send a similar building block (or package) back to get him now. And we don't have really have one. Something like Smith, Tatar, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, + next year's 1st is probably more like it.

No harm in asking the price of course, but I really doubt he'd be available at all, much less for what we could afford. A more realistic hope is either as a UFA next year or hope that they don't trade him now, but fear losing him as a UFA so trade him at the deadline.

Similar deal with Clusterf***. They have him cheap for two more years, and then he's an RFA. What could they gain by trading him?

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Guest Crymson

If Minny is looking to rebuild, Burns is a piece to build around. We'd need to send a similar building block (or package) back to get him now. And we don't have really have one. Something like Smith, Tatar, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, + next year's 1st is probably more like it.

No harm in asking the price of course, but I really doubt he'd be available at all, much less for what we could afford. A more realistic hope is either as a UFA next year or hope that they don't trade him now, but fear losing him as a UFA so trade him at the deadline.

Similar deal with Clusterf***. They have him cheap for two more years, and then he's an RFA. What could they gain by trading him?

Aye. Firesale does not mean "trade everyone!"; it means that they're rebuilding. Rebuilding requires a core. They're trying to get rid of their crappy contracts.

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I'd love Burns. Or Clutterbuck.

Imagine a line of Abby-Helm-Clusterf***... nonstop hitting.

That would be nice! If Jagr is signed, then trade for Clutterbuck, you would sacrifice Hudler and Mursak or Emmerton, but to have Clutterbuck would be awesome...

Imagine a Defense with Burns/Wisniewski/Kronwall/Stuart talk about hitting! Zooie Mama!

Edited by LeftWinger

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I know this is off topic, but two avatar questions here:

@DatsYerBerger: That is Jokinen in your avatar right? What happened in the game for him to actually act like that? Thats Fu**ed.

I haven't the slightest clue and don't know anyone who does, but it's frigging hilarious, even without the waffle edit.

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