Is a Freddy Gaudreau buyout worth it?


Is a Freddy Gaudreau buyout worth it?

17 comments
  1. Not worth it. He’s a 4C and has had a few seasons where he has been a legitimate 3C. Hope for a bounce back. No more dead money 

  2. Buyout would be effective as of June 15th, 2024. Cap hit would be $629,167 for the next eight years. As of right now, Gaudreau costs $525,000 per goal after coming off of a career year. He’s also a -16, worst on the team. The one thing he is supposed to do well is kill penalties. His faceoff percentage in 5 on 4 situations is 87.2%, but his other metrics on the PK are relatively average.

  3. No. Gaudreau is still an acceptable 4C that has one of the better fo% on the team (it’s only 50 but that’s still good for us 🫤). He also gets a lot of defensive zone faceoff responsibilities, which is far from sexy but I’d argue it’s important to have someone you can trust. The rest of his underlying numbers are mediocre, but I’d still wait at least another year before making a decision on his future here

  4. Definitely not before the Parise and Suter buyouts are over, and probably not at all. The only reason to do it is if we know a specific player that we can only get with $1.5M extra space, and that only matters if we can contend, which all evidence seems to suggest we can’t until the Parise and Suter contracts are up. Besides, he’s usually a solid faceoff guy, and there’s always a spot for that.

  5. Hey guys, this is my ex girlfriends fault. He was her favorite player when he was doing super well and ever since we broke up, he’s been dog shit. I’m probably the only owner of a Freddy jersey.

    Blame her.

  6. I don’t think the Wild will or even should do it, but I think it is very doable if in a year or two he falls further off a cliff

  7. Can you replace him with a better player for $1.5? Is that player better enough to justify the $650k in dead money for 3 years after after Gaudreau’s contract would have been off the books anyways?

    I’d wait to see if Dean gets a HC job this summer.

  8. Our best hope is Freddy catches some fire next year and we can move him to one of the teams that aren’t part of his NMC

  9. So you buyout a guy who’s a mediocre 4th liner as long as your expectations are correct, and let’s say you replace him for 1M. You’ve saved under 500k on cap, have tied up your last buyout slot for 8 years, extended the dead cap hit for an extra 4 years, and have at best marginally upgraded a fairly unimportant position. If it’s really that big of an issue you can bury him in the AHL and only carry an extra 320k cap hit for the remainder of his contract.

  10. >The most touching came from Gaudreau, the player Evason has supported since their days together in AHL Milwaukee and somebody coming off a career year that earned him his first [NHL](https://theathletic.com/nhl/) security — a five-year contract.
    >
    >Gaudreau felt incredibly guilty for his scoreless season and texted Evason, “I need to see you.” Evason wrote back, “Gauds, no, I’m good.” Gaudreau wrote back, ***“But I’m not.”*** Evason assured him he’d be OK and to focus on the next game. So Evason was overjoyed to see Gaudreau score the winning goal in his new coach’s first game.

    [Source for those who missed it when Dean was let go](https://theathletic.com/5100037/2023/11/29/dean-evason-wild-firing-sitdown/)

    I think there’s probably an injury component, but maybe Gaudreau hasn’t managed to shed this weight off of himself over the course of the season as well. If he got himself that down over Dean’s firing, I could see where the team’s continued struggles, as well as his, have compounded that. Dude needs to heal. (Preferably on Dean’s next team)

  11. He’s almost certainly still injured from the reaves hit at the beginning of the season

  12. Remember last year when he signed his extension and eveony was asounded how team friendly it was?

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