Locked on Wild LIVE 6-17-24 Addressing the Top Six with Denny!

Locked on Wild LIVE 6-17-24 Addressing the Top Six with Denny!

[Music] you’re locked on wild your your daily podcast on the Minnesota Wild part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what’s happening everybody Welcome in to another live locked on wild we are hanging out here tonight with what we are going to call what the hell are you smoking as any is here to take us through a lot of Minnesota Wild discussion uh we have a lot to talk about here tonight and so we appreciate everybody tuning in here this evening if you’ve got any questions that you’d like either myself or Denny to answer just throw them in the comments I’ll collect them as the show rolls on but a man who needs no introduction Denny the captain of the comment section on YouTube and uh a wealth of hockey knowledge here in the state of Minnesota Denny I’m going to turn it over to you um we’ve got a lot we’re covering tonight the top six more on the Minnesota mess uh but uh you’ve got a a few more items from your hockey background in general I think that we uh would like to start with here tonight all right well to begin with I just want to apologize to everybody for the last show uh I had a a guest come in and when I told her to shut up all she did was talk really quiet so I couldn’t understand what the hell she’s saying and it got me very distracted I lost my train of thought several times over the show so that being said here we go um a little bit more about me uh in 1981 I started uh I was a regular with Sid Hartman I don’t know if any of you know who Sid Hartman is but uh you know he was a national hero uh star and tribun he had a a radio show it started at 10:00 went to noon and of course I was a regular guest and he used to get so mad at me sometimes he’d hang up on me yeah but that’s how I got in to start calling shows then of course with uh beyond the pond and fan line uh I was there for their very first show and hit them all and now here I am and I want to thank uh Seth because uh for all you don’t you that don’t know uh when you get my age and you lose all your friend you have no direction there’s nothing to get up for and because of Seth I have a new phone lease on life and I’m loving it uh this show means a lot to me and helping Seth get going means a lot to you so I just want to thank you Seth uh my life’s back on triack as it should it is it is my pleasure to uh to have you on to just go through kind of what we see with this Minnesota Wild team because I can sit on a microphone and talk about what I see all the time but uh it really what separates the show is giving listeners giving those that have been watching hockey for for as long as you have Denny giving you guys opportunities to to talk about what you see that’s what’s that’s what separates things and so I’m I’m happy to I’m happy to do these episodes to uh to allow you the opportunity to just talk about what needs to be fixed because there’s a lot of it well starting with the top six uh the Minnesota mes continues and uh you have to ask yourself why did Hines play Mojo after the first 18 games he had one goal and two assists for three points how can he possibly be a top six player on the wild with that kind of production Billy had to be telling him that he had to plan that’s the only thing I can think of either that he’s blackmailing him or something I don’t know but uh you know and as you know the rest of the the year was terrible and uh you know this all has to do right now with Mr Leopold the puck stops with you we want answers as fans what the hell’s going on yeah Billy has uh you know now he’s talking about a four-year deal with uh Middleton that’s too long two years would be a good one maybe three but not four he and I suppose does he have that no trade clause in there too uh I haven’t so it hasn’t been announced um as of yet Michael Russo was in the latest wor seats of the house alluding to the fact that that was likely what the deal was going to be and I just by process of elimination would assume that it would include some trade protection as well because do pretty much every other deal of that uh of that size has yeah I I just I don’t get it uh Billy’s on the hot seat and the only thing that’s saving his butt right now is Jud bracket because uh his uh picks have been they’re starting to pay off you know uh that’s the only saving grace he’s got because uh our team’s a year older a year slower and uh you know when you look at Felino all those stupid penal well you know he’s two steps behind the play he has to hold so uh you know it’s uh I’m just so disappointed the good news is and I know I’ve told you guys this before but I really think gel’s coming home uh his team made him another offer which he turned down and now they’re trying to get a pick for him to get negotiating rights with them so uh you know it’s what week and a half away for uh the contract up July I’ll bet yeah July one I would bet gun’s already talked to Billy about going home if that happens that solves a lot of our problem n uh talking about Mojo and how everybody’s given Rossy a B for the year think about this for a second everybody here watches this show knows hockey pretty much now when you got a Winger that only takes one shot per game for 23 games no shots for 20 games what is r to do you know he goes right to the net he plays hard but when your Wingers aren’t shooting the park he’s got nothing to you know he’s hung out to die by himself and that’s where uh our esteemed owner the Minnesota Wild has to step up the plate give us some answers uh you know we fill the building every game and the way things are going I think you could see that start to deteriorate actually I hope so because uh when they lose money that’s when things change as uh Travis has brought up yeah I mean it’s um that that’s really for a lot of these owners that’s really the only bottom line that matters is the money that is pulled in and so until that gets impacted a lot of times you don’t see a ton in the way of change you know and a lot of people say that Leopold doesn’t want to no Leopold spends the money to win he just uh has made some unfortunate choices in picking his GMS and coaches uh but I believe he wants to win just as much as we do so uh you know you have an open invitation Mr Leupold to come on the show and give us some anties it would be nice and I know it’d be a first for you but you know what uh you have Rabbid fans right here the faithful I’ve been watching hockey for 62 years and I’ve been a from Minnesota Northstar fan to when the wild star and it’d be nice to get because Billy and Hines both uh Hines said he’s playing the right way that’s the only answer I ever gave on Mojo what did he play right to keep him there I just uh it just bothers me and then Billy he just brush it off he never say he never said anything yeah it be nice to get some answers Mr Leopold uh in the meantime Denny I’ve got some uh I’ve got some Marcus Johansson stats that I think will further outline this problem okay although I think they might uh I think they might cause some people listening to get up from their computers and have to go take a break there’s not much there listen to this so Marcus Johansson in the final 29 games of the Season that he played and that was from February 7th on February 7th is notable because that is when Carill Capri off uh Matt baly and jul Eric KCK were first put together as a pairing like first they they played they played sparing earlier in the season but that was the first consistent time that they were put together as a parent yep when they put them together for good in the 29 games after that happened Marcus Johansson had three goals three assists and six points that was so six points in 29 games that hug fewer points than Jake Middleton Declan schism Jonas Brin and Brock Faber um in addition to in addition to the guys that you would expect to be scoring like Ryan Hartman Matt sarell uh Eric sck Baldi Capri off and Rossy so those four players in front of Johansen there’s one thing that they all have in common and I can’t quite put oh wait they’re defensemen he was outscored by four defensemen in the final 30 uh final 30 games of the season and he had one more Point than John Merill and Zack bagoan each yeah that’s really saying a lot and that’s a guy that’s playing second line minutes up until just under 17 minutes a game 1653 I think is what his numbers were I don’t somebody has to give us fans an answer and Mr leopole you’re the president come on step up to the plate well enough of that it just pisses me off because that’s a big reason why we lost the why we didn’t make it to the uh to the playoffs I mean when uh you have one line that ain’t going to work well on the other one too here’s here’s another top six related stat for you uh this deals with Matt Zell zarella had 63 points this season 33 of those came on the power play yep so he had 30 even strength points seven even strength goals the entire rest of the season and his stats as well after February 7th he had four goals he did have 20 assists so he at least from a points perspective got close to a point per game down the stretch but still like his production was largely tied to Carill yep yep and now he’s a year older and a year slower and he should probably be on the fourth line now with Hartman that would be a pretty good because Harman doesn’t have any speed either so it’s a good good mix there who you put out you know if there’s one thing I would do we can only get one one more buyout for the year Fredy goodro he’s got to go yeah I would rather if we if we were going to use that final buyout slot it makes sense to use one to get term off like Marcus Johansson has one year left and I I mean you could use it yeah I just I don’t know like God bless him but Freddy gdo when when it got to time for John Hines to pick his Faceoff Center and he picked juel Ericson e there just isn’t a ton for Freddy G to do well if you remember uh he got a chance to do a shoot you know the year previous year he was really good in the shootouts his skills have diminished so bad that when he got to do a a go for the he didn’t even shoot the puck I don’t know if you remember that game but he didn’t even shoot the puck I remember that it was against um it was against St Louis and so Jordan Bennington is is standing in the net yeah Freddy slides he slides to the right and he gets like he gets parallel to the crease and tries to like chip it and I I’m I don’t know if he was trying to do the trying to do like a capri off move where he banks it in off of bennington’s back but it just it sailed through the crease and it’s like what was that yeah I know yeah Good’s got to go at you know even though it’s uh $8 million it’s only $2 million a year yeah it’s not a big hit and that’s and you can at it too like it would be the same hit for Johansson it’s just you’re getting that term off the you’re getting an off the books because there’s what four more years I think um of goodro yeah 2.1 yeah four more years well I’m gonna make a prediction here okay Mojo’s gonna play real hockey this year it’s his contract year and uh of course if he plays like he did last year there’s nobody going to sign him you know when you looked him at the World Championships he was a beast what happened to that player I have no idea I I guess and I say this and I’m gonna kind of laugh but it just further underscores like just what we saw this past year I guess on the Johansson front it really can’t get any worse no and if is on the second line boy there’s going to be a lot lot of talk back on that one because he really deserves to be on the fourth line if he played I’d bench him and have him doing heres every every H practice for two hours until he says trading well I would that might uh that might make something happen uh in that regard um we’ve got a few questions already Denny about the uh about the top six and so I’m going to I’m going to put him on screen here we’ll talk about him a little bit and uh because we’ve we’ve got a question about Patrick Li we’ve got um a potential look for the second and the third line um as well as uh a little bit um about Jake gensel as well so let’s just start with Ace here who says I would be in favor to make lots of moves and take a run at Sam Reinhardt for the second line he would be a perfect fit for the next five years we can’t do this so this is just a dreaming look I if if we had the ability to make something like that happen that’s the kind of move you should be trying to make well there you go but uh he’s going to be probably a$1 million player in his next contract yeah and I think he stays in Florida to tell you the truth yeah he had AIC season that’s one that Florida is just Florida is going to do whatever they need to do um to keep him he’s too important to what they’re doing but hey if there was a way to make it happen I’d be right there um right there to do it uh let’s go to Wild Crush who said g will be a nice get I’ve heard rumors of L from the blue jacket so let’s uh let’s squash the lon rumors well I can tell you this is about Patrick ly he’s been a cancer in any locker room for any hockey team he’s ever played nobody likes him it’s all about him he’s he’s injured a lot and uh I just I would pass on period I view this I view this Denny as pretty similar to the Pierre Luke Dubois situation yep same thing and I remember I remember looking at Pier Luke Dubois at the point that he was available and saying oh man that’d be a guy that the wild should try to go get and look how that worked out yeah la is not happy with that trade they were they were even looking at the potential of buying him out one year into his extension yep that still could happen uh he’s uh for whatever reason he’s just not playing well yeah you know a lot of time and I was going to bring this up in another show but I’ll bring it up right now uh uh to me a good coach looks at his players and devises a system that brings out the best of his players now this is how we’re going to do it and if you can’t do it you’re out of here uh like Dino which reminds me uh in the last show I had a comment about Dino was a winner well let me ask you this I forget your your name and thanks for responding but uh we won the first game because uh G stole it right so what’s dino do he sits him for the next game and puts in you know flower and he’s not at the top of the books in uh anything he’s had his time he should be retired he’s at the bottom of the league and save percentage Go I mean all the stuff why would you sit Gus when you just stole the game that’s kind of Coach Dino well and I remember I remember the discussion around that being well this is how we’ve done it all year so we’re going to continue to do it and it’s like folks this is the postseason though like yeah you have to I’m not saying I’m not saying abandon your plan completely but what did um oh my what did Craig barui do and what did um what did Pete dor do this past postseason they both fell down two games to one and they made adjustments and the wild didn’t WI a single game the rest of either series and why was that because they made no adjustments to counter it good old um all right’s so let’s go to uh let’s go to Trav because he oh that’s not what I wanted to do oh one second I okay so Trav said the reason I would uh trade for gel and not wait until unrestricted free agency is to get rid of some of our current cap and so he follows it up with Spurgeon and a first for gensel and a fifth would you why would you do get him for free you can you can make cap space otherwis we don’t have to give nothing he’s a free agent July 1 you I I’m telling you right now you heard it from me a couple months ago gel’s coming home he’s a Minnesota boy he’s a top 10 Winger in the league boy he solves a lot of our issues right up front you just wait and see I’ll be famous if you get if you add that type of scoring to your top six then all of a sudden you’ve got two legitimate scoring lines now we got three lines instead of one yeah and now you can just and so this is like this is the ripple effect of this so you put a guy who legitimately can play in that type of a spot and it flots everybody else down where they Naturally Fit in the lineup yeah it uh makes a huge difference because we really need right now six players and unfortunately we can’t do it because of the node trade Clauses and uh Billy’s uh Billy’s boys are uh taking it easy you know what can you do and that’s why they’re trading Gus because that’s his only move uh I read today that Detroit is very interested in Gus they need a goalie and with the 3.75 cap hit that’s very doable oh yeah I haven’t looked at uh what they give up but uh that’s the rumor in Detroit let’s look at what uh I’ve got it up on cap friendly so let me just look at uh oh ick uh here is Detroit’s current goalie situation we’ve got vuso in the final year of his deal they’ve got Alex lion in the final year of his deal and then they have James Rymer who’s an unrestricted cre agent yeah they need a goalie they need a goalie bad holy cow that is well I can see La New Jersey Detroit uh probably Calgary uh San Jose there’s a lot of teams that need a number one goalie and regardless if he had a d year or not you know Gus wasn’t used to the rigor his stamina is what left him I guess yeah and his workout program wasn’t uh designed for what it should be so you know he’s going to address that I mean uh his stock won’t way up in the world I mean he looked phenomenal other in the last game I’m gonna miss him because we’ve got um I’m gonna get to a comment from Amanda about the goalie situation but Trav has a good he’s got a good followup um to the moving Spurgeon talk um he said the point would be to try to get rid of the cap hits so if you sign gensel for say 9 million in reality you’re paying 1.5 um y so just trying to make the cap work that way now it could be that it works out if Spurgeon starts the year on long-term injured reserve then you got that cap uh hit free you think he’s okay Spurgeon ready to go you know I told you uh when the operations I asked my doctor about his operations he said they’re no big deal today H so you got a brand new Spurgeon now okay and regardless of what everybody thinks about him he’s always been a top 20 defenseman in the league two years ago he was number two behind the car analytically yeah he’s a little undersized but what he brings to the table he gets his sticks in the lane he closes the gaps and you really feel his presence when it’s not there on the on the penalty kill uh that’s where you really see see how he shine at least that’s what I think um let’s go to Amanda um okay so I don’t understand why we are thinking about moving Gus as what SL who is coming in after flurry moves on this is a great this is a great point cuz this is kind of why I talked about it might not be a bad idea to draft a goalie this year not in the first round obviously but at some point in the draft because you get rid of Gus flurry retires after this season all of a sudden your goalie room goes to it’s yesper and that’s it well uh the wild did pick up a couple the goalies uh over in Europe that played pretty good and uh I haven’t seen him play so I I’m really not going to comment on it but uh you know draft uh drafting a goalie is never a bad idea yeah I mean it’s just like I think the I think the one kid was named uh Sam Levi I think is the uh the one um it’s uh I mean he’s he he looked great in in the world championship so I’m I’m definitely intrigued by what he can bring but you know this is this is another one of these overall themes for the season is you just have to make sure that you have backup plans and if anything happens to yesper he would probably be your backup plan but then what’s your backup plan after that I know I would never trade Gus but I know that’s what bill is gonna do that’s his only move all know trade Clauses he doesn’t have any choice yeah and know that’s on Billy his sheet is really warm that’s one of those that’s one of those where on a Friday night I’ve done this you make a pizza and you forget to turn off the oven and all of a sudden you go back into the kitchen you’re like oh it’s warm in here you know and one thing about flower uh he’s easily replaceable I mean it he’s at the bottom of the lead yeah in all analytics he’s terrible now if I was a b man every time he played I’d bet against the wild that’s how bad he is flurry is flurry is capable of a stretch or two here where he can kind of elevate but that’s not what he does for the course of the Season like he had I think this past season he had maybe two stretches of starts like stacked together where he performed well but he’s just regardless he’s not a not a guy that’s going to give you more than like 30 starts yeah lucky if he gets 30 but you know uh flower his game this last year is the best he’s played in a couple of years to be honest and it still wasn’t that good um I I found a new feature here with the comments that I can star them to save them which is fantastic for uh holding questions uh let’s go to this from Jeremy spurge is going to be a second or third pairing defenseman brodine and Faber are the best pairing right now for the wild so if you slot it up that way you’re going probably brodine faers as your top pairing and then Spurgeon and probably Middleton as your second um let me think about that for a second okay we can come back to it say ask Jer uh Jeremy do you live in my building uh somebody told me that uh that you live in my building we’ll see how he responds um a man and’s got a follow up flurry’s also super emotional gets in his own head and allows that to impact the rest of his performance during the game which he’s always been like that yeah he he is a very emotional player I mean he you know sometimes it’s good sometimes it doesn’t but you know he’s old he’s slow he has you know he’s done I hate to say had a hell of a career but uh I wouldn’t want them on my team geremy’s in [Laughter] Iowa NOP okay um what else do we have here let’s talk about all right Glenn has a suggestion for line combos so Glen says second line now this this is assuming that gensel does not sign here Rossy OG Rossy ogren Heights as your second line and then Marat Ryan Hartman and zcell as your third yeah that’s doable I like uh putting Oren in height up in the second with Rashi because uh man they’d be flying that would be a yeah all Shooters and and they got the wheels I’m really I’m really excited to see what Riley height does because from what I have what I have seen the steam is it’s it’s starting to become more than just he’s GNA play his nine games and that’s going to be it there’s there’s some legit steam that he’s going to be with the team past the nine games oh I think he makes the team I’d love you know I’ve watched on him uh the biggest thing about a rookie is the two-way game and he’s got that already and when you got the two-way figured out at his age man I’m looking forward to watching him yeah he’s gonna be a lot of fun um yeah but I like combinations good work on those Glenn we uh we give him the stamp of approval um let’s go to one more uh let’s talk about Adam Beckman a little bit uh Jeremy suggesting Beckman with zukaro and Rossi but um there I feel like there’s going to be a decision made on Adam Beckman during this offseason that is going to likely be him being traded somewhere I think he’s asked for it he may not have said it yet but wild never gave him a chance you know and you put him on the fourth line playing seven minutes a game you don’t get to show your wares he should have been up in Mojo’s spot for at least 20 games so you got a good idea what you got you never got the chance you know and the thing about hin Hines did the same thing to fiala that’s why I got fired in Nashville know we traded granin to get theal and look what happened you got a chance to play and boom and now he’s doing the same thing with Beckman you know Gotta Give A a player a chance and not fourth line he should have been on the second line yeah see this is my so I wanna I want to expand on this a little bit because this is my general thoughts on um prospects because I know one of the big kind of other side of the coins for Beckman was he never showed anything that would warrant getting a chance in the top six and I’m going to push I’m going to push back on that because my thought is you have to try guys in those spots first because if they’re capable of more than a fourth line role you’re not going to know that by playing them seven minutes a light a night and having them be on kind of a a change of pace checking energy kind of a line well you know old school hockey used to be you had to prove your way to go up the line but that’s not how the game is played today and I AG totally agree with him I mean giving them fourth line seven minutes that’s an injustice for Beckman like it’s you never got to show it yeah it’s frustrating because like you just yeah Jeremy’s just he’s just Spitting Fire here he said 51 games with a significant injury in Iowa and he had 19 goals and 33 points well sounds like to me yeah you know in Iowa had a lot of injuries and then plus uh they got a coach that doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing down there you know we had the top five rated uh Prospect pool especially with their defense and he gave no guidance I mean uh Iowa Wilder a mess and that’s all because uh Billy’s boys the old school club yeah I’m Gonna Keep harping on it because it’s the truth McAn didn’t do anything when he was up here I don’t know how he got that position um perfect spot to throw Brian’s comment in here Bri Brian is uh is listening tonight we appreciate you joining Brian a good coach is a good psychologist every player reacts to different messaging some players play well with fear some just need a pat on the back in order to get the best performance so what’s the question well that was just more of a comment sorry oh yeah no that’s true you know when you’re a coach you got you’re dealing with all these different personalities and you just got to figure out what what makes him pick I threw out on today’s episode a thought that maybe the wild should try to look for a college coach who has one at the Collegiate level that’s maybe looking to make the jump like I I saw the news that the uh the northern Michigan coach left Northern Michigan for an NHL job and I wonder if that would be a better way to handle the Iowa situation is somebody who has handled College athletes in a successful manner makes the next jump up to the uh the AHL but brings a winning pedigree with them right now I think the coach you get is Todd Nelson from the Hershey Bears who’s playing for the uh the championship for I I forget what Columbus Washington is the I think it’s the Washington farm team y yep uh he’s been a winner wherever he goes he’s outstanding coach I’d give him a shot as far as uh uh I forget his name he was uh North Dakota and he went to Philly didn’t do that well but they had a lot of injuries and they didn’t have much of a team so you know he didn’t last long but but uh I don’t see nothing wrong with uh college coaches you know they’re dealing with the kids Glenn brings up a great idea the Denver Coach was hotly recruited this cycle for NHL jobs he ended up staying in Denver but there’s a guy who has brought Denver to he he brought him to the um he brought him to the Frozen 4 uh just a winning pedigree Trav gives his endorsement that would be the kind of thing I feel like you should look to do is to bring a winning pedigree in to your AHL team and further that throughout the rest of the organization yep I agree I’d give him a shot you know the NHL just keeps retreading old culture yeah see why they didn’t do any good here what makes think they’re going to do better you know Hines I thought might have changed his ways when he got fired in Nashville then he got fired New Jersey he hasn’t changed a bit he doesn’t like the rookies he won’t play them and uh there you go Brian says uh sandelin at UMD three national titles several NHL players see I think we’re uh I think we’re on to a little something here is like get somebody like that your organization and uh allow them to help kind of build from the AHL level up to the top well if I was running the wild first thing I’d do is try to uh NAB a couple uh coaches from uh Colorado and a couple from Tampa Bay and put the organization together because they have winning pedigrees uh Colorado is just they’re phenomenal what they do oh hoptics has joined the show and he’s got a good one oh boy if the wild offered you the assistant coaching job what would you do well I certainly change the lineups uh heres would be a standard formation for people that want to play on the game they’re going to play in practice that’s been another thing that is interesting throughout the year is it just and I think it was to the point that it even got written about I can’t remember if it was Russo or Joe Smith about just how little the wild have practiced over the last couple of seasons and it’s like you can’t really I don’t think get better on special teams unless you practice them well there are statistics that show playing less is actually uh better for the players yeah uh but how do you improve your game if you’re not practicing I would be practice but as far as uh taking assistant coaching job I do it in a heartbeat we’re glad to have you in here hoptics by the way um I know hoptics has been kind of the he’s been on the Forefront of the like other side of the the more optimistic side of the and we have had discussions during postcast quite a bit and honestly I’m I’m glad even though I may not necessarily agree with um some of those opinions that’s it’s important to have that side of the coin in these uh these live shows too so I’m glad hopix is here because he’s got some good uh what’s he saying he’s got another great just great question um for the center lineup next year is Hartman going to be fourth line because hoptics goes e first Rossy second and who’s naden off on the third line that’s where I got him projected fourth line Center Wild Crush Wild Crush I could never forget about you also uh being on the the side of positivity we’re glad to have you guys in here yeah even even though I may not always tread to that side of the aisle myself we you just got to have both sides in here to make it a full conversation so let’s let’s talk about the centers so e one Rossy if he’s here we’ll talk about that in a second he’s not getting I hope not then you got morat as your third and depending on what happens I mean you could uh depending on if he’s still here probably well it depends do you want Hartman as your fourth line Center do you want Freddy as your fourth line Center Harman Freddy be bench if I couldn’t trade him because I’d buy him out bottom line his his skills have diminished so bad I don’t know how he’s playing hockey No I um oh now I have to go look because I don’t know see this is this is the weird part too is you’ve always got those you’ve always got that uh Rolodex of players that have injuries at the end of the season that just mysteriously get taken care of like oh turns out uh turns out Matt sarella was playing with a broken leg turns out Marcus Felino had just debilitating core injuries had a there I’m just seeing if Freddy goodro had any thing um oh that’s right it was oh wait no that was last year [Music] um so you had a rib cage injury but uh I think that was it I don’t think he had surgery for anything I don’t think he did I don’t know it’s so it’s so hard to tell um oh Glenn Glenn’s got you on the uh the Philly coach it was Dave haxall that’s right good good one good catch Glenn good catch um Trav says Hartman can easily be moved to Wing in your mid to bottom six roll he can play as a utility guy if you suffer an injury he can slot in wherever yeah he’s very versatile that way and he plays all positions equally well I like Hartman yeah Hartman Hartman is just he just tends to be a hotthead sometimes but I guess I would rather I guess I would rather have somebody who runs a little hot than somebody who doesn’t run anything you know what I’m saying like somebody who just is kind of Flatline out there well Hartman showing he cares he gets pissed yeah and that’s a good can work with that um what else do we have here Wild Crush has asked this and I just um I didn’t put it in but I will now I’m not I have not heard anything he’s okay the question was where Carill is spending his summer um and Wild Crush says always makes me nervous players going back to Russia but um sounds like sounds like he’s here so that’s that’s yeah he is oh yeah know I was going to give you my uh expectations for the top six for this year I’ll do that now if that’s all right yeah let’s do it I’m gonna start at Capri off this year you’re gonna see him so score 60 goals if he doesn’t get hurt and loses a month or so he’s that good you know he’s top five player in the world yeah and uh we’re damn lucky to have him he’s the first Superstar The Wild I’ve ever had and uh if we didn’t have Capri off we’d have the third worst team in the league that’s how bad we are uh for E I got him 35 Plus Baldi I got 40 plus for our front line and if you look at those numbers you know they’re averaging Four Points a game when they lined up together uh that’s a hell of a line we second line I got Baldi or I mean uh I got uh rosi with Ogen and height with 30 40 and 25 might be a little big on H or ogren at 25 for their first year but they got a lot of talent and all I don’t know if it’s I don’t know that it’s necessarily going high because I like I did the math if if ogren if he averages like if he gets somewhere around 200 to 230 shots and you you take a even a 12% um even a 10% shooting percentage on 200 shots that’s 20 goals yep and then think all the rebounds that Ross is gonna get that’s a beautiful thing because we’re not trading Rossy everybody’s dream I think we’re trading Rossy it’s not happening H let’s see for the third line I got morat Mojo and uh either Ogen or hey fourth line I got Hartman volino Freddy goodro oh we gotta get rid of him I’m telling you um I just want to give Mike a shout out here he’s watching from Tokyo oh cool hi Mike glad you watch thanks for tuning in yeah all right what else I got here I got so damn many notes most of on how bad he was that we already covered ah they already talked about the cord sucks button no ah well here’s getting back to my days as a kid uh going to the Northstar games I couldn’t afford tickets so I had cord sucks buttons printed up and I’d sell them a buck a piece to pay for my ticket to get in the game and uh cord just absolutely killed us I mean he was when he get on the ice everybody in the whole Arena C Court sucks CT sucks I it didn’t have any problems selling the button believe now what else I got here that’s pretty much it oh wallstead I want to bring this up to everybody because I’m telling you right now wallstead is a generational Talent goalie like him comes around like once every 10 years you know he gets a shut out Chicago and he gets the win in San Jose with the 931 save percentage anybody saying well they’re too bad well they still won 43 games it’s very hard to shut out any team in the NHL and uh what you’re looking at is greatness coming upon W he’s phenomenal his eye to hand his reflexes he’s very smooth you don’t see him jumping around or anything he just plays the angles well and he’s only going to get better so you’re looking at greatness starting out yeah that would be uh that would be to be able to just pencil him in for 8 to 10 as you’re starting goalie and just know that you’re going to get you know 50 plus starts unless there’s an injury it would just be it just would be nice to have a spot in the lineup that you can just um just pencil and not have to worry about it yep and also I think with Spurgeon coming back our defense is not going to be too shabby this year with Middleton B Rodin Dean it’s not gonna be too shabby a whole lot better than last year yeah go ahead you should be able to limit limit to none at all the games well it will be better because we won’t have any Merill uh golosi sightings why Billy Sosi for two years is another mindboggle that was a that was a my my thought on that whole situation was that that was essentially a three-year deal wink wink nudge nudge because the uh because the wild needed they wanted him to take the short contract initially and then added the uh the two after that which should never have happened never in a million years you know I’m glad he got his big goal uh the game winner you remember that they had the silver all the good stuff couldn’t happened to him because gsy was a hell of a player in his day just he’s old lost his wheels that’s what happened yeah and he even his first year here like until until he played too many games and he started to run out of gas he was he was just fine he would he was a really good number seven man uh what else was I going to here I got two pages of notes about Mojo well one thing I just hope Billy trades goodro buys him out because he’s taken up a spot that we need for the kids you know I’m a big bringing up the kids because uh uh the way it is with his hardcore six Billy boys we’re not in good shape right now we’re old and slow that’s just the way it is well the thing too yeah thanks thanks a lot Billy G um the thing to and this is one of the most common refrains that I get is people saying well we knew these couple of seasons were going to be tough and so we shouldn’t be surprised that the team has struggled and yeah I get that to a point but it’s like like it’s one thing to exactly it’s one thing to go through these Seasons with this type of a roster and fight and Claw and come up short but you can also give opportunities to the uh the prospects give them opportunities to see if they can maybe get you to the next level the only way you can find it out is to play them and hindes won’t play them I don’t know I just I’m so disappointed in Billy I’m telling you right now his seat is getting on fire yeah Billy considers anyone under 30 a kid yeah I know you know and his style of play and the the players that he really covets uh you know we got six of them and they could all go wouldn’t hurt us a bit yeah I I made that um I made that point the other day too in my uh rant episode um it’s these contracts by themselves mostly fine but you’re also operating under the assumption that you don’t have prospects in the system that can come up and replicate the skills that those players bring to the table exactly and we got some kids who can play down there you know like Beckman I believe he’s asking for a trade because for whatever reason they won’t play him yeah see I think we see something happen there and that’s too bad because you know when he goes somewhere else he’s going to take off it is what it is Hines needs to go Billy and all his boys need to go start fresh really because he’s running you know if it wasn’t for Jud bracket hitting on his picks we’d be the worst team in the league God but uh Jud bracket has really made some nice picks and uh we’re going to see some fruition this year with height Ogen and you know uh pick it up de Chism for nothing was a massal deal I like I really like that one yeah um I’ll throw this out from Jeremy and I’m going to look at this I’ll look at this in a full episode um because really the only name in free agency that I have mentioned is one that I just am just so no thank you on that being David pan no so I’ll um I’ll look at some names in a full episode Jeremy I’ll pull out three I’ll pull out three that I think could be intriguing if we had to sign one um other than Jake gensel so I’ll uh I’ll I’ll pick three names and I’ll I’ll have the episode be um if we had to sign somebody who would I pick well you know it all depends on what they get for Gus our whole season depends on what they get for him correct and because he played so world so well in the world championship his stock went really up and there’s a lot of teams looking for a goalie like us so the bidding war has started I’m absolutely s certain of that and Billy’s good at making deals that’s the only thing he’s good at yeah Mike don’t speak that into existence he said a 4×4 for pan is coming with a full no move don’t speak it into existence you know PR is a is a wild killer but I wouldn’t want him on my team yikes yeah I know o ducks are shopping zis not sure what the ask is but if it isn’t ridiculous he’s young talented and only costs 5 mil for the next two seasons why are they shopping him gota ask yourself that it’s a good question that’s it’s because he’s not that good you know he had that highlight uh uh goal you know with the stick and putting it in the net last year he was just a very average player you know he got a lot of hype when he got in but he’s an average player he had oh I it would help if I actually went to his page I was going to say why are they not showing me the stats but I’m just looking at anaheim’s cap friendly he had six goals nine assists 15 points and 31 games yeah exactly hey we could trade Mojo for well this is this is a good this is a good point too oh broken ankle um but this is a good point too is that zers would be an upgrade over about half the roster yeah he would be he’s young he’s got wheels you know and Anaheim uh I don’t know what the problem is there because they always get top picks bringing in young players they just don’t ever put it together yeah they’ve been changing they’re doing a new bringing back Anaheim Ducks logo which would be cool I like that yeah they’re just spinning their wheels like it seems like they make a little bit of a push and then they just they just backtrack yeah well that’s another team that needs a goalie I wouldn’t take zis for him though zis has the attitude of someone who grew up in a Dina no thanks oh that’s a good one so what should we end it with here today I think it was a pretty good show uh anybody who watching the show you got any ideas something you want to hear about uh I’m open for suggestions um Wild Crush was asking about the oiler so we could talk a little Stanley Cup Final um I’ll pull that one up do the Oilers have a shot huh you’re still picking Edmonton oh yeah I picked him way back when H La was the the favorite that’s the only team that I picked that made it through I had Carol we got one we got one vote for Edmonton to do it let’s see it happen when you have two of the best players in the world and those guys have been up and down they paid their dues and uh if Skinner can uh keep his game together I just don’t see Florida doing it man we got uh we got a couple good ones here all right I’ll start with Trav bring one former Wild player currently still playing back who do you get and how do you get them it’s a good question that is a good question I have to think about that for a second ah I bring back granin for the fourth line um hop to say a good one huh Cal Clutterbuck yeah he’s he’s still well I don’t know if he uh is playing anymore or not I don’t think they renewed his contract he’s old he was a hell of a player when he was with us and he was a hit machine just a he was for the Islanders too um I if I was going to pick a former Wild player to add to the [Music] roster I mean it’s got to be got to be fi oh no this is this is the one this is the one Gustav Nyquist oh yeah I take him in a heartbeat that’s the one yeah I wish we could have kept him that’s a good you want me to you want me to make you more sad about the uh about the Johansson numbers and tell you gustoff nist’s regular season go ahead 23 goals 52 assists 75 points yep in 81 games played boy he would be looking good with Rosy I’ll tell you that they can uh Nashville can have I don’t know they can have G they can have Johansson they can have they can have or all of them actually just balance the uh just balance the money out that way and then he had a goal and three assists in six postseason games too yeah damn that was that’s eternally the one the one that got away yeah he’s a good player I like him really good let’s say uh I gotta ask this before when I watch a hockey game what do I look at oh there you go uh believe it or not I don’t look at the player with the puck I look at what the players are doing around them and that gives you a very good sense of their hockey mentality uh when they don’t have the puck and you’re watching them what they’re doing that says it all that shows what how much how smart they are or how stupid they are and uh the good players are doing something to create chaos and the ones that don’t they’re just standing around and so when I watch a hockey game I’m always looking at what the players are doing without the P that’s a big deal for me because that tells me uh especially at the kids where’s your hockey IQ how do you look at the game and when they’re uh trying to create chaos that’s a good thing well said well said um I God there are a lot of really good ideas for episodes through these comments and so I am going to um for what I might have to give out a star for best comments of the night because hoptics is just he is just on fire he says bring back Ryan O’Reilly well he never played for us you know that don’t you he’s here for two it’s hoptics is on his game tonight yeah um I’m going to go through this I’m going to go through this episode there are like 30 different good ideas for episodes that I will write down and uh and get to here uh between now and the draft we’ve also got a few more draft profiles coming your way before next week hard to believe the draft is already here next week yeah I can’t wait it’s G to be a lot of fun well I think with that oh boy we yep that’s we had uh we had a great pattern um for which former Wild player would you bring back from Jeremy so I think that’s the I think that’s the check I think that’s the check please comment hey uh can I say something here yes you can what the hell are you smoking there it is get in once today that’s that’s the official that’s the official sign off I think um for this episode boy this was a lot of fun um and we’re going to continue doing these so uh keep an eye out for when we will have the uh the next LIVE edition of uh lockdown Wild aka what the hell are you smoking so keep an eye out Denny appreciate having you on as always we this is this is just going to be more and more fun as we go and uh glad to uh glad to get the listeners interacted in during the show too that’s uh that was a lot of fun to get the comments and to be able to uh to react to them and real time so everybody thanks for tuning in make sure to hit that like button as you uh head out for the nights and for more content like this throughout the week uh both live and in episode form make sure to uh subscribe to lock down wild so you don’t miss out on any thanks everybody for watching the show appreciate everybody tuning in that’ll do it for tonight’s live show we’ll see you for the next one on our next edition of lockon Wilds

We take a look at the top six for the Wild as well as answering your submitted questions!