In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, he reveals that the Wild are in year two of a five-year plan, which ends — they hope — with a championship.
October 9, 2024
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, he reveals that the Wild are in year two of a five-year plan, which ends — they hope — with a championship.
5 comments
Supposedly, this is the first time Leipold is looking past a single year…..
I hope this marks future growth in the ownership like the Wilfs did with the Minnesota Vikings
Leipold and Guerin are walking a tough tightrope. It feels very weird to hear a guy actually admit that the Parise Suter era didn’t exactly light the world on fire. That said, they didn’t have a Kaprizov type player to elevate the team. The main issue now is finding those higher end players alongside him. Ek, Boldy, and Faber are good starts. Rossi looks like he could be that this year (being a first line guy to start). Wallstedt? Sure hope he is.
The main issue at play that I’ve always maintained is Guerin is doing what Fletcher did not: assume success was a long term process and keep 1st and 2nds available as failsafes. Guess what? Buium could be some franchise altering offensive defenseman (if he pans out). Fletcher threw away those picks like candy for people who amounted to Gaudreaus and Folignos when there was no actual basis to believe they were a Top 4-Top 8 team in the league.
We’re actually in year 6 of a 9 year plan.
Very juicy article to come out the day before the regular season starts. One thing I found interesting was the little tidbit about Dean hearing that Kaprizov was “wanting to talk”. That tells me that Dean may have lost the locker room a little bit and that KK97 didn’t like Dean’s style or thought him a bad coach.
Honestly as long as KK97 doesn’t walk I do have high hopes for the team after this season. If he walks this whole competitive rebuild will be seen as an absolute failure.
Guerin seems like a very personal GM and we all know he’s loyal. Being a player he understands how important locker room culture is. Now what remains to be seen is if “his culture” style is going to win championships or if it makes guys complacent because they are apart of the country club.
A lot to unpack here. I’m glad they’re being realistic, but this doesn’t strike me as a super convincing pitch for Kaprizov. And it makes the long term vet extensions make even less sense, as we’ll be in the back half of those when it’s very likely that several of those contracts are boat anchors when we’re supposedly ready to compete for a cup. Those were all “win now” deals.
> And next summer, when the Wild have some cap space, they need to hit on a few difference-making free agents. It’s not a ton of space, but Leipold says that they have already identified one or two players they want to sign and that next July 1 will feel like “Christmas.”
Someone needs to tell Craig that we don’t actually have the roster, nor the cap space to sign any impact FAs next year.
5 comments
Supposedly, this is the first time Leipold is looking past a single year…..
I hope this marks future growth in the ownership like the Wilfs did with the Minnesota Vikings
Leipold and Guerin are walking a tough tightrope. It feels very weird to hear a guy actually admit that the Parise Suter era didn’t exactly light the world on fire. That said, they didn’t have a Kaprizov type player to elevate the team. The main issue now is finding those higher end players alongside him. Ek, Boldy, and Faber are good starts. Rossi looks like he could be that this year (being a first line guy to start). Wallstedt? Sure hope he is.
The main issue at play that I’ve always maintained is Guerin is doing what Fletcher did not: assume success was a long term process and keep 1st and 2nds available as failsafes. Guess what? Buium could be some franchise altering offensive defenseman (if he pans out). Fletcher threw away those picks like candy for people who amounted to Gaudreaus and Folignos when there was no actual basis to believe they were a Top 4-Top 8 team in the league.
We’re actually in year 6 of a 9 year plan.
Very juicy article to come out the day before the regular season starts. One thing I found interesting was the little tidbit about Dean hearing that Kaprizov was “wanting to talk”. That tells me that Dean may have lost the locker room a little bit and that KK97 didn’t like Dean’s style or thought him a bad coach.
Honestly as long as KK97 doesn’t walk I do have high hopes for the team after this season. If he walks this whole competitive rebuild will be seen as an absolute failure.
Guerin seems like a very personal GM and we all know he’s loyal. Being a player he understands how important locker room culture is. Now what remains to be seen is if “his culture” style is going to win championships or if it makes guys complacent because they are apart of the country club.
A lot to unpack here. I’m glad they’re being realistic, but this doesn’t strike me as a super convincing pitch for Kaprizov. And it makes the long term vet extensions make even less sense, as we’ll be in the back half of those when it’s very likely that several of those contracts are boat anchors when we’re supposedly ready to compete for a cup. Those were all “win now” deals.
> And next summer, when the Wild have some cap space, they need to hit on a few difference-making free agents. It’s not a ton of space, but Leipold says that they have already identified one or two players they want to sign and that next July 1 will feel like “Christmas.”
Someone needs to tell Craig that we don’t actually have the roster, nor the cap space to sign any impact FAs next year.