Oshie tearing it up in STL

[gfbugman]

Excuse me?

I think the one thing that the Wild have good is goaltending! Backstrom is one of the top goaltenders in the NHL. Why? Oh, he's not as dynamic as Brodeur or flashy as, say, Ryan Miller, but he's one of the most consistent goaltenders that is constantly tops in positioning.

He's heads and shoulders, knees and toes better than ANY other player on the Wild... Koivu is second, but there's a big gap.

I have never been a fan of the Wild. I've never liked teams whose GMs consistently go around with their heads in the sand when it comes to fixing problems that could solve the problem and take the team to the next level. I have no problem with DR's desire to build a team from within, through the draft and a few undrafted free agents here and there. However, that's a perpetual long-term approach. It's like always looking to tomorrow rather than figuring out how to win today. Signing a guy like Modano back in 2004-5 might not have solved the problem in the long term, but it certainly would have taken the Wild to the next level while the long term solution develops in the minors or juniors or overseas.

They aren't the only hockey team or sports team in general that does this. I tend to dislike all of the teams that do fit this mold.

A team shouldn't perpetually look to the future and ignore the present. That tells me that the team really isn't interested in winning this year...or maybe not next year. They'll be interested in winning _eventually_. Tell me, if you are a salesperson, are you going to be in sales very long if you are always looking to eventually making sales?

The best salespeople go out every day to make sales NOW and develop relationships to facilitate future sales. That's how it should work. You sign the free agents you need to compete this season and draft their replacements asap. Or, if you are missing an element, you go out and get it. Goalscorers in MJ may not show that tendency in the NHL (see Alexandre Daigle or even Stephane Veillieux scored 115 points one year in juniors). James Shepperd was a scorer in MJ and, though he's only played 160 games in the NHL, he's not scoring either.

Looking over the list of players the Wild have had, though, overall, not many forwards were huge scorers. This tells me that DR's draft strategy wasn't as effective as his system would require it to be. His free agent signings were almost as disastrous. He's also not very aggressive when he needs to be on trades.

Well, now the Wild start over. Hopefully things will be better for the Wild. They'll start drafting properly and go out and sign quality free agents. They'll get good players via trade.

Why the tangent about the Wild? I never brought up the Wilds goaltending 1 time in that post. I was simply saying to be happy you are a Red Wings fan and not a Wild fan. I think you totally misunderstood what i was trying to say. I don't think we needed a breakdown of the Minnesota Wild organization and what they are doing wrong.

[redwing77]

My mistake.