#tidbits and notes

It was an good decision for him because he believes in the team and what BG is building. Felt it gave him a great chance to win. Loves The Core (Bolds, Fabes, Quinn, Kirill), they’re still really young and hungry and they make it easy to follow them, jump on their backs. The team goes through walls for each other.

He acknowledged that he could have gotten more but why would he move when he has a team that believes in him and loves the guys, loves being with them.

As you can imagine the majority of this is taken up by the Brady trade so I’m not gonna go into all of it.

Discussion of US born players on Canadian teams and being drafted by Canadian GMs. (It’s important to note that not all these moves are Canadian players to American teams. Larkin is on Detroit, as an example. I think it’s more about Olympics players winning gold and coming back to a mediocre team and being sick of it.)

They think Yzerman WILL trade Larkin (duh sorry there’s just not a scenario where you keep a guy who wants out so publicly. That’s a locker room destroyer). Larkin’s trade was around the same time and that Minnesota prefers Larkin over Brady in the first place. But basically sums up Detroit is insisting on NHL players back so I think that’s why it hasn’t been done yet.

Vlad has a new agent and he’s not coming back to Minnesota. This is what we’ve been hearing rumblings of seems pretty much confirmed now.

They’re in Europe so there’s a lot of fast forwarding. I just do not care about their trip.

Russo still in his ranting about Kirill era. Literally he’s not gonna stop.

Doesn’t think Carlsson’s contract changes anything for Quinn. It’s more about term since he’s not sure they want to do 3 x 18 and more about Makar since that’s his comparable. The offer sheet stuff and the amount he got just doesn’t really have to do with Quinn.

84 games discussion. 743 overload of minutes and wanting to make sure they manage their minutes plus the injuries to manage. But it’ll be a bit different since Olympics messed everything up. More off days this year, they moved the start date up, buy week coming back etc.

Ekker. Guerin has confidence in him (this is me summarizing the discussion). Discussion about his injuries in front of the net but his injury last year was just a freak accident lost his edge.

Russo just thinks the team wasn’t happy with Kirill’s play this past season (this is his read and knowing his whole fucking thing with Kirill). But the other side is that Kirill is a draw to play with. Like if they had traded him they might have more assets and more money to play with but then they wouldn’t have Kirill and it’s not like the FA class was awesome. But then Quinn might not want to be here, Larkin wouldn’t want to come here, Big Sexy wouldn’t want to stay etc. he’s a huge piece they had to keep.

Larkin stuff. I’m not even going into it. I don’t care anymore.

LaPanta discussion of how the difference of Kirill with Zuccy in terms of goals expected vs. Kirill without Zuccy was not a huge difference. Whereas Zuccy without Kirill was a huge dip. Meaning, it was really more about playing with someone like Kirill than it being a super secret special sauce that Zuccy had. They had great chemistry but Kirill is likely to elevate anyone on his line. Because Zuccy’s line WITHOUT Kirill is a bigger difference.

Discussion of hand delivering the young Russian guy to Kirill.

Thinks there might still need to be some help that comes before the season starts. They just don’t want to play Kirill and Boldy together for the majority of the time, they want to have the two lines (and I agree).

Sturm and Yak both on the trade block. They could probably trade them both now as salary dumps but they’re hanging on to them.

Nothing final on broadcasting plans. Still working on it. Should be announced soon.

Interview with Hynes

Just got back from planning meetings with Leipold, Guerin, etc.

Guerin and company laid out the plans (A, B, C) and what they were looking to do. No details obviously.

Talked about Bobby, really like him. He brings a lot of speed, tenacious. Looking to be able to commit. Acknowledged in a vague way his difficulty with his first playoffs.

Hunter, love him. Steady progress each time he’s called up. Good hockey IQ, has an edge he plays with, very competitive.

Charlie Stramel. Right shot center man with good progression over the years.

Those are the three highlighted. They’ll get strong looks during a shortened training camp.

Same stuff on Zuccy and Kirill. Discussion of the PK. Gus not back till November.

Carolina played to their identity and took a long time to get to where they are. Played fast, brought on players who played to their identity and fit in.

Vlad switched agents.

Wild’s offer was better, Brady wanted to go to Florida. But didn’t offer Wally.

Setting trade market values.

Draft is over, Wild didn’t make any moves. Drafted some fun tall kids but unclear if any will make the show.

Russo’s latest is just another general round up. But this one has further bad news with Zuccy, seems the relationship is souring on both ends. Really unfortunate.

Yak is actively being shopped to clear cap space. Sturm as well.

Lots of talk about Bobby, he’s going to be a big piece in 26-27 season and lots of expectations for him.

Meanwhile in Detroit, Yzerman continues to just sit on his ass. Apparently Larkin gave him the list immediately after the season ended so this has been going on for a long time at this point. He’s insistent he doesn’t have to honor the request. So fun times in Red Wings land. Good luck to them.

Quinn’s contract is not “imminent” (ie it’s not coming this week or maybe next week either) but actively being worked on. There’s nothing for anxious fans to worry about as both sides are working towards the same goal. It will not go until September (I’m guessing late July/August for the announcement, personally this is my own opinion not Joe’s). Similar amounts being projected 3 years at 16-18 AAV. Notable that Joe has league sources who are speaking anonymously so they can be candid for this part. So that’s as clear as we’ve gotten. Minnesota front office is not speaking publicly. (Which is good)

Larkin, still in play but Minnesota basically just waiting it out. They’re assuming the closer it gets to camp the more Yzerman will want to have it done. Nothing new here at all. Confirms they’re not moving Boldy (duh).

Comfortable with their additions of Coleman, Maatta, Shabanov. Thinks Guerin will want to see what camp looks like especially with the internal development (Brink, Hunter, Stramel) and then make a decision of additions or subtractions then.

Literally had to fast forward 30+ minutes to get to the Wild JFC.

Zuccy, Vlad, Nick, Bogo: Russo thinks they’ve hit a break. That they just have so many potential trades and FAs that they just can’t or won’t do anything right now.

They are pretty sure Vlad is going to market - that he really liked it here but he will get paid more somewhere else. He was a bit of an unexpected surprise but they don’t think he sees a spot in the top 6 here.

Zuccy, Russo remains surprised that he’s not signed. LaPanta notes he could be signing now and they don’t know. They both point out that they’re now losing wingers as well as centers. LaPanta doesn’t see that Zuccy would be the type to chase money that if he does come back it will be here.

Cap space discussion etc. discusses the fact that Brisson is the agent for a bunch of the players they are interested in (and also Quinn’s agent).

Feel like it has to be a multi deal and multi team series of trades. To free up space and move cap space and assets around. This is partially why everything is at a standstill and a delay because they’re working on moving stuff around. (This is related to Larkin. They don’t feel like the Wild are interested in moving Wally, Brods, or Ekker and Detroit might want an NHL ready player back).

They don’t think they want to go “younger”. Meaning, they want players that are ready to contribute now etc etc same stuff we’ve been hearing.

Yak: potential for moving to clear up cap space. Weren’t happy with the playoff performance. Then a discussion of speed vs. size.

Goes on a rant against Kirill for asking for more money. Blah blah blah. God Russo’s hate boner for Kirill is so annoying fuck.

Not expecting an 8 year extension for Quinn (aka a shorter term etc etc etc same stuff). He thinks it would be shocking if he isn’t signed to an extension before the season. But he doesn’t think it’ll be 8.

I don’t know, not a great episode. Russo doesn’t have any information on anything. He’s been deep in the playoffs beat and hasn’t been talking to anyone in the Wild TBH or they haven’t been talking to Russo. Nothing new. I’m honestly getting so tired of his cynical bullshit BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY.

Quinn changed the game with his demand for a trade and now he’s “much happier” in Minnesota.

From Team USA, once you win the gold medal you just want to win the Cup even more. It kind of ignited something for all those guys. That’s what they think happened with Larkin. Plus the frosty/terrible relationship with the front office.

Detroit is not gonna be bullied/be backed into a corner. But they’re not gonna just sit Larkin; that’s not a realistic option anymore for teams. They’ll be pragmatic most likely will trade. But the question is whether they’re in rebuilding mode or not (basically, summing it up).

Dallas, Tampa Bay, New Jersey mentioned.

But Wild is the #1 team that everyone is eying. They have this trade written all over them. But he mentions that in the past few days he’s heard a lot of rumors they’re going to be able to re-sign Big Sexy (!). He doesn’t know if that changes anything with that. But he heard from GMs that’s the rumors.

He mentions Yurov, Stramel and something else and that it makes sense as a trade for Larkin.