Gillies to minors, Weller, Smith on waivers

Russo

Quote :

According to sources, Colton Gillies has been reassigned to AHL Houston. He was just informed.

According to sources, the Wild has placed Craig Weller and Nathan Smith on waivers. Weller is obviously the notable one. On a one-way contract, if he clears and is reassigned to Houston, the Wild will have to pay his NHL salary of 600K in the minors. The Wild needs the salary-cap room, so this was very much expected.

Andy Hilbert is not going to Philadelphia. According to sources, he’s been offered a two-way deal and has been told if he signs, he will start out in Houston. That’s what Todd Richards meant by saying he’s got “a decision to make.”

Updated blog...

Quote :

OK, I’m going to be as thorough as I can but very quickly because I have a flight in a little while and still have to write for tomorrow’s paper. Who thought your most stressful deadline of the new season would occur at 1:30 in the afternoon?

Technically, the Wild’s roster stands at 26 with the reassignment today of Colton Gillies. But it’s really at 23 because Craig Weller and Nathan Smith are on waivers. If they clear (and you can bet the Wild is praying somebody takes Weller because of his salary), they’ll be sent to Houston tomorrow. That’ll bring it to 24. However, Andy Hilbert’s tryout came to an end with what I predicted a few days ago from I think Chicago.

Hilbert works his butt off, but right now, he didn’t earn a spot in Minnesota. The Wild has, according to sources, offered Hilbert a two-way deal but told him he’d be put on waivers and start in Houston if he accepts. I’d think he’d take it because let’s be honest, if he thinks he can really get another NHL contract right now, well, that same team could just claim him on waivers. So it’s a no-lose. You get claimed by the team that would hypothetically sign you anyway or you at least have a job in the minors with a team that thinks enough of you to offer you a contract (meaning you’ll be one of the first recalls).

That brings the Wild to 23 players (really 22 because Derek Boogaard will start the season on IR). This brings the cap hit down to $55,011,827, which includes the $650,000 for Jaime Sifers, who looks to have made the team. This also means Benoit Pouliot’s on the team as well.

With one extra roster spot, this would technically allow the Wild to claim a player off waivers or even make a trade in the coming days. We’ll see if they do it. The only NHLers on waivers today that I recognized were Cody McCormicj, Jamie Lundmark, Rob Schremp, Brandon Bochenski, Ryan Craig and Adam Hall (Fletcher knows him from Pittsburgh, we know him from here).

Gillies was very disappointed. His eyes were welled as he talked to the media.

This decision signals a total philisophical change than the previous regime. As I’ve mentioned since mid-summer when I was predicting Gillies in the minors, there are people in this organization — both new and old — who thinks the previous regime’s philosophy of sticking junior kids onto the team was an injustice. Not only do you lose years toward their free agency, they don’t get to develop.

I’ve used James Sheppard as an example. He hasn’t played the No. 1 power play or given top-minute responsibilities in three years now. That doesn’t help development. That hurts. Sheppard can’t be sent to the minors because he requires waivers, but Colton Gillies doesn’t. And in order to play and get big minutes, he needed to be in Houston.

OK, I have to run, plus coincidentally, one of my best friends happens to be connecting through MSP right now. Talk to you tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Damn you Risebrough .

I wonder how much responsibility Lemaire has in those decisions.....

Even if JL wanted a player in the pro's early its the GM responsibility to do make the final call, so even if Lemaire was like hey give me Shepp and Gillies early, Riser should have been like they aren't ready and send them to where they could get ready.

I think what happen was that we rarely got quality FA's and we didn't make good deal for expiring UFAs so we were bare and guys like Shepp that would look good enough to make our team due to lack of talent could have been better handled.

To me this falls mostly on the GM office its their responsibility to not only draft talent, trade pieces that cant be signed and persue FA's but to also ensure that players are not being rushed.

Now i'm not saying that JL is clean just that the final say is with the GM and if Riser wasn't a duche we might have had guys like Shepp and Gillies who could make the team and be top 6 players.

Yep, this all falls right on DR's shoulders. Lack of ability to attract free agents, lack of ability to retain free agents, lack of ability to draft and develop talent, rushing kids into the NHL...

Could you imagine how coveted guys like Sheppard and Gillies would be if they both had another year of dominating juniors?

Byebye Weller.

Yeah, Gillies got screwed. Can he still play in the WJC's.

I think Gillies can go two ways with this, one way is play his ass off and wait for an injury to show the Wild hes ready or he can be coast and fall behind. I do hope he gets more motivated to show that he belongs in any case he is probably the first call up.

shmiddy wrote:

Byebye Weller.

Yeah, Gillies got screwed. Can he still play in the WJC's.

Yes.

This is the best thing for Gillies, he may be upset about it, but he needs to look at his game last year and understand it needs some work.

He will be better for it the next time he comes to camp.

So, uhhh... does this mean Scott MADE the team?!!?

TaLoN wrote:

This is the best thing for Gillies, he may be upset about it, but he needs to look at his game last year and understand it needs some work.

He will be better for it the next time he comes to camp.

So, uhhh... does this mean Scott MADE the team?!!?

Of course Scott made the team, he's our enforcer now; duh TaLoN!
You've made us all because you even asked that question!

We don't need the enforcer he's replacing let along Scott in that role!

Scott is the pylon of all pylons.

Quisp wrote:

Scott is the pylon of all pylons.

Kuba takes offense to being compared to Scott. He feels it's quite the insult to him and pylons everywhere.

Exactly how I wanted this to play out. Gillies and Weller out, Sifers and Scott in. Even though the Gillies situation last year probably wasn't ideal, he did show much more late in the year than early. He progressed and won't be Houston for long.

Wild Fan #1 wrote:

Exactly how I wanted this to play out. Gillies and Weller out, Sifers and Scott in. Even though the Gillies situation last year probably wasn't ideal, he did show much more late in the year than early. He progressed and won't be Houston for long.

Yup, I also agree. While I haven't seen Scott this pre-season, my one buddy who made it to a pre-season game said that he played pretty well, so hopefully he can be more than another Boogaard (other than being a d-man of course lol).

Scott was probably the best player on the ice during the last pre-season home game for the first two periods.

No, that is not a compliment to Whatsyouname.

With the send downs to houston, I tried to wrap my head around lines and was going to post on the WMBs but with as much of a drought that there is over there, I gave up and said fuck it.

I can't figure out what Richtards is going to do with the lines. It still seems to me that we are sooo heavy on the right side and soooo weak on the left side and slightly weak at center as well. It's almost like Fletcher just threw together whatever the hell he could, roster-wise, and said this year is going to suck.

*shrugs*

It's guaranteed that both Nolan and Sykora will be playing LW for the most part. I hope Pouls gets a top 6 center position instead of Shep.

this is a shot out of a cannon

Butch Koivu Havlat
Sykora Shepp Benny
Nolan Brodz Clutterbuck
Bruno Belanger Mittens

hell i don't even know what going to happen, but i totally see Shep Benny and Butch given top 6 ice time to see what they can do. I know Benny is center but he could play on the wing, That would give Shepp a scorer and a guy who should be able to Score.

Both Koivu and Havlat play hard and are physical so this can give our little princess some room to do some skating and hopefully he makes some plays

for the last two lines i know they may not make a whole lot of sense but the 3rd line would be physical and both Nolan and Clutterbuck could be good secondary scorers.

The 4th line makes no sense to me what so ever, the reason why i did that was well i tried to fit Butch, Princess and Shepp in the top 6 to give them time to develop if it doesn't work i guess guys like Bruno Nolan and Mittens can be moved up.

Hopefully tomorrow we get to see at least a little bit of what it will look like.

Thinking more about it i guess Butch can be on a 3rd line with something like

Clutterbuck Butch and Brodz (Butch can center and Brodz takes the faceoffs if butch sucks)

And Nolan can be up on the 1st line, and Shepp and Pouls can switch positions.

Butch has never been moved to the left side in his career, if he plays wing, it will be on the right side. Not sure there's room for Butch at center.

Thats the great thing about Havlat is he can play either and be effective he is a hard worker and talented,

tomorrow can't come fast enough dammit.

Which is why I am thinking that Fletcher is working some sort of trade. I only see Butch fitting at center since we are too heavy on the right and he is too weak for the center position.

If we persist in using PMB at center, the our top two lines (imo) would be:
Brunette - Koivu - Havlat
Nolan - PMB - Sykora

The first line supposedly has chemistry already and it's also a good top line shut down with a lot of scoring potential. The second line sets Nolan up to take the face offs (he is schooling Sheppard) and pairs Bouchard up with two shooters. Softer players in PMB and Sykora, but with Nolan being the tough on the line. Although, I don't remember ever thinking Sykora was soft, but other posters label him as a soft and slow player. Although, I like Sheppard at center for that line as well.

Pouliot was playing LW for most of the pre-season, I think. At one point, the radio guys said he was centering the fourth line, which sort of made me think he was already in Richards' doghouse. It's no secret that I don't like Pouliot (or Zidlicky).

I like what Brodziak brings to the table, so I would prefer to see him centering the third line of Miettinen - Brodziak - Clutterbuck. Tough defensive group with a solid shut down, win the face off pairing.

Which sort of leaves the fourth line as:
Boogaard/Pouliot - Pouliot/Belanger - Bouchard

That leaves us without a real "fourth line" per-se as I don't think Belanger or Bouchard are fourth liners...

I don't know why fans continue to think that Brunette is top line material...If you thought he was slow before, you should see him now after his knee surgery. If I'm Richards, I'm starting with these lines:

Sykora - Pouliot - Havlat
Nolan - Koivu - Clutterbuck
Miettenin - Sheppard - Bouchard
Brunette - Belanger - Brodziak

1st PP:
Brunette - Koivu - Havlat
Johnsson - Burns

2nd PP
Nolan - Pouliot - Bouchard
Schultz - Zidlicky

I'd start with Pouliot on the top line to see if there truly is chemistry with those three. If not, then I would move Koivu up to the top line and rotate Sheppard and Pouliot on the 2nd line to see who gels better with those wings. IMO, too many fans over looking Clutterbuck as a 3rd line guy just because he skates hard and finishes his checks...I think these same fans are underrating his offensive ability.

sqare wrote:

Which is why I am thinking that Fletcher is working some sort of trade. I only see Butch fitting at center since we are too heavy on the right and he is too weak for the center position.

If we persist in using PMB at center, the our top two lines (imo) would be:
Brunette - Koivu - Havlat
Nolan - PMB - Sykora

The first line supposedly has chemistry already and it's also a good top line shut down with a lot of scoring potential. The second line sets Nolan up to take the face offs (he is schooling Sheppard) and pairs Bouchard up with two shooters. Softer players in PMB and Sykora, but with Nolan being the tough on the line. Although, I don't remember ever thinking Sykora was soft, but other posters label him as a soft and slow player. Although, I like Sheppard at center for that line as well.

Pouliot was playing LW for most of the pre-season, I think. At one point, the radio guys said he was centering the fourth line, which sort of made me think he was already in Richards' doghouse. It's no secret that I don't like Pouliot (or Zidlicky).

I like what Brodziak brings to the table, so I would prefer to see him centering the third line of Miettinen - Brodziak - Clutterbuck. Tough defensive group with a solid shut down, win the face off pairing.

Which sort of leaves the fourth line as:
Boogaard/Pouliot - Pouliot/Belanger - Bouchard

That leaves us without a real "fourth line" per-se as I don't think Belanger or Bouchard are fourth liners...

Actually he played exclusively at center, and even centered Havlat and Sykora in their first pre-season game and fit in beautifully!

I am still thinking old school lines and have no idea how Richards will mix it up.

Brodziak is going to get at least "third" line minutes. He was already being used to go against the other teams top lines. Who goes on his wings?

I am not liking Belanger or Bouchard for this roster. In the preseason, both radio and in person, it just looked like Belanger was... the sore thumb. In my mind, Bouchard and Belanger are similar players; both primarily play-makers and both soft.

I would rather see Pouliot blossom as a left winger. I don't see Nolan off the top two lines, but if Brunette is slower, I can see him getting bumped.

*shrugs*

Again, I will state that this roster is more of a mish-mash than I expected. If we were able to trade Belanger and Bouchard for a stronger LW for the top line, that would make me exceptionally happy.

I'll guess we start out with:

Brunette - Koivu - Havlat
Sykora - Belanger - Bouchard
Nolan - Sheppard - Clutterbuck
Pouliot - Brodziak - Miettinen

And my hope is we end the season with:

Sykora - Koivu - Havlat
Pouliot - Sheppard - Bouchard
Nolan - Brodziak - Clutterbuck
Brunette - Belanger - Miettinen

That would mean Pouls and Shep finally step up to play NHL hockey, and we've got five of our top six set for a while (assuming Pouls, Shep, and Koivu are all re-signed).

Nolan and Belanger are gone after this year, and I'd see their role diminishing. Same with Brunette, I'll bet Muck is right about him losing the speed with the knee surgery. He'll be a PP specialist.

I do wonder if Miettinen will be shopped at all...his contract isn't awful, but that's way too much for a fourth liner. He was brought in because we were weak on the right side, but with Havlat, Bouchard, and Clutterbuck...he doesn't have a spot. I just wonder if it's possible to get anything for him.