Wild acquires Kobasew from Bruins

A third line grinder on Boston is not equivalent to a third line grinder on the Wild...Boston is so much better talent wise than the Wild that it is unclear what Kobasew could be with us...with the top two lines of Ryder Savard Wheeler and Sturm Bergeron and Recchi obviously Kobasew would have a hard time cracking the top two there....I mean when Krecji is your third center you have a damn good team.

Maybe I'm wrong here but I'm glad to welcome anyone who can score 20 goals to this team which is absolutely pitiful offensively right now.

Yeah but I think when/if we get healthy Kobasew will be primarily a 3rd liner on this team as well. My thought at least. I briefly perused the HF Boards to see what the Bean Eaters thought. I noticed the words "Kobasew" and "overrated" in the same sentence a lot. But if Kobasew knocks on my door tomorrow a la Martin Havlat, I'll welcome him to Minny and wish him much success and happiness here. Maybe my apprehension over this is more just a Pavlovian reaction left over from the DR regime. At least it ain't Chris Simon. Whom if he shows up at my door sporting red and green I'll give him my Delta Sky Miles to get him the hell out of here. Of course he'll probably just cash the miles in for food and later beat up a midget(even tho in reality I think a midget could whup his ass). Then he'll call me for bail. It's scenarios like that is the reason I de-listed my phone number. Bob Probert is still into me for two large. And yeah Lindros, don't think I've forgotten about the bottle of Advil you bummed from me in '02. Schmuck.

I wonder wonder if Fletch ever tried to get Fleury on the blower?

Marlowe Syn wrote:

Yeah but I think when/if we get healthy Kobasew will be primarily a 3rd liner on this team as well. My thought at least. I briefly perused the HF Boards to see what the Bean Eaters thought. I noticed the words "Kobasew" and "overrated" in the same sentence a lot. But if Kobasew knocks on my door tomorrow a la Martin Havlat, I'll welcome him to Minny and wish him much success and happiness here. Maybe my apprehension over this is more just a Pavlovian reaction left over from the DR regime. At least it ain't Chris Simon. Whom if he shows up at my door sporting red and green I'll give him my Delta Sky Miles to get him the hell out of here. Of course he'll probably just cash the miles in for food and later beat up a midget(even tho in reality I think a midget could whup his ass). Then he'll call me for bail. It's scenarios like that is the reason I de-listed my phone number. Bob Probert is still into me for two large. And yeah Lindros, don't think I've forgotten about the bottle of Advil you bummed from me in '02. Schmuck.

I wonder wonder if Fletch ever tried to get Fleury on the blower?

I don't see him being a 3rd liner on the Wild. I'd put him with Koivu and Brunette. Havlat doesn't grind it out good enough with those 2, and Nolan is far too slow. Then you toss Havlat and Sykora with Belanger, give it more than 3 shifts....Clutterbuck and Bouchard are the only guys out for awhile.

Brunette - Koivu - Kobasew
Sykora - Belanger - Havlat
Pouliot - Sheppard - Nolan
Missthenetagain - Brodziak - Scott

Dee Oh Cee wrote:

A third line grinder on Boston is not equivalent to a third line grinder on the Wild...Boston is so much better talent wise than the Wild that it is unclear what Kobasew could be with us....

You have got to be kidding me!! You really think that Kobasew because he played for Boston will come to the Wild and be an instant success?? Yeah we'll see about that. See how he stands out when the Wild play Calgary. He'll wish he was back East.

Jagged Ice wrote:

Dee Oh Cee wrote:

A third line grinder on Boston is not equivalent to a third line grinder on the Wild...Boston is so much better talent wise than the Wild that it is unclear what Kobasew could be with us....

You have got to be kidding me!! You really think that Kobasew because he played for Boston will come to the Wild and be an instant success?? Yeah we'll see about that. See how he stands out when the Wild play Calgary. He'll wish he was back East.

I think you misunderstood me...

For one thing I didn't say he would be an instant success anywhere in my statement...I just said it's unclear what his role could be on our team since Boston has better talent and therefore he is relegated to playing on lower lines...with the less talented Wild maybe he will be on a more featured scoring line. Honestly I don't know much about him...I know he scores though and we are in dire need of some of that.

I'm not here to be a predictor because why predict when I have no grounds to base anything on? Wait and see is what I'm saying.

OldTimeHockey wrote:

thespeckledkiwi wrote:

But it still wouldn't hurt the team to have Gilles back up for a stretch, or hell even McMillan or Almond. They could be scratched, and just move the players around. We got Nolan, Brunette, Miettinen as wingers. Throw in Pouliot as well. Bring up Irmen, Milroy or Earl as well and have them play 5-6 minutes a game.

Hell have Belanger and Pouliot play on the same line with Nolan. But we got a lot of centers that we could throw out on the wing for the time being.

Oh hell no!!! This is the Minnesota Wild, not the Houston Aeros. Some players (like Irmen) are meant to be AHLer's. Nothing more.

We got Earl, Milroy or Irmen right now. That wouldn't be so bad.

How long is Glass Groin II out for now? Sykora?

So far:

Brunette - Koivu - Miettinen (God, that looks bad but hell at least there is some chemistry)
Pouliot - Belanger - Nolan
Earl - Brodziak - Hilbert (when the hell did we get a surplus of centers?)
Kassian - Sheppard - Irmen

Well, we can rotate the fourth line and short shift until Glass Groin Part Deux and Suckie come back from the injury list. Boogaard isn't on the list yet is he?

Houston Aeros, if I remember what you guys said before were there for the Wild to call on when they have injuries.

Our offense wouldn't be THAT bad if DR had learned to draft and trade and now we're seriously hurting because of that.

My biggest gripe is the fact we gave up Fallstrom AND a second for Kobasew. One or the other would've been fine. Fallstrom was I think one of our top 3 offensive forwards (Haula being the other and who knows for the third).

Trade felt knee jerked as if Fletcher knows Glass Groin, Suckie and Charmin soft are going to be out for a LONG time not just a few weeks (well Charmin was put on the LTIR so yeah he's out for a long, long time).

I'll also see if Kobasew re-signs for around 1-5-2 million after his contract is done.

Kobasew will be a third liner in Minnesota. I'm happy we picked him up, not crazy what we gave up for him. Time will tell. Calgary seems to make much better decisions than us! Edmonton has a nice coach and Vancouver sucks too! My thoughts for the night. Ha!

Antti posted Pierre LeBrun's blog on the official boards. It may clear up the knee-jerk theory. Here's an excert....

Pierre LeBrun article

Quote :

In the end, a third-line winger making $2.5 million just didn't make sense for the Bruins, but it makes plenty of sense for the Wild. In Minnesota, the injury-riddled Wild will give Kobasew plenty of ice time, making him worth his price tag.

"The Bruins called up Marchand and Sobotka, who are ready for the NHL and they have lower cap numbers," Wild GM Chuck Fletcher told ESPN.com on Monday. "From our perspective, regardless of the injuries, we just lack the depth that the Bruins have up front."

The Wild were already thin up front before the season began, then they lost Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Petr Sykora, Cal Clutterbuck and star Martin Havlat to injuries. They also went 0-5-0 on a five-game road trip to fall to 1-6-0 on the season. Yes, a brutal start, but not the reason Fletcher picked up the phone.

"I've been speaking to Peter for a couple of weeks, this type of trade piqued my interest a while back, even before we completed this road trip," said Fletcher, whose timeline was also confirmed by Chiarelli. "Certainly, in the short term, we hope it will spark our club. He's a proven NHL forward, has good skill and has scored 20 goals three times in his career. We're a little banged up right now."

The fact that Kobasew is also signed for the 2010-11 season was also important. Fletcher needs to beef up his forward group beyond this season.

"I think the fact he had a contract for next year was a big component of this trade," said the first-year Wild GM. "We lack a bit of depth up front and I think it's always a bit daunting to go into the summer needing to fill 4-5 holes on your roster through free agency."

In the end, the toughest part of the deal for Minnesota was probably giving up the second-rounder in 2011. But as Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune pointed out in his blog, if the Wild's season doesn't turn around, expect Fletcher to recoup some draft picks by time the March 3 trade deadline comes and goes by selling off pending veteran free agents.

Also refreshing to hear how he doesn't prefer to go into the summer with more holes than a sieve to fill....even though we'll have major holes for quite some time. But I got the impression that Riser only worked during June. Waiting to the last minute was his specialty.

OldTimeHockey wrote:

Antti posted Pierre LeBrun's blog on the official boards. It may clear up the knee-jerk theory. Here's an excerpt....

Also refreshing to hear how he doesn't prefer to go into the summer with more holes than a sieve to fill....even though we'll have major holes for quite some time. But I got the impression that Riser only worked during June. Waiting to the last minute was his specialty.

No, it doesn't clear it up. In fact it adds more questions, like why just 7 games in if urgency wasn't paramount? Or why we gave up so much for a player off to a rough start?

Riser fed us the same crap. It's just as much of a negative as it is a positive that Kobasew is signed for another year. It means we gave up more to get him, and his salary may be too high for better moves next year. When you trade for a 3rd-line player that's pretty much maxed out in points and dollars, you basically traded for your everyday UFA. I'm not impressed.

My God it's freaking hilarious how some people compare Fletcher to Riser when the guy has only had the job since late May. How about going a full year before jumping to those conclusions. There is a lot of shit that needs to be done, and a lot of shit WILL go down by next summer. This team IS going to have an extreme makeover. But a new GM with something to prove isn't going to roll over and not at least try to bring in help when the team needs it.

Fletcher seems like a politician, saying what is best even though he said something different earlier.

We need to keep to the course of rebuilding.

Tell me in the long run what Kobasew solves?

What does it solve in the long term? For starters, it keeps our Captain here. Because like it or not....long-term or short-term solution......Koivu isn't gonna wanna stay if this team does nothing but bring up guys from Houston for the next year or two simply to clear through the wreckage. He'll want to know that this new GM is willing to do something now rather than accept fail. And no decent UFA will even sniff in our direction if he sees a GM who doesn't try to improve the team. I'm not disagreeing with you about how Kobe's contract hurts the cap. But I'm guessing there will be a lot of guys coming and going in the next 9 months. We are rebuilding. But if you want Koivu and some of the better guys to stick around, you have to do something short-term to look like you care or have their best interests in mind.

Can we just buy out Butch already and be done with it?

OldTimeHockey wrote:

What does it solve in the long term? For starters, it keeps our Captain here. Because like it or not....long-term or short-term solution......Koivu isn't gonna wanna stay if this team does nothing but bring up guys from Houston for the next year or two simply to clear through the wreckage. He'll want to know that this new GM is willing to do something now rather than accept fail. And no decent UFA will even sniff in our direction if he sees a GM who doesn't try to improve the team. I'm not disagreeing with you about how Kobe's contract hurts the cap. But I'm guessing there will be a lot of guys coming and going in the next 9 months. We are rebuilding. But if you want Koivu and some of the better guys to stick around, you have to do something short-term to look like you care or have their best interests in mind.

Can we just buy out Butch already and be done with it?

Well said, Fletch HAS to show he is not DR and is willing to give the players some help on the ice when they need it. DR's idea of bringing in help was trading for Simon, this is clearly an upgrade in terms of bringing in a player to help the team, when the team clearly needs it.

If the GM does nothing, then just like Gabby, Koivu will want to walk to a team that WILL bring in players when needed.

OldTimeHockey wrote:

What does it solve in the long term? For starters, it keeps our Captain here. Because like it or not....long-term or short-term solution......Koivu isn't gonna wanna stay if this team does nothing but bring up guys from Houston for the next year or two simply to clear through the wreckage. He'll want to know that this new GM is willing to do something now rather than accept fail. And no decent UFA will even sniff in our direction if he sees a GM who doesn't try to improve the team. I'm not disagreeing with you about how Kobe's contract hurts the cap. But I'm guessing there will be a lot of guys coming and going in the next 9 months. We are rebuilding. But if you want Koivu and some of the better guys to stick around, you have to do something short-term to look like you care or have their best interests in mind.

Can we just buy out Butch already and be done with it?

Koivu isn't a UFA until two years from now. You bring in UFA to show that you are trying to build a team (like we did this offseason). But this is a weak, weak argument.

If we are rebuilding, guys like Fallstrom and the 2nd are more important than bringing in yet another tweener that pots 20 goals at best a season.

thespeckledkiwi wrote:

OldTimeHockey wrote:

What does it solve in the long term? For starters, it keeps our Captain here. Because like it or not....long-term or short-term solution......Koivu isn't gonna wanna stay if this team does nothing but bring up guys from Houston for the next year or two simply to clear through the wreckage. He'll want to know that this new GM is willing to do something now rather than accept fail. And no decent UFA will even sniff in our direction if he sees a GM who doesn't try to improve the team. I'm not disagreeing with you about how Kobe's contract hurts the cap. But I'm guessing there will be a lot of guys coming and going in the next 9 months. We are rebuilding. But if you want Koivu and some of the better guys to stick around, you have to do something short-term to look like you care or have their best interests in mind.

Can we just buy out Butch already and be done with it?

Koivu isn't a UFA until two years from now. You bring in UFA to show that you are trying to build a team (like we did this offseason). But this is a weak, weak argument.

If we are rebuilding, guys like Fallstrom and the 2nd are more important than bringing in yet another tweener that pots 20 goals at best a season.

He's got two years left, but you need him signed before going into that final year. Otherwise, you're asking for trouble. Kind of like how Gabby should have been either re-signed or dealt before he even started his final year. That means Fletcher better do something to impress the guy before he has to make that phone call next summer.

Wasn't signing Havlat and Sykora a showing of wanting to make the team better?

cehnehdeh wrote:

Wasn't signing Havlat and Sykora a showing of wanting to make the team better?

If they're both healthy they definitely make the team better

I bet you guys can get Nylander for cheap!

5.5 cap hit? Pfft...whatevv

Maybe they brought him in to fool Butch since he's wearing #12.

OldTimeHockey wrote:

Maybe they brought him in to fool Butch since he's wearing #12.

I guess Weller was too obvious.

lawl

he did look pretty good tonight....even garnered a few shifts with Koivu and Brunette at the end there. He drew a few penalties and used his speed on the edges to create some opportunities with the puck.

Dee Oh Cee wrote:

lawl

he did look pretty good tonight....even garnered a few shifts with Koivu and Brunette at the end there. He drew a few penalties and used his speed on the edges to create some opportunities with the puck.

Yes, once he does get more comfortable he will help. You could see he has speed that none of the other forwards on this team really do have(which is sad because I wouldn't call him a great skater, just above average), and isn't afraid to take or give a hit.

OldTimeHockey wrote:

thespeckledkiwi wrote:

OldTimeHockey wrote:

What does it solve in the long term? For starters, it keeps our Captain here. Because like it or not....long-term or short-term solution......Koivu isn't gonna wanna stay if this team does nothing but bring up guys from Houston for the next year or two simply to clear through the wreckage. He'll want to know that this new GM is willing to do something now rather than accept fail. And no decent UFA will even sniff in our direction if he sees a GM who doesn't try to improve the team. I'm not disagreeing with you about how Kobe's contract hurts the cap. But I'm guessing there will be a lot of guys coming and going in the next 9 months. We are rebuilding. But if you want Koivu and some of the better guys to stick around, you have to do something short-term to look like you care or have their best interests in mind.

Can we just buy out Butch already and be done with it?

Koivu isn't a UFA until two years from now. You bring in UFA to show that you are trying to build a team (like we did this offseason). But this is a weak, weak argument.

If we are rebuilding, guys like Fallstrom and the 2nd are more important than bringing in yet another tweener that pots 20 goals at best a season.

He's got two years left, but you need him signed before going into that final year. Otherwise, you're asking for trouble. Kind of like how Gabby should have been either re-signed or dealt before he even started his final year. That means Fletcher better do something to impress the guy before he has to make that phone call next summer.

That's why you talk to him this season and next season. Notice we didn't start talking contracts with Gaborik until the season before he was to be an UFA.

And Fletcher will be building the team around him.

thespeckledkiwi wrote:

That's why you talk to him this season and next season. Notice we didn't start talking contracts with Gaborik until the season before he was to be an UFA.

And Fletcher will be building the team around him.

Unless I'm totally missing something here, the Wild aren't allowed to discuss and extend his contract until July 1, 2010.

Exactly OTH: You can't discuss extension until a players final year on a contract.

Actually, you can't EXTEND until their contract year but I'm not sure you arent allowed to discuss extension with your own property. It's not like it'd be considered tampering.

Anyone know (with solid proof) what the rules are here?