As the mercury in thermometer starts to trend regularly well below 50 degrees it is starting to have the ‘feel’ that hockey season is on the horizon. Yes, this is late November and in most years professional hockey would be in full swing right now. No surprise the Covid-19 Pandemic has changed all of that and to be honest I’m 100% ok with that. Its a sport, and in a more general sense its entertainment. Good health should always be more important than entertainment.
Another part of the old normal was getting together and going to games or joining others at your favorite bar / pub and watching one on TV. I don’t go to bars all that often, but its always best enjoyed with other friends / fans. A place where people that may be strangers will share a high five and cheers when your favorite team scores or your goaltender comes up with a big save.
Ever since I started blogging about 16 years ago, one thing I enjoy doing is giving others the chance to share their voices. Sometimes I’ve highlighted podcasters or podcasts or young broadcasters that I feel are doing great work, but this time I’m giving the spotlight to some hockey savvy friends of mine in what has become kind of an annual tradition for me in Wild Fans Speak.
Here’s what fans said about this Minnesota Wild team last season.
2019-20 Wild Fans Speak: Part 1 of 3
2019-20 Wild Fans Speak: Part 2 of 3
2019-20 Wild Fans Speak: Part 3 of 3
So I have asked 6 fans, five of them are Wild fans and one non-Wild fan to get some perspective outside of the Minnesota Wild ‘echo chamber.’ I have asked each of these fans six questions and here are their responses to those questions in this 3-part series. I can’t thank these individuals enough for their time, energy and hockey passion in answering these questions. I have asked these fans to introduce themselves so you have an idea who they are to perhaps better understand where they are coming from.
2020-21 Wild Fans Speak Pre-Season Edition, Part 2 of 3
2020-21 Wild Fans Speak Pre-Season Edition, Part 3 of 3
Ricky (@Van_City_Nucks) – Hi I’m Ricky Sangha, a born and bred Vancouverite who is a passionate Canucks fan and lover of the game of hockey. I have owned Canucks season tickets for the last 5 years and I look forward to every trip I can make to the rink.
Jodi (@Jodi_halvy) – My name is Jodi, I have been a Minnesota Wild season ticket holder for the last 15 years with my dad. We share a passion for hockey, and even through the ups and downs of cheering for a franchise that tends to disappoint, we are still huge Wild fans! We both fall in to the trap of consistently being overly optimistic about this team and then watching them unravel at different points throughout the season, we will continue to show up for the State of Hockey though!
Aaron (@AngryFinn) – I am the former host of @3InTheBox and the man behind ZMODEM and Gabber Nullification Project.
Justin (@deast2004) – My name is Justin Bakke and I am an avid hockey fan at all levels of the game. I grew up in Duluth watching Duluth East and the UMD Bulldogs play. I spent quite a few nights at the DECC watching UMD in the pre-championship years and love what the program has become. Also, don’t mention the 1996 State Tournament to me, it still stings. I grew up playing hockey which included playing in the Lester Park
and Duluth East system through Bantams. I was a North Stars fan before their departure when I was seven years old. I still have pictures of me wearing my Dad’s North Stars jersey as a kid. I became an
Avalanche fan because of Joe Sakic, but quickly switched my allegiance back to Minnesota when the Wild arrived in 2000. With this, I help run a few social media accounts. This includes the Kaprizov Kountdown, UMD Bulldogs Pipeline, co-admin of Wild Prospects & Young Players, and co-host the Sound the Foghorn Podcast. The Kountdown page ended up being followed by Kirill Kaprizov himself, and was featured in a Michael Russo article. Now I have a family that includes a wife and three kids. The
beginning stages of teaching my kids to skate have begun, as I look to pass on the passion and Minnesota tradition on to them, and hopefully instill the love of hockey.
Joey (@BravetheWild) – I’m 41 years old, and have been a fulltime hockey fan since the 1990-1991 season, particularly the North Stars magical run to the Stanley Cup Finals. Like most of us, I was devastated to see my favorite team in the world move away, and was equally frustrated by being teased with the possibilities that didn’t work out with the Oilers, Jets, and Whalers. June 1997 will always have a special place in my heart, as the original birth of the Minnesota Wild. I’ve always seen myself as a radio host and a writer, and I eventually got the Brave The Wild Podcast started in August 2008, and have been doing it ever since. I became a late bloomer when it comes to hockey writing when I joined Gone Puck Wild just this past fall, not sure what I was waiting for, but better late than never. I also proudly write for mnwprospects, covering the QMJHL and BCHL, keeping up with Wild prospects in those respective leagues.
Brian – I’m Brian Felska and have been a long time hockey fan at all levels. Growing up in out state Minnesota in the 50’s and 60’s where it was tough to participate in hockey as a school sport. The only school teams were in the metropolitan area or in northern Minnesota. We did spend a lot of time at the rink skating, shooting, and playing pickup games. We had very little formal coaching but did have rec. teams from junior high on. Seasonal high school sports took the spotlight but I did manage to play some hockey in my senior high years. When I was in college the St. Cloud State program was in its infancy just switching from club to a varsity sport. Even then the players shoveled their own rinks. I was lucky enough to coach some peewee teams before starting a family. I have always enjoyed the speed and physically of sports so hockey was I game I loved.
1. Wild GM Bill Guerin certainly put his mark on the roster throughout 2019-20 with a series of trades made during the year and into the fall. Looking at those moves, what do you think his vision for this team is based on what has been done so far? Do you like the moves or not?
Ricky: It’s definitely been a very active offseason for Wild GM Bill Guerin, and in my opinion moves that needed to be made to move forward and build for the future. Gone are players like Luke Kunin, Ryan Donato, Eric Staal and longtime Wild players like Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker. Minnesota added Cam Talbot in goal after dealing Devan Dubnyk and Ryan Donato to the Sharks and adding a 5th round pick in 2022 plus a 3rd rounder in 2021 in the process. Bill Guerin knows how valuable adding draft picks are for building a team and he’s done a fantastic job in that department this offseason. The Wild also added a lot of new faces upfront in Nick Bonino, Nick Bjugstad and Marcus Johansson, those are some players that have a lot of NHL experience. It’s clear Bill Guerin’s vision was to change the identity of the Minnesota Wild in a drastic way and have a fresh new look for the team and fans. I do like the additions because these are guys who have played a lot of hockey, but I really love the value Bill got in his trades, he was able to pile up a lot of picks and I always think those are the most important to add when building a team.
Jodi – First off, I like that he seems to HAVE a vision. That vision seems to be shipping out the players who are underperforming based on their contracts. He seems to be in search of younger players who are more creative, possess more skill and are fast. He also doesn’t seem to get hung up on this “loyalty” piece that I think former GM’s for the Wild had trouble navigating through. At the end of the day, it’s a business and the GM has to be able to cut ties with players when their time is up. I really like the changes he has made so far, and I fully support him.
Aaron – Obviously the biggest move he’s made is signing Kaprizov, so I’m certainly happy with that move. Some of the other moves are head scratchers to me though. 7-years for Brodin seems bananas. Donato for a 3rd rounder seems like “giving up early” (especially considering what we gave up for him). Trading Dubnyk for nothing and then signing Cam Talbot? If you’re in rebuild mode, I’d prefer to get more draft picks with the assumption that you’d cast a wider net (sort of what Detroit did), but obviously GMBG has a different view.
Justin: Based off of what Bill Guerin has done so far I feel like his vision, first off, is to get younger. Not bringing back Koivu, trading Staal, and trading Dubnyk saw us get rid of some aging vets that have looked to slow
down recently. I also feel like he is trying to get quicker with the moves that were made. The trade of Kunin brought in Bonino, but also brought in two draft picks. The first, Marat Khusnutdinov, was seen as the fastest, or one of the fastest skaters in the 2020 NHL draft. The Ryan Donato trade brought in future draft picks, so we will wait to see what those turn into. Personally, I wish we got to see Donato get more of a chance. He may not be as versatile, but he does have a nice shot and he is not afraid to shoot. I like the re-signing of Brodin and Soucy. I know some have thought the Brodin contract was too long of term, and Soucy was given a tad too much salary, but I am fine with both. Brodin is a player that is not easily replaced and Soucy has played well. Not to mention Soucy played at UMD, and I have watched him play since then. I am a big Carson Soucy fan. I did not mind the signing of Cam Talbot. He really has had only one bad season and just had a good turn around season in Calgary. He is a good stopgap to help the Wild figure out if one of Kahkonen or Jones are the future. If not, it gives them time to figure it out. I feel like we drafted a can’t miss first round pick in Marco Rossi. He may very well solve our 1C issue at some point. I am elated about Rossi falling to us. I feel like the draft we had is the most excited I have ever been about a Minnesota Wild draft class. We are already a defensive sound team with one of the best D cores in the NHL, but now I feel the offensive side of the team is getting worked on. We have yet to see Kaprizov play, but I feel like having Fiala, Kaprizov, and Rossi is a really good foundation to continue to build off of. I feel like Guerin is building a strong front office, scouting, and player development. I have seen scouting/drafting and player development as a weak point from inception. Overall, I really like what Guerin has done. I love that he wants to change the culture and build a strong franchise with high character players that have leadership qualities. That is something this off season has made me feel. This is something Minnesota fans deserve. I think a rebuild or whatever you want to call it of some sort was needed. We are seeing, in my eyes, the right moves being made. I say this as looking at the big picture. He has in lieu of these moves given the Wild some flexibility as well.
Joey: I see Bill Guerin’s vision as no nonsense players with leadership/character qualities that really stand out, especially in the draft but also in the trades he has made. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Bonino trade for Kunin at first, but maybe Luke is already near his ceiling, and of course, that trade also brought in Marat Khusnutdinov by moving up in the second round, who also has leadership and character, which indeed fits Guerin’s vision. I definitely am glad to see willingness to move on from players that either don’t have it anymore, like Dubnyk, and kind of changing the “comfort zone” so to speak by trading Staal away suddenly.
Brian: At first I thought he was just trying to get younger by getting rid of Staal, Koivu, and Dubnyk. But then he trades Donato and Kunin and brings in an “old” free agent goaltender and “aged” center Bonito. Maybe age isn’t the major criteria but rather personal fit. From my perspective it appears that we may have improved the goaltending but the rest is a wash. Maybe he will prove me wrong but it doesn’t look like a major improvement.
2. Should the Minnesota Wild retire Mikko Koivu’s #9 or just retire the notion altogether?
Ricky: As a Canucks fan that attends a lot of hockey games here in Vancouver, I’ve sure got my fair dose of watching Mikko Koivu play live and on television. When I think of the Minnesota Wild he is a name that automatically comes to mind, and I’m sure I’m not the only hockey fan that thinks that. Mikko played in Minnesota for 15 years, of course, he was picked up by Columbus via free agency in October after the Wild walked away and that’s the nature of the business, the now 37-year old was relegated to 4th line minutes while others moved up and took spots. The question of whether his jersey should be retired or not has been floating around this offseason, and when you look at the numbers, it’s hard to imagine him not having his jersey up in the rafters of the Xcel Energy Centre. He is the Wild leader in all time games played, assists, points, plus-minus, shots on goal and second in even-strength, shorthanded and powerplay goals. Even though he wasn’t able to bring a Stanley Cup to Minnesota, his leadership, consistency and loyalty will always be remembered by fans, and for that reason, his #9 should definitely be retired.
Jodi – This is a tough one for me, because it’s not like I don’t like Mikko. He was a great captain, a steady leader, and a really hard to play against defensive centerman. But if you retire a number because someone is great, I am not certain that he is greatness. Would the organization be retiring his number because he is an elite player, or because he was a hard working, blue collar guy who chose to stay for essentially his entire career. I say no, but not because I don’t like him, I’m just not sure we are talking about number retiring greatness. On the contrary, it will be so “Minnesota Sports” to retire his number, simply because he’s viewed as “one of us”, we seem to really love that narrative.
Aaron – Koivu’s #9 will get retired, once he retires. He’s the classic “accumulator”-type guy in these sorts of discussions. He was here long enough, and played at a high enough level that he’s ending his Wild career as #1 or #2 in all but 2 categories (Game Winning Goals at #3 and Hat Tricks (0)). It’s easy to bitch about how overvalued he was, but like it or not, he was the face of the franchise for 3/4’s of the Wild’s existence.
Justin – This is a question that has a pretty strong opinion on both sides of the fence. I am part of the retire Koivu’s number crowd. Mikko is my all time favorite Wild player. Our son’s name is Mikko. While this was
a family name, the idea came from the franchises only full time captain. He leads so many all-time franchise categories and was so loyal to the Wild, I just don’t see how we can’t. Not many players in NHL history spent 1,000+ games with the same team that had drafted them. I feel he was snubbed of some Selke awards, too. We did not see the playoff success when he was here that we hoped for, but I think once he retires it is time to add another number to the rafters next to the number 1. It is just too bad he
never got to lift a Stanley Cup in Minnesota.
Joey – Like you, I’m not as big a Mikko fan as the average Minnesota Wild faithful. With that said, so many players have come and gone from this organization, that were never here long enough to even consider such a notion, even Marian Gaborik. I feel if anyone thus far should have their number retired, it might as well be the guy that was in the organization for 20 years, and served as it’s only permanent captain for the last 11 consecutively.
Brian – I know some fans don’t think Koivu earned his salary the last couple of years but I feel he has been their best defensive center and penalty killer since he has been here. He has brought stability and consistency to an organization that has many times lacked it. In fact ,for $1.5 million, I would have kept him here. I think his number should be retired but only after he retires from hockey.
We would like to thank our panel for their outstanding well-thought out responses to all of our questions, so to Ricky, Jodi, Aaron, Justin, Joey and Brian, thank you!
We’d also like to hear from you too, our readers! Send us your answer any of these questions on Twitter @CreaseAndAssist or in the comment section below and we’ll respond back!
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