Minnesota Wild draft mini-rant

by nathaneide on Apr 15, 2009 9:56 AM CDT Comment 14 comments

Risebrough_medium

We’ve been ripping Doug Risebrough all season in the Wild blogosphere. The guy drives me nuts, yet the "support the team at all costs, they brought hockey back" minions are the types who allow the team to mire in the "we’re just happy to put forth effort and compete" mentality.

Until people stop renewing season tickets and they lose their sellout streak, I don’t see any future in sight.

Then you add the fact that they fall back on they injury cop-out, even though St. Louis, Vancouver and Philadelphia all had more man games missed due to injury and made the playoffs, and he gets to drive the franchise further into the ground.

Doug Risebrough, Tom Lynn and Chris Snow need to go in order for the Wild to step forward.

Let's take a quick look at the two lost drafts:

2005 (Wild took Benoit Pouliot)

These are the guys who have had a major impact who were taken after Pouliot:

Jack Skille
Devin Setoguchi
Anze Kopitar
Marc Staal
Martin Hanzal
T.J. Oshie
Andrew Cogliano
James Neal
Paul Stastny

2004 (Wild took A.J. Thelen)

These are the guys who have had a major impact who were taken after Thelen:

Drew Stafford
Travis Zajac
Wojtek Wolski
Mark Fistric
Mike Green
Alex Goligoski

Now you have to wonder what the hell the scouting department and the front office were thinking. With them it’s miss after miss after miss, then they give ridiculous contracts to guys like Bouchard, Johnsson and Zidlicky. These moves hamstrung Lemaire and made it difficult to get the counter-attacking style to succeed.

The scary thing is that I only posted draft miscues, that's not even taking into consideration the fact that he lets players walk away (Dominic Moore, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston) and other GMs take those players and then trade them for high draft choices (Brian Burke moved Dominic Moore for a second round pick). Or he throws in a player to obtain a guy (Patrick O'Sullivan and a pick for Pavol Demitra) then lets the guy he acquired walk to a divisional rival and the team with the traded prospect trades him to another team and gets players and picks in return (O'Sullivan went to Edmonton by way of Carolina and the Oilers gave up Erik Cole and a second rounder to get him!)

The point is that too few people really look at the problems with the team, they simply blame the players or the coach and the system. Well, the system works if you have the right players, and the front office here isn’t capable (or willing) to get the right players.

This is a key draft for the Risebrough and the future of the Wild. With the #12 pick, they have the opportunity to get a guy who can make an impact within the next two years, or potentially package that pick along with a Zidlicky or Johnsson or Harding and move up or get a player who is ready to go now. The question remains, what is the identity of the team? Are they ready to compete next season, or do we play for the future? More importantly, do we trust the braintrust at the Xcel Energy Center to make the right decision?

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I am not totaly ready to

give up on Pouliot but there is something to be said about the teams recent draft history. Which is too bad because early on they were pretty good.

Gabby and Schultz in 2000, Koivu, Wanvig, Veilleux and the boogy man in 2001, PMB, and Harding in 2002, Burns and O’Sullivan in 2003.

Then we seemed to hit a wall with busts in Thelen and Voloshenko in 2004. Pouliot is i=on the verge of busting, and after that there was no talent taken in ’05, Sheppard has talent, and could really break out, and Clutterbuck is really fun to watch from ’06, while Gillies has talant and will probably stick around, he will probably never be a star.

And all the while, our Minor League system is lagging behind for talant. We have some talant on the Defensive side, but no probable stars any where down there. No one to get really excited about and the player with the most potential is losing a year of development becuase of injury.

And What does DR do to correct the situation? he trades draft picks for mediocre players on 1 year contracts. meaning we lose the picks to restock the farm system with for players who won’t be here in a year.

Will the Real Thor Please Stand Up ... ?

by the Real Thor on Apr 15, 2009 10:30 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Doug Risebrough = Kevin McHale

Some the draft miscues have boggled my mind. Letting Oshie and Stastny go, then letting a player like Goligoski go is beyond me.

I think you nailed it with the fact they give all the wrong players the big contracts, then they don’t produce and then you have guys bust out and then you have no money to give them since you already put huge bets on lackluster talent. Then the guys who are good, go somewhere else to play because the Wild can’t afford them.

After last year and this year, I’ve already moved on to other teams. I can no longer support he Wild. Supporting this team is just way too frustrating.

Perfect example? The Red Wings owners. Such class in that organization. I heard an announcer saying in the early years the Wings owners never gave the players championship rings because they were too stingy. When the Ilitch family took over, they purchased championship rings for all of the older players who were still alive.

Now THAT’S class.

by darksaga on Apr 15, 2009 12:53 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

James Sheppard is also a first round bust that you can add to the list and I don’t know why Doug Risebrough thinks he is the future of the Wild.

by Eric B on Apr 15, 2009 1:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Sheppard

He turns 21 next Saturday. It’s way too early to call him a bust. Maybe he does bust someday, but you don’t give up on somebody that young with the potential he has. His biggest problem is that he was probably rushed due to the lack of talent in the system.

by Waldo on Apr 15, 2009 2:26 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is precisely my thought

Way too much pressure on the kid last season and the season before. He’ll be a 60 point guy within the next two years.

Proprietor of Hockey Wilderness - We take Minnesota hockey WAY too seriously.

by nathaneide on Apr 15, 2009 2:36 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I would be willing to bet in the next two season he is still doing nada. What makes anyone think he is going to make up and all of a sudden be a super star. Just think the Wild could have had Ollie O if Risebrough had not rulled him to be untouchable.

by Eric B on Apr 20, 2009 9:45 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lastly, Doug Risebrough has missmanaged the Wild and it is time to move on.

by Eric B on Apr 15, 2009 1:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Draft Day!!

Sheppard and Gilles are two young and not fully developed yet. They are still learning the game and maturing. Just because they were first round picks you can’t expect Gaborik numbers out of them. They may only end up putting up career high of 30 points. Some players such as Gaborik are a dime a dozen. Speaking of Gaborik we either need to sigh him or move him before we lose him to free agency. Remember the Torri Hunter inccident???? If I were Doug Risebrough I would try to package Gabby and our two next first round draft choices to either the Islanders or Tampa Bay Lightning. That way both sides win a bona fide superstar. Gabby’s good for Ovechkin like numbers, you wait and see. He’ll bag 60 if he plays a whole season.

by WildlyNuts on Apr 15, 2009 4:19 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Ouch

That really makes me sad to see that we could have gotten Kopitar and Green. I think the Sheppard talk can stop because he is going to be a strong player when he gets some games under him. With a new coach and hopefully new style, look for Shepp to pick it up. We really do need a new GM and new approach to the draft, past few years have been none too pretty.

by WildHockey08 on Apr 15, 2009 5:02 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I'll Tell you this much.

If he’s availible @ #12…the Wild better take Forward Jordan Schroeder from the University of Minnesota…If they don’t and he’s availible…I give up on them.

by Tony_O on Apr 15, 2009 5:11 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Be Careful

DR has been really good about ignoring the regional college prospects. neide mentioned two North Dakota stars that have blossomed well in the NHL and when you’ve got kids that good in your backyard, you’d better be on top of that. Never mind that missing on Goligoski was pretty dumb on its own.

Gross Misconduct with yours truly

by HockeyJoe on Apr 15, 2009 7:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not to mention taking O'Sullivan over David Backes.

Proprietor of Hockey Wilderness - We take Minnesota hockey WAY too seriously.

by nathaneide on Apr 15, 2009 11:10 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think he felt a little stung

by AJ Thelen who was in our back yard (Michigan counts) but yea, theres a lot of talant here that he missed or passed on.

I do like the comparison to McHale as a GM, DR has made questionable personel decisions, bad draft choices, and a willingness to trade a cornucopia of draft picks for mediocre players. as a result, we have no depth in the minors, and only 1 pick in the first 4 rounds to rstock the minors with? when we are picking high in the draft this year we had a chance to fill up our minor league system with depth, but no, we needed to trade a pick for MAB (who is still not signed beyond this season) and trade a high pick to move up one spot to get Cuma. while Cuma has a lot of talant, there were other players available to pick if NJ took him like DR was deathly afraid. you don’t overpay like that for a player you have a 50-50 chance to get, especially when there is equal talant still available.

Will the Real Thor Please Stand Up ... ?

by the Real Thor on Apr 16, 2009 7:54 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wild... that bad?

You can look at the bad picks on any team, but at least there are bright sides!

1. Marian Gaborik was drafted early but was certainly worthed the pick
2. Mikko Koivu is a phenomenal player, great pick up
3. PM Bouchard is also a great return on draft pick value
4. BRent Burns was a steal 20th ov!!! Wasn’t even ranked in the top 60 prospects and is now an awesome d-man.
5. Can you deny them Backstrom

What about signing Miettinen, Rolston back in the days, Nolan this year… All signings that certainly paid off

If you look at the core of that team, it all came from within, a rare reality in the NHL, Give them a healthy gaborik for 65 games and they are a top 4 team.

by thisisjon on Apr 16, 2009 10:47 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs