Let's Meet: Nick Palmieri

The Marek Zidlicky trade sent a bevvy of players and picks to the Wild. Two of those players you already know. The return of Kurtis Foster and Stephane Veilleux should leave no questions to Wild fans what they get from those players. Fozzie brings a canon from the blue line, if not always accurate, and Steph brings a grinder to the lineup. A proven grinder.

Seeing both of those players in Wild sweaters again will be welcome, both for fans and for players. There should be little disruption to the room, and perhaps even a bit of glee with the return of two very popular players in the room. Not that chemistry should be the largest concern right now, but it is always something to keep an eye on.

With the trade planning for the future, the picks also become something of a major question. Picks are up in the air. Could be anyone, or no one at all.

Nick Palmieri is a guy Wild fans will be watching closely, so we best get to know the guy, right? So, we do as we do with all new Wild players. We get to know Nick Palmieri.

The Stats

Not much more than a 40 point guy, and look at the PIMs... nice touch.

The Experts

We haven't had much luck reaching out to the blogoverse for the Devils, but we did get some input that is valuable.

From In Lou We Trust comment section:

From "ohm's law:"

Yea, "power forward" is what he's supposed to be. I still hope that he can be, but I'm not that confident.
That he doesn't work that hard at things seems to be a somewhat common knock against him, actually.

From "nynygnjd:"

I guess power forward would be the category I throw him into. He has shown, at times, that he can get to the front of the net and pot some dirty goals, but he's kind of gone backwards this season. He's a big guy, but not super skilled. He seems like a good guy and I think most Devs fans wish him the best, but I think he projects to a marginal third liner, at best.

From the venerable Tyler Bleszinski:

If he's not expected to get in quickly on a forecheck or anything like that and just go to the net straight ahead and shoot then maybe Palmieri finds his place in the NHL. He is only 22 after all.

From "Triumph44:"

Bit of a floater, yeah, but he has the strength to outmuscle NHL defensemen and has a pretty good shot. Put him with guys that can get him the puck and he can score a bit. Other than that, nothing else to speak of.

From NJ.com:

Exactly what happened to Palmieri after a successful 2010-11 season with the Devils is a mystery DeBoer can't answer.

"I don't know. That's a good question," DeBoer said. "I didn't have the fortune of working with him last year. I did see him. When I took the job, I watched some game tapes of him last year and came away fairly impressed with how he played the second half.

"But the majority of my opinion was formed in training camp and through the early part of (this) season. This was a guy I pretty handed a top-six forward job to off the bat and he slowly worked himself out of that.

"It's not unusual. He's a second-year guy. Sometimes you see that a lot where a first year player comes up and has some success short term and they either get away from what made them successful or lose that edge or think it's going to be easy. I don't know exactly what went missing. The good news is we know he can play at this level. He just has to find that game again."

The Video

He can talk. And played for the US. Big points, there.

So... he can score on the open net.

And... he can score on the rebound.

And he can score on the turnover...

And, he can fight a bit.

Where he plays

The first move I think the Wild make is to put him in the top six. Sure, he didn't do well there for the Devils, but I think the Wild put him in a spot where he can prove himself to be a replacement for Guillaume Latendresse. If he takes that chance, he may stay up there. If not, he'll slide down to the third line.

Looks like a good all around player, but not a savior. Don't expect 50 goals, and I think you'll be fine.