Buy or sell? That is the big question for a lot of bubble teams as the trade deadline approaches. GMs begin to contemplate their chances of making it to the biggest of dances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and sit with their professional scouting councils facing white boards full of names. Lengthy meetings and heated debates become routine as player personnel becomes the hot topic; players who can help the team are identified and expendable assets are considered.

As a fan, hockey enthusiast and hobby analyst I am on board that the Wild need to look at the future of its team, but yet need to fill some seriously damning holes and make improvements. The big question is how much do we sell and how much do we buy? The Wild finally has a very respectable prospect pool, filled with an assortment of talent from the potential elite playmaking of Mikael Granlund to the steady, almost sure thing decision making of Jonas Brodin. Buying too much runs the big risk of what became the downfall of the Doug Risebrough era and another period of prospect drought. Becoming too much of a seller puts the team into complete rebuild status, making pretty much all of Chuck Fletcher’s bold moves a vain effort and putting almost 100% of the weight of the franchise on young, unproven shoulders. The answer is this: do both, carefully. Sell to buy, buy to sell.

Thus I present to you the current holes in the Minnesota Wild, and some potential (and yes, possibly a little erratic, but nonetheless possible) solutions along with how to buy them without breaking the bank.

More after the jump!

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Does anyone know the name of the song played at the X at the start of the game (not warm-ups), right before the team hits the ice? It's more of a drum solo. They changed it from last year's intro song (Scorpion's "Hour One"). Yes, it IS kind of an odd question but then, I'm kind of an oddball :). Also, I hope this is the right place to post this question.

Would you trade Zidlicky + mid round pick for Ballard if it were a possibility? Here's my reasoning. Salo will be a 37 year old ufa, potentially leaving Bieksa as the only RH d-man with offensive abilities. Vancouver gets one full season to see if MZ is worth keeping around, while getting rid of Ballard who is signed through 14-15, and(from what's been said in the past)is not exactly a fovorite of Vigneault's(sp?). I have to admit that I'm a big Gopher and MN hockey fan in general, but when it comes to the Wild I'm not the we need a bunch of locals on the roster type of fan. I've just always liked Ballard's game. The kid can skate with just about anyone, has a good hard shot, plays with an edge and is one of the best hip checkers around. Would Vancouver or the Wild want to trade within the division during the playoff stretch? Would it be better as an offseason trade if MZ's still around? Or is it just a bad idea in general? Your thoughts please.

With the ASG and the lack of hockey news to consume my day, I've been doing some deep thinking about the Wild organization. I have a few questions and am just looking for opinions from you guys on them. It's gonna be a long post, bear with me, please.

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When news broke yesterday that Tim Thomas had skipped out on the team trip to the White House, twitter was in a mad rush to judge. Of course all that happened before it was even known why he wasn't there. It could have been because of a family emergency. But alas, one brave Boston writer pointed out the well kept secret that Tim Thomas is in fact a Republican. (Ignore the Gadsden flag on his helmet, it means nothing.) Of course, facts being facts Tim Thomas is actually a Tea Party supporter and not a Republican. And if you don't know the difference, well, you aren't alone. But I'm not writing this to preach about politics... okay, maybe a little, but instead to point out the vast amount of ignorance and bigotry that was put on display yesterday by fans and writers. Join me after the Jump.

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A week or so ago, I looked at potential players the Wild could target as trades to improve their roster. Now I want to look at players currently on the roster who could be moved as we near the trade deadline. This may seem like bad timing coming off a nice win against Dallas at home. However, it will take that kind of effort in every game for the Wild to make the playoffs and for every nice win, there is another poor performance against Philly or Toronto lurking around the corner for this team. This isn't to say they won't make the playoffs, but it is going to be hard and there will no breaks along the way. So, if they are still at the outside looking in by the time the deadline rolls around, here are some players the Wild could/should sell. Disclaimer: this post will not discuss trading players we want to get rid of such as Zidlicky. While dealing Zidlicky is every fan's wish, it will take a lot of stars aligning to get it done in-season, off-season, much more likely. Instead, let's look at the more probably candidates for trading, pending unrestricted free agents and some restricted free agents. And away we go!

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Note: If this is against the terms of service I apologize and please delete.

Is anybody selling tickets to a Saturday game in March? I'd rather give you all my money than some random through Stubhub or some other ticket vendor. Also, I'm trying to do this as economically as possible so pricey tickets need not apply! :)

Right now I am in the market for 4 tickets for myself, brother, brother-in-law and father. Please let me know if you are interested.

Hate to say it, but with the current play of our beloved Wild I believe Chuck Fletcher is trying to enter us in the Fail for Nail sweepstakes. We seem late to the party, considering Columbus has been working hard at this all year, but its better to be late than never in my eyes.

At our current rate of play I feel a top 5 pick isn't out of the question. Teams like Dallas, Calgary, Phoenix, Winnipeg, and Toronto will all pass us soon. Buffalo should right the ship eventually and get on track leaving us with a real possibility of a top 5 pick. Hell even the Ducks and Habs might pass us!

Our Current rate of play has us winning about 1.5 games a month, so at the end of the season we should finish in the 62-66 points ballpark. I wish I was kidding about this!!!!!

All things considered, adding one of the great defense man in this years draft or a sniper like Nail Yakupov, Filip Forsberg, Mikhail Grigorenko or even Alex Galchenyuk who is falling because of injury would be great for the team, and will hopefully restore some of the hope lost from this depressing second half to the season.

I'm all in on the Fail for Nail....who's with me? jk.

Given the Wild are plummeting through the standings faster than an anvil, I've been giving a lot of thought to any moves Chuck Fletcher might make before the deadline. Ver few "minor/average" trades are going to shake this team up, so Fletcher either needs to make another blockbuster deal for an elite scorer or pack it in and make small trades for picks or prospects. However, there is one trade that, I think, could be very beneficial to the Wild. If not this year, then possibly the next. More after the jump.

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First let me say that A: I don't think there will be a lockout. and B: I realize that a lockout would damage everyone involved with the league. C: this is more of a question, than a comment. D: finding any way that the Wild might benefit will most likely cause the rest of the league to do anything in their power to avoid it. While a lockout would do a lot of damage to the league is it possible that with Wild's prospect pool looking like it may come to maturity two or three years from now, be less damaging to the Wild than many "aging" teams? I think that the Wild would like to be able to bring over many of the more highly reguarded European prospects and give them a year in the AHL to adjust to the game and learn the "Process", it would also allow many of the U.S. college players to either grow either in college or as a professional in the AHL as well. In general it would put less pressure on the younger guys to make that next step. The AHL would be a hybred of it's current self as most NHL teams would leave otherwise NHL ready players down on the farm. I am not sure how the less than desirable contracts that the Wild have left over from HWSRN would be effected, would a year fall off of those contracts or would they just be extended out a year for an older version of the same over payed players? This is just something that a friend and I were talking about and I thought I would ask for your input as well.