Minnesota Wild Free Agency Updates...Why Did The Wild Re-Sign Nate Prosser?

Not long after I posted my previous two articles about the top three free-agents who should be re-signed and the three free-agents the Wild should let walk, the Wild made their moves on some of the free-agents.

The Wild did come to a contract agreement with Devan Dubnyk. The deal is a 6 year deal for $26 million. If you recall from my article about the top three free agents the Wild should focus on re-signing, Dubnyk was at the top of that list (the link is here). Hopefully, the 2015 Bill Masterton award winner will be able to build upon his success with the Wild during the second half of this past season and provide some stability for the Wild in goaltending...which is what the Wild desperately need. 

The Wild also managed to re-sign Mikael Granlund to a two-year deal, along with re-signing Ryan Carter to a one year deal. (Mikael Grandlund was #3 on my list of free-agents the Wild should re-sign). 

Nate Prosser

However, there is one re-signing that did take place that I don’t think a lot of fans are happy about and that is the two year, one-way deal for Nate Prosser. In my last post about the three free-agents the Wild should let walk, Prosser was at the top of that list. (The article can be found here). As I have previously stated, I have never been impressed with Prosser as an NHL player. 

Another blogger (Tony Wiseau from Hockey Wilderness) wrote this about Prosser, and Wiseau hit the nail on the head with his statement:

"We know what Nate Prosser gives you. We've seen it for the last 4 seasons. Prosser will be an OK defender, a fine penalty killer, but a non-factor offensively. He's also 29, meaning that in all likelihood, there aren't going to be any major improvements in Prosser's game."

(Link to Tony's post Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Nate Prosser to a 2 Year Deal).

Prosser only played in 63 regular season games and one playoff game this past season. I would rather see another player, like Christian Folin or Mike Reilly, get NHL ice time than seeing someone like Prosser--who has been prone to committing turnovers and is an easy target to be hit. 

I hope Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher wakes up sometime this season and either puts Prosser on waivers or includes him in a trade. This was not a smart move on Fletcher's part and I hope he sees his mistake in signing Prosser. I don't care if he's a native Minnesotan, he's not that impressive on the ice and the Wild need to move on from him. 

 

Minnesota Wild and those players who are free agents…who should the Wild let walk?

My last blog post was about the three free agents the Wild should focus on re-signing. This post is going to be about the three players who are due to become free agents on July 1^st that the Wild should let go.

**Disclaimer: I am not going to include goalie Josh Harding in this list. His current contract with the Wild is up on June 30^th and there are rumors that he is going to announce his retirement.**

Here is my list of the three players the Wild should let go.

#1. Nate Prosser

I have never really been impressed with Nate Prosser to begin with. In my opinion, Prosser commits a lot of turn-overs in the defensive one and he seems to be an easy target to be hit. The only thing I may consider a positive is that his effort on the penalty kill unit has somewhat improved, but that's about it. 

Last year, he signed a one year deal with St. Louis—only to be put on waivers after the preseason and picked up by the Wild. 

Joseph Gunther wrote this on Prosser on examiner.com:

“Prosser has had a mercurial career that includes plenty of highs and lows. He only has five goals and 23 assists while posting a minus-10 rating in 189 career games, but is one of the more physical defensemen on the team. One of the more interesting stats in Prosser’s career is that 60 percent of his goals have been game-winner’s, including back-to-back games during the 2013-14 season.” (link to article is here)

With Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba, and Marco Scandella locked in for five spots on defense, there is only one spot left. There are players in Iowa such as Gustav Olofsson (who missed all of this past season with a shoulder injury) and Guillaume Gelinas that Yeo and Fletcher may look at to be in consideration for that final defensive spot. Christian Folin could also be in the mix, but he is a restricted free agent and the Wild need to figure out the goaltending situation first (working on signing Dubnyk has been a priority for the Wild).

If the Wild should make the offer to Prosser, it needs to be a short term, two-way deal. However, if it were up to me to make the decision, I would let the Elk River, MN native find a new team. 

#2. Sean Bergenheim

Before Bergenheim was acquired from Florida in a trade in February, he was scratched for six straight games before being traded and playing in his first game with the Wild. The Wild traded a draft pick for him because the Wild, at the time, were dealing with several injured forwards.

He is a physical forward and he should have been a good fit on the fourth line and on the penalty kill unit.  However, he really didn’t produce much and it seemed to me like he took a while to get acclimated to the Wild. In 17 games with the Wild, Bergenheim had one goal, one assist (along with 6 PIM and a -6 rating). Before joining the Wild, Bergenheim had 8 goals, 18 assists in 39 games played with Florida.

One thing that worked against Bergenheim is that once those injured forwards started getting healthy, there wasn’t room for Bergenheim in the lineup and he found himself being scratched for a few games. When he did play, he did play well defensively and got into those battles along the boards—which the Wild needed.

Injuries have also been an issue with Bergenheim. Actually, he’s never played a full season in the NHL and has played more than 70 games twice in his career. That is something the Wild should take into consideration.

Since the Wild did place Matt Cooke on waivers and are buying out the last year of his contract, Bergenheim could have a chance at signing a new deal with the Wild. But, can the Wild afford to give a contract to a player that hasn’t played a full season? Time will tell. He made $2.7 million this past season, I don’t think the Wild are going to have the cap space for him.

I think the best thing is to let him sign with another team.

#3. Kyle Brodziak

This one is a tough one for me. Kyle Brodziak doesn’t light the lamp a whole lot. When he does, it’s usually by surprise (for me, anyway). However, Brodziak has been very valuable on the Wild’s penalty kill and defensively. 

Jason Gunther wrote this about Brodziak:

“Despite the lack of offensive production over the last three seasons, Brodziak has been a valuable member of the Wild’s lineup. He is very good on draws as well as penalty killing and defensive responsibility. He is the perfect fourth line center. When in an emergency, he can move up the lineup to help, but can be a shutdown player against the opposition’s top line.” (link to article is here)

Brodziak played some very tough minutes this past season. He’s been the center of the fourth line that has had to go up against some very good competition this past season.

This is what was written about him on hockeywilderness.com (by @the_noogie on Twitter):

“His job is to keep the opponents top lines from putting points on the board, and this upcoming season that is exactly how he should be judged. He's not an offensive juggernaut, with the right line mates though he is as valuable a defensive forward the Wild have on the roster.” (the link to @the_noogie's post is here)

General Manager Chuck Fletcher has a very tough decision to make when it comes to Brodziak. He made about $3 million last year and with the $12 million in cap space the Wild have, the Wild may not have the cap space to be able to re-sign him at the money he may be looking for. 

This one is a tough one and right now, I'm still undecided on whether or not the Wild should re-sign him. 

Free agency begins at 12 pm ET on July 1 and it's going to be an interesting free agency period for the Wild and Chuck Fletcher..........

Tough lineup decisions as injured Wild players are nearing return to the ice

I think at this time of year, as teams such as the Minnesota Wild are making the final push towards the playoffs, a coach would love to have the issue of which lineup decisions to make with players either returning from injuries, or being close to returning.

Well, Mike Yeo is facing this problem…or is getting close to facing this problem…

Minnesota Wild forward Matt Cooke

Kyle Brodziak (who has recently missed three games) could return to the Wild lineup on Thursday against the New York Rangers. Ryan Carter just returned to the lineup on Saturday against the Kings. Matt Cooke has been skating and recently joined the team in practice this week, his first since having hernia surgery in early February. (Jason Zucker and Nate Prosser were not in Tuesday’s practice, but both skated before the team practice. Zucker’s been out since the middle of February with a broken clavicle and surgery, Prosser has missed several games with a sprained MCL.)

Michael Russo, from the Star Tribune, wrote the following in a recent article about Zucker:

Wild forward Jason Zucker

“I feel perfect. I feel great,” said Zucker, sweating after another long, hardworking skate with a few teammates and coaches on Friday. “I don’t feel I have any restrictions shooting or passing or definitely skating. But it’s the docs. They know what’s best and what’s right and the right timeline. And whatever they say goes. Nothing else matters.”

From what I read, both Cooke and Zucker could make their returns during the playoffs. 

With how well the Wild have been doing since the middle of January (since Devan Dubnyk was acquired by the team and you know the rest of that story), the return of these injured players is going to have Mike Yeo looking at his roster and making the decisions of who is going to play and who is going to skate. The question is WHERE do you put these guys who are either coming back?

I think a lot of the shuffling is going to be taking place on the fourth line. Thomas Vanek has finally found his spot as the left wing on the third line with Charlie Coyle at center and Justin Fontaine at right wing. Chris Stewart has been a good presence on the second line at right wing with Mikko Koivu at center and Nino Niederreiter at left wing. Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund, and Jason Pominville make up the first line. These three offensive lines are pretty much set. 

Yeo made the following statement regarding his first three lines:

“I don’t see any reason why we would change anything up right now in the immediate future. Obviously things could change, but I look at a guy like Fonzie (Justin Fontaine) and there’s no reason why he should be looking over his shoulder. Certainly you look at the Islander game, we felt that we needed to switch for that game (he means that Schroeder took Fontaine’s in the third period and overtime), but this is not situation where if he has one bad game, one bad period. Doesn’t mean you might not change things during a game, but he’s earned enough to give him a chance to go out and respond.” (Michael Russo, startribune.com 3/31/2015). 

Yeo also replied when asked how difficult these decisions are:

“It’s going to be hard and everybody’s going to have an argument, and everybody’s going to have an opinion. In many cases, it’s going to be right. In a lot of ways it’s going to be difficult for us to make a wrong choice. In other ways, difficult for us to make the right choice just because everybody that’s here has had an impact in getting us here. Everybody has had success with us at different points of the season. And everybody that’s here we feel could help us. So, what that means is there’s going to be people out of the lineup that are very tough decisions to make. But at the same time, the people that are in will recognize that and they’ll take advantage of the opportunity.” (Michael Russo, startribune.com 3/31/2015). 

It is going to be very interesting to see how of this all plays out, especially with Zucker and Cooke's eventual returns to the line up could take place during the playoffs. Like I stated at the beginning of this article, this is a problem I think coaches love to have--depth on their roster and almost every one healthy. 

Michael Russo's article on Jason Zucker can be found here. 

Russo's article on Cooke and Brodziak can be found here