Wild Went Good Bill Hunting on NHL and MLB Gets WBC Steroid Injection

We explain why Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin is a genius, unwrap the good, bad, and ugly Spring Twinkies, and discuss how the World Baseball Classic injects MLB Spring Training with steroids.

Wild Went Good Bill Hunting at the NHL Trade Deadline

• Biggest move was undoubtedly trading Jordan Greenway to Buffalo for a very valuable draft pick

  • Wild received a 2023 second-round pick and a 2024 fifth-rounder

    • The 2023 NHL Draft is the deepest in 15 years, per Bally Sports color commentator

    • Largely considered a helluva haul for the Wild; they retained none of Greenway’s salary

      • Dumped $3 million cap hit next two years

  • Greenway is good defensively, bad offensively

    • Wild had more need for offense at the position; Buffalo scores plenty, so it suits both teams and Greenway

• Biggest name acquired was John Klingberg, who had an assist at Calgary, Saturday

  • Shouldn’t expect much from Klingberg, but he’s a veteran defender who’ll make smart plays

  • Wild gave up next to nothing: the rights to a player who wasn’t going to sign with the Wild after college anyway, a 2025 fourth-rounder, and a 32-year-old on a two-way contract

• Biggest impact acquisition was forward Oskar Sundqvist

  • Greenway’s replacement; bottom-six forward who’s having his best year as measured by possession metrics

  • Not going to score much, but he, again, is a veteran who makes smart plays 

• Biggest question mark is forward Gustav Nyquist

  • Still recovering from surgery but expected to return before the playoffs

  • Again, positive relative possession metrics

• Biggest takeaway?

  • The Wild are confident defensively even without one of the best defending forwards in Greenway

  • They invested in possession, which is smart given their lack of scoring, and it’s paid immediate dividends 

    • #DidYouKnow The Wild are 26th in the NHL with 2.8 goals scored per game played, yet sit 10th in the NHL standings.

    • Should create more scoring chances and, hopefully, but not necessarily, more goals

    • Also, acquiring a scorer was near impossible given trade assets and the cap situation, which gets much better next year

      • Nyquist, Sundqvist, and Klingberg are all UFAs

• Biggest winner of the NHL Trade Deadline? Bill Guerin.

  • Improved draft capital: Got two fifth-round picks (2023 and 2025) for retaining salaries of Dmitry Orlov and Ryan O’Reilly ($895,134 total) to facilitate trades

  • Improved the salary cap situation: Created $3 million in cap space for next two years and got a quality draft pick for doing so

    • Acquired that player’s replacement for this season but not next

    • Added no long-term salaries

Spring Twinkies Look Mostly Good, a Little Damaged, Pagan Ugly, but Never Expired

• The Good 

  • Joey Gallo was 3-for-3 on Sunday (with a long ball). He’s hitting line-drives. 

  • Max Kepler has also been hitting line-drives, and depth piece Elliot Soto has been on fire. 

  • Correa looks like Correa (he had a nice line-drive to right field, Sunday)

  • Duran was making 101 MPH look easy today (1 walk, 1 strikeout in one inning of work)

  • Kyle Farmer is playing like a stud (great off season addition)

  • The Brook’s Lee boner is still rock hard. “Man, that kid is a stud,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “I really, really, really like this kid. I’m very, very high on him. Don’t be surprised if we see him up this year.”  

  • 19-year-old Jose Salas (who the Twins got in the Luis Arreaz trade) is fun to watch…cherry on top of that deal. He’s got a helluva hit tool.

• The Bad 

  • Gilberto Celistino (6-8 weeks, thumb), Jose Miranda (shoulder), Nick Gordon (high ankle sprain) all hurt

    • Miranda will not play in the World Baseball Classic because of shoulder concern 

    • Miranda homered twice on Sunday, so the shoulder isn’t effecting his swing

• The Future

1. Brooks Lee, SS (MLB No. 31)

2. Royce Lewis, SS (MLB No. 45)

3. Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF (MLB No. 88)

4. Edouard Julien, 2B (has had a great Spring Training so far)

5. Connor Prielipp, LHP

• The Ugly

• Emilio Pagan continues to leave the taste of throw-up in your mouth

The WBC Injects MLB Spring Training with Steroids

• Twins playing in the WBC make up much of the Puerto Rican team, which is always good

  • Remaining Twins’ Spring Training players will play the WBC favorites from the Dominican Republic on Thursday, March 9 at noon CST

  • Probably the most competitive game they’ll have all Spring

• Other players to watch:

  • Yoenis Céspedes is playing for international powerhouse Cuba (he’s 37 and hit the longest homer in the dinger derby at Target Field in 2014), as are White Sox Luis Robert and Yoán Moncada

  • Shohei Ohtani (Japan) could end up pitching to Mike Trout (USA)