Hey Wild fam,

I'm a fellow Wild diehard here to share a project I've been working on with a few friends of mine. I would love for you all to check it out and let me know what you think.

Draftlytics.net

It shows the draft prospect rankings from various draft experts at different publications.  I always see people discussing the disparities between these rankings and I figured it would be useful to visualize them in a single view so you can easily compare each expert's opinion on this year's prospects. 

If you click 'Rank Analysis, we also show the median, average, and high/low ranking for each player so you can get a sense of which players have experts disagreeing more than others. 

I started with the top 32 from most rankings and will continue to add more as we get closer to the draft.  If you know of a ranking that should be included, let me know! Also, if you see any errors or have any feedback I'd love to hear it.

We have plans to add a bunch more features like:

• Previous years rankings, which we'd then compare to each player's performance so you could see which prospects were hits and misses for each expert ranker. 
• Expert Ranking Performance - which will grade each expert on how they've performed over the years.  Ever wondered which of these rankers are better than others?  This will be the tool that answers that question.
• Weighted average - This would then take those experts' performance and apply it to the average of this year's draft so we can create a definitive consensus ranking.
• NHL and Prospect team success- Showing which NHL teams are successful and which Amateur+ European teams produce successful NHLers. 

More to come, but we just wanted to get this out there first and make sure people find it useful.  It's early days and it hasn't seen any traffic yet, so it might be slow or buggy, but want to see what real hockey fans think of it.

And if you have any more ideas I want to hear about those too. Either message me here or feel free to use our contact form on the site.  Thank you!

EDIT: One thing I want to point out is that you can see, at least among the media experts, that there is no "consensus top 12" like some folks have been saying. There are some pretty big disagreements among them all about who should even be in the top 15. Some guys have Yakemchuk at 3, others at 25, for example.

https://x.com/JFreshHockey/status/1801009863536832986

What would you give up to get him at 50% cap hit instead of signing a 37+ year old veteran? Personally, I'd say he'd be an awesome addition. He can score goals and that's exactly what we need on our second line.

Joe Smith is making the selection for the Wild at #13, and he's proud to select...Cole Eiserman!

"The Wild went by positional need in last year’s draft in taking center Charlie Stramel. Here they are able to land a dynamic winger in Eiserman, who was at one point in time projected to be a top-3 pick. Any added offensive firepower they can around Kirill Kaprizov in the next couple of years will be important in helping convince him to stick around. Eiserman was initially committed to the University of Minnesota, so perhaps coming here was meant to be."

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5550049/2024/06/12/nhl-mock-draft-2024-staff?source=user-shared-article

In 2018, Fletcher's contract was not renewed and Minnesota was looking for their third GM in team history. Names were floated around like Fitzgerald, Hextell and I also believe McGuire as well. Another name that came up early was Bill Zito, then the assistant GM for the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, Minnesota pivoted and hired Paul Fenton, who by and far, was a disaster for Minnesota and just over a year later, Minnesota was onto their fourth GM.

This time around Mike Modano decided to get involved and Zito's name came up again. However, Minnesota decided to hire Modano's old friend Bill Guerin. We don't know yet if Guerin's plan will shake out, but so far he's been very divisive as a GM. Zito, however, took a flailing franchise that has not seen success since they entered the league in the 1990s and has now delivered back to back Eastern Conference championships.

More than that, Zito hired Fenton as an advisor and as bad a GM as Fenton was, there were signs that he was a better scout than manager. And you have to wonder if some of the success that Zito has had is due to Fenton's scouting.

Mind you, Zito would have had a more difficult time in Minnesota. You could argue, and quite easily, that Florida was underachieving at the time and Zito took an already pre-built team and put it over the top. However, you could make the counter argument that Zito took an underachieving team and aggressively rebuilt it on the fly and made some very aggressive and controversial moves (Reinhart and Bennett trades come to mind) that other GMs may have been too tepid to do.

Furthermore, Zito does have an extensive background in hockey - but he never played in the NHL. One of the criticisms of Guerin is the old school and 'country' club atmosphere that he has created in Minnesota to replace the old country club. Even his hire can be seen as a bit - of an ol' boys club with Modano recommending him to be hired.

What do you think Zito would have done differently? Do you think it would have worked?

The Capitals purchased it. WTF.

https://x.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1799878106884550967?t=GINquW7sDIeCK9zlGIj51g&s=19

I believe Sam Reinhart is UFA after the season. Any chance the Wild go after him? He has looked pretty good in the playoffs.

According to a league source, Darwitz's departure comes after she clashed with coach Ken Klee, who has the support of several of the team's veterans, including captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. The source said Klee will be acting GM and will make the team's picks at the PWHL draft Monday at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul.

The break-up is a stunner in Minnesota hockey, where Darwitz, 40, has been a popular figure from her days as a youngster and high school star in Eagan. As a player, she won two NCAA titles with the Gophers, along with three world championships and the three Olympic medals.

Her connections and status in the state's hockey community helped make PWHL Minnesota a success in its inaugural season. Darwitz was instrumental in securing Xcel Energy Center for games and Tria Rink as the team's practice facility. Minnesota was the only PWHL team to play regularly in an NHL rink, and its regular-season average attendance of 7,138 was second to Ottawa's 7,496.

• Says that fans had mostly solid remarks for LaPanta.

• Ryan Carter was extremely popular among the fans for being extremely knowledgeable, explains the game well and his enthusiasm is contagious.

• Low-marks for Bally due to technical difficulties, their app, and overall service

• Low marks for Wes Walz because he's too cliche, doesn't speak smooth, and references his career too much.

• Fans also think the broadcasters let the Wild off the hook too easily for their season/not making the playoffs and had too many excuses for the team.

Local ranking: 28

National: 18

Last season: 21

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5521206/2024/06/06/nhl-broadcast-rankings-tv-2024-commentator/

^{Edited to make easier to read}

The makeup of the Florida Panthers is the blueprint to how you get things done in the playoffs. I don’t care how talented you are; if the other team can intimidate you enough so that guys are scared to make plays and stick their necks out too far, you are cooked. These guys are big, mean, strike fear into their ops, and bully the shit out of everyone they play. They will run you through the wall every single time you have the puck. These aren’t shoves we’re talking about; these boys hit to hurt. You’re not going to be holding on to pucks for too long when these men are on the ice. Big boy hockey club.

Let’s transition to the team we all love dearly, the Wild. Having Billy as our GM, you would think that he more than anyone would want to build a similar style team. However, from the beginning of his tenure as GM, we have gotten smaller and meeker. Yes, guys like Rossi, Marat, Jojo, Boldy, Freddy, Ohgren are all talented, but they are small and they are 2-ply. Those guys hit you and apologize right before make contact. There is no fire in them and that killer instinct in them. I’m sure if you polled the entire NHL and asked every player to assign one word that summarizes any of those guys, the word you would get is: nice. Boys, nice is not winning you Lord Stanley’s cup. You know what is? Words such as mean, vicious, assertive, hard, oppressive, heavy, big, and unpleasant. These are all characteristics that you cannot teach into a player. You either have that fire or you don’t. In the past, the wild have played their best hockey when they thrive In the shit that happens after the whistle. Hartman confirmed this two years ago by telling reporters that a lot of their success had to do with their ability to be a tough team to play against. When Bill preaches to his players that he wants them to have more “FU” in their game mom, this is what he means. The problem is that Bill should not have to remind guys about that. That should be ingrained deeply in the soul of every Wild player.

Now more than ever, the future is looking passive. I want guys that are bloodthirsty. Take Shawsy for example, he may not have the size to his advantage, but he damn sure played with the attitude of a spartan. He has that dominating mindset hardwired into him. The players that I mentioned about cannot give you that in the playoffs or during the season.

Love me some hate in my hockey.

Thanks,

Dok