Her Wild Side combines hockey knowledge with a side of vibe checks. The weekly show will have game breakdowns, any topical news about the MN Wild, and fun things going on surrounding Wild's social media. This show aims to be informative while also sparking good conversation about the Wild and hockey in general without having to keep everything serious.
Hello,
welcome to Her Wild Side Hockey Podcast.
I am your hostess, Mikki,
aka HockeySheWrote,
and we are past the deadline day,
trade deadline day.
I wanted to record about it yesterday,
which would have been Saturday,
but I just needed time to
process because for the
Wild fans that are here for the vibes,
it was a lot to handle.
But we made it through.
we do have some good stuff
too so you know we have to
make our peace what is we
you know what will be will
be um but before we get
like deep into all the
trades there's kind of uh
two things I'm going to
touch on so first I'm going
to talk about Pat Maroon
and the biggest thing is that
The way that Bill Guerin is
able to make some of these trades,
he just,
sometimes he just like steals assets.
I know not everyone was okay
with the trade for Maroon
before the season started,
aka my brother.
But while Maroon was here,
he really brought good
things to the club.
I know he didn't always fight,
have that physical edge
that the people wanted, but
You know what?
He was on the fourth line.
He helped push it.
He was scoring goals and
putting up points.
So it was nice.
And the biggest thing,
without getting into all the details,
is that Bill Guerin traded
for Maroon with a seventh
round pick and flipped him
for way more than that.
And again,
I know not everyone likes the
trades that Guiren makes,
but the way that he's able
to do that sometimes is mind-blowing.
And then, you know,
the Deweys are officially split up.
It's always hard to see...
Players that have come up
through the system, you know,
who were drafted by the Wild,
came up through Iowa especially,
were here for a few years.
You know,
I feel like that's one of those
things that makes it even harder.
Because like, and I know part,
like when Matt Dumba was traded,
I know part of that, or not traded,
he signed somewhere else.
Sorry.
Part of that was that not
only was he here for a long time,
but he came up through the system.
He, you know, he was drafted by Minnesota.
He's been,
he had been a part of it for a long time.
And both of the Deweys,
that was the same thing.
And it was really hard to
see Brandon Duhaime in an Avalanche jersey,
especially playing against the Wild.
And
You know, I don't know.
I can't read his mind and I
don't know what he's thinking.
But most of the pictures
that they have posted of him in Colorado,
he looks so sad.
And I know he wanted to stay
in Minnesota because he
talked about that.
He's talked about it many
times that he loves Minnesota.
He wanted to stay.
At the same time,
we all knew it was coming
because if he wasn't traded
at the deadline...
know he was a a ufa coming
in the offseason and he
just he would be asking too
much money more than the
wild could pay him so we
all knew it was coming even
do him but I think it still
is just really upsetting
and knowing how loved he is
in the minnesota wild
locker room made it even harder and then
Everyone, again, Bill Guerin,
he is known for like these
last minute trades.
Remember last year when he
traded for John Klingberg?
And literally-
was like 30 seconds before it hit,
you know, was like three o'clock,
like 30 seconds before
trade was done is when he
got that one done.
Like it.
So Connor Dewar,
he traded him right before.
And what's so sad is that everyone on,
you know, social media was like, okay,
we did not lose both Dewey's.
We still have a Dewey.
We still have Dewar.
And even Dewar said, you know,
when my phone didn't ring
by that point in time, I thought, okay,
I made it.
And that's what he said.
Like, heartbreaking.
I made it.
And then he was traded.
Now, for him,
I'm a little bit different
about how I'm feeling
because he does seem excited.
Again,
he's a Canadian kid playing for Toronto.
So that aspect of it is exciting, you know,
and I'm happy that he's
found something to enjoy.
And you know what?
If Colorado and Toronto go
on like a deep playoff run,
I will be more than happy
for both of the Dewey's.
It's just a little bit hard
right now to deal with it.
And of course,
there's been this whole blow
up on social media.
And honestly,
I was not on Twitter last
night to see how this started,
how it went down.
But some basically people were like, oh,
Connor Dewar,
another white guy on the team.
And anyone who is a wild fan
knows immediately that
Connor Dewar is not white.
He might have lighter skin,
but he is from the Metis tribe,
which was formed when indigenous women
would marry um white men
coming from you know um
like france or french
canadian um english
whatever I you know I don't
know exactly all the
nationalities that anyway
it was a it was a forming
of a tribe and that's why
you know he looks white but
an interesting thing that
someone has been pointing
out is if you look at
dewar's facial structure
He has very indigenous features.
And I don't know a lot about
bone structures and that kind of stuff.
But if you do compare,
he has a bone structure
that once you compare it, it's like, oh,
yeah, you know what?
You're right.
Either way, you know what?
I understand if you didn't
know that he was indigenous.
I understand that.
But people,
when they were corrected on that,
doubled down.
We're like, well,
how was I supposed to know?
Well,
it's not that you are supposed to
know so much as when someone corrects you,
you just go, oh, okay.
Like I never knew that.
I learned something today.
It's as simple as that.
And I, you know,
I don't know where Dewar's
going to end up after this
season because he is an RFA.
I don't know if Toronto will
give him a qualifying offer.
I don't know if he'll sign somewhere else.
But I really hope that wherever he lands,
he's able to...
find kind of the connections
that he did here in Minnesota.
I know that he did work to help the,
I think it was the American
Indian center.
And, you know, he, he and Duhaime both,
they took over the hockey
camp that Matt Dumba ran
for four years and,
you know, I'm trying to think of what,
I don't remember the exact name,
but basically it's for
diversity in hockey.
It's in all sorts of different diversity.
And they ran it last year
and it was so cute.
I mean, last year, last month.
And it was so cute and they
looked like they were having so much fun.
And now that they're both gone,
I know one of the questions is, well,
who's going to run it now?
So that'll be something to
look forward to seeing who
will step into that role.
Now, there is one
big bright spot that we're
going to talk about before
we get into the nitty
gritty of the trades.
And his name is Marat Khusnutdinov.
Previously, I was saying Khusnutdinov.
I was wrong.
I thought I had it right.
I was wrong.
You do not pronounce the K.
It is Khusnutdinov
And I hope that I hope that
I have heard that correctly
because watch me have to
get corrected again.
Anyway, Marat is here.
He is here in Minnesota.
He seems super happy.
I know there were there was
one guy on the wild staff
who met him at the airport
and said that he was just like so happy,
so smiley.
He traveled here with,
I believe it's his sister,
his older sister.
She's like a fashion
designer from what I'm
seeing on Instagram.
I can't speak Russian.
But he also seems to maybe
have a little bit better of
a handle on English than Kirill did.
Just judging by the video
that they posted of him
when Marat got here versus
the video of Kirill the
second year he got here.
It just seems like maybe he
has a little bit better of a handle,
which is exciting because
then maybe we'll be able to
hear directly from him a little sooner.
Whenever he's comfortable, obviously,
we don't want to force
anybody to speak in a
language they're not comfortable with.
But it's very exciting to
see this morning.
It's Sunday today.
This morning,
they posted a couple of
pictures in a video of
Marat practicing with the scratches,
the guys that are injured,
the assistant coaches.
And he just like he looked
like he was excited and not
that he's like he doesn't
seem to be like a smiley guy.
But I feel like you can just
see that he is excited,
that he likes what's happening.
He's excited to be here.
He can't wait to kind of
like get in on stuff.
um I know they got him a
place to live near like
near Kirill so he will have
someone to help him you
know with anything that he
needs to kind of get
accustomed to america and I
am really excited to see
whenever he is going to
make his debut we don't
know that yet when that
will be uh you know we did
obviously lose three three
uh players I'm sorry I just
noticed that I wrote
instead of maroon I wrote
Mararoon.
I don't know where my mind goes sometimes.
But anyway,
we are very excited to see his first game,
whenever that is, or first open practice.
Actually, now that I think about that,
I'm going to look and see
when or if they have an open practice.
I would love to see him on the ice.
I've seen him in so many videos.
OK, I'm going to stop.
I'm going to stop raving now.
And while I prepare myself
to talk all about the
trades and the specifics,
I am going to have you guys
listen to just a really quick ad read.
All right.
I'll be right back.
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Hi, welcome back.
Okay, so trade deadline day.
We knew it was going to be
different than the last two years.
The last two years,
the Wild were in a spot where, you know,
obviously they hadn't
clinched a playoff spot, but we knew.
We knew they were going to
be in contention.
So the last two years were
really exciting because for the most part,
it was more adding.
You know, you were adding players.
It wasn't so much about
sending and getting things in return,
if that makes sense.
And this year,
a lot of what we got were draft picks,
which the Wild and the way
that they draft,
they are able to find kind
of these diamonds in the rough.
So I was on Leafs late night,
and I was asked about this.
And draft picks, what rounds?
Do you think they got a good
draft pick for this player, that player?
Honestly, I know that, you know,
you want a first round.
You want a second round.
You know, but you'll take any round.
I just always think about
how Kaprizov was drafted in
the fifth round.
And he is this superstar.
So whenever I'm asked about, like,
kind of the later rounds,
it's kind of like, to me,
it doesn't really matter.
Because I trust the way that
the Wild draft works.
I know some people are
having a problem with that because lately,
like,
Iowa has been having a really hard
time this year, Iowa Wild.
They're not doing great.
A lot of the prospects just
aren't quite ready.
They're not NHL ready.
But I don't think that means
that they did a bad job drafting.
I think it just means that
there are struggles that you can't see.
You don't know.
It's like last year with Rossi.
Or even last year pulling up Beckman.
Or at the beginning of the year,
Sammy Walker, Beckman.
You don't really know some
of these other struggles.
But one of the things I
noticed is when they were
interviewing Bill Guerin...
about all the trades, how it went down,
he looked visibly bummed.
Like,
I completely believe him when he said
that it was really hard to
have to make these trades.
I could never be a GM and do
trading and stuff because I
would literally just like
collect players.
And you can't do that, obviously,
because you can only have
23 roster spots.
But I would just be like, I'd be like,
nope, nobody can leave.
I am the mama hen.
I'm just going to keep gathering chicks,
hockey player chicks.
And you are all going to
stay in the fold here in
Minnesota in the Excel Center.
And that's not how it works, obviously.
But I did think that it was
kind of touching to see
that he was upset because
he liked the Dewey's.
He loved the Dewey's.
We all love the Dewey's.
And to lose them was upsetting.
So we are going to talk.
Let me I have a couple
little graphics here.
So if you're watching,
you'll be able to see them.
But I will talk about them
in case you are just listening.
So we're going to start with
the Nick Petan to the Rangers.
And in return, we got Turner Elson.
So, Elson is a forward,
and he was sent straight to Iowa.
He is kind of a career AHL player.
He's played three different
NHL games in his career.
And from what I see, he can produce points,
but he's just a really hard worker,
and he
It's hard to lose Petan
because Petan puts up points.
You know, like he was, you know,
like the leading scorer.
He's putting up points.
He was doing great.
He was kind of the one
person consistently scoring, I think,
in Iowa.
And in return,
we get Elson who isn't really a scorer.
But I think at this point,
they are just trying to get
some more veteran presence in Iowa.
And...
This was an opportunity for
Petan that kind of is like,
this is like a bigger
opportunity for him.
So, you know, this trade, what do I think?
Yeah,
I don't really have strong feelings
either way.
I think that hopefully Petan
will find success in New
York and hopefully Elson
will be able to maybe just
bring a little more of a
presence to Iowa.
Trade number two,
which was actually the
first trade that we learned about,
was Brandon Duhaime to the
Colorado Avalanche.
And in return,
the Wild get a 2026 third round pick.
And I think this is a good trade.
Duhaime is a really hard worker.
Obviously,
he's not someone that you're
going to get a first or
second just because he produces points,
but it's not as high as
maybe someone else would
get a first round for.
But a third round pick, I think,
is really good because he
does bring a lot that's not
just scoring or putting up points.
Yes, he mostly plays on the fourth line,
but he's played up the
lineup to the third line.
He is good on the penalty kill.
He, it was, I mean,
that was what was really
hard was losing both to
like two of the best
penalty killers on the wild,
but he's good on the penalty kill.
He's tough.
He'll drop the gloves.
You know, he's a hard worker.
So to get the pick in return.
Yeah.
I mean, a third round was great.
And I,
Like,
I never know how far out does it matter.
Meaning, so this is 2024.
Obviously,
this draft pick is for two years
from now.
So, you know, if I'm like a GM,
I don't know, does the year matter?
Or does it only really
matter depending on what else you have?
Because to me, it's like, okay,
it doesn't really matter
when the third round pick is,
but we have it.
So let's see.
I'm going to switch over to
the next graphic.
So I'm going to talk about
Pat Maroon first because or
as I accidentally wrote down Mararoon.
Pat Mararoon is now with
the Boston Bruins,
who apparently he thought hated him,
which makes me a little bit sad.
You can come back, Maroon.
That's fine.
We received Luke Toporowski.
and a 2026 sixth round pick
but um it's that one's
conditional it's only if
maroon plays a playoff game
for boston because he is
still currently injured
he's rehabbing from back
surgery he is supposed to
be coming back in the next
few weeks from what I
understand so this should be uh
A pretty easy, you know,
like this should be fine.
We should get that draft pick.
And again,
he we traded for him with a
seventh round pick and are
getting back a sixth round pick.
Plus, we've got this this Toporowski,
which I feel like people
call him Topper or Toppy.
We'll see what he likes.
He's another forward.
He is, I believe, 22 years old,
so he's still pretty young.
He's going straight to Iowa.
And he is the first player
to play for the Iowa Wild
who is actually from Iowa.
So that was just a really
cool kind of side bonus to us all.
Someone kind of compared
him... I was reading
through scouting reports.
Someone compared him to... They said,
think of your favorite
small NHL pot stirrer.
You know, so like in my head immediately,
I'm like, well, Brad Marchand.
You know,
so maybe we have another Marchand
on our hands.
I would be okay with that.
Apparently, he's got like a quick,
powerful shot, quick hands.
He's got some good speed.
And he...
He's in the age on now, but he's young.
And I'm excited to kind of
see how he develops down there.
And our last trade, our number four trade,
Connor Dewar to Toronto
Maple Leafs in exchange,
a 2026 fourth round pick,
plus Dimitri Ov... I knew I
was going to do this.
I psyched myself out.
Ovchinkov.
Ovchinkov.
Okay.
So again,
I think this is another great trade.
I do think Guerin made great
trades with what he had
because for Duhaime got a third round.
Dewar comes with a little
bit more of an upside than Duhaime does.
So he gets a fourth round
and another player prospect.
And that works because again,
Dewar has a little bit more
of a scoring edge than Duhame does.
He had that hat trick
earlier in the season, which was,
you know, kind of out of the blue,
but at the same time he was like, yeah,
I can score whatever.
Why is everyone making a big
deal about this?
Now, the prospect that we got,
he actually just left the
KHL and signed over here
with the Marlies.
So he is not actually going
to Iowa right now.
He is staying with the
Marlies because he's with
them for their playoff run for the AHL.
And scouting reports,
what I read is that he is speedy.
He's got a good release.
He's got great potential.
He just needs to add some strength.
And I feel like that is something,
you know,
I don't know what his future plans are,
but when we have guys who
kind of stay over the
summer and work on strength
with like the wild staff,
they are stronger.
Like every, like look at Rossi.
Rossi stayed over the summer,
and he put on like 15,
20 pounds of muscle.
I mean,
you could visibly see that he was
beefed up.
So, you know, again,
I don't know if this guy
would come to Minnesota or
what he would do,
but if he's able to kind of
continue over the offseason
and add some strength,
it would be really interesting to see.
Hopefully we see him in Iowa next season.
um I know we just we need
more prospects to come over
and see if we can improve
this iowa team a little bit
because right this year
they're just not doing
great and the problem I
guess I can I can take this
graphic off so you can look
at my beautiful face
instead um the problem is
that is this a good way to
develop wallstead like he
is he's doing good
But there are games that they are just,
they lose terribly or they just,
it's just not great.
And it's not Wallstead's
fault necessarily.
You know,
he might have a bad day or something.
Everybody does.
But if you have the team
playing in front of him,
that Swiss cheese and was
letting everything through
and Wallstead can only
stand on his head so much.
You just have to think that.
What's better for him?
Keeping him down there
another year or bringing
him up to the NHL?
Because we have this really
interesting situation.
And I'm trying to think of.
So we've got the three goalies.
We've got Fleury.
We've got Gustafson.
And we've got Wallstead.
Fleury, we all thought,
was going to retire after this year.
And I don't think he's going to.
I don't think he's going to
retire anymore.
And I do honestly think that
at the beginning of the season,
he made a good decision to not...
make an announcement because
he has played so well he
looks like his old self so
I could see him signing
another year and I would
love to have him here in
minnesota I know that one
of the reasons that he did
not want to be traded is
not only because he feels
like the wild are his team
they're his boys he wants
to stay but also because he
wants to stay with his
family that was the whole
reason why like when he
signed he wanted at least a two-year deal
Because he deserves that.
He deserves to not have to
move his family all the time.
You know,
his kids are getting older and
that's got to suck for them.
So moving on, we've got Gustafsson,
who last year was just an
absolute enigma.
And this year,
and he knows this because
he's talked about it,
he has struggled so much
with consistency because
there are nights where he is amazing.
Like when they played, was it Arizona,
where they scored like
instantly on the first shot
in like 20 seconds.
But then after that,
he locked it down and he
did not make more stupid mistakes.
But again, he's either on or off,
and there's no gray medium this year.
But I want to continue to
have faith in him.
I hope that the Wild do not
try to move him because he
has shown what he can do.
And with a team where it
seems like we are doing a
little bit more of a
rebuild than Garen wanted
to or we wanted to,
I feel like we should keep
him around longer.
and see what more he can do.
Can he become more consistent?
Can he, you know, just,
can he become that number
one that we all think he
can and that he wanted to
prove he can be?
I think so.
But then we have Wallstead.
So originally the plan was
to pull Wallstead up to
Minnesota next season with Gustafson.
It would be the last year of his ELC.
And have Gustafson play
number one and have
Wallstead be number two.
But do you want Wallstead to
play in front of a team like this?
They threw him to the wolves
in that Texas game.
I hate that.
If there's one thing that I
hate that the Wilds did this year,
it's that.
It's having his first NHL
game be such a...
a load of crap and I feel so bad for him.
I do hope he gets a few more
starts here as we get towards playoffs.
If we become, you know,
if we get to a spot where
we know where we're going,
can we make the playoffs or
is there no way we will
make the playoffs then pull
him up and we'll see how
he's doing or do we leave him in the,
in the AHL?
I mean, okay.
It's just, there's no right answer.
There's no right answer.
Um,
But honestly, if I had to make the choice,
as of right now,
I would try to re-sign Fleury for,
you know,
he might be amenable to a
one-year contract,
knowing that time is coming up now.
Maybe a two-year contract,
but I don't think we want
to sign him to a two
because we want to pull up Wallstead.
I think we keep Gustafson around.
I think we keep Wallstead in Iowa.
But see if we can give him a
few starts here or there.
You know, we have to wait and see.
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that I want to say.
Number one,
Adam Beckman is up here.
He's actually getting some ice time.
It's not always great,
especially on what was it?
Saturday.
No, Friday, Thursday, Friday,
Friday was so many special
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he's not on a special team,
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I hate doing a hard sell.
I used to... Side note.
For a little while, I did... Sorry.
I did a mommy blog.
This was before mommy blogs got weird.
But obviously,
I was trying to make a
little money from it.
And so I would do sponsored
posts and stuff.
But I had such a hard time
doing them because it would be like...
Take these weird,
awkward pictures of you
holding a product and like, you know,
so the labels facing the camera or like,
oh,
like having to do a video kind of like
this.
I hate a hard sell.
So just know that I am only
hard selling things that I use myself.
Like Ticketmaster and my merch.
All right,
I'm going to leave you because
I'm sure you're annoyed of
me and you don't want to
listen to me anymore.
I don't blame you.
I will be back sooner than a week.
And until then,
I want you to keep the good
vibes going for the
Minnesota Wild because we
can make the playoffs.
Good vibes for the Deweys and Maroon.
Thank you for your service.
Hopefully we see you again
on our bench and not the other.
And everybody is a part of
the Hawkgirl Hockey Club.
I love you all.
And I will see you next time.
Bye.