Bold Statement: I Would NOT Trade Brock Faber for Connor Bedard

In this episode, Mikki explains why she would NOT trade Brock Faber for Connor Bedard, which made people big mad on social media. She also touches on a few fun things to keep it light at the end.

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Host

HockeySheWrote

Wild Hockey Fan | Cozy Mystery Writer | Mom of 2 | MN Raised | She/Her | Hockey Takes that No One Asked For

What is Her Wild Side Hockey Podcast?

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, Miki,

aka HockeySheWrote.

And I've got a big topic to

talk about today.

If you follow me on Twitter,

you have seen that I have

made the bold statement...

that most minnesota wild

fans would not straight up

one for one trade rock

faber for conor bedard I'm

gonna get to that don't

worry uh that's gonna be

the whole basically the

bulk of this show is gonna

be about that first I just

want to jump into kind of

the wild and how they're doing um

They have 0.1% chance of

making the playoffs, folks.

If they win these last five

games and everybody else

loses all their games, they'll make it.

I'm completely joking, obviously.

But we are out of it all but

mathematically.

It is what it is.

We just need to accept our fate,

pick some other teams to

jump on the bandwagon for playoffs.

And it's a bummer.

It really is.

But again,

this season has been completely

weird and there's not much

we can do about it.

You can't help injuries.

You can't help all of that.

Oh,

and I just caught a little glimpse of

myself in the screen here.

And let me just say that the

reason I look kind of like

an unmade bed is because

there are a lot of people

that are big mad about this

statement I made about favor v. Bedard.

And I was going to work out.

So that's why my hair is like this.

And that's why I'm a little disheveled.

But I was like, you know what?

I need to get this out

because I'm sick and tired

of weirdos in my replies, basically.

And especially the ones that

come in and they're like,

you don't know hockey.

I'm just like, you know what?

You are saying that

basically solely because I am a woman.

Where if you read the same

statement that I wrote,

but written by a man,

you wouldn't say that.

Anyway,

so that's why I look the way I look.

So before we jump into it,

I am just going to super, super,

super quick here,

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So here we go.

I'm going to preface this

with a thing that I have

said many times when it

comes to Faber and Bedard.

They are both great players,

but you cannot compare them

because they play two different roles.

It's apples to oranges.

You cannot

Well, Faber's got more points.

Or Bedard's got more points.

Faber has a better plus minus.

Time on ice.

You know, like, you can't.

You cannot compare it in that way.

So here's to say they're

both good players.

And let me tell you, I'm not, like,

against Conor Bedard or anything.

Like, he's a great player.

He's going to be fun to

watch as he gets older and

matures and his game kind

of gets a little more well-rounded,

I guess I could say.

He's great.

This is nothing against him.

But here is kind of my

thinking on Faber and

Bedard and why I would keep

Faber and not trade him for Bedard.

So Conor Bedard, generational talent.

Yes, he's amazing.

He scores like nobody's business.

And it's, like I said before,

fun to watch.

But at this point in time,

his style of play is not well-rounded.

His defensive skills are

completely lacking, completely missing.

He's got one of the worst

plus minuses on the Chicago

Blackhawks team.

And I only am saying that

because he has scored 59 points,

but is somehow negative 38.

Like that...

Those two stats together

should tell you something.

Plus minus by itself is not

always a great indicator of things.

But when you see that he is

a negative 38 but has scored 59 points,

that's something.

Now, the defense, you know what?

He'll get there.

He's 18 years old.

He's young.

He will get there.

But

because of that especially

he doesn't really he

wouldn't fit in the

minnesota wild style of

play now if they had

drafted him if somehow the

wild had gotten the first

draft pick and they took uh

they took bedard guess what

I'm sure they would fit him

in they would find

something they would

shoehorn him in somewhere

but looking at trading him

or trading for him

he doesn't really fit the

wild play I know everyone

hates this word the wild

play a very greedy game

they're physical they are

um I almost want to say

aggressive that sounds that

sounds kind of like they're

mean which uh I'm sure some

some people think they are

um but he just doesn't seem

to have that kind of side

to him you know um

He doesn't.

And someone was like, well,

wouldn't you rather have

him to pair with Kaprizov

instead of Faber?

Honestly,

I don't think Kaprizov and Bedard

would play well together.

No, I mean,

everyone plays well with Kaprizov.

You know what I mean?

But I think their individual

styles would not gel as

well as other things.

other players you cannot

just you cannot just decide

that oh kaprizov's a great

player bedard is a great

player put them together a

great line that does not

make a great line you know

especially if you've got

two goals for us it I don't

know it's just it's not going to gel

The other thing is where the

Minnesota Wild are versus

the Chicago Blackhawks.

completely different places in their club,

meaning the Hawks, you know,

we saw last year they fire sale.

They were having a fire sale.

They have burned it to the

ground so that they could

get the guard and then

they're going to come back

up from the ashes.

OK, that's going to take time.

So having an 18 year old,

especially that's you know what?

He's going to be able to

kind of grow with the club.

The Wild have opted for a

different tactic.

The Wild have been in a slow rebuild.

They're trying.

I know this year they did

not make the playoffs that

we've already discussed.

They've been trying for a

competitive rebuild,

meaning they are not just

going to burn things to the ground.

They are not just going to

sign whoever the scraps

that they can get.

They want to keep

They're good players.

So these two clubs are in

two completely different places.

Excuse me.

So as for Faber,

here is what I like about Faber,

why I would choose him.

First of all, he's only 21.

So he's only three years

older than Bedard.

But his maturity is off the charts.

Not only did he come up through the NCAA,

but he has somehow taken that experience,

stepped into the NHL,

and has not missed a beat.

And what's amazing is that

Faber is at his floor.

Not that Bedard isn't.

But every time we think we

know Faber and what his abilities are,

he doesn't.

he matures, he develops more.

Um, he still has lots to do.

Um, defensemen can be hard to find,

especially for a top pairing.

Faber has shown that he can

skate top pairing more than

top pairing minutes.

And he has been good with

anyone he's been paired with, you know,

that's mostly been Jonas Brodine and, um,

Jake Middleton.

And he's been able to play

with them amazingly.

Okay.

One thing I think that

people are discounting when

it comes to this is the

fact that Brock Faber is a Minnesota boy.

He is born and raised Minnesota,

and he's very proud of it.

He talks about how proud he

was to to be a gopher at

the University of Minnesota

and to wind up with the

Minnesota Wild and about

how he has watched the wild

since he was a kid.

And I think people are

really discounting the

strong ties that he has to this state.

He I would not be surprised

if he spent his entire

career in Minnesota.

And.

As it's going,

he most likely will be the

next one to wear the C on his jersey.

That's just how he is.

That also means that while

he's going to get a big payday,

I think if it comes down to it,

he would be willing to at

least have a slight

hometown discount because

he wants to stay here.

Conor Bedard, while I'm sure that he,

you know,

he's thankful for the Chicago Blackhawks.

That's who signed him.

That's, you know,

I have no idea what his

feelings are about the

organization in general,

but he doesn't have the ties there,

at least not in the same

way that favor has ties to Minnesota.

So what's not to, you know,

what's going to keep Conor

Bedard in Chicago?

Beyond, you know,

just obviously the fact

that he has an ELCA and then he'll be,

you know, restricted free agent.

But after that,

what's going to keep him in Chicago?

Especially if the Hawks are

not able to build a strong

team around him in that amount of time.

Because at that point,

There are going to be other

teams that will be more

than willing to pay for Bedard.

And Bedard could leave.

I don't know.

I think that people don't

understand how important it

is to actually have those ties.

This has been a crappy season.

The Minnesota Wild have had

a crappy season.

But do you know who the

bright spot has been?

Rock Faber.

Now, I know you're going to say like, oh,

the Hawks fed a crap season

two and the bright spot was Conor Bedard.

Yes.

But in the Wilds case,

Faber and also Marco Rossi,

so the two rookies,

they were the ones that

kept the team together when

it was falling apart.

The only reason that they

would win any games while

they were dealing with injuries to like,

you know,

half of the team and playing

with AHL players, basically.

Faber was the one keeping them together.

He was the reason.

And Rossi.

I don't want to discount Rossi.

Now,

I touched on this a little bit ago,

but let me just say one of

the most surprising things

and the best things about

Brock Faber is that he

keeps surprising us.

He came in, he played amazingly.

You know, the,

the Gophers lost the

national championship.

He came into the league, stepped right in,

was able to play and

actually played all the way

through the playoffs

because he was so good.

They couldn't take him out.

He was,

He actually came out of that

insane playoff series

against the Dallas Stars as a plus three.

He was not on the ice for

any of the Dallas goals.

Any of them.

Throughout the six-game series.

Now, that's when people are like, oh, well,

he was playing protected minutes.

And he wasn't playing much.

Okay?

So Faber came into this season.

He stepped right in.

he started to play top line

minutes and he was fine oh

well he's skating with

jonas brodine that's that's

why jonas brodine goes down

with an injury and faber is

still holding it together

with jake middleton by his

side oh um well this and

that you know what he's

he's been running the top

power play unit he never

played power play

He never ran the power play in college.

And he was able to step in

and run the top unit.

He was known as a stay-at-home defenseman.

He was a defensive defenseman.

But he has 43 points.

He himself is surprised at

how much he has actually

not necessarily scored.

I think he's got seven goals, but assists.

The way that he has been

improving his game so that

he is involved in these

goal scoring opportunities

and not just being defensive,

it's been surprising even to him.

So he is adding to his game

even though everyone thinks

they know his game.

And now people are going to

be quick to point out that

he hasn't been playing as well, you know,

maybe last month or so.

Although I would say he's

come back from where it was

kind of his low point, not a low point.

And you know what?

He was playing 25 plus

minutes a game when Brodine

was out and you had Spurgeon's out.

Spurgeon's has been out for

basically the entire season.

That's two of the top defensemen.

When you go down the depth

of the blue line for the wild,

after Brodine, Middleton, Faber,

and I'm just going to throw

Spurgeon in here because typically,

obviously, he is in that top four.

Once you get out of that, you have,

and this is not a bad thing,

I don't want to say I'm not

speaking badly about them,

but Alex Golgoski has not

been on his game.

He's just... I think he's

not as fast as he used to be.

We had John Merrill,

who recently has played well,

but at the beginning of the year,

did not.

Absolutely did not.

Pulled up Dakota Mermis,

who has been playing well.

But...

he has never played a full like NHL game.

He's been kind of a back and

forth between AHL NHL,

but this season he was kind

of thrown into something

that he has not done before.

We, and you know, yes,

they have gone out and

they've gotten more

defensemen and that has

helped kind of bulk up the blue line.

But for a while there, there wasn't favor.

Favor was mostly it.

So to sum up,

Bedard and Faber are both great.

They play different roles.

You cannot make an exact comparison.

And I would not trade Faber

for Bedard because the Wild

are in a different place than the Hawks.

Faber has skills on both ends of the ice,

whereas Bedard is still

working on honing that.

And Faber has ties to

Minnesota that Bedard does

not have in Chicago.

That is why.

And you know what?

There are Wild fans that disagree with me,

obviously.

But there are also plenty of

Wild fans that agree.

There's not a wrong answer.

I understand, obviously,

why someone would want Bedard.

Like I said, he's great.

He's a generational talent.

But when it comes down to it,

at the place that the wild

are at right now,

they need favor more than

they need the dark.

All right.

I'm going to I'm going to

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I'm going to keep rambling about this.

OK, so I'll be back in a minute.

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Now onto some, we need some levity here,

onto some more kind of fun topics.

First of all, Wallstead, first win,

also a shutout.

And I saw a friend on

Twitter saying that this

was arguably the first time

that they could choose to play Wallstead.

The last time... I'm trying

to think of who was out.

I think Gustafsson was hurt.

And it was a back-to-back.

They can't play Flurry both days.

And they kind of were forced

to put Wallstead in.

And...

I think that really helped

galvanize Wallstead.

He's got that mentality that

he wants to win.

He is a pro athlete.

He wants to win.

Once he saw what it's like

at the NHL level,

which you can only really

get that experience in a game,

he knew the things he had to work on,

and he did.

I know people, oh, well,

he got to shut up and it's

against the Blackhawks.

Okay.

But that also means that he

did not allow Conor Bedard

to score on him.

And that's a big win.

I am looking forward to

hopefully seeing him.

I know people have said

maybe he will start like in San Jose,

maybe, or Seattle.

But he will definitely start

at least one other game

during this road trip.

if you haven't paid

attention to social media

you have seen that mark

andre flurry has taken the

prank war to a whole other

level not even another

level a whole other planet

with what he did to brian

and duhaime's car uh one of

my favorite things is that

all the avalanche players are like

no oh no and duhaime just

kind of seems like yeah

okay he got me like he is

not phased at all and that

is just that's the wild I

think just that's the wild

mentality anyway you know

what everyone told duhaime

to quit while he was ahead

And I feel like Fleury kind

of took it easy on him to start with,

because let's be real,

Fleury is the biggest

prankster in the league.

Everyone knows that.

Everyone has heard about

some of the stuff that he's pulled.

And he gave Duhame a chance

to have an out.

Duhame did not take that.

And this is what happened.

uh my brother came to uh

yesterday and I've told you

that he has a jersey

collection hockey most

almost all hockey jerseys I

think he might have like a

basketball jersey

but all hockey jerseys,

basically all teams, all styles.

He's even got a few from

like European teams.

And he finally counted them

yesterday because of course he had,

he went on a road trip and

he bought like four more jerseys.

So he brought them,

counted through all of them.

And I'll have to post a picture of this,

but he has 156 jerseys, 156 jerseys.

does have some really cool

ones and I gotta say I i

understand because some of

them are amazing

So the one last thing I'm

going to say before I say goodbye,

because I also need to

vacate this office because

my husband needs to take a

meeting for work,

is that I do have merch

available in my merch shop.

If you would click on the link below here,

I'm pretty sure it just

says Her Wild Side merch shop.

You can see some of the

things that we offer.

We've got stickers.

We've got sweatshirts.

We've got t-shirts.

We've got coffee mugs.

There is the Her Wild Side

Hockey Podcast logo.

There is Hot Girl Hockey Club.

All of that.

So I will wrap this up.

We will see how they do

tonight against the Avalanche.

Who knows?

At this point,

it doesn't really matter

point-wise in the standings.

So obviously,

they're still going to play hard.

That's just how they are.

But it'll just be interesting to see,

maybe now that there's not

really pressure on them.

So until next time,

this is Mickey signing off.

And I will see you later.