Free Agency and Why Jake Middleton Reminds Me of Binky Barnes

In this episode, Mikki talks about the first two days of free agency 2024, the Minnesota Wild depth chart, and she assigns each member of the Wild defensive core to a character from the Arthur TV show.

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Creators & Guests

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,

and we are through two days

of free agency.

Yesterday,

I wasn't sure I was going to survive.

There was so much happening.

I know they were,

I was watching the coverage

on ESPN and they were

talking about how last year

there were like 30 some deals,

like contracts signed in

the first hour of free agency.

This year, that number doubled.

They were like sixty three

and throughout the whole

day it was like one hundred

and eighteen or maybe even more.

I mean, it was just wild.

My phone was just going crazy.

And even though the wild didn't do a ton,

still just to have, you know, everything.

So we are obviously going to

start with free agency, all of that,

the things that the wild have done,

the few things.

We're going to talk about

kind of the depth chart,

if there's anything else

kind of coming up.

And you got to stick around

to the end here because

today I watched the

schedule release video.

And it inspired me because I was like,

Middleton and Faber

together are like the funniest duo.

But like, who do they remind me of?

And I went through like

multiple different like

cartoons and stuff that I grew up with.

And I landed on,

should I tell you or should

it be a surprise?

I'll tell you.

I landed on Arthur,

as in like the Arthur books

and the Arthur TV show.

So stick around until the

end because you are going

to want to hear who I

assigned each member of the

Wild Defensive Corps from

the Arthur world.

But free agency.

So far,

the Wild have done one kind of

bigger signing.

Yakov Trainin,

it was a three-something

million for four years,

which is interesting.

You know,

we all knew that Bill was going

to sign somebody to, you know,

a scoring wing.

But

I figured it would be like a

one-year deal.

So this is interesting.

But you know what?

If this is going to help,

because they were talking

about breaking up the top

line so that Zuccarello can

kind of use Kaprizov to get

his scoring back up, basically.

But if we have someone like Jakob Trinen,

maybe he and Zuccarello

together can get some kind of, you know,

chemistry going.

And, you know,

I don't know a ton about Traynon,

but I do know everyone

keeps telling me that he is

really funny and he's got great vibes.

So I'm excited for that.

Um,

the wild also signed eight players that

are mostly going to be

playing down the death chart,

like mostly down in Iowa,

but a lot of veteran presence.

So that first of all, Iowa last year,

they were doing so terribly.

And part of it wasn't their fault.

Part of it was they were so young.

It was such a young team

because everybody who was a

veteran was pulled up to

Minnesota basically.

So they're just kind of floundering almost,

um,

So they need they just need

more veteran presence down there.

And they also need most of

these guys have played at

least a handful of games in the NHL.

A couple of them have played

a good amount of games.

So we know that if we need,

if we get injuries,

hopefully not like last year,

knock on wood,

we can safely pull them up

because they have experience.

And now I didn't.

I didn't know any of these

names and I'm just going to, you know,

I'm not going to go through

every single person because

I already wrote a whole article about it.

I will link it in the show notes.

I'm going to write down and

I'm going to link it

because otherwise I forget.

So link article eight signings.

There we go.

But they signed five forwards, you know,

a mix of center and wingers,

two defensemen and a goalie.

Now the goalie is where it

gets interesting because

now there are five goalies

on nhl contracts we've got

wallstead we've got fleury

we've got gustafson and

then we have I'm the name

is not coming to me but uh

goalie he did so good in

worlds um I'm gonna move on

uh and then now

this new goalie.

So at that point, what does that mean?

You know, who, where is Walston?

Are we going to carry a

three goalie rotation?

Honestly, like I've said,

I'm good with that.

Uh, I,

I really think that's the best option.

I'm not going to harp on it

because I've already talked

about it before, but, uh, interesting,

you know,

something interesting to keep an eye on.

And then the last thing that

technically happened yesterday,

but they didn't announce it until today,

which was kind of funny

because we all knew it was coming.

I actually had already

written up a whole draft of

an article for this.

And I was simply waiting to

make sure I had the right

numbers and then press publish.

It's the Middleton extension.

So basically four by four.

And I know some people are complaining.

I really... Middleton...

First of all, we all know off the ice,

he's an absolute gem.

He is so funny and so down to earth.

But on the ice last year,

he and Faber were the ones

that held the defensive core together.

As everybody was in and out with injuries,

the two of them, I mean,

there were nights that

Faber played a few more minutes,

but when he played like 25, 26, 27,

Minty was right behind him.

Faber would maybe get a

little more power play time,

but Middleton was right up

there with 25 minutes.

So he showed how valuable he is.

And I've said before,

he feels so Minnesotan.

He feels like he is from Minnesota.

And I love he stays here over the summer.

His wife has a job here.

And he really feels like he

is just like enmeshed in

the Minnesota culture.

And I love that.

I am now going to do a

little pause here just to...

put up my little Ticketmaster thing.

Here is our QR code.

I show it every single episode.

Again,

if you are ever buying any tickets

via Ticketmaster,

we would love if you used

our QR code or our link in

the show notes just to so

we can take a little cut of

the profits from Ticketmaster.

Yeah, I'm not going to harp.

I mean, I do it every week, every episode.

OK, now

With some of these signings and extensions,

now we're taking a look at

the depth chart.

And the numbers ain't mathin'.

We got way too many forwards.

After bringing in Trennan,

and then remember on draft day two,

Bill traded for Jacob Lauko

from the Boston Bruins.

we bring him in too and he's

definitely an nhl guy like

I don't think they're gonna

stick him down in the ahl

um so who goes it's just

it's not mathin so then we

get into possible trades um

now I didn't look up the

details but I know that

pretty much everyone um

johansson boudreaux uh

hartman felino all of the

guys that kind of signed an

extension last season

All of them have like no

trade or no move clauses,

things that mean that, you know,

Bulgarian can't just decide

to trade them.

Because honestly,

it would be really nice to trade.

I mean, if I had my pick,

it would be Johansen.

And part of that is just because, like,

I really like the other three guys.

And Jojo is just a little

more like quieter.

Like, you know,

he's not like doing the

super funny stuff on social media.

Yeah.

But also, he struggled so much last year.

And I just feel like that's

kind of how it keeps going with him.

But the fear is that a possible trade,

you know,

there have been all these rumors

swirling about trading Rossi.

And...

Michael Russo, you know,

he talked about for a while

it was really a lot.

It was kind of percolating

for Rossi in a possible trade.

And then the last I heard,

he kind of said that it

sounded like that wasn't

like they were kind of pulling back,

like they were going to keep Rossi.

But again,

who do they then who do they get rid of?

I just I feel that they have

to trade somebody.

Now,

that also means are we getting all the

way down into the goalies

where we are trading Philip Gustafson?

We're running out of teams.

I mean,

I say that like I'm in favor of a trade.

I am not.

But all the teams that needed goalies,

they basically all got goalies.

And the ones that signed more goalies,

most of them were signing

someone to be like a third

goalie or to be a definite backup.

know there's just there's

not as many places to land

for gustafson which is good

I want him here I like him

I think that he's going to

get over his sophomore

slump I think we need to

just put faith in that and

people need to move on

because I'm really tired of

people harping on it okay

now I know that all of you

are as excited as I am to

talk about the arthur characters

First,

I'm going to play a little commercial.

Okay.

It's only a minute long folks.

So it's not like I'm sitting

here harping in your ear,

but I will be back in just a minute.

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Welcome back.

So I did realize there was

one other thing I was going

to touch on about free agency,

which is just I was going

to kind of go through

previous wild players and

where they've landed.

So Connor Dewar,

he was traded to the Maple

Leafs at trade deadline.

It sounds like he's staying.

They gave him a qualified offer.

I'm assuming he's going to

sign it and stay there.

Dakota Mermis,

actually right before I started recording,

it looks like he is headed to the Leafs.

It has not been officially announced,

but he apparently was

listed on their active roster,

which I love.

Dakota Mermis, if we could have kept him,

I would have.

Because just...

He's worked so hard and it's like,

he's finally gotten into the NHL.

Unfortunately, you know,

it took having a 10 billion

injuries for him to do that.

And the captain's curse,

the curse of the Iowa wild captain.

But to hear that he got an NHL deal,

obviously we don't know the details yet,

but I'm so happy for him.

Jake Lucchini was signed by

the Nashville Predators.

The Nashville Predators

apparently have 10

bajillion dollars because

they keep signing people.

And I don't know where

they're pulling all this money from.

I understand that the

Minnesota Wild salary cap, you know,

is significantly less, you know,

because of all the dead money.

But still, like the Predators,

like they're just and

they're signing big names, big contracts.

I don't.

Can we have some of the money?

Like, come on.

They would never give us money.

Pat Maroon signed in Chicago.

Brandon Duhame signed with

the Washington Capitals.

And that was a two-year deal,

which I was happy to see

him get just more than a one.

And then possibly the

funniest possible outcome.

Dallas Stars buy out the

last year of Ryan Suter's contract.

And then they turn around

and they sign Matt Dumbaugh.

It's like they're trolling their own fans.

Stars fans hate Matt Dunbar

because a couple of years

ago in the playoffs, he hit Joe Pavelski.

It was a legal hit.

I mean, he took a two minute,

but it was not a dirty hit.

Everyone thought it was.

It was not.

There was discourse swirling.

Everybody hated Dumba.

They kept that grudge

because Dallas fans keep their grudges.

And now he's a part of the team.

And the way I laughed, I can't.

It's just like cosmic humor.

So.

The schedule release came out today.

And as we had kind of been

thinking from the picture

that they had first posted,

they took everybody's favorite duo,

Brock Faber and Jake

Middleton to Valley Fair.

And I had forgotten because

they did announce this.

I had forgotten that the

Minnesota Hockey Day Minnesota,

they are playing at Valley Fair.

So it makes really sense,

like really a lot of sense

that they went there for this.

So they hold on.

My dog is scratching at the door.

I'm going to pop.

OK, welcome, Ralph, to the podcast.

My husband is cooking

downstairs and we have

these really dumb smoke

detectors that are set off really easily.

And Ralph is terrified of them.

And he has since kind of

connected the fact that if

my husband is cooking

something that he can hear, you know,

like sizzling, he's terrified.

So he was scratching at the

door because I was really

mean and I shut the door on him.

But here he is.

I don't think he'll be any trouble.

I'll have to post another

picture of Ralph because he's adorable.

So the schedule release.

They go on all sorts of

different rides at Valleyfair.

So funny.

My favorite was the merry-go-round.

Watching just the absolute

glee on Jake Middleton's

face as he rode that horse

around the merry-go-round.

Like just... Again,

like both of them are just gems.

Just beauties.

But so I got to thinking...

And I went through a bunch

of different shows.

I was thinking about like, OK,

were they their relationship?

Could I compare it to

something from like and I'm

thinking of cartoons that I

watched when I was younger,

like Doug Recess.

I went I even was like maybe

the like the Peanuts gang,

like Charlie Brown.

And I finally landed on Arthur.

Arthur,

I actually still love the Arthur show.

I do have kids, but even without kids,

I still would watch it because it is,

it's just so good.

But Arthur is amazing.

We know that having fun

isn't hard when you've got

a library card.

We also learned how to spell

A-A-R-D-V-A-R-K, Aardvark.

And it brought us so many things.

And so here, I'm going to let you know,

I'm going to start with Jake Middleton.

Jake Middleton is binky.

Because he's a big guy and

he's just kind of happy-go-lucky.

You know, Binky's very happy-go-lucky.

At the same time, and I want to say, like,

neither Jake Middleton nor

Binky are stupid.

But they just kind of, like,

they're just vibing.

You know?

They just have, like, this aura of vibing.

At the same time, though.

both Binky and Middleton can

look a little scary.

You know,

they're kind of a little threatening.

Binky started off.

He's in that that gang.

I don't I don't know what

the gang is called, but I mean,

they're a little scary and

same with Middleton.

So then I was like, OK,

but then who would Brock Faber be?

Brock Faber is Buster Baxter because.

They're just both, you know, again, happy,

happy, go lucky.

A little odd.

But, you know,

and Buster and Binky together,

they get along.

So then I thought, okay,

I'm going to extend this to

the whole defensive core.

Because I'm sure that I could do that.

And I can.

So Jared Spurgeon, right away I was like,

he's Arthur.

He's Arthur.

He's the leader of the pack.

Arthur, obviously it's all about him.

It's his show.

And Spurgeon...

He,

just like Arthur gets made fun of for

his glasses,

Spurgeon gets made fun of for

how short he is.

But they both move past that.

You know, Arthur's okay with his glasses.

Spurgeon knows he's short.

It's not a, you know,

it's not hidden from him.

And they both just, they lead the way.

John Merrill is Muffy.

And I don't really know why they just

He gives us like princess vibes.

Declan Chisholm is the brain.

Like he just, he seems kind of,

I don't know, again, I can't explain it,

but like he is the brain.

So then I was like,

Zach Bogosian was a difficult one.

And I sat and I was like, well, who?

And I wanted to stick with

like the older characters,

not the ones that have been

introduced since.

Cause you know,

they have more friends and stuff now.

But I finally came up, I said,

you know what?

Zach Bogosian is Francine Frensky.

They both are kind of rough and tumble.

They, they look, they like to, you know,

be outside and they, uh, but they're like,

they're still a really good friend.

They're still there for, you know,

the rest of their buddies.

And then I thought, okay,

someone has to be DW.

Dora Winifred Reed is iconic.

There must be somebody that could be DW.

And then I thought, you know what?

DW has the little sister.

You know who's kind of like

the little one?

Damon Hunt.

I just, you know, and I could see, I mean,

like, Damon Hunt is sassy, just like DW.

And they're both into fashion.

So that just seemed

completely obvious to me.

Now, last of all here,

we've got Jonas Brodine.

And to me, Jonas Brodine is George.

I don't remember George's last name,

but George is the moose.

He's a little bit awkward.

He's a little bit, he's quiet,

just like Brodine is quiet.

Um, but he's, he's quirky.

Uh, George has, he's a ventriloquist.

He has a puppet that he

brings around with him.

And I just feel like Brodine probably had,

I mean, like he's a, he's a closet Swifty,

not really closet.

I mean, like he lets everybody know,

but you know,

when they asked him what's

his favorite song, he's like all too well,

the 10 minute version.

And obviously that is kind

of the sign of someone

who's really a Swifty.

Um, at least to me,

I'm not really a Swifty,

although I like her.

Um, so

that is kind of what I came

up with I mean well let's

see who would be mr ratburn

like I don't know john

heinz as well you know what

mr ratburn is bill garen

because obviously they're

both the leaders of the organizations um

But they're like,

they're kind of like loud,

large and in charge.

Mr. Rampern loves to put on

plays and he's also a puppeteer.

There's like a lot of

puppets happening in the Arthur world.

And he.

You know,

he just he is not going to let

anyone else change his mind on things or,

you know,

he he loves to spring tests on people.

He's very like.

What's the word I'm looking for?

Like.

It's not going to come to me.

But Bill Guerin is too.

They're not afraid to make a decision.

And I respect that.

I'm not like that, but I respect that.

So Mr. Ratburn is definitely Bill Guerin.

And I feel like I could keep

going and maybe I will with forwards.

But this episode needs to be

done because I have other things to do.

Happy early 4th of July.

I probably will not be back

till Thursday with a new episode.

I will be celebrating.

Why not go to a parade?

Okay.

So thank you as always for listening.

I love each and every one of

you that listen.

It really means something to

me that people want to

consume content that I make

and I love it very much and

I don't take it for granted.

So until next time, I will see you later.

I love you all.