Mojzis clears waivers
Posted on November 19th, 2008 – 11:47 AMBy Michael Russo
Just landed. Defenseman Tomas Mojzis has passed through waivers. I believe the Wild will have to make a roster move today, either sending Mojzis to Houston, sending Nolan Schaefer back to Houston or placing Josh Harding on injured reserve.
Harding is supposed to be evaluated today.
Stensaas will be on the blog later, and I’ll be on KSTP tonight at 6.
As they say to air traffic control, “Good day.”
46 Responses to "Mojzis clears waivers"
Um, I vote sending Mosey AND Schaefer to Houston, but that’s just me.
Yeah, yeah Ms. C… want them to send Shep and IJ with? 
Russo/Stencils- are you going to offer up the culprit for Steph’s shaving cream in the face? (probably a typical birthday greeting) I’ve been hanging on for two days….
M 03 he cannot violate the code.
If he does, I am sure he is risking an ‘upper body injury’… 
Um yeah, Buddha! Send Mikko while you’re at it.
Given the need for more offense, I can’t see Mojzis not going to Houston. If they need an extra Defenseman, they can put Burns back there.
They need more offense, and Kolanos would give JL flexibility with the lineup.
Side note: Anyone want to take bets on if/when Weller sees the lineup again?
Ah… more love from Puck Daddy. Gotta love it. Thanks Wysh (I know you read this).
I’ll make the cll Ms. C. I guarantee all of them clear waivers, right?
Yeah, Weller’s the guy they really should send down. I know he’s got a one way deal but geez. He looks like an AHLer out there. And we miss having a guy (Cal) whose bread and butter is bringing the pain…
There does come a point where a one year extension for Gaby is a win-win. If he doesn’t come around pretty quickly, his value drops so low that his only chance for redemption is a strong injury free season. He could do that elsewhere ala Hossa, but I could also see where Gaby, Salcer and Smug all wise up and realize the most convenient and likely effective way of getting that done might be right here. Egos will probably prevent it from happening, but that doesn’t mean its the wrong approach.
If I am Backstrom’s agent, I am going out today and finding a marketing agency who starts a campaign based on “The Backuum”. Custom painted helmet and all. By negotiating time, this guy would be so high profile, they won’t be able to get all the zeros on the check.
Wild have had 2 NW division games, Avs 8 with 3 of them losses to the Flames. It all evens out, but I don’t know if its helpful being behind the curve that much.
If the team can stay in the hunt, they are positioned well with the cap especially if they move Gaby, to make some significant deadline moves and add a couple of rent-a-studs if they don’t get it done earlier. Add some scoring and a touch of grit to this defense, special teams and goalkeeping and I could see a playoff run.
Michael up North says:
November 19th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Agree with your previous statement that #5 is playing some good hockey - for once. That makes him easier to trade, since he’s never been worth his salary up until now. Plus, given his age, it would be prudent to move him now and free up some space for signing Backs and some of our other younger players. DR would have never been able to move him last year at his salary, but now he’s playing like he’s worth it - so I think now is the time to make the move.
Hmmm, makes sense to me. Send a guy who’s playing at his best packing… That’s the way to win championships!
DR has plenty of space to sign Backstrom. Right now he’s got $1.7M in cap space. Give all that to Backstrom and he’d be getting a 54.8% raise - not too shabby! Which, BTW, would put him about 12th in pay for goalies.
He can pay the ‘younger players’ out of the money he saves by moving Gaborik.
Michael’s post was at the end of the last one BTW.
And I forgot italics to seperate his stuff from mine. Mine starts with ‘Hmmmm, makes sense to me…’
Nice, Buddha! A PD hit is always cool.
Oh, just send ‘em down. They don’t have to play. I know where there are some empty chairs with a great view. 
[…] Russo’s Rants – […]
Goody: Backs is going to command a sh!t load more than the extra $1.7 million will allow. He’s at $3.1 for this year, his final year. Let’s assume, for a moment, that he remains healthy for the rest of the year and puts up numbers that many expect him to. If Ballgame wants to sign him to an extension, that initial offer better be upwards of $5.25-5.5 million per season, because you can bet your sweet Bertuzzi that if Backstop is allowed to test UFA waters, a team will pony up $6 million per.
$5.25-5.5M per would put him in the range of Turco, Fluery and Broduer.
Which is all the more reason DR needs to sign him NOW!
So add the 1.7 to his 3.1 you get 4.8. to go 5.5 you need another $.7M. Easy when Gaborik’s out of the picture.
You can sign Backstrom for $4.5 million prior to the trade deadline. Once that passes, expect it to go up to $5+ million. Right now, he might be willing to take a small discount but don’t expect one after the trade deadline.
I’m not writing the money won’t be there, I’m just writing that $4.8 isn’t gonna be enough. At the rate he is playing right now, I’m not sure $5.5 is gonna be enough. Every week that passes and he keeps his GAA and save % in the miniscule category, the contract gets more and more expensive.
What’s this $1.7 million in cap space? This year — we don’t care about this year’s cap space. Its about next year’s cap space.
DB: I think it will be okay. Its about when it gets done. Prior to the trade deadline = less than $5 million. After the deadline = more than $5 million.
Confused as well, but I’m too sick to argue, although I see no chance of getting Backstop for $4.5 per season, not the way he is playing. His agent, whomever it may be, is not dummy. He knows that a top goalie, in the prime of his career, can easily snag $5.5 per season on the open market and most likely up to $6 million per.
sunshine: I would tend to agree with you, but I have watched Ballgame’s negotiating tactics for the past sveral years, which is more than enough to make me sweat this one out more than a little bit.
As a goalie though, I think there’s a bit of a discount you’re willing to take to play on a team that’s one of the best defensively in the league. Then again, if Jock leaves…
BTW, they’re replaying the game from last night right now on NHLN. Wasn’t planning to watch it again, but what the heck. I really didn’t need to hear them call Jordan Staan “the Man-Child” again though… ugh.
Well, DR did sign Burns and Schultz early. It bugs me that he can’t seem to do 2 contracts at the same time. I can understand it if he is still hoping to re-sign Gaborik and he wants to know how much money he has left but that doesn’t make sense. Using Mike’s words, DR can dig in the dumpster for other role playing guys or bring them up from AHL to fill in.
I wouldn’t worry about Harding either. He is RFA. He has to take at least 1 year deal if he wants to leave or we will take picks if there is an offer sheet.
DR only has to worry about Gaborik and Backstrom. Everyone else can wait.
Wasn’t Weller supposed to be a fan favorite? I thought Lemaire said something like that at the start of training camp.
Stoned on the Breakaway said:
“If the team can stay in the hunt, they are positioned well with the cap especially if they move Gaby, to make some significant deadline moves and add a couple of rent-a-studs…”
The wild do that EVERY year. I for one would like to see them stay conservative for once and build for the future.
I agree with SotB. If both sides throw their egos out the window, a one year deal could be benifical to both. I also think if DR offered Backs a five year package at 25Mil, I would bet Backs would take it. One thing, I don’t know how hard-core his agent is.
I would rather DR keep picks too if all he is going to do is trade them for a Moore, a Hall, or a Simon.
I believe we traded Dupius for Hall and after the trade fans found that we could have had sister Christian instead. If you blinked you missed Adam Hall.
I agree with 5minmaj: I have grown tired of the Wild always making a huge splash at the trade deadline and again on July with free agency. For once, i’d like to see Ballgame keep it close to the vest and bring in 3rd-tier forward that can add leadership to the lockeroom
Scout Watch 2008:
Scouts for Anaheim, Ottawa and Tampa Bay attended the Pens/Wild game last night - http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_599129.html
I’m just using the 1.7 as an example if no one is given a raise except Backstrom.
Next year our UFA’s and RFA’s are:
Gaborik $7.500M right now
Pouliot $.850M right now
SRV $.863M right now
Kolanos $.500M right now
Skoula $1.900M right now
MAB $1.691M right now
Foster $1.025M right now
Mojzis $.500M right now
Reitz $.500M right now
Backstrom $3.1M right now
Harding $.750M right now
Of those, I don’t expect many of them would get much of a raise. Pouliot depending on his season, Reitz maybe but he’s an RFA, SRV we know how that went for him last summer, Skoula maybe but probably not in high demand from other teams, Harding is looking more and more like a backup and less of 1/2 of a goalie tandem… Backstrom is the one large piece of pie.
Look at Gaborik. $7.5M - thats 40% of the salary listed above tied up in one player. Kiss him goodbye and you’ve got quite a bit of $$ to throw around. Even if you replace him with a $5M man (see what I did there?) You’ve still got $2M to distribute around.
This is of course assuming the cap stays in the same spot next year and doesn’t go up.
Fan Favorite, that is what I heard too Lucky.
Sunshine, I left a couple messages re: Gaby vs Shephard for you on the end of the last thread.
Scouts for Anaheim, Ottawa and Tampa Bay attended the Pens/Wild game last night
That means IF they were there for the Wild, and not the Pens, there is going to be another player involved in the Gaby trade if it goes down.
If we were going to trade Gaby for a pick or another player straight-up, there wouldn’t need to be scouts at the game - correct?
So if the Rumor was that DR was supposed to attend the Sens/NYR game, and the Ducks, Sens, and Bolts scouts were at the Pens/Wild tilt, that would mean Ottawa is the front runner in any Gaby trade - I just can’t see them trading Spezza.
Theo, but if the player (Gaby) has demonstrated he doesn’t care to be here what is the point?
Deep Breath: don’t forget about those euro-unknowns that haven’t had the chance to reach their true potential. Ballgame never tries to sign any of those gems-in-the-rough.
If its not Spezza, than you have to wonder how OTT keeps Gaby long term. I guess MuN’s three way deal with Chicago for “Bulin wall would still be possible but I don’t trust MuN since he is trying to trade #5. Also, is OTT crazy enough to try to save their season (if they see it that way) to trade say Vermette and Fisher for Gaby and Harding/MAB this year?
Ice: Thanks but once a new post is started, I don’t go back and read past posts.
I forgot that we traded for Hall.
Staal might not want to sign a contract with the Pens so the scouts are probably looking at him.
Smug Alert:
Van_Smack: I didn’t go to the Penguins game last night but I could hear the sound of 17,000 people snoring coming through my TV set. What a boring style of hockey the Wild play, eh?
Jerry Micco: Jacques Lemaire has done this everywhere he’s been and he has a Stanley Cup to show for it. It may be boring, but it’s effective. It fits their team nicely, too, because with Marian Gaborik being out most of the season, they don’t have a lot of offense anyway. But last night, the Pens did have their chances early, they just couldn’t beat Nicklas Backstrom. The Wild will be tough all season, but when it comes to the playoffs, you need to be able to score a little, too. And in the West, teams like San Jose and Detroit can do that as well as shut you down, too.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08324/929107-13.stm
So at the end of the day I was talking hockey with a few colleagues when the old light bulb came on: Why doesn’t Minnesota trade its oft-injured star, Marian Gaborik, to Ottawa for its under-fire star, Jason Spezza? Wouldn’t fantasy owners of these players like to see this trade actually happen? Think of the shockwaves it would create, giving life to all sorts of speculation on new lines, raising the fantasy value of other players on each team, and restoring the superstar fantasy value of Gaborik and Spezza, who are not performing to the expectations of their fantasy owners.
To my way of thinking, it would be the biggest exchange of star players since Atlanta traded Dany Heatley to Ottawa for Marian Hossa. Perhaps the person who would hate to see Spezza leave Ottawa the most is Heatley, his Pizza Line linemate. But I have a solution for that as well: Expand the trade to include Heatley going to Minnesota in exchange for Niklas Backstrom. The latter would solve the Senators’ goaltending problem, but obviously the Wild wouldn’t deal Backstrom unless they felt Josh Harding could take over full-time.
Re: Rocky-
Hell, why not throw Alfie in, and the Wild can give up Koivu, Burns, three first round picks, Shep, Pouliot, and the X while they are at it?
I hate NHL.com writers almost as much as I hate bad blog writers. Got the dream gig, and they write such stupid articles.
What should I expect though… they do indirectly work for Gary Bettman
if your a wild the wild fan you saw the playoff game a gainst the ducks you saw what hapend there goalie is sow far in the allstar game but he does not what he shood get but you can help and go nhl.com and vote for the wild goalie and the other wild players .
the wild hate the ducks and the cunucks and avelanch when they play them they need toplay more hard and they need to hit boogaard not doign his job is to hit his not doign it hineeds to change vote for backstrom dont dont vote for ducks for the allstargame
vote for backstrom allstar game
