Stephane Veilleux Returns

For what seems like the 1,000,000th time this season, the Wild have recalled Stephane Veilleux from Iowa in time for tonight's tilt with Winnipeg. The move was made to give the Wild another body on the roster since it appears that Zach Parise will be out for a few games after not giving his foot adequate rehab time (this rant will come a different day).

If you have been following along on Twitter today, here are some interesting Stephane Veilleux facts that you should be made aware of since he is back playing with the Wild:

• Courtesy of Clarence Swamptown, Veilleux ranks fifth among the Iowa Wild's five left wingers in scoring this year.
• Veilleux carries a career +/- rating of -67. -53 of that total comes with the Wild.
• Only seven more players have played more games in team history than Veilleux (393). Mikko Koivu (2nd) is the only other active player on the list with 575 games played.
• The last time Veilleux scored a goal for the Wild was March 22, 2009 against the Edmonton Oilers (ha!).The last goal he has scored overall in the NHL is February 2, 2010 against the Atlanta Thrashers (now Winnipeg Jets).
• In his 11 games played this year, Veilleux's Corsi For Percentage (38.7%) is worst on the team if you are counting players who have played two or more games. 

If you don't want to run for beer or hard alcohol by this point, I applaud you. How do you think I was able to get through this post (kidding)?

The fact is, Veilleux has been called up far more than he should be. You will hear the coach say things like "energy" and "spark" when it comes to Veilleux. But the problem for the team has been scoring. True, there has been a lack of energy too, but when you are having scoring issues your energy level tends to dip too.

If you want energy, great, Veilleux is your guy. He will give you lots of it if it means he gets to stay the the Wild. But that's all you get. His days of scoring goals are done. So having Veilleux fill the roster spot left vacant by your best goal scorer, Zach Parise, makes little to no sense here. Give Erik Haula, Jason Zucker, or anyone else in Iowa for that matter a chance to spark the offense.

Plain and simple, Stephane Veilleux is not going to fix the Wild's problems. Lets give someone else a chance.