Wild Sign Konopka & Mitchell

This morning at 11 am, free agency opened up in the NHL. About 90 minutes later, the Wild announced they had sign F's Zenon Konopka and Torrey Mitchell. Konopka was signed to a 2 year deal worth $925,000 each year and Mitchell was signed for 3 years worth $1.9 million each year.

Konopka has played parts of 7 seasons in the NHL and has bounced around seemingly every year. He has previously played for Anaheim, Columbus, Tampa Bay, New York Islanders, and Ottawa. The only team he has spent more than one season with is Tampa Bay (2008-2010). Konopka is an enforcer and has ranked atop the PIM charts in the NHL the past three years (265, 307, 193 PIMs in those respective years). He will bring a tough guy element to the Wild that the team has not had since the late Derek Boogaard left the team. But, one would argue that Matt Kassian did a solid job in that role in the limited time he got up here last year.

Mitchell comes over from the San Jose Sharks after spending parts of 5 seasons playing for them. He will add a more gritty element to the team and will spend time on the third or fourth line for the next three years. Mitchell has never put more than 23 points in a season, so don't expect to find him on the scoring sheet much. As Russo pointed out in his blog today, Mitchell has good speed and is an excellent penalty killer, a player Coach Mike Yeo loves to have.

So far, we have seen the Wild get much tougher here in free agency. With these moves now in hand, it would appear that Chuck Fletcher and his staff will be focused on signing the big fish in the free agency pool (Parise, Suter).

Welcome to the Team of 18,001 Zenon Konopka and Torrey Mitchell!

Opening Night Notes

Tonight, after 6 months since their last game, the Wild open up the 2011-12 season. It's seemingly been a longer offseason than others in recent years. Most of that has to do with the excitement around this team, after some major changes were made my Chuck Fletcher this offseason. So here are some things you should know as we drop the puck tonight.

• Per, Mike Russo of the Strib, F Matt Kassian and D Justin Falk will be watching the game from the press box tonight.
  
• With the scratches of Kassian and Falk, rookie forward Brett Bulmer will make his NHL debut tonight.
  
• Expect a pretty lengthy tribute to former Wild players Derek Boogaard and Pavol Demitra, who passed away during the offseason, prior to the game tonight.
• Mike Yeo, coaches his first game behind the Wild bench tonight. Russo had a nice story on him in today's paper.
  
• The Blue Jackets, tonight's opponent, are coming off a 3-2 loss in their season opener last night at home against Nashville.
• For those watching the game at home, be sure to tune into the pregame and postgame show to watch new Wild TV analyst, Wes Walz.
  
• The Wild will become the first NHL team to have free Wi-Fi in the arena. With this Wi-Fi, you can access replays not shown on the scoreboard, and even place food orders from their seats.
• I've also heard that concession prices have increased this season. You can now buy your beer for somewhere between $8-9 bucks.
  

This is all I have for today. I will be at the game tonight, watching from the cheap seats cheering on the Wild. Hopefully they can continue their good success of winning their home openers.