Wild Rank 87th In Ultimate Standings

Yesterday, ESPN released its annual ultimate standings for 2012. The "Ultimate Standings", are an in depth ranking of all 122 professional sports teams between the four major sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL).

The rankings take into account the following factors: Bang for the Buck, Fan Relations, Ownership, Affordability, Stadium Experience, Players, Coaching, and Title Track.

The Wild were ranked 87th (3rd out of the 4 Minnesota pro sports teams. Timberwolves-71st, Twins-83rd, and Vikings-100th) out of the 122 teams.

Their factors were rated as follows (Again, out of 122 teams):

Bang for the Buck: 102

Fan Relations: 61

Ownership: 70

Affordability: 93

Stadium Experience: 6

Players: 95

Coaching: 70

Title Track: 103

Ross Marrinson of ESPN.com offered this explanation for the Wild's ranking: "Even the beautiful Xcel Energy Center -- ranked by fans as creating the best stadium experience in the NHL -- can't hide the mediocre product skating on its rink, as the Wild continue to wither away in the doldrums of hockey irrelevance: 78th overall in 2010, 92nd in 2011 and 87th in 2012. Fans don't feel that the team demonstrates a commitment to winning (the Wild haven't eclipsed 90 points since the 2007-08 season) or gets enough from the money it spends. They voted the team in the bottom third of the NHL in seven of the nine categories. The excitement of getting a team after the North Stars bolted to Dallas has faded, and fans are left with an organization that's charging too much -- at $62.63, the average ticket price is ninth highest in the league -- and providing too little success (only three playoff appearances in 11 seasons). The Wild made a huge splash in free agency this year, signing the homegrown Zach Parise and former Predators defenseman Ryan Suter, which should help in the players and ownership categories, ranked this year at 95th and 70th, respectively. But for now, the Wild are where they've always been: searching for a talented team to match their state-of-the-art arena."

Hopefully, in the next few years, the Wild can move further up the ranking chart now that they should have a solid future ahead of them.

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Zach Parise

Zach Parise

Forward

5'11"

195 lbs

Shoots: Left

Born: July 28, 1984

Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota

No free agent was more coveted in the NHL this summer than Zach Parise. And for the first time in...well...ever, a top free agent chose to sign in Minnesota. The Wild signed Parise to a 13 year contract worth $98 million on July 4th, giving him one of the longest and highest paying contracts in the NHL (Ryan Suter got the exact same deal).

In his 7 seasons in the NHL, Parise has been an offensive force, scoring at least 30 goals in 5 of those 7 seasons (He only played 13 games in 2010-11 due to a torn meniscus in his right knee). In 08-09, he set career highs in most major offensive categories when he put up a line of 45-49-94 and registered a +/- rating of +30. Parise is coming off a 31 goal, 38 assist season, helping the Devils reach the Stanley Cup Finals (Parise scored 8 goals and 7 assists in the Devils' run to the finals).

But there is much more to Zach Parise than his offensive skills. He is a very skilled defensive forward, making one of the better two way players in the game. He was an anchor on the Devils PK, leading them to the #1 PK ranking (89.6%) this past season. He set a career high with 3 shorthanded goals last year, making him all the more dangerous when his team is on the PK.

Additionally, Parise is a proven team leader. In 09-10, he was named alternate captain of the Devils, before being named their captain in 2011-12. Now that Parise is on the Wild he will serve as one of the team's alternate captain to Mikko Koivu (Please, don't think for a second Parise will be captain while Mikko still wears the Wild sweater. This is Mikko's team.).

Parise is a fierce competitor and plays the game very hard. Adding his skills to his desire to win every night makes him one of the game's best players.

He came within 2 wins of the Stanley Cup this past summer. He could of easily stayed in New Jersey so he could of given it another try to win it all with the only team he has ever played for. But he chose an alternate route. He believed the Wild had a greater future and gives him a better shot to win the Stanley Cup at some point than the Devils do. And that's ultimately why Zach Parise chose to sign with the Wild.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001 Zach Parise!

This was the fifth post in a five post series on the Wild's free agent signings. We have previously looked at Jake Dowell, Zenon Konopka, Torrey Mitchell, and Ryan Suter. 

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Ryan Suter

Ryan Suter

Defenseman

6'1"

198 lbs

Shoots: Left

Born: January 21, 1985

Birthplace: Madison, Wisconsin

Since he came into the league in 2005-06, Ryan Suter has been just about as solid as you can get in terms of defenseman in the NHL. He has played no less than 70 games a season. He has 5 straight seasons of scoring at least 30 points. And he carries a career +/- rating of +43. He is clearly, the right man to anchor the Wild blueline in the next decade.

Suter is not known for being a goal scorer (career high in goals in a season is 8). But that could be in part due to playing with an even better defenseman in Shea Weber all his years in Nashville. So now that Suter is free of Weber, you could perhaps see an increase in goal scoring now that his defensive partner will be Tom Gilbert.

Suter, as before mentioned is an iron man. He will play no less than 90% of the team's games. And last year, he was 3rd among all defenseman in time on ice by averaging 26:30 per game. Take into account his likely partner, Gilbert, averaged 31 shifts last year, you will see plenty of the two on the ice in the upcoming season.

Last year, the Wild seemingly shuffled a few players out there as the quarterback of their powerplay (Matt Cullen got the most time), due to lack of offensive defenseman (A big reason, in my opinion, that the Wild PP was atrocious in 11-12). Suter will now be stepping into that role, and moving whatever forward Mike Yeo wanted to put on the blue line, back to forward, and giving the Wild two bold power play lines. 

In addition to his skills, Suter is a proven leader. He served as alternate captain in Nashville the last few seasons, and will serve in the same capacity here in Minnesota. 

Ryan Suter is just about everything the Wild need in terms of a defenseman. And I for one am glad, he chose to take up residence in the State of Hockey for the next 13 years.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001: Ryan Suter


This is the fourth post in a five post series on the Wild's free agent signings this offseason. We have previously looked at Jake Dowell, Zenon Konopka, and Torrey Mitchell. Tomorrow will be our final installment in this series by taking a look at Zach Parise.

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Torrey Mitchell

Torrey Mitchell

Forward

5'11"

190 lbs

Shoots: Left

Born: January 30, 1985

Birthplace: Greenfield Park, Quebec

Mitchell was signed by the Wild just a few hours after free agency opened on July 1st. He signed a 3 year, $5.7 million deal (Cap hit of $1.9 million per year) to be a stronghold on the team's 3rd line.

You may remember Mitchell, as the Sharks player who checked Kurtis Foster into the boards in San Jose and broke Foster's femur, just a few weeks prior to the 2008 playoffs (That was a huge blow to the Wild).

Mitchell does not jump off the page statistically (30-43-73 line in 260 career games). But if you watch him closely, he brings speed and gritty play to the table, something Mike Yeo is always looking for to add to the squad. He also will add some depth to the lower lines, something the Wild did not have much of in 2011-12. Mitchell is also a pretty decent penalty killer, so look for him to help bolster a pretty decent PK unit from 2011-12.

(Mitchell doesn't score often, but when he chooses to do so, he can make it look pretty)

He had played his entire 5 year career with San Jose to this point, so in addition to his gritty play, he will also bring some valuable postseason experience to the Wild. He has played in 55 playoff games thus far in his career, and that puts him up there with Dany Heatley (66), Matt Cullen (63), and Zach Parise (61) as team leaders in the playoff games category.

Torrey Mitchell has the characteristics to fit the Mike Yeo system perfectly, so look for him to be a valuable part of the Wild for the next three years.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001 Torrey Mitchell!


This is the third post in a five post series on the Wild's free agent signings this offseason. We have previously looked at Jake Dowell and Zenon Konopka. Tomorrow, we will take a look at Ryan Suter.

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Zenon Konopka

Zenon Konopka
Forward

6'0"

209 lbs

Shoots: Left

Born: January 2, 1981

Birthplace: Niagara On The Lake, Ontario

Konopka was a July 1st signing, when he signed a 2 year deal worth $1.85 million ($925,000 cap hit per year). He played for Ottawa last season, and he posted 193 penalty minutes, which was third in the NHL behind Derek Dorsett (235) and Zac Rinaldo (232). 

As you can imagine, Konopka was simply brought in here to be the team's enforcer. Between 2009-2012 Konopka has spent those three seasons with three different teams (Lightning, Islanders, and Senators), but has racked up 765 penalty minutes, the most of anyone during that time.

Plain and simple, Zenon Konopka is here to throw some hits, and drop the gloves.

Like most bruisers, he doesn't give you much offensive production (11 career NHL goals). So he will be a mainstay on the fourth line for the next two seasons.

After Derek Boogaard left the team, we all thought Brad Staubitz was the team's future enforcer. After a year and a half of that project, Staubitz proved to be a poor replacement. But, they have found a proven NHL tough guy in Zenon Konopka. And I for one, am glad to have him on the team for the next two years.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001, Zenon Konopka.

This is the second post in a 5 post series on the Wild's free agent signings this offseason. Yesterday, we looked at Jake Dowell. Monday, we will take a look at Torrey Mitchell.

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Jake Dowell

Jake Dowell
Forward

6'0"

198 lbs

Shoots: Left

Born: March 4, 1985
Birthplace: Eau Claire, Wisconsin

For those wondering, when did the Wild sign Jake Dowell? Well, he was signed about an hour before guys named Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed on with the team. (No, that is no way implying Jake Dowell helped bring Parise and Suter here)

There is not much you can say about Jake Dowell except for the fact he will drop the gloves when he needs to.

In his short NHL career, Dowell has racked up 133 penalty minutes in his 154 games played. In 08-09 with Rockford, Dowell spent 128 minutes in the box in his 75 games played.

He has scored a few goals in his time, but please by no means expect him to do so, while wearing a Wild sweater (11-22-33 line in his NHL career).

 

(Here's rare footage of a Jake Dowell goal)

Dowell projects as a fourth liner, who should only see time with the club if big bruisers Zenon Konopka and Matt Kassian are unable to play. So look for him to spend more time with Houston this year, protecting the club's best prospects.

Dowell was a 5th round pick in 2004 by Chicago, and made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks in 07-08. He is coming off a season spent with the Dallas Stars where he posted a line of 2-5-7 in 52 games and had 53 penalty minutes.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001, Jake Dowell.

This is the first part of a 5 part series on the Wild's free agent signings this offseason. Tomorrow's new face will be Zenon Konopka

Happy Anniversary

Its rather hard to believe, but one year ago today, I launched this blog. And what a year it has been (Not to mention, I started with a god awful background and I finally got a good one for the forseable future.).

In this year, we saw the Wild jump out as the best team in hockey in 2011-12, through mid December before suffering a collapse of historic proportions, en route to their fourth straight year of not making the post season.

But perhaps the pinnacle of this past year, came in July when the Wild bagged the two best free agents on the market in Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

Also in this year, I have been fortunate to come across some great blogs and some great people behind them:

-I love the guys over at Hockey Wilderness. They do tremendous work, and their content is second to none. They have set the gold standard for Wild blogs.

-Nate and Dan run First Round Bust, and they do a fantastic job doing so. Their work on prospects is outstanding. They have been huge in helping me get the stuff I put out there with their many mentions of my work, so a big thanks to them.

-Some of the other bloggers I've interacted with over cyberspace include: State of Hockey News, Jacques Lemaire's Trap, and Gone Puck Wild. Give these guys a follow, and read their stuff.

Of course it would be foolish to not acknowledge Mr Russo and all his fine work he gives us during the year. He is truly second to none among beat writers in the NHL. 

A big thanks to my friend Graeme, who continues to push me into being a better hockey fan. Truth be told, I started this blog to help me be as knowledgeable about the Wild and NHL as he is.

But lastly, thank you to everyone who continues to read the stuff I put on here. Especially in the past few months, everyone has been very kind in giving a few minutes of their day to read what I write.

So here's to hoping I can make the next year with the Team of 18,001 a better one than the last one.

Vacation Time Is Over

 I decided it was time to end my hiding and come back out and start blogging about my favorite hockey team. So in the next few weeks I'm gonna try and get as much in here as I possibly can, despite my seemingly full schedule. So please bear with me.

First of all, upon my return today, I noticed that I broke my monthly record for pageviews in the month of July, despite my last post coming on July 9th. So a BIG thank you goes out to everyone for helping me shatter the record again after I broke it in the month of June.

Over the next few weeks, I will have a few series of posts, including my new updated top 10 prospects list, and The Welcome To The State of Hockey series that I also did last year.

Also this week, the blog will be celebrating it's one year anniversary. So there will be a special post for that.

Lastly, while I was away, the Owners of the NHL and the NHLPA exchanged their first proposals in the hopes of reaching a new agreement on a CBA before the September 15th deadline, when the current CBA expires and the players will, unfortunately, be locked out. And unfortunately, there is no evidence to believe that the two sides will reach an agreement before the deadline. So don't expect the season to start on time.

Parise and Suter Watch: Final Entry

(Left to right: Owner Craig Leipold, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, GM Chuck Fletcher, HC Mike Yeo)

This afternoon, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter took to the podium at Xcel Energy Center and donned Wild sweaters for the first time since signing equal 13 year, $98 million deals last week.


It was still surreal seeing both of them in Wild sweaters. It quite hasn't sunk in that both of them will be part of this franchise for the next 13 years. And it might not until they hit the ice this September for training camp (CBA permitting!).


Since the signing, we have talked about having realistic expectations and a new culture of winning. But, all there is really left to do is go out in the ice and perform.


So we bid farewell to the Parise and Suter Watch. It was a fun ride. But the even better ride begins this fall.

A Culture of Winning

Yesterday, we talked about having realistic expectations for the 2012-13 season now that the Wild have Zach Parise and Ryan Suter on board.

But, eventually, with each passing season, there will become higher expectations. So say next year, we expect a playoff appearance. Then the next year we will expect, a second round playoff appearance, then a division title, and so on. Without a doubt, Craig Leipold, Chuck Fletcher, and company have their work cut out for them now that they have opened up a brand new culture to the State of Hockey: A culture of winning.

No, you simply cannot expect to have this culture just by signing Parise and Suter. Fletcher created this, by building up his farm system with immense talent (Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin, etc.), while his NHL team struggled. Then last year he made some bold moves (Heatley and Setoguchi) to change it up in the locker room. And as we saw in the 11-12 season, his boldness paid off through mid-December. But then the bottom fell out from under the team and they limped across the finish line.

But now, Fletcher has his prospects signed and ready to play in Houston, and he has the big club looking its best, ever since he came on following the 08-09 season.

And now the real work begins. The team will open the season, and every other season for the following 12,  with the highest expectations in the history of the franchise. And now every time 18,000 fans flock down to St. Paul to see the Wild play, they will be expecting a Wild victory.

All because Chuck Fletcher has done what he was hired to do: Create a culture of winning.