Draft Day Trades

Photo: Getty Images

A big reason for draft day being one of the most exciting days of the year: the trades.

2013-14 Season In Review: Chuck Fletcher

Photo: Wild.com

A review of the Wild's general manager, Chuck Fletcher.

2014 Offseason To Do List

Chuck Fletcher (right) has another fascinating offseason ahead of him.
Photo: Andy King/AP

Now that we have had some time to collect ourselves from the defeat by Chicago, the focus will now shift to what the team needs to do this offseason. So here is a list of what the Wild need to do this offseason, to help ensure a successful 2014-15 season.

Cleanout Day Recap

Yesterday a couple of Wild players and the GM Chuck Fletcher met with the media as the took part on the team's cleanout day. Here is the video of each of them followed by a few thoughts.

A Busy Tuesday: Backstrom Shut Down, Mitchell Wants Out

Will Chuck Fletcher move Torrey Mitchell today?

Shortly after the team acquired Ilya Bryzgalov yesterday, GM Chuck Fletcher stated that due to the injury Niklas Backstrom has sustained, he will be shut down and will more than likely be done for the season. The announcement that Backstrom will be shut down was not surprising in the least given he has not played since January 30th and the Olympic break did very little to help heal his abdominal injury.

The 2013-14 Minnesota Wild: Mike Yeo

Two summers ago, Mike Yeo was the new bench boss in Minnesota. He was brought in after pitching to GM Chuck Fletcher his plan to give this team an identity, make them more aggressive, and get them to push for higher goals (like winning). This coming after his predecessor on the bench, Todd Richards, seemed to lack the aforementioned aspects.

Why Is Matt Cooke Here?

Last night, Chuck Fletcher turned the entire Minnesota Wild fan base upside down when he signed Matt Cooke to a three year deal. Literally the entire fan base united together and hailed the move as ridiculous, mainly due to Cooke's past.

It is true that Cooke does have a terrible history in this league when it comes to supplemental discipline. Five different times between 2008 and 2011, Cooke was suspended for illegal hitting. His worst hit was a elbow to the head of Bruins F Marc Savard, but he did not receive a suspension, as the play was deemed to be within the rules. Following the hit, the league made substantial changes to its hitting policy, focusing on hits to the head.

Following his last suspension in 2011 (a suspension that caused him to miss the entire postseason), Cooke took it upon himself to change his game. He wanted to still be that gritty player, but play within the rules. He took the time to go over his hits, and studied how he needed to change. In the time since he studied how to change, Matt Cooke has not been suspended. In fact, its hard to remember an instance where you said, "Thats a dirty play."

In addition to the changed physical play, Cooke also improved his overall game significantly. Offensively, he has decent speed, good hands, and can score 12-15 goals a season. Defensively, he buzzes around the puck causing issues for the opposition (mainly from his physical play), and has been one of the Penguins top penalty killers the past four seasons.

Cooke also brings ample playoff experience with him from Pittsburgh, playing in 58 playoff games with the Pens. He was part of their 2009 Stanley Cup championship squad, scoring one goal and six assists on the Pens third line during that postseason run.

If you all want to hate the baggage Matt Cooke brings with him to Minnesota, fine. But hate the baggage, not the player. The player is much different from when he used to antagonize the Wild with Vancouver many years ago.

You need to ask yourself, why is Matt Cooke here? Is he here to throw elbows around and get suspended several times? Absolutely not. So you need to get over that fact real fast. Because Matt Cooke is here to help this team win. And I know most of you can't believe this when I say he CAN help this team win.

If you are going to be rash and hate the Wild because they have Matt Cooke, go right ahead and hate them. But I'll be right there to show you the door.

We all need to trust in what Chuck Fletcher is doing. Teams who contend for the Stanley Cup every year are not built overnight (this is by no means saying we are going to win the Cup on the sole premise of signing Matt Cooke). It takes time. He has a plan for this team as a whole, and he feels Matt Cooke can be an integral part of that plan. We need to start to trust in Chuck (a hashtag I have been using on twitter lately).

Matt Cooke has changed so much. His past is indeed in the past. Care about his future with the Wild, not his past with different teams.

Lets all take a chance and believe in him.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Parise and Suter Watch: One Year Later

It seems like just yesterday. The media watch on coveted free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter was now in its fourth day. The date was July 4th, 2012, so one assumed that there would be no significant news on this day, right? Wrong.

Just shortly past eleven, news broke. Zach Parise was signing with his hometown team.

Zach Parise has agreed to terms with the Minnesota Wild
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) July 4, 2012

Then before you could collect yourself from the news, lightning struck twice. Ryan Suter joined Parise in Minnesota.

Ryan Suter also got same $98 million over 13 years with Wild
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) July 4, 2012

There had never been a moment like that in the history of Minnesota sports. There probably won't be again. It was the single greatest moment in the brief history of the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild had gone four seasons without an appearance in the postseason. They had built up the best pool of prospects in the NHL, after Chuck Fletcher inherited the worst pool of prospects four years earlier. Now all they needed was to land some big time free agents to make the team relevant again.

Now here we are, a year later. The Wild are coming off a lockout shortened season, in which the just barely made the playoffs. Parise was an anchor on the top line and lead the team in goals with 18. Suter lead the NHL in TOI (27:16) and finished second among NHL defenseman in assists (28), while finishing second in the Norris Trophy voting. Suter was also named to the NHL's first All Star team yesterday as well (surprised Ovechkin wasn't voted in as a defenseman too).

The pair lead the team to the playoffs in their first season. They also helped the young kids (Granlund, Coyle, Zucker, Brodin) come along and make significant impacts during the kids' first season in the NHL.

Who knows what happen to the Wild had they not signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter on this day last year. Its probably fair to assume they dont even make the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. But luckily for us, we never have to think about that problem.

So now as we move forward, what are the realistic expectations for the Wild in year two of the Parise and Suter era? Division Champions? An appearance in the second round of the playoffs? Conference Final trip?

We can answer that question in the coming weeks. For now, lets just reflect on what a great year it has been.


Here are the old posts in the Parise and Suter Watch series.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Wild Buyout Tom Gilbert

With a decreasing salary cap and a payroll that was already close to that cap, Chuck Fletcher finally did what we all knew was coming. He used one of the team's two compliance buyouts on defenseman Tom Gilbert.

The team will be on the hook to pay Gilbert $1 million in salary the next two seasons, but they no longer have his $4 million cap hit on the books for the 2013-14 season. Gilbert is coming off a dreadful season in which he notched 3 goals and 10 assists but was a -11 and was a huge defensive liability. His play was so bad this year he ended up being a healthy scratch a couple of times.

Gilbert picked the worst year to play horribly. He played himself right into a compliance buyout, and now is without a job. You would of liked to have given him a second chance, but the team simply had their hands tied with Dany Heatley still being on the roster.

The buyout of Gilbert now gives the Wild $6.45 million in cap space, with just a few holes on the roster to fill. The team still needs to re-sign RFA Jared Spurgeon (expect a 2-3 year deal worth about $2-2.25M for Spurgeon) and they now need to sign a defenseman to fill the void left by Gilbert (unless Wild fans want Nate Prosser to be the 6th defenseman).

In Russo's blog today, he mentioned that Chuck Fletcher believes there are bargains to be had from free agent defenseman (its been suggested that former Gopher Keith Ballard could be that bargain). Some could be prone to taking a deal that is below what they are worth due to the decreasing salary cap, and some could end up taking a two way deal just to keep their career going.

Should Fletcher end up signing a bargain defenseman just to be the 6th D-man and keep cap space, it could be likely that the combo of Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella will open the season as the second D pairing. The pair played admirably in the playoffs, and should get another chance to prove themselves next year.

Where Fletcher goes from here is a mystery. But by the end of Friday, we will probably know who Gilbert's replacement is.

Start placing your bets!


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

2013 NHL Draft: Fasten Your Seat Belts

Photo tweeted by @DarrenDreger

In the days leading up to the draft, you were expecting a bunch of trades to be made. Several teams have tight cap space and still have several spots on the roster to fill. The wheeling and dealing should of been at a ridiculous pace by now, right? Wrong.

Since the end of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday, the most prolific trade was a laughable one between the Avalanche and Flames. Rumors have been flying around like no other this week, but none of them have come to fruition. One has to think that at some point, those deals will finally get done.

Going into this draft, the Wild appear to be one of the teams looking to heavily wheel and deal. Russo points out today that the team is shopping Cal Clutterbuck around and are trying to get back into the first round of the draft (their existing first round pick was sent to Buffalo in the Jason Pominville trade).

It has also been mentioned that the team could buyout Tom Gilbert, before the buyout window closes on July 4th, to clear his $4M off the cap. It would give them much more breathing room in the cap to work with this year (the team only has $3.6M in cap space right now).

Chuck Fletcher has a history of draft day trades. Every one of them should be considered a success. So should he choose to make a move on Sunday, the odds that the trade works in his favor are very high (credit for the previous trades also go to Brent Flahr, who has been the unsung hero of the Wild front office).

If nothing at all happens today, you can sure expect an abundance of moves tomorrow. Players and picks will be moved at a high rate, bringing Gary Bettman to the podium far too many times than we would care for.

Fasten your seat belts, folks. It is going to be a great day.

Required Draft Reading:

• Dan Chan, from Hockey Wilderness, tells us that the Wild need to draft physical defenseman and goal scorers. He also gives his Top 100 Rankings (this will come in handy tomorrow when Seth Jones and Nate Mackinnon are off the boards).
• First Round Bust has literally spent the entire month going over all things draft related, so just click on this link and you can find all their draft coverage.
• TSN's Bob McKenzie gives his draft rankings.
• ESPN's Scott Burnside tells us who to keep an eye on.

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Stay Away From Bernier

Yesterday, it was reported that there were three teams left in the sweepstakes for Los Angeles Kings backup goaltender, Jonathan Bernier. The Wild were one of those teams. They are joined by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers, as the teams who Los Angeles has their list narrowed down to.

Bernier has been the Kings backup netminder for three seasons. This past season he played in 14 games (not a bad number considering the short 48 game season), and posted a 9-3-2 record with a 1.88 GAA and .922 save percentage (the last two stats were better than the Kings number one starter, Jonathan Quick). To compare, Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom had a 2.48 GAA and .909 save percentage, but, the Kings defensive core is a bit more polished than the Wild's.

The Kings are selling Bernier as a starting goalie. So that means LA will be asking for some kind of package involving a goalie prospect to backup Quick, and some combination of top prospects and high draft picks.

Clearly, the Wild are looking at backup options for if/when they should let Niklas Backstrom leave via free agency. They do not have the confidence in Josh Harding to take over as the number one, and they feel that Darcy Kuemper is still a year or two away from playing regularly in the NHL.

The fact remains, that the other two teams in this race (Toronto and Philadelphia) are very desperate for a goalie like Bernier. The Wild are desperate for a starter too, but not on the level like the two other squads (see Ilya Bryzgalov, James Reimer, and the word woof). Both those teams have the means for a deal like this, and would be more willing to part with their key prospects/draft picks to add Bernier.

Minnesota does not have its first round pick in this year's draft, as it was traded to Buffalo in the Jason Pominville deal. They used one of their top two goalie prospects, Matt Hackett, in the same deal, clearing the way for Kuemper to be the goalie of the future. Johan Gustafsson will be in the AHL next year, but he is a ways off from the NHL too. The prospect pool is still deep, but the type of prospects LA would want from Minnesota should clearly be stamped as "untouchable" (i.e. Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin, and Matt Dumba).

Bottomline: Toronto, Philadelphia, and Minnesota are locked into a bidding war for Bernier. At some point, the two teams from the East will simply take the bidding past a point that will be beyond ridiculous. GM Chuck Fletcher needs to stop once it goes beyond that point. He should not part with Kuemper, any one of the "untouchable" prospects, and their draft picks (in fact, the Wild should be looking to move back into the first round).

Refrain from acquiring Jonathan Bernier. Get Backstrom to re-sign at a lower price, or find someone else to take the starting job (Marc-Andre Fleury is available). The asking price is too great.

There may not be a better option than Bernier, but you can find cheaper options who can still get the job done...


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Thoughts On The Pominville Trade

Yes, this is a second post on this topic.

But, the first post purely focused on what the Wild are getting when they acquired Jason Pominville today. This post is a much different story.

In exchange for RW Jason Pominville and Buffalo's 2014 4th round pick, the Wild sent C Johan Larsson, G Matt Hackett, a 2013 1st round pick, and a 2014 2nd round pick on to Buffalo.

Being positive here, the Wild got a great two way forward, with tremendous offensive skills. He adds a lively right handed shot to the top power play. He will strengthen an already stellar penalty kill. His work ethic is outstanding (The top line of Parise-Koivu-Pominville will be one of the hardest working lines in hockey). With him in the mix, the Wild have become a powerhouse alongside Chicago and Anaheim in the Western Conference.

Then on the negative side, the price for Pominville was tremendously steep. Too steep for my liking. But, Chuck Fletcher and his staff believe in the team they have right now, and they met that steep price to get Pominville. Had it been a couple of second round picks, fine. Sending that first round pick coupled with Larsson and Hackett (Two of the Wild's top ten prospects), just flat bothers me. Even if Pominville is here for the remainder of this year and all of next year. But as Fletcher said today, "Anytime you want a good player who's not a rental, you're going to have to pay a price."

I guess at this point, I'm indifferent on this trade. I thought the Wild needed to add a defenseman more than a forward today (See the performance of Clayton Stoner, Justin Falk, Nate Prosser, and Tom Gilbert lately). They got Pominville, and gave up some big prospects to get him. But it was pointed out to me by a friend today that both players had really not impacted the team this year, nor had they proven themselves in the NHL yet, keeping the "prospect' label on them.

If this team can go far in the playoffs both seasons with Pominville, great. This trade will probably be considered a success then. But that's all IF they can make some deep postseason runs.

A few other thoughts I had following the trade:

• With Pominville on the books at $5.3 million for next year, it all but assures that Dany Heatley will be bought out (Using one of the team's amnesty buyouts), or traded this summer. Heatley carries a $7.5 million cap hit, and his play this season has not justified having him return with that kind of cap hit (Reminder, the cap next year is $64.3 million and the Wild have $55.9 million committed to 16 players, including Pominville and Heatley). 
• Pierre-Marc Bouchard is almost as good as gone following the season too. I was kind of surprised to see the Wild hang on to him today.
• Now that Matt Hackett has been traded, it would seem that the Wild will be for sure getting Niklas Backstrom back next year. Backstrom is in the final year of his contract and is a UFA this summer. Had they let him go, the tandem of Harding/Kuemper would man the nets for Minnesota next year. And who knows when Josh Harding will play again (Sorry, had to say it).

We will just have to wait and see how this all plays out. And it starts tomorrow in Los Angeles.

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Wild Starting To Get National Attention

Last night, while I was looking up to see how my march madness bracket was doing (Yes, I filled one out) on ESPN.com, I figured I would click on the NHL tab and see what ESPN had going on. And to my surprise, one of the main tabs on the ESPN/NHL homepage was labeled Minnesota Wild.

And I stumbled upon a post by Pierre LeBrun, which hails the Wild as the team we all thought they would be back in July, and a video from the pride of the ESPN NHL department, Barry Melrose.

An excerpt from LeBrun's post:
"Right now, [Fletcher] sees this a total team effort. Of course the star free agents, Suter and Parise, have been terrific, but everyone is contributing. The goaltending has been strong, the blue line rock solid and the offense -- yes, the offense ! -- has been clicking. 

The key has been the arrival of a second line, mainly featuring Setoguchi and Matt Cullen. While Setoguchi has been on fire, with six goals in his past five games, old man Cullen has been a great story, with 11 points (1-10) in his past 11 games."




Also, the Wild are starting to pick up some notice in Yahoo's Awards Watch, with Suter and Brodin getting nominations for the Norris (League's Best Defenseman) and Calder (League's Best Rookie), respectively.

And finally, Mike Yeo and Chuck Fletcher made appearances on NHL Network this past week to discuss the Wild's current success.

After 5 years of futility, it is finally nice to see the Wild: A) Winning and B) Getting some national coverage. Now that the team had a highly successful 3 game road trip, 2 games coming in places they haven't won since 2006 (Detroit) and 2009 (Vancouver), there will be a lot more eyes watching them. And perhaps, we will continue to read about the Wild on a national level more frequently as well too.

Its kind of a good feeling isn't it?


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

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.

Suter and Parise Watch: Waiting Game

Late this morning, Zach Parise arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Not to be taken to Xcel Energy Center, to be introduced as the newest member of the Minnesota Wild, but merely he is just going home. 

After 2 days at his agent's offices in Toronto, Parise best felt he could make the long awaited decision from his home after talking to his loved ones. Reports have the Wild, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Pittsburgh all making huge offers to the Devils captain.

Meanwhile, Ryan Suter continues to ponder his decision from his farm in Middleton Wisconsin. Many believe Suter will be waiting until Parise makes up his mind, before he decides to sign on somewhere. Its believe by some (Including Lou Nanne who spoke on KFAN yesterday) that if Parise signs in Minnesota, Suter will too. But should Parise sign elsewhere (Say, Pittsburgh), Suter will most likely end up in Detroit.

There has become an abundance of impatience on twitter between yesterday and today with the lack of decision on Parise's and Suter's part. But you have to understand, they are about to sign on with a team for the majority, if not all, of the remainder of their careers. And, when you have 5-6 teams knocking at your door, you want to take your time and make the right decision.

A decision could come as early as tomorrow from the Parise camp. But, I'd give him another day due to the 4th of July (Happy 4th in advance!), so look for his decision on Thursday. And you could bet Suter's decision follows closely thereafter.


UPDATE: Shortly after this was posted, Russo reported the the Wild contingent of Owner Craig Leopold, GM Chuck Fletcher, and Head Coach Mike Yeo met with Suter today in Madison, Wisconsin. This following reports that the Detroit Red Wings had been to Madison earlier in the day and visited Suter.


So following this report, one could assume that Detroit and Minnesota are the two finalists in the Ryan Suter sweepstakes (Unless more teams visit him on Wednesday). 


UPDATE 2: Later this evening, Russo was back at it again as he tweeted some rather interesting tidbits after his talk with Josh Reimer from NHL Home Ice. 


His first tweet was that Parise said he talks to Devils GM Lou Lamoriello 2-4 times per day since this process has begun. 


And tweets 2 & 3 were regarding Parise and Suter. Parise was quoted as saying he would love to play with Suter on a team, and that the two of them have been talking and that they also plan to talk (if they haven't already) again tonight. 


Russo ended by taking a guess that Parise will take one more day to decide his future and sign on with a team on the 5th. And as stated above, Suter will more than likely sign on shortly after.


To see my previous posts in the Suter Watch series, please click here

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!

Low Expectations

Tomorrow is the day we all have waited for.

For over a year, Wild fans, including myself, have been dreaming about this day. The day when New Jersey F Zach Parise and Nashville D Ryan Suter hit the free agent market, and the Wild are at their doorstep offering them a deal they can't possibly say no to.

But, the Wild won't be the only ones offering the two most coveted free agents contracts when the clock hits 11 am central time Sunday morning.

Parise could end up re-signing with New Jersey without even hearing another offer. But, should he hit the open market, he is expected to receive offers from the following teams: Detroit, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. And if you had to rank teams, most would have Minnesota at the bottom of that list.

Suter, meanwhile, will test the open market. As Russo has hinted for the past week, Suter will probably take a few days before he signs on with someone. Nashville has been trying to re-sign him before free agency starts, but he wants to see what is out there. But when the doors open up on Sunday, Detroit, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh are all expected to throw offers his way. And again, Minnesota is not at the top of many lists when it comes to signing Ryan Suter.

This is something the we all have waited for. But, the other teams in the mix for these two guys are powerhouse names in the NHL right now. They have the opportunity to win now, and they can give them the money they so desire. Minnesota can offer them the money, but only the opportunity to win a few years down the road.

Chuck Fletcher has such a tough sell, and to be honest, he may not have the tricks up his sleeve to sell them on coming to Minnesota.

I will be watching closely and hoping on Sunday (And the days after), that the Wild can sign the two.

But will be expecting either of them to sign on here? Absolutely not. And you shouldn't either.

Wild Draft Recap: Rounds 2-7

In surprisingly the same amount of time it took to go through the first round last night, the NHL finished up the final 6 rounds of the annual entry draft this morning. The Wild held a pick in every round this morning and in every round but the second, it was the 7th pick of the round (The second round pick was 16th in the round, which was acquired in the Marek Zidlicky trade). Here is the list of players the Wild drafted today:

2. Raphael Bussieres LW Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)
3. John Draeger D Shattuck-St. Mary's (MN)
4. Adam Gilmour C Nobles (MA)
5. Daniel Gunnarsson D Lulea (Sweeden)
6. Christoph Bertschy C Bern (Swiss)
7. Louis Nanne LW Edina HS (MN)

Add the first round pick Matt Dumba to that list, and you have 3 defenseman taken with the first 5 picks in the draft. So clearly, there was more of an emphasis on that position for Chuck Fletcher and his staff.

Its far too early to grade this draft. It will take quite some time before we know the answer on any of these picks, so judging any of them would be a complete waste of time right now.

I've already seen some negativity regarding the team's final pick, Louis Nanne (Yes, the grandson of former North Star Lou Nanne). People seem to think the team picked him just to say we have some Minnesota players in our system. Come on folks, be real. The team drafted him, and all these players because they felt they were the best player available on the board. Quit making such idiotic remarks.

Now that the draft is over, we now look ahead to 8 days from now when NHL Free Agency begins. Its the day we all have been waiting for, but will it be as glamorous as we all hoped?

Wild Select Matt Dumba

Tonight, with the 7th overall pick, the Minnesota Wild drafted defenseman Matt Dumba from the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League. Dumba scored 20 goals and added 37 assists in his 2011-12 season with Red Deer. He projects to be a #1 defenseman with great offensive skills. But obviously, he will be 2-3 years away from actually suiting up in the iron range red.

The Dumba selection came as no surprise to me. I was slightly hoping they would take F Flip Forsberg, who had fallen to the Wild at #7 (and eventually fell to Washington at #11), or if they truly wanted a d-man go with the more physical Jacob Trouba. But, Chuck Fletcher stuck to his guns, and chose Dumba.

The decision to go with Dumba fills a hole in the Wild system. They lack a high offensive upside defenseman in their system, and their NHL roster for that matter.

So all in all, I am pleased with Chuck Fletcher's decision to draft Matt Dumba.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001, Matt Dumba!

Draft Day Trades

Last year, Chuck Fletcher stole the show at the NHL Draft when he shipped D-Man Brent Burns to San Jose for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle, and the 28th pick (Wild chose Zack Phillips with that pick) in the draft.

It was simply the trade everyone was talking about. The draft is always good for a blockbuster trade during the first round. And you should expect nothing less than that during the first round of the 2012 Draft on Friday night.

But as we prepare for the 2012 draft, it would appear the Wild will be standing pat in the first round, and will keep their pick at #7. Russo has mentioned in his blog recently and his chat today, he has indicated that the Wild has no plans to make a trade on draft night or for that matter, make a trade in the near distant future.

The team seems to have more valuable assets and they are locked in to keeping them. So what this suggests, is that the only real major roster changes for 2012-13 will be the players Fletcher signs during Free Agency.

So Friday night, sit back, watch the Wild pick at #7, and wait for Rick Nash, Jordan Staal, and/or Roberto Luongo (perhaps?) to be dealt at the draft tables. It will be once again, fun to watch.