Wild To Hire LaPanta

Late last night, Michael Russo of the Star Tribune reported that the Wild will hire FSN veteran and Gopher Hockey play by play man Anthony Lapanta as their new TV play by play voice. This news, coming three weeks after they told Dan Terhaar his contract would not be renewed. LaPanta will be the fourth TV play by play voice in the franchise's history joining Mike Goldberg, Matt McConnell, and Terhaar.

As Russo points out, the announcement was expected to come on Monday, but due to the backlash from the public on this matter, it has been pushed back (Most likely coming sometime today). As First Round Bust points out, the fact neither party thought that there would be backlash with decision is more disappointing than anything. 

What is disappointing to me, is that when Russo first hinted at this on Sunday, he mentioned that there was a lot of national interest in this position. Meaning, there was a few people, maybe someone from the national network (NBC Sports Network), made an inquiry about the position. But the Wild and FSN stuck to their first choice, LaPanta.

I'm not a fan of this decision, like the rest of us are. But, I also have to accept the fact the Wild believe in LaPanta as a play by play voice. I didn't get the chance to watch him much during the Gophers season. But when I did, he wasn't great, but he was by no means terrible (He does get players names correct more often than Terhaar did). So there is definitely room for improvement (Also take in to effect he replaced the popular Frank Mazzocco, so people already have a strong dislike for him.).

Whether you like it or not (And 99.99% of the public does not), Anthony LaPanta will be the Wild's play by play voice come October. And now the task for the Wild and FSN is to convince us he is the right man for this job. And they will need to do a whole lot of convincing. 

Farewell Dan Terhaar

Friday, the Wild informed TV play by play announcer Dan Terhaar he will not be returning for his eighth season behind the mic. Terhaar certainly was not the best at calling games (Thus, the creation of FSN Bingo from First Round Bust), but he was by far not the worst either. Terhaar didn't have the fortune of calling many great moments in Wild history during his time with the team, but he did have a few. And we will pay tribute to those moments here.

Wild vs Colorado 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 2

Wild vs Chicago January 2010


I tried finding video of Marian Gaborik's 5 goal game, but the only video's of it did not have audio of Terhaar.

As we look ahead to Terhaar's replacement, one can only hope the FSN has little say in that decision (Otherwise look for Anthony Lapanta to get the honors). It would be interesting to see who's out there for the job. I wouldn't expect a replacement to be hired until after the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so we will just have to wait and see.

But one last time, we bid farewell to Dan Terhaar.