Wild Trade Setoguchi To Winnipeg

The Wild have traded F Devin Setoguchi to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for the Jets' 2014 2nd round draft pick. The move comes hours after free agency opened and teams tossed money around like no other to a mostly forward crowd. The Jets were a team that stood pat this afternoon and watched most of the UFAs get signed up.

Setoguchi, 26, was acquired by the Wild during the first round of the 2011 NHL draft with Charlie Coyle and the 26th overall pick (Zack Phillips) for D Brent Burns. Seto had two up and down seasons in Minnesota, scoring 19 and 13 goals respectively. He was a dominant force with Matt Cullen on the second line in the last half of the season and helped the team reach the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

From the fans perspective, you hate to see Seto go for just a draft pick. But with the trade for Nino Neiderreiter last week, it made Setoguchi and his $3 million cap hit expendable. And now that Matt Cullen is gone, you had to wonder if Seto would ever get close to what he was in the second half of the season.

So from the hockey ops perspective, this is a good deal. Getting a second round (it will be a high 2nd round pick in all likelihood) pick in return for a very inconsistent goal scorer is a great deal. The move freed up his $3 million cap hit, giving the team just over $4.5 million in cap space.

Best of luck to Seto as he goes up north to Winnipeg, the Wild's new division rival.

Worry: Yes. Panic: No

"We’re trying to do everything we can to find the right solution, whether it’s to spark guys or find the right mix. Usually there’s a method to the madness, we’re not just trying to catch lightning in a bottle. We want to make sure that are putting something together that can work, more than just in the short term." -Mike Yeo


For those of who who already are panicking, you can stop reading. I have no time for you.

Over the week, I have separated myself from the blogs and tweets because simply, too many have chosen to hit the panic button on the season. And its hard to simply wrap my head around the fact, that after 10 games, we should be firing Mike Yeo, demoting Mikael Granlund to AHL, and trying to trade Devin Setoguchi.

I believe that Mike Yeo is the right leader for this team. He has won before as an assistant. And in his lone season as the Houston coach, he lead the team to the Calder Cup Final. The guy has always been around winning. And he has a team right now that can and will win.

Mikael Granlund is a rookie folks. He has 9 games under his belt, in the NHL. He registered 21 points (8G, 13A) in 21 games for Houston, and if memory served me right, he did not get off to a fast start there either (But don't hold me to this). He will come around, it just takes a little time. Even Steven Stamkos sat out a few games in his rookie season too.

And despite a horrendous start by Devin Setoguchi, I too am a believer in NOT trading him right now. He has played well this week, despite not scoring a goal yet. But if he can continue playing like this, he will start finding the back of the net. And yes, I am well aware of the many forwards this team is carrying, but is it possible that Yeo is keeping them, so players can step up their game so they dont have to watch the game from upstaits? I would certainly think so. And it is certainly a good problem to have, when you can't decide which forwards to scratch because they all have played well this past week (Granlund was scratched Thursday despite a great game Monday. Mitchell is a scratch tonight despite his stellar performance all week).

Yes, I know that its a shortened season, and we cannot afford to have prolonged slumps like this. But, no, I do not believe that this slump will go on much longer. This team just needs a bounce to go their way. Once they get that bounce and find confidence, they will take off.

Should we be panicking, absolutely not. Should we be worried, yes, a bit.

We can talk about the panic button after 20 games.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

NHL 2013 Preview: Minnesota Wild

Three days from now, the 12th season in the history of the Minnesota Wild, will get under way. And perhaps, this is the most anticipated season in the team's history (Rivaling year one). Today, we look back at the previous year, and look ahead to the upcoming year, and in between, we will break down all the moves this team made during the summer.

Offseason Moves

Coming In: F Zach Parise, D Ryan Suter, F Torrey Mitchell, F Zenon Konopka, F Jake Dowell, D Brian Connelly

Heading Out: F Guillaume Latendresse, F Nick Johnson, F Erik Christensen, D Mike Lundin, F Warren Peters

In case you lived under a rock since the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, no moves in hockey were bigger than when the Wild inked Parise and Suter to matching 13 year, $98 million deals. The deal should boost the last place Wild offense, and strengthen the power play, to where they can put up goals with any team in the league. The additions of Mitchell and Konopka strengthen bottom 2 lines, and give the Wild prospects in Houston, more time to get acclimated with professional hockey. The Wild now enter the season with 4 complete lines, and perhaps the best on paper foward line combinations, they have ever had.

Projected Lines

(Stats listed are from the 2011-12 season)

LW-C-RW

(Goals-Assists-Points)

Zach Parise-Mikko Koivu-Dany Heatley

(31-38-69)-(12-32-44)-(24-29-53)

Matt Cullen-Mikael Granlund-Devin Setoguchi

(14-21-35)-(DNP in NHL)-(19-17-36)

Cal Clutterbuck-Kyle Brodziak-Pierre-Marc Bouchard

(15-12-27)-(22-22-44)-(9-13-22)

Darroll Powe-Zenon Konopka-Torrey Mitchell

(6-7-13)-(3-2-5)-(9-10-19)

Reserves: Matt Kassian (2-0-2), Stephane Veilleux (0-2-2), Jake Dowell (2-5-7), Nick Palmieri (4-3-7)

Defenseman

Ryan Suter-Jared Spurgeon

(7-39-46)-(3-20-23)

Clayton Stoner-Tom Gilbert

(1-4-5)-(3-19-22)

Justin Falk-Nate Prosser

(1-8-9)-(1-11-12)

Reserves: Steve Kampfer (2-3-5), Marco Scandella* (3-9-12)
* denotes player is injured

Goalies

(W-L-OT, GAA, SV PCT)

Starter: Niklas Backstrom (19-18-7, 2.43, .919)

Backup: Josh Harding (13-12-4, 2.62, .917)

Reserve: Matt Hackett (3-6-0, 2.38, .922)

Head Coach

Mike Yeo

2nd NHL Season

35-36-11

Players That Need To Step Up

Dany Heatley

Last year, Heatley came over in a trade from San Jose. He played all 82 games and had top line minutes in every one of those games. Problem was, his production was the lowest its ever been in his 10 year NHL career. Now that the Wild added Zach Parise to play opposite Heatley, Heater will need to increase his production to take pressure off Parise and give the Wild a dual threat on their top line.

Devin Setoguchi

Like Heatley, Setoguchi is in his second season in a Wild uniform.  And he too had the worst statistical season of his career in 2011-12. Setoguchi often played on the top line for Minnesota in 2011-12, but this season you can write him in pen on the second line. The Wild need Setoguchi to step up his game to give them a great 2nd scoring line. With puck movers Cullen and Granlund on his line, he will be relied upon to score the goals on that line.

Tom Gilbert

In 08-09, Gilbert had the best year of his career, when he notched 45 points (5G, 40A) for Edmonton. Since then, he has been on a slow decline. Gilbert, was acquired before the trade deadline in 2012, for fan favorite Nick Schultz, and was brought in to be the puck moving defenseman the Wild needed. Now that Ryan Suter is in the fold, Gilbert will be on the second defensive pairing, and the Wild need him to play some big minutes and make some big plays. If he can't, one could see the Wild using one of their compliance buyouts on him in the offseason with young D-Men Brodin and Dumba on the way up.

5 Prospects That Will Impact 2013

Mikael Granlund-F

Obviously, Granlund will be making an impact on the 2013 roster. He will be starting as the second line center in between Cullen and Setoguchi. Granlund is a great talent, as he has great skills and vision to set up and sometimes score goals. The team's top prospect finally signed on with the club this past summer, and will be a huge addition to the squad in 2013. 

Jason Zucker-F

Zucker is not slated to start the season with the big club. But should one of the forwards get injured, look for the Aeros leading scorer to be the first man called up. Zucker has transitioned his game from the WCHA to the AHL quite nicely, putting up similar numbers between the two leagues. He has been a force on Houston's top line, using his speed and great hands to keep his name in the scoresheet.

Matt Dumba-D

The Wild's first round pick in 2012 will get his chance with the club in 2013. An injury to Marco Scandella has helped open the door for Dumba to get some NHL minutes this year. But in all likelihood, Dumba will play a few games with Minnesota before he gets sent back to Red Deer to finish off the season. Dumba is an offensive minded defenseman, scoring 20 goals for Red Deer last year (He has 10 this year). Look for him to fire the puck on net often, when he gets his chance with the Wild this year.

Matt Hackett-G

Hackett made this in last year's Wild Preview. He is still considered a prospect, and he will make an impact at some point this year, so it made sense to put him on this list. Hackett has been the starter for Houston for three years now, and in the final year of Nik Backstrom's contract, the goalie would like to send the front office a message by playing strongly. He will only see time with the Wild this year should Backstrom or Harding go down with an injury. And if he does, the Wild will need him to play very sharply, given the condensed schedule and all.

Jonas Brodin-D

Entering the season, Jonas Brodin is injured, and not playing anywhere. But, in the next couple of weeks he could return to the ice. Brodin is a solid defensive minded defenseman and has ridiculous vision when he is on the ice. He was so much of a rock for Houston's blue line, before going down with injury, that there was/still is talk of him making the Wild roster at some point this year. Its more likely now that Brodin will only get a shot with Minnesota this year in the event of someone getting hurt, but should he get called up, he may not get sent back down.

Where They'll Finish

Check back tomorrow to see where the Wild will finish in the division standings in 2013, and then on Friday to see where they will finish in the conference standings, when we predict the NHL season and playoffs.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Wild All Time Top 10: #8-Brent Burns

Brent Burns

Seasons With The Wild: 7

Goals: 55

Assists: 128

Points: 183

Brent Burns checks in as the only defenseman on this list. It took him a few seasons (Rotating back and forth between forward and defenseman), but he finally broke through as the big scoring d-man the Wild needed, in 07-08 when he notched 15 goals and 28 assists. In the combined 3 seasons prior to 07-08, Burns notched 12 goals and 35 assists.

Burns had injury riddled seasons in 08-09 (8-19-27 in 59 games) and 09-10 (3-17-20 in 47 games), but still had decent numbers in those seasons before bouncing back in 2010-11 with 17 goals and 29 assists, while once again anchoring the Wild's top d-man unit.

Burns was also a big physical presence (6'5", 225 pounds), and was not shy to throw his body around. In fact in 2 seasons (07-08, 10-11), he registered over 80 minutes in the penalty box, but more of that was due to his sometimes poor play in the defensive end, rather than his physical play.

There aren't many other defenseman who can even come close to cracking this list (Nick Schultz, Filip Kuba, Marek Zidlicky?). But Burns was the only one out of the bunch who stood out. 

Luckily for us, the Wild were smart to trade Burns while his value was high and he was traded at the 2011 NHL Draft in St. Paul for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle, and the 28th overall pick (Zack Phillips). So not only was Burns good for us when he played for us, he is still doing wonders for us now that he is gone. 

By all means isn't the best defenseman ever. But he did enough to crack this top 10 list, despite the injuries taking his best seasons away.

Check back tomorrow to see who comes in at #7!

#8-Brent Burns

#9-Pavol Demitra

#10-Dwayne Roloson/Manny Fernandez

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.

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.

Top 5 Wild Draft Moments

As we kick off draft week, I thought we would take a look back and countdown the top 5 moments in the Wild's draft history. It was a bit hard to find five given the team's success in the draft between 2004-2009 (Not good!), but we did find 5. Here they are:

5. 2002: Wild draft Pierre-Marc Bouchard 8th overall. Before a concussion took away parts or most of the last 3 seasons, Bouchard was rapidly making his way up the Wild all time scoring charts. Even with the injuries Bouchard is the franchise's leader in games played with 522. He has been a tremendous 2nd line forward with great hands and his ability to set up goals. His 229 career assists rank just second to Mikko Koivu, and had he not been injured he would for sure be #1 in team history in assists.

4. 2001: Wild draft Mikko Koivu 6th overall. Since the Wild drafting him in 2001, Mikko Koivu has become the team's 2nd highest all time scorer (Behind Marian Gaborik), he was named the first permanent captain in club history in 2009, and has undoubtedly become the face of the franchise. Like Bouchard, Koivu has a tremendous ability to set up goals, but has been known to make some highlight goals for himself from time to time. Koivu ranks 3rd all time in goals (108), 2nd in assists (253), and 2nd in points (361). Mikko is locked in under contract through the 2017-18 season so expect him to be leaders in those categories before his time is up here.

3. 2011: Wild trade Brent Burns and a 2012 2nd round pick to San Jose for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle, and the 28th overall pick. (Zack Phillips). It was just about a foregone conclusion that the Wild were going to trade Brent Burns during the 2011 offseason. It just so happened that he got traded on draft night, which was held right here in St. Paul. The Wild became immediate winners in this trade getting a young forward in Setoguchi, and two top prospects in Coyle and Phillips. Both of them are beginning their entry level contracts with the team in 2012-13. Look for this trade to go down as one of the best in franchise history.

2. 2006: Wild trade Patrick O'Sullivan and the 17th overall pick (Trevor Lewis) to Los Angeles for Pavol Demitra. During the 2006 offseason, then Wild GM Doug Risebrough made it a point to acquire some talent under a "Win Now" philosophy. So one of his first moves was bringing in the Slovakian center Demitra, to line up along side good friend Marian Gaborik. They were undoubtedly the best line duo in the team's short history. In the two seasons together, Demitra (40-78-118) and Gaborik (72-68-140) helped the team to two playoff appearances and the team's lone division championship.

1. 2000: Wild draft Marian Gaborik 3rd overall. He became the first player in the history of the franchise. He still sits atop many offensive categories in franchise history including goals (219) and points (437). There has been no better offensive player in the team's history, and his presence is still missed in the lineup to this day. Gaborik was a big help in the team's playoff run in 2003, scoring 9 goals and 8 assists in 18 games played.

Wild Interested Jordan Staal?

The offseason can't come enough for Wild fans. The team holds the #7 pick in the entry draft, they are expected to sign Mikael Granlund (The team's #1 prospect) to his entry level contract, and nearly $18 million of cap space so they could pursue notable free agents such as F Zach Parise and/or D Ryan Suter. But Sunday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review suggested that the Wild are one of four potential canidates to land the Penguins Center.

The article suggests that Staal would be a perfect leader for the team (Taking a shot at its current leader, Mikko Koivu), citing old Penguins connections with Chuck Fletcher (former Pens assistant GM) and Mike Yeo (former Pens assistant coach), so he would be familiar with Yeo's system. It then goes on to list who the Wild could offer in return, saying Cal Clutterbuck, Devin Setoguchi, and the team's #7 overall pick in the entry draft would be tossed around.

After I read this article, I came away with the following thoughts:

1. There would be a surplus of centers. Should Staal put on the iron range red next fall, the Wild would have Koivu, Staal, Kyle Brodziak, and Matt Cullen all slotted in at center. Meaning, someone (Most likely Cullen) would have to take the demotion to the fourth line, unless they would accept a spot on the wing. And don't forget Granlund is a center, but one would think he will play wing for a year or two before moving into the middle.
2. The Wild would be unwilling to part with Clutterbuck and the #7 pick. Despite what Josh Yohe (the writer of the article) think, the Wild value both of them quite a bit. Clutterbuck is a perfect player in the Mike Yeo system. He gives it 100% every shift, plays gritty, and can score a goal when is called upon to do so. And the team would be more than likely to draft a defenseman (something they sorely need down in the system) with the #7 pick, so giving that up for another forward would just not work out to Chuck Fletcher's advantage. As for Setoguchi, one could see the Wild be willing to part with him due to all the young forwards coming up in their system. And he is coming off a down year, so perhaps he could use a fresh start on a team featuring Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as the top centers.
3. Staal would have to sign an extension before being traded here. Staal is under contract with Pittsburgh for just one more year. So giving up a very good package for him would be a waste on just a one year rental. The team would need Staal to sign a contract extension (Probably somewhere around $7 million a season over 4-6 years) before they even think of pulling the trigger. 
4. Who would be top line center? Mikko Koivu has been the team's #1 center for four years now. He's also been the team's permanent captain for three years. But in those years he has seen his share of wings come and go, and this past season it appears he found a good linemate with him in Dany Heatley. But a big knock on Mikko is he is not considered a top line center. He is more suited for a second line center spot. So should the team get Staal, it should be assumed that Jordan would man the top line center spot. But, it easily could go the other way too.

After taking all this in, I came to this conclusion: The Wild should not go after Jordan Staal simply due to the fact he would cost this team too much. There are plenty of teams interested in him, and even the package listed in the article would simply not be enough compared to what other teams can offer. They should and most likely will stick to going after the free agents with all the cap room they have.

It was a nice thought. But its one of those things you can try out in a video game, not real life.

Power Play Woes

If there has been one thing that has ailed the Wild this season, its been their power play. A promising opening night in that department (2/4), has since been drowned out by a horrid stretch of play while on the man advantage. In the 7 games since opening night, the Wild have gone 1 for 27 on the PP, including the 0 for 19 stretch they are currently under. The last time Minnesota got a tally on the man advantage, was Devin Setoguchi's goal in Ottawa. Clearly, something has to change on the team's PP unit.

The main concern for me, is that I have grown tired of watching a forward (Lately it has been Pierre-Marc Bouchard) sit on the point with the top line. PMB's performance on the Power Play has been simply abysmal. For proof of this, watch his PP shifts against Pittsburgh. But, there is a lack of scoring defenseman on the team, and it would appear that we will be seeing a forward on the PP blueline for most of the season (Unless the team acquires a defenseman that can score). It also creates a lack of punch on the second line of the PP when PMB sits on the point, and guys like Bulmer and Clutterbuck take his spot (Not exactly the offensive types). But, Mike Yeo has taken notice of PMB's performance, and as Russo points out today, it would appear he is going back to the second PP line, while Matt Cullen takes over on the point.

Another concern with the man advantage is still the lack of shots this team is taking. The Wild are still towards the bottom of the league in shots taken (27th-25.4 shots per game), despite their offensive upgrades this offseason. And as much as I like the quality of their shots, it would still be nice to see them take more shots, period. You never know what can happen when you fire one on net. Hopefully, Yeo feels the same way and sends them the message to start firing more frequently.

I know, there are still some growing pains going on with the new system of Yeo. So you would like to think that at some point, the power play (and the team for that matter) can take off. Perhaps Yeo would also try juggling his PP lines up a bit, much like he has with his regular top lines (Switching up PMB and Devin Setoguchi between lines 1 and 2), to see if he can spark his stale PP units.

This team is very capable of scoring, so you would like to think that that the power play can get out of its funk sooner rather than later. This team needs a strong power play to help the lack of scoring on the team, in general. Otherwise, if it stays like this, we are going to be in for a frustrating season once again.

Training Camp Scrimmage

This past weekend, the Wild held team scrimmages on Saturday and Sunday that were open to the public. I made it to the Saturday session, and I was able to watch most of Sunday's session on the Wild website. In the two scrimmages, just one goal was scored, and it was a Dany Heatley penalty shot goal. So here are my thoughts and observations from the scrimmages:

• The Heatley-Koivu-Setoguchi line looked good for the most part. Their chemistry look good, and hopefully after a few games it can get even better. I noticed Heatley had more of a hesitation to shoot in the scrimmages, but I also think that should go away as the start playing actual games. I did take some video's of the top line when they were on the ice, but the shifts I got on tape, weren't anything special. So here is one of them.
  

• Guillaume Latendresse looked very sharp in these two sessions. For one, he has slimmed down and has come into camp in very good shape. He showed good speed, and had a lot of jump in his strides. I can't remember a shift where he didn't make something happen for the positive. He will be a huge key for the Wild's success this season, so having him play like that is very big.
• I payed a lot of attention to our young defenseman (Marco Scandella, Justin Falk, and Jared Spurgeon) during this session. They all seemed to do okay, but none stuck out as having a great scrimmage. I will give Scandella credit for a laser shot he fired on Saturday that hit the crossbar. Probably the best shot I saw all weekend.
  
• Pierre-Marc Bouchard looked outstanding in yesterday's session. He missed Saturday with a hamstring injury, but was back on the ice Sunday. And on top of that he was on the line with Latendresse and Matt Cullen, and that line looked as good as line 1 yesterday. As Michael Russo pointed out, having Gui and Butch back gives this team a different element.
• I also payed particular attention to C Zack Phillips (Acquired in Setoguchi trade) this weekend. He didn't do anything that stuck out, but he had some solid shifts. It will be interesting to see how he handles being in camp with these guys at the age of 18.
• Lastly, the teams only scored one goal in the two sessions. I didn't think it was a bad thing, but it is certainly not a good thing. My guess is that the players are still getting used to the new system, so as always, it will take some time to get used to. I think the goals will come in due time, but hopefully they can get that sorted out in the preseason.
  
• The Wild open their preseason schedule Tuesday at Edmonton. No one on the top line will be traveling, but the Latendresse-Cullen-Bouchard line will be. I look forward to see them in a actual game. The Wild's first home preseason game is Friday vs Columbus.
  

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Devin Setoguchi

On June 23rd, Devin Setoguchi signed a three year, nine million dollar contract extension with the San Jose Sharks. The very next day, the Sharks traded him, F Charlie Coyle, and the 28th overall pick (The Wild drafted F Zack Phillips) to the Wild in exchange for D Brent Burns.

The trade became an instant success for all Wild fans. In addition to adding two young prospects, they got an incredibly talented goal scoring forward. In last three seasons, Setoguchi has never scored less than 20 goals in a season (Highest total is 31 in 08-09). And in each of those past three seasons, he has been a solid rock on the Sharks power play (23 PP goals).


In addition to his great goal scoring ability, the Wild are getting a player who comes with good playoff experience. In each of the past two years, the Sharks have made it to the conference finals. And last year, he led the Sharks in goals scored in the playoffs, with 7. And he also has been a clutch player, scoring three game winning goals in the past two years. So if the Wild end up making the postseason, they can count on Setoguchi to help lead the way.




Setoguchi will be 24 entering the season. And as before said, he signed a 3 year extension in the offseason, so he will be with the Wild through 2013-14. And perhaps the Wild got him at a great price for $3 million per season. So look for Setoguchi to make a big impact on the Wild for the next three seasons.



The next new face will be Dany Heatley

A Defining Offseason

Chuck Fletcher had his work cut out for him this offseason. The Wild were coming off a season that saw them finish 12^th in the Western Conference and sitting outside looking in on the playoffs for the third straight season. His team lacked speed, and quality scorers. There wasn’t a great free agent class out there to help him with that. And then his team lacked a head coach when he axed Todd Richards after two forgettable seasons behind the Wild bench.

So how did he go about fixing these issues? First order was his head coach. Many speculated that former Oilers bench boss Craig MacTavish was going to be the next head coach. But Fletcher made a bold move and hired 38 year old Mike Yeo, who had just finished his first season of coaching the Houston Aeros (The Wild’s minor league affiliate). The Aeros had finished their season with a 46-28-6 record, and made it all the way to the Calder Cup finals (Stanley Cup finals equivalent) before losing to the Binghamton Senators in 6 games. Yeo also spent 5 seasons as an assistant (2005-10) on the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009 Stanley Cup champs) before being hired as the Aeros coach last summer.

With the hiring of a new coach out of the way, the time came to focus on the on ice product. The first emphasis Fletcher wanted to put on that was through his minor league team. The team held the 10^th overall pick in the NHL draft, which was held in St. Paul. Then come draft night, the Wild selected Jonas Brodin (the 3^rd overall rated European skater), a 6’1” 172 lb defenseman from the Swedish Elite League with that 10^th pick. Brodin projects to be a solid two way defenseman for the future, so they made a very solid choice there. Then as most Wild fans had hit the exits after the team’s pick, Fletcher pulled off a big draft day trade sending all star defenseman Brent Burns to San Jose for forwards Devin Setoguchi and Charlie Coyle (SJ’s 1^st rd pick in ’10), and the 28^th overall pick in 2011. The Wild would go on to select Center Zack Phillips from the St. John Sea Dogs with that 28^th pick from San Jose. The Burns trade was met with great applause from Wild fans, including yours truly. The move gets the Wild a young scorer in Setoguchi (Who had just signed a 3 year extension a day before the draft), and some quality young forwards for their farm system.

But Fletcher did not stop there. He also acquired forward Darroll Powe from Philadelphia for a 3^rd round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft. The Wild went on to sign Powe, a very quick skater and outstanding penalty killer, to a three year deal worth $3.2 million. Again, a great move for Minnesota. Philly was a team that had a already reached the salary cap ceiling, and needed to make some moves, so Powe became one of many popular players to get shipped away.

Then on July 1^st, free agents became eligible to sign with other teams. That meant that players such as Andrew Brunette, Antti Miettinen, John Madden, and Chuck Kobasew would all be leaving. In fact, the only free agent the Wild signed this offseason was defenseman Mike Lundin (A Burnsville Native), who was signed to a one year deal worth $1 million. So it would appear that Fletcher will leave his defenseman core to Nick Schultz, Marek Zidlicky, Greg Zanon, and Clayton Stoner; and then let youngsters Marco Scandella, Jared Spurgeon, and Nate Prosser battle it out for the final roster spot next to Lundin.

Forward wise, the Wild were pretty set for the upcoming season. But then came perhaps the most surprising and most incredible move of them all. The Wild sent all star forward Martin Havlat to San Jose in exchange for forward and once 50 goal scorer, Dany Heatley. Again, the move was met with great enthusiasm from fans. This move gives the Wild the premier goal scorer they had been lacking since the departure of Marian Gaborik. The Wild have Heatley for three seasons and he will have a $7.5 million cap hit in each of those seasons. And not to long after, the Wild and San Jose met up again in a trade, as the Wild sent F James Sheppard to SJ for a 3rd pick in the 2013 NHL draft (They got back the pick they gave up for Powe, essentially).

It wasn’t the easiest offseason for Chuck Fletcher. But you have to believe that he passed with flying colors (Even with these great moves, the team is still $10 million under the cap). And perhaps in 10 years, we can look back here and say this was his defining offseason. He has shaped this team into the best one he has had in his three years, and is now closer than ever to having that that quick dynamic team he has been seeking when he took this job. He still has some work to do, but this is a much better team than we thought it would be. And will this team finally be the one, that puts his team into the postseason? I think it will.