A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Alex Tuch

Alex Tuch standing between Guy Lapointe (left) and Brent Flahr (right).
Photo: Bill Streicher/USA Today

Alex Tuch

Forward

6'4"

215 lbs

Shoots: Right

Born: May 10, 1996

Birthplace: Baldwinsville, NY

Acquired: Drafted in the 1st round (18th Overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft

Tonight, the Minnesota Wild watched as Alex Tuch, a player highly coveted on their draft board, fell to them at the 18th pick. Chuck Fletcher received a few calls from other teams as to if he wanted to trade back in the first round, but with Tuch available, he declined and took the Boston College winger.

Round One Targets

Photo: @pdecarl

Tomorrow, the Wild hold the 18th overall pick in the NHL Draft. Here are the five most players Minnesota should draft when they are on the clock:

Draft Day Trades

Photo: Getty Images

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

The Best Draft In Wild History

Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The label of "best draft in Wild history" was not an easy one to determine.

The Worst Draft In Wild History

Photo: Sara Davis/Getty Images

When looking to determine what draft year was the "worst" in Wild history, one did not have to look beyond the Doug Risebrough era to find a winner. The Wild had hit on its first round draft picks from 2000-03 (Gaborik, Koivu, Bouchard, and Burns), but then could not hit on any between 2004-08.

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

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?

Draft Links

Tonight, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will step to the podium at Consol Energy Center just after 6 PM and kick off the 2012 NHL Draft. Everyone wants to know who will Edmonton take #1? Will Rick Nash, Bobby Ryan, and/or Roberto Luongo be traded tonight? Well, in just a few hours, our questions will be answered.

• Instead of trying to cram one last post in before the draft, I figured I would just throw out some links from some other blogs as to how the Wild will approach this draft. 

• Hockey Wilderness looks at the history of the 7th overall pick. 

• Jacques Lemaire's Trap goes through the possible players the Wild could select with the 7th pick tonight.

• First Round Bust gets some of the Wild blogosphere together to tell you who they would like to see drafted (Yours truly is one of the bloggers to speak in this piece).

• Russo chimed in today with his pre-draft thoughts. 

• Grant Sonier posted his final mock draft for ESPN.com. He has Murray going #1 to Edmonton, Ceci to the Wild.

I will be heading out to Tom Reid's for the Wild Draft party later tonight. Should be a good time. I will have a post up upon my return (unless I go nuts at the bar :D), recapping the first round and the Wild's pick tonight.

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.

Draft Week

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day weekend. But as we put that behind us, we look forward to the next major event in the NHL offseason: The NHL Draft.

The draft will take place on Friday and Saturday (22nd-23rd) at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. The Wild currently hold the 7th pick in the draft (Behind Edmonton, Columbus, Montreal, New York Islanders, Toronto, and Anaheim), the highest they have picked since 2005 when they took Benoit Pouliot 4th overall. 

This past weekend, I dove into many mock drafts and scouting reports, and will be posting frequently throughout the week on draft related things. Should news come up in other aspects of the organization, I will of course be posting about them, but this will be mainly draft posts. 

So please keep checking back throughout the week!!

(Also keep checking out the Hockey Wilderness and First Round Bust blogs for great draft content as well!)

Hello Offseason

Last night, the world watched the Los Angeles Kings lift the Stanley Cup following their 6-1 trouncing of New Jersey in Game 6. As the Kings celebrated, you couldn't help but feel good for former Wild player and now Kings Defenseman Willie Mitchell who was the first to receive the cup from Kings captain Dustin Brown.

But, that was yesterday. Today, it is now officially the offseason in the NHL. We are 10 days away from the NHL Draft and 19 days away from July 1st (Free Agency).

There is a lot of hope and optimism in the State of Hockey, that the Wild will be able to land notable free agents F Zach Parise and D Ryan Suter. And as Mike Russo points out in his blog today, if the players dont sign an extension with their respective teams, the Wild should be aggressive and go trade for their rights. Risky, but it could be worth it since the Wild do have sufficient cap space to sign both.

And before all that we have the NHL Draft. (For help on that, check out the posts from Hockey Wilderness and First Round Bust. Its tremendous stuff.) The Wild hold the 7th overall pick in the draft, which is the highest they have drafted since 2005 when they took Benoit Pouliot 4th overall (Yikes!).

The much anticipated offseason is underway. Get your popcorn ready, because these next 3 weeks shouldn't disappoint.

Fail For Nail

As we all know, the Wild are in the midst of a historic collapse. On December 12th, they sat atop the NHL standings and were about to take on Midwest rivals Winnipeg and Chicago. And we know how the rest goes.

Today, the team sits with the 6th worst record in the league (Could be 4th worse by the end of tonight), and they have just become an eyesore to watch. But, if you are like me right now, every loss is a welcome site at this point.

With every loss (Which is just about every game now), the Wild boost their chances in the summer's NHL Draft lottery, which could see them potentially move up from a pick in the 3-6 area, to the #1 overall pick, which is just about a lock to be Sarnia Sting (OHL) forward Nail Yakupov.

On the season, Yakupov has put up a line of 49-52-101 in in 65 games played (In his final season with Sarnia, Steven Stamkos put up a line of 58-47-105 in 61 games played before being drafted by TB). And if you watch the above video, he has a ridiculous talent for putting the puck in the net, something the Wild could use.

At this point, lets be real. The playoffs are all but officially not happening for this team. So, take a page out of my book and hope they continue to come out of each game with 0 points. I know that sounds horrible, but honestly folks, this team needs a player like Yakupov. So why not hope for the loss, so they increase their chances of stealing the #1 pick from bottom feeders Columbus and Edmonton? It COULD happen...

A Few Good Notes

• Last night's game between the Wild and Avalanche was obviously the team's worst performance of the season. Just a completely lifeless effort. It seems to me like the players just don't care anymore.
• As Nate (First Round Bust) tweeted last night, Mike Yeo has lost this team. I completely agree with him. Yeo sounds like a defeated man in his post game pressers nightly now. Hopefully, next year can be a different case for Yeo.
• If there is one good thing from this disastrous finish to the season, it is that the Wild continue to hike up the order in the NHL draft. Right now the Wild carry the 6th worst record in the league and by the end of tonight, they could have the 4th worst record. And with the Wild's upcoming schedule, they could drop even lower than that (Phoenix, Dallas, Vancouver, Rangers, Panthers, Kings, and Blackhawks are notable teams on the remaining schedule).
• With the way Josh Harding has been playing lately, it would be hard to believe he would be back next year.
• Marek Zidlicky has 0 points and is a -2 in 6 games since being traded to New Jersey. Thanks Devils for the 2nd and 3rd (Conditional) round draft picks!
• I have not been impressed with Tom Gilbert (0 points, -4 rating in 5 games) since coming over to the Wild in exchange for Nick Schultz. I hope his play gets better, otherwise Edmonton will be the big winner in that trade.

I will be at the MN State High School hockey tournament the next three days, so I will not have any posts (Unless something catastrophic happens...very doubtful) probably until Monday. Give me a follow on twitter (@gilesferrell) for my thoughts on the Wild and all things hockey during that time.

Here Comes The Kids

Today, the Wild announced that they signed one of their top prospects, Charlie Coyle, to an entry level deal. Coyle is currently playing for the Saint John's Sea Dogs of the Quebec Junior Major Hockey League and is putting up ridiculous numbers in his short time there so far (12-12-24 in 16 games). This coming after his unexpected departure from Boston University, as he wished to better his game by going to Saint John's.

Coyle now joins Saint John's teammate Zack Phillips, Jonas Brodin, Brett Bulmer, and Johan Larsson as Wild prospects who have signed their entry level deals in the past year. The Wild also noted on their news story that the team will try and sign #1 prospect Mikael Granlund following the World Championship in May (Big surprise) and will also go after 2010 draft pick Jason Zucker following the end of the Denver Pioneers season.

If you aren't excited for next season when these kids are in Houston (Or in Granlund's case, he could be in Minnesota next year) playing pro hockey, get excited. In fact, some like Coyle and Phillips could play for Houston following the end of the Sea Dogs season this year(But they will no doubt be making a deep playoff run).

Chuck Fletcher has done a tremendous job in turning his prospect farm into a gold mine after his predecessor burned it down to ashes. There has never been a more deeper prospect pool in the short history of this franchise. And add the fact he has significant cap space going into next year (or two), the future for this team has never been brighter.

With the way the Wild are going down this year, you'd figure they will draft high up again in the draft this year (They could still get a pick in the top 5 if they play their cards right). So they will add more depth to the system one last time, before the team finally takes off.

The kids are coming folks. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

NOTE: Tomorrow I will finally post my top 10 prospects list. I just never got around to finishing that up, so be sure to check that out.

Hockey Background

Late last night, I finally kicked off this blog. And I gave you a few fun facts about myself. Today, I'm going to dig a little deeper and give you a bunch of fun facts about me and the game of hockey. Then I think tomorrow, I will actually get to the Wild themselves with a offseason recap.

• Growing up, I had no pro hockey team to watch here (North Stars were gone by the time I paid attention to hockey). So my favorite team was the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. They had a great logo, and obviously they had those movies made about them, so that helped me love them more. But they had some great talent with Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne so the actual Ducks were really fun to watch too.
  
• I was a big Brett Hull fan back then as well. He was great with the Blues, but then went on to win the Cup with Dallas (Damn Norm) and Detroit. One of the best shots the game has ever seen, and clearly the best shot I've ever seen.
  
• I made it to one Minnesota Moose game when I was young. I still have their jersey in my closet. If I remember correctly, the Moose lost in overtime. It was an interesting atmosphere in the old Civic Center, watching a game, compared to the one we have now at the X.
• But then finally the Wild came around. As I mentioned in my earlier post, my first game was in December of their inaugural season. I got to sit in one of the lower level corners. It was a great memory. And what made it better was the fact it came against the Ducks.
• I have made it out to a Wild game at least once a year since they have returned. The best game I have seen, is by far the game in which Marian Gaborik scored 5 goals against the NY Rangers (ironic isn't it?).
  
• In their memorable season of 2002-03, I got to sit on the bench during warmups before a game. As a kid who never saw a game from that close before, it was really an eye opener to see how big those guys were.
• I got to go to the 2004 NHL All Star Game when it was held here in St. Paul. My aunt was at the game and she came across one of the coaches wife, who was looking to give it away for free. FOR FREE! So she took it and asked if I wanted to come. That was a great day. Great atmosphere at the X.
  
• You can find me as one of those crazy folks who camp out for single game tickets every season. I have done it for 7 consecutive years now, and I have no intention of stopping either.
• Also I mentioned in my earlier post that I have made it to two playoff games. One came in 2007 against the Ducks, which the Wild won (Their only win in the series). The other came the next year against Colorado (Game 5), in which the Wild lost. Those were some fun games. I could only imagine what it was like for the playoff games of 2003 in the X.
  
• Then this past summer, I got to attend the first round of the NHL Draft. Great experience again. It was great to see the variety of fans come to the X. Had a good conversation with some Oilers fans that sat in front of us. Then the Wild, stole the show, and had arguably the best draft day with their selections and their trade of Brent Burns to San Jose. But I'll get more in to that tomorrow.

As I before said, tomorrow, I'll get into the Wild's offseason. Today I was more focused on giving you all a little info on myself, much like I have with my Twins blog.