The 2014-15 Minnesota Wild: Forwards

Photo: Wild.com

If there is one great strength for the Wild in 2014-15, its going to come from their forward position.

The 2014-15 Minnesota Wild: X-Factors

Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn/USA Today

Here's a little rundown of the five players who the Wild need to be impactful for them to have success in 2014-15. They are in no particular order.

Preseason Game Four & Lineup Thoughts

Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn/USA Today

In last night's fourth preseason game, Minnesota edged Pittsburgh 4-1. Jason Pominville netted a hat trick, Darcy Kuemper made 32 saves, and Ilya Bryzgalov was killing time by taking selfies with fans on the bench. Onto the notes...

A New Face In The State Of Hockey: Thomas Vanek

Thomas Vanek

Forward

6'0"

217 lbs

Shoots: Right

Born: January 19, 1984

Birthplace: Vienna, Austria

Acquired: Signed a three year contract on July 1, 2014

After a year of speculation and to the surprise of no one, Thomas Vanek turned down more lucrative offers and signed a three year deal on Tuesday with Minnesota.

Vanek Watch: Home For The Winter

After a year of watching him move around the league, the Thomas Vanek watch has officially come to an end. And with no surprise, it ends in the place Vanek calls home: Minnesota.

Vanek Watch: Meeting In Minnesota

Photo: Dan Hickling/Olean Times Herald

Last night in an effort to gage Thomas Vanek's interest in joining the Minnesota Wild, Chuck Fletcher and Mike Yeo reportedly sat down with the former Gophers winger.

Vanek Watch: Cleanout Day

Photo: Eric Bolte/USA Today

This morning, the Montreal Canadiens had their team cleanout day following their elimination Thursday night by the New York Rangers. Thomas Vanek was one of the first to meet with the media, and dropped some interesting lines today, via @habsgirl4life.

Vanek Watch: Fading Hopes?

Photo: Francois Laplante

Now that the Wild season has come to an end, everyone has turned their focus to one thing: flooding Mike Russo's twitter feed with questions about Thomas Vanek .

Vanek Watch: Load Up On Hats!

Photo: Darlo Ayala/Montreal Gazette

After going scoreless in his first five games as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, Thomas Vanek took to the ice last night to end his drought and get the first goal behind him.

Vanek Watch: Headed To A Contender!

As expected, Thomas Vanek's stay on Long Island was brief. Photo: Getty Images

Earlier in the year, Thomas Vanek was moved from Buffalo to the New York Islanders in the hopes of providing a spark to the struggling team.

Olympic Hockey Preview: Group B

Photo: Petr David Josek/AP

Today we dive into Group B:

Vanek Watch: Saying No To Garth Snow

Vanek will be waving goodbye to Long Island soon. Photo: Brad Penner-USA Today

Yesterday, Islanders beat writer Arthur Staple reported that winger Thomas Vanek turned down a "substantial" contract offer to remain with the Islanders. In the report, Staple said that the deal was similar to the seven year, $50 million deal that he signed with Buffalo back in 2007.

Vanek Watch: The Island Is Calling

Photo: Gary Wiepert/AP

A quiet evening in the NHL (sans a Brandon Dubinsky hit on Saku Koivu) turned into complete haywire when Arthur Staple of New York Newsday tweeted the following:

Vanek Watch: The Co-Captain

-Buffalo Sabres

This morning after a team practice, Sabres head coach Ron Rolston (most noted for sending John Scott out to fight Phil Kessel in a preseason game) decided to announce his captain for the team, after the position was left vacant by now Wild forward Jason Pominville.

Vanek Watch: The Pilot

Well here we are. It has finally come to this. Thomas Vanek gets his own watch with this site, like Zach Parise and Ryan Suter did last summer.

For those who don't understand why it has come to this, here is the story: Thomas Vanek (that guy who played for the Gophers in 2003, then was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres and has played there ever since), is an impending unrestricted free agent next summer. The Wild have been rumored for a while to be a serious player for Vanek, since they will have adequate cap room (Dany Heatley's contract coming off the books is a huge contributor to this). So basically everyone wants to see Vanek, and all other former Gophers, return to the North Star state.

Last night, Josh Rimer stirred the Vanek to Minnesota pot with this tweet:

Hearing IF the Buffalo Sabres move Thomas Vanek, he wants to play for the Minnesota Wild. Vanek lives & trains in Minneapolis in the summer.
— Josh Rimer (@JoshRimerHockey) September 4, 2013

Rimer definitely uses the caps lock in the correct place here. The key word is "IF". So please remember that before you start celebrating Vanek's impending return to Minnesota.

The ransom to fetch Vanek at any point in the 2013-14 season would be greater than the return the Wild gave up for Jason Pominville last winter. The Wild would have to deal AT LEAST two of their top prospects and draft picks (one would be the team's 2014 first round pick and I'm guessing the Sabres would want another first too). Sorry folks, but that price is too steep. The Wild need to sit this one out.

Even if the Wild dont go after Vanek in the season, he will still be there when free agency opens on July 1st. Its becoming more and more clear that Vanek wants out of Buffalo, but wants to politely leave the bad situation that the team has become (meaning: he is not demanding a trade but he is not going to want a contract extension either). So should the Wild land Vanek on the open market, the only thing that is taking a hit is Craig Leipold's wallet (again) and not the farm system.

Gear up Wild fans, its going to be a long 10 months, but stay tuned for lots of coverage on Vanek Watch.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Russo's Chat of Gold

Today, Mike Russo used a Wild off day, to take part in one of his few Wild chats throughout the year. I took to reading the chat replay this evening, with very low expectations. I love Russo and think he is simply one of the best in the business, but his chats in the past have been rather, well, not informative enough (Some of the questions that get asked are ridiculous. I can only imagine the ones he doesn't answer).

But this chat was definitely not lacking useful information this time.

If you want to read the full chat, click here. Meanwhile, for those staying (Thanks!), I am going to go over those great nuggets of info Russo left for us today. Here we go...

• White jerseys will be revamped next year, while red and green ones will remain. Its probably already been mentioned by Russo at some point this year, but its worth mentioning again. Get ready to part ways with the road jerseys circa 2000. Maybe look for something similar to either Houston Aeros white jersey (Main, alternate)?
• The Aeros will most likely be leaving Houston and relocating to Des Moines, Iowa. It will be nice from a fan's perspective, making road trips to the farm team much easier and less costly. But I have read the Wild did not want their AHL team to leave Houston, and have been trying tirelessly to keep the team there.
• The Wild will definitely be looking into re-signing Jason Pominville. Well given the kings ransom we just gave up for him (Just saying!), and the fact he has looked sharp in two games despite little practice, I would dear god hope so.
• The Wild have inquired about Thomas Vanek from Buffalo. I think we can wait out another year until he hits free agency. Trading for him next year, with the cap going down to $64.3M, is dicey. 
• The salary cap will continue to go up following the 2013-14 season. Lets hope for this, so we actually have a chance at getting Vanek.
• If the Wild need a defenseman, for whatever reason, Marco Scandella will be that defenseman. When the Aeros season ends, the Wild can recall any player from Houston, without that player's salary counting towards the cap. Scandella has not had the best season, but maybe another shot at playing on the big club will get his game to take off.
• Clayton Stoner will not be a healthy scratch this year. In Russo's blog last night, he mentioned how Yeo was impressed with Stoner's game against Columbus. Yeo believes that Stoner can only get better from here, so playing him is better than sitting him. I hope Yeo is right.
• The Wild can beat Vancouver, Detroit, and Anaheim in a playoff series. Given the domination of all three teams lately, this team very well can. The Wild may not have a win against Anaheim, but they dominated play in the last two games. If the two teams meet in the playoffs, it should be a much different outcome for the Wild.
• The Wild can not beat St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Chicago in a playoff series. It took shootouts for the Wild to beat Los Angeles and Chicago at home. Road games against the Hawks and Kings have been horrendous. St. Louis plays very big, (which does not matchup well for the Wild) and has dominated the Wild as well this year. Meanwhile, the Kings and Blackhawks, are quite fast, and the Wild are a bit lacking in the speed department.
• My favorite point: Russo does not whine about traveling, he just critiques persistent maintenance delays. If you follow Russo on Twitter, you frequently finding him having some sort of delay that is preventing him from traveling. I find it very entertaining when this happens, as he loves to point out the flaws. Others call this whining.

So as you can see, lots and lots of info from the great Russo in this chat. Probably won't see another until the end of the season, whenever that is.

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Shoot!

(It just happened to be a coincidence that I thought of this video and we are playing the Ducks today)

Tonight, the Wild open up a brief 2 game road trip in Anaheim. And as the team still is trying to find consistent scoring from lines 2-4, they can certainly help themselves by doing one thing: Shoot the puck.

The Wild come into tonight's game with the 4th lowest shots per game average in the league (27.1). They had at least 30 shots in each of their first three games, but since, they have totals of 27, 16, 26, and 25. They have been doing this, despite having one of the higher Time on the Power Play numbers in the league, with 48:33 of total PP time (11th best in the NHL).

But perhaps the most alarming stat out of all of this, is the 3rd period shots, or lack thereof, this team is getting. Through their first three games, they were averaging 11 shots on goal in the third period. But in the 4 game since, they are just averaging 4 (Yep, you read that right, 4) shots on goal in the third period. And miraculously, this team has won 2 of those games, and they have earned 5 out of a possible 8 points.

And during all of this, Zach Parise has fired 30 shots on goal, which ranks 3rd in the NHL, behind scoring leaders Patrick Marleau and Thomas Vanek (Both have 33 SOG).

(This is the part of the post where you cue up Greenlay saying "Every shot is a good shot!")

Now getting back to tonight's matchup, the Wild find themselves playing a Ducks team that comes in with a high goals for (3.2 GPG-8th best in NHL) average, and the same goals against average (3.2-10th worst in NHL). The Ducks have had inconsistent play from Jonas Hiller in the past few years, and they have a more offensive minded defensive core.

So Mike Yeo's pregame message tonight should be pretty plain and simple: Shoot the freaking puck! (He may choose to replace freaking with another word beginning with the letter f)

Even if its like Goldbe...er...I mean Russ Tyler, and he takes a shot from his own blue line (As you can watch in the video at the top), please, shoot the puck! Because sometimes just taking the shot, is better than trying to find the perfect shot.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell