Wild All Time Top 10 Recap

As you saw in yesterday's post, we unveiled the #1 Wild player of all time. If you missed any of the posts, here they are again:

#1-Marian Gaborik

#2-Mikko Koivu

#3-Wes Walz

#4-Andrew Brunette

#5-Brian Rolston

#6-Pierre-Marc Bouchard

#7-Niklas Backstrom

#8-Brent Burns

#9-Pavol Demitra

#10-Dwayne Roloson/Manny Fernandez

Thank you to all of those who kept checking back on a daily basis.

Next week, I will begin my Top 10 prospects list, so please check back.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Wild All Time Top 10: #3-Wes Walz

Wes Walz

Seasons With The Wild: 7

Goals: 82

Assists: 100

Points: 182

Following a 2 game stint with Detroit in 95-96, Wes Walz decided to take his hockey talents overseas. He bounced around in Europe for the next 5 seasons. But then in 2000, the NHL expanded by 2 teams, and Walz was given a chance to play in the NHL again with the Minnesota Wild.

Walz had a very quick turn around, making the transition back to the NHL very easy for him, scoring 18 goals in the Wild's inaugural season (The 18 goals was tied for the team lead with Marian Gaborik and Darby Hendrickson).

But, it wasn't being a goal scorer that made Walz a player the Wild kept around. It was his great defensive skills, as he was constantly being matched up with the opposing team's top line, and continually shut them down. Walz also was on the team's top penalty kill line, leading one of the league's top PK units during his run here.

During the Wild's improbable run to the conference finals in the 03 playoffs, Walz stepped up in a big way, scoring 7 goals and 6 assists, in addition to being on the ice with the likes of Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund.

After 6 full seasons with the Wild, Walz took a leave of absence in the 7th season after playing 11 games. After a month of being off the grid, the 37 year old Walz, returned to St. Paul and announced his retirement from hockey.

Walz has been one of the more popular players in team history (A recent HW post suggests #37 should be retired), despite the fact you rarely found him on the scoresheet. So that truly goes to show, how good he was defensively.

Because an entire fan base saw it, and still to this day, loves him for it.

Check back tomorrow and see who comes in at #2!
#3-Wes Walz
#4-Andrew Brunette
#5-Brian Rolston
#6-Pierre-Marc Bouchard
#7-Niklas Backstrom
#8-Brent Burns
#9-Pavol Demitra
#10-Dwayne Roloson/Manny Fernandez


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Opening Night Notes

Tonight, after 6 months since their last game, the Wild open up the 2011-12 season. It's seemingly been a longer offseason than others in recent years. Most of that has to do with the excitement around this team, after some major changes were made my Chuck Fletcher this offseason. So here are some things you should know as we drop the puck tonight.

• Per, Mike Russo of the Strib, F Matt Kassian and D Justin Falk will be watching the game from the press box tonight.
  
• With the scratches of Kassian and Falk, rookie forward Brett Bulmer will make his NHL debut tonight.
  
• Expect a pretty lengthy tribute to former Wild players Derek Boogaard and Pavol Demitra, who passed away during the offseason, prior to the game tonight.
• Mike Yeo, coaches his first game behind the Wild bench tonight. Russo had a nice story on him in today's paper.
  
• The Blue Jackets, tonight's opponent, are coming off a 3-2 loss in their season opener last night at home against Nashville.
• For those watching the game at home, be sure to tune into the pregame and postgame show to watch new Wild TV analyst, Wes Walz.
  
• The Wild will become the first NHL team to have free Wi-Fi in the arena. With this Wi-Fi, you can access replays not shown on the scoreboard, and even place food orders from their seats.
• I've also heard that concession prices have increased this season. You can now buy your beer for somewhere between $8-9 bucks.
  

This is all I have for today. I will be at the game tonight, watching from the cheap seats cheering on the Wild. Hopefully they can continue their good success of winning their home openers.

Welcome to the Team of 18,001

This has been a long time coming. Since I have my Twins blog going really well these days, it became time that I turned my attention to my passion of the winter, the Minnesota Wild. I have been their fan since the very first day in June of 1997. On this blog, I am gonna have some fun and of course make some analysis of the team's performance and moves. I have named this blog "The Team of 18,001" after the team's marketing phrase "Team of 18,000" and put the one at the end because I am the team's #1 fan! So to better help you get to know me, I will give you some little fun facts about me and the Wild.

First Wild Game: December 8th, 2000 (1-0 OT loss vs ANA)
Number of Playoff games attended: 2 (1 in 2007, 1 in 2008)
Favorite Current Wild Player: Mikko Koivu
Favorite All Time Wild Player: Wes Walz
Favorite Wild Memory: Andrew Brunette's OT Goal to defeat COL in '03 playoffs