Minnesota Wild Press Conference introducing Zach Parise & Ryan Suter!
The Minnesota Wild’s roster for the 2012-13 season took a turn in the right direction in a matter of days if not hours.
The State of Hockey’s professional team went from stuck in the middle contending for the playoffs with some promising prospects to a team that should definitely make the playoffs and possibly contend for the Stanley Cup and can bring those promising prospects along slowly instead of having to push them into spots they aren’t ready for in the National Hockey League.
Do you have any Prospects?
The Minnesota Wild finally have some talent coming from the NHL Draft! The previous General Manager, Doug Risebrough, and his talent evaluator, Tommy Thompson, did pretty well with their early round picks in the beginning of the franchise with Marian Gaborik, Nick Schultz, Mikko Koivu, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Josh Harding and Brent Burns. It’s what happened after those first three seasons that doomed this franchise for the last 4+ seasons.
From 2004 to 2008, there’s not really any draft pick that has had a big impact on the Wild unless you count Cal Clutterbuck* and Marco Scandella. Cal has definitely made a name for himself and Scandella is looking like he will have an impact for years to come with the Wild but that’s 2 players out of 35 picks. I suppose you can count Ryan Jones (4th round in 2004) and maybe Benoit Pouliot (1st round in 2005) and mention guys like Clayton Stoner and Justin Falk but to not have a player from 5 drafts that is a star player points to why the Minnesota Wild are where they are, four straight seasons of missing the playoffs and being in the middle of the NHL.
*How can you not count Cal Clutterbuck as an impact player? Impact actually describes him very well since he’s led the league in hits 3 times since he made it to the NHL in 2007! Also, if there’s no Clutterbuck, there’s no ClutterPuck and I might not be writing this right now!
When a team continually misses on their 1st round picks (A.J. Thelen, Pouliot, James Sheppard, Colton Gillies and Tyler Cuma), they will not have success. The draft is the best way to get better because it’s the cheapest way to get better and really the only way a team has any control over their success. Free agency can’t be counted on and trades can’t happen if you don’t have any prospects that other teams want.
In January of 2008, the Minnesota Wild changed ownership to former Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold. The new owner took one season to evaluate the team and at the end of the 2008-9 season, he cleaned house and it started at the top. Gone were the only head coach the franchise ever had in Jacques Lemaire and the only General Manager as well! Bye, Doug Risebrough! In came Chuck Fletcher as the new general manager. Although it was his first gig as general manager*, he helped Anaheim win a Stanley Cup in 2007 and who would watch the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team he left to join the Wild, win the Stanley Cup in 2009.
*First time general manager? Sure, but it doesn’t hurt to grow up around the game of professional hockey and learn how to run an NHL team from your father, Cliff Fletcher, who was a general manager in the NHL for 27 years and still works as an executive for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Silver Fox or Trader Cliff helped Calgary win the Stanley Cup in 1989 so why can’t the Brown Fox or Trader Chuck win one with the Minnesota Wild? FLETCH LIVES!!!
The “New Regime” started in 2009 with the drafting of Nick Leddy, which looks like a great draft pick except for the fact that he plays for the Chicago Blackhawks now, since he was traded for what now seems like nothing. Cam Barker was pretty much nothing. He had 2 goals and 10 assists in 71 games played over two seasons with the Wild. Unfortunately, that trade will probably go down as the worst trade in franchise history.
The GM may have made up for it last year at the NHL Draft with the Brent Burns trade. We won’t know until we see how good Charlie Coyle & Zack Phillips turn out to be and if we see Devin Setoguchi reach his potential as a goal-scorer. We saw glimpses of what ‘Guchi can provide last season but never on a consistent basis. That could be for many different reasons (injuries, inconsistent line-mates, confidence, etc…) It was such an up and down season that its hard to know what to expect but the talent is there. He should or at least could be a perennial 30-goal scorer!
Josh Harding Signs 3-Year Deal
Josh Harding was drafted in 2002 in the 2nd round and has played for the Minnesota Wild for the last seven seasons. He’s been the primary back-up for the last five season. In the last few seasons, he’s struggled to stay healthy.
In March of the 2009-10 season, Josh had to have season-ending hip surgery. Then to start the 2010-11 season, Josh was playing goal in a preseason game in St. Louis when Brad Boyes fell on him after he made a save, tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee, ending his 2010-11 season. Not the best thing to happen to a player about to become a free agent.
Josh worked his way back from one of the worst injuries any athlete can suffer to sign a one-year deal with the Wild for the 2011-12 season. He played in the 34 games last season, the most of his NHL career while still having a couple injury problems but nothing that kept him out for an extended amount of time.
He says he wants to be the #1 goalie for the Wild and the 3-year deal worth $5.7 million kind of says that too. A cap hit of $1.9 million a year puts him in the top 30 goaltenders (#28 to be exact) in the NHL just above Jonathan Quick and James Reimer
What Happens With Backstrom?
Nicklas Backstrom is in the last year of his contract that pays him $6 million a year. He has a ridiculous no-trade clause that will force management to get his permission for any trade. The Wild say they have no interest in trading their current starting goalie but you’d think they’d want to get something for him if they weren’t planning on re-signing him after next season.
Bring The CLUTTER! EVERY DAY! EVERY GAME!
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