The stories are starting to heat up across the NHL as it moves along towards the 2010 NHL Entry Draft and the opening of free agency on July 1st. Yesterday, the NHL world was shocked to hear that the Montreal Canadiens traded its playoff hero, and apparent #1 goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues for young talented prospects in talented Danish-born forward Lars Eller and big rugged forward Ian Schultz. There has been widespread speculation that the draft may see a huge swath of trades, but will the Wild be apart of them? Or will it sit back and stay out of the player and pick swapping melee? If you ask Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher, the answer is likely the Wild will get involved. Fletcher recently told the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Michael Russo the team sees trades as the answer to its salary cap conundrum that leaves it woefully short on flexibility to add the key components it needs. Looking at the list of free agents, this is not a great year to add help, especially at forward where the are precious few skilled forwards meaning their price will likely be prohibitively high. Fletcher recognizes this, and feels trades are the one avenue the team will have to utilize. The Wild need to acquire another Top 6 forward and perhaps the team’s most attractive commodity is defenseman Brent Burns. After discussing this issue with many Wild fans, the overall consensus is this would be a bad thing, but Fletcher conferred that the team would consider moving anybody if its the right trade. As the old hockey saying goes, “if Wayne Gretzky could be traded, anyone can be,” which is compelling since the team is going to try to sign its star franchise forward and team captain Mikko Koivu to a long-term contract extension. While there are other contracts whom the Wild and its fans would rather see come off the books, if few are interested in what that player brings to the table, deals cannot be made. This is why Burns seems like a likely candidate to be moved since his level of skill would be something other teams may be willing to part with a Top 6 forward for. Fletcher stated, “we have players in our organization that that are of interest to other teams. It is always a question of the right fit and if we could get one or two pieces in our forward group, we have a chance to have three pretty good lines.” One other player the Wild have been shopping for quite a while now is backup goaltender, and restricted free agent Josh Harding (who was tendered a qualifying offer) but it looks to be a tough sell with 12 notable free agent goaltenders on the market. Names like Marty Turco, Michael Leighton, Martin Biron, Chris Mason and Tomas Vokoun who was amongst the top 5 in save percentage last season are just a small portion of this list that would make Harding’s availability not as big of a deal. I would not be surprised at all if the team kept Harding on another one-year deal and hoped he’d fetch more at 2010-11 trade deadline.
Fletcher even suggested he’d be open to trading the team’s 9th Overall selection for the right 22-23 year old young player the team could then enjoy 8-10 years of production. Yet he said it has to be the right deal for the team. Players mentioned that the Wild are interested in is Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter, and Florida’s Stephen Weiss and Nathan Horton as well as Chicago’s Patrick Sharp. While I think its good to be open minded about such trades I hope he also sticks to his guns about not dealing the pick for a mediocre return. A top 10 pick should be considered a huge opportunity to improve the team by drafting an impact player. I am not expecting that player to make that impact next season but he should be a franchise cornerstone for years to come. The Wild also tendered qualifying offers to restricted free agents Anton Khudobin, Elk River-native Nate Prosser, bruising left winger Matt Kassian and prized scoring winger Guillaume Latendresse but one player sort of stands out in contract given to James Sheppard. Sheppard, the team’s 9th Overall pick in 2006 had a horrendous season last year scoring just 2 goals and 6 points in 64 games has now been re-signed in a one-year $803,000 deal. My question is why? There are players the Wild could easily acquire for the league minimum who would fit better than Sheppard into Minnesota’s system and likely be more productive as well. This is clearly Sheppard’s last shot with the Wild and could very well be his last NHL shot as well and it will be interesting to see if the team keeps him up with the team for the whole season or relegates him to the minors. Either way Sheppard has done little to earn his spot with the club and apparently the Wild feels he deserves one last chance. I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he fails once again to live to his billing as big potential power forward.
The Wild also chose not to renew the offers to defenseman Jamie Fraser and former 4th round pick (122nd Overall) in 2006 Morten Madsen. So another Wild prospect bites the dust and Minnesota will again have its work cut out for themselves at the draft.
Mike Ramsey steps down as Wild assistant coach, Yeo named Aeros bench boss
While I mentioned the Halak trade as something that surprised many in the hockey world, in the State of Hockey the big shocker was the news that long-time Wild assistant coach an local hockey hero Mike Ramsey decided to resign. Ramsey told Wild.com’s Kevin Falness that he wanted to spend more time with his family especially since he has 3 kids in high school but even this did not ease the feeling of shock. Perhaps no one seems to be as surprised as Wild Head Coach Todd Richards who said he was “taken completely off guard by it” noted that Ramsey himself felt it was time for a change and that he never really felt quite as comfortable as being apart of the staff. Richards tried his best to explain it this way, “He didn’t feel completely comfortable or settled, it was almost like a 10-year marriage to Jacques Lemaire, he was used to a certain way of doing things, and somebody comes in and its different, and he never felt truly settled or comfortable.” It is interesting that Todd Richards can be caught so unaware like this since you think you’d develop your closest bond with your fellow coaches. As a coach myself you become very close with your fellow coaching peers, and often deep friendships are created and you often can tell when someone is going to move on to something else. It seems strange that something like this could catch him so off guard and makes you wonder what else Richards is apparently unaware of. With Ramsey’s departure, is the last vestige of the inaugural Wild organization goes with it. Being a key component of an organization that has compiled a 331-291-116 record over 9 seasons is no small feat and most Wild fans appreciated his candor and greatly respected his part of the state’s hockey history as a former member of the Gophers and the 1980 Olympic team as well as an NHL veteran of over 1,000 games. ‘Rammer’ as he was known by the players always seemed rather cerebral and was important in helping shape the games of Minnesota’s blueliners like Nick Schultz and Brent Burns.
No matter what it means Chuck Fletcher and Todd Richards will have to get together and find a new assistant coach. One coach that immediately comes to mind is Richards’ former mentor Claude Noel who was recently dismissed from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Noel, a coach who has a very strong minor league resume seemed to try to step away from being considered a potential candidate by saying that he is more focused on becoming a head coach and saying that he may have to return to the AHL to do just that. One other name that has been brought up by both Wild fans and Michael Russo was former Wild player and former assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Wes Walz. Walz, a player who is tremendously popular amongst Wild fans has also been given a fair amount of credit for helping the development of Steven Stamkos emerge as one of the league’s elite scorers last season. Without question, during the formative years of the organization, no player typified what the Wild represented more than Wes Walz. A hard working, unselfish NHL journeyman who took full advantage of his 2nd chance at the NHL he seemed to thrive under the tuteledge of Jacques Lemaire. Walz retired and then moved on as an assistant coach under Barry Melrose. When Melrose was fired less than 20 games into the 2008-09 season, Walz was retained and quickly earned the respect of new bench boss Rick Tocchet. Under the impatient and volatile ownership of Len Barrie and Oren Koules first Walz and then Tocchet was sent packing after the Lightning underachieved. Walz was later offered the head coaching job of Lightning’s AHL affiliate in Norfolk but he bawked on the opportunity saying he wanted to be closer to his family which had now moved to Florida at the time. So would Walz be willing to be an assistant coach again, that remains to be seen. The Wild no doubt realizes it would get a bit of a PR boost by signing Walz as an assistant coach. This will certainly be a story to monitor in the weeks to come and we’ll do our best to keep you up to date.
I must admit, I too was a bit surprised Ramsey didn’t decide to leave last year. With Jacques and Mario Tremblay moving on I figured Ramsey would likely step down. He was a great coach and good link to Minnesota’s past. I know how it feels to have the head coaching situation change. It is certainly a time of anxiety going from the routine of what you know very well to the uncertain and unknown. Sometimes it can be great, but other times it can truly erode your want to coach. You have to be able to completely buy in to the philosophy of your head coach to be an effective assistant, and apparently Mike Ramsey did not feel that way and decided to take his chance to move out. You have to respect that he knows what works for him.
In that same realm the Wild had another major coaching announcement when it tabbed Mike Yeo to be the new Head Coach of the Houston Aeros. Yeo’s most recent gig was as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins since the 2006-07 season. The Wild was not happy with the fact the Aeros missed the playoffs, thus depriving the team’s prospects a valuable opportunity to develop in high pressure games. Yeo used to play for the Aeros when they were apart of the International Hockey League, playing from 1993-94 to 1998-99 where he was a gritty left winger who could provide offense. Minnesota no doubt hopes his experience with the Penguins will help turn Houston into a consistently winning organization that can be a good proving ground for the Wild’s prospects.
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