wild/nhl

Boy, that is a real surprise that he has a shot to make the squad this year, I would have never dreamed in a million years that the Wild were penciling him in. Just one surprise after another this off season

The kid has earned his place, he was set up to fail from day one, but hard work and attitude goes a long way. The results with the Areos playoff run and the end of season Wild call up opened some eyes. I think he should have been with the big club since day one, he was fast and aggressive in preseason and that was what poor Richards was wanting all along. 3rd line of Clutterbuck, Powe and Gilles will net 50 goals minimum. IF, the D can advance the puck up and let em fore check. Can you say stretch pass!

bhrnew1l You really don't follow the Wild that close do you. There's been talk about him having a good chance of making next years team for months now.

Yeah this move has been a no-brainer since the Aeros made the finals. All we've heard was how much Gillies has matured and how he's made huge strides this year. It will be interesting to see how Yeo constructs the bottom lines. With Havlat gone, does Brodziak move to the third line? And I assume Clutterbuck and Powe will be on the same line together, but I could also see him splitting them up, so they can put Gillies on that third line. Either way, the depth chart is alot better this year than last years.

Wild Owner Leipold is CHEAP!!! There are some decent free agents to be had. Look at St Louis. We could have signed Langenbrunner which would help the team, but I am sure he is too expensive. Just how far below the cap are the Wild. Again...the Wild Owner Leipold is CHEAP. And why did they get rid of Robertson? Money...Fletcher wanted him gone. This franchise does some things good, and then turn around and shows their true colors. We can blame Fletcher and Richards and anyone else all we want...but the real problem with the Wild is the Cheap Owner Leipold.

hockeyfox: To say Wild owner Craig Leopold is cheap is just ignorant! The last thing the Wild need to do this season is go out and overpay a bunch of aging vets from Minnesota. The Wild have been a Cap team for the last 5 years, and likely will be again next season when there is a better free agent class to pick from. Fletcher is doing a great job rebuilding the Wild prospect pool, and the moves he made with Burns and Havlat were pure genius.

Fox - I don't know what you are smoking today as your comment was MKIA-like! The Wild just brought on a $7.5M contract in Heatley and your calling them cheap? I like what they have done this offseason. The only thing potentailly left to do is bring in another veteran D-Man.

Wow. Just wow. Really? Jamie Langenbrunner? He was a good player, but is way past his prime. He's 35 years old and scored 9 goals in 70 games last year. St. Louis signed him for $2.5 million. That is the definition of wasted money. The Wild have always been at or near the cap under Leopold, so to call him cheap is ridiculous. If you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention to the Wild this offseason, you would have noticed the direction they are going is to not overspend on aging free agents. Fletcher has done a great job of stockpiling good young players, and has also managed to make the team much better without changing the direction of the team. This year should be more fun to watch the Wild in years, and they are only going to continue to get better...that is...if they don't go out and make dumb decisions like signing Jamie Langenbrunner type players.

puckstopper1 you are right hockeyfox comment is "MKIA-like!" or maybe it is just another alais for MKIA just like technowild!

I think bhrnew was being sarcastic... Gilles a 1st rounder in 07, quite a few years in the minors so far. Time for a guy like him to step up.. or step aside when Zucker & Granlund get here.