wild/nhl

I don't feel sorry for Lou. He did the same thing by poaching Kovalchuk from Atlanta...

I would not consider signing Praise was an act of "poaching". It was an open bidding process and in the end, Praise's desire to play in his home state along with Suter prevails. That is fair and square.

Predators GM David Poile – “I guess that's where the disappointment comes in. I know family is important to all of us, but I know he and his wife like Nashville. It's not very far from Wisconsin or Minneapolis.” Poile needs a reality check. For those of us who don’t have a private jet at our disposal, a 15 hour 870 mile drive from Nashville to Minneapolis is actually kinda far. Go Wild!

To all the coaches and GMs for east and west cost teams, Detroit, and Chicago. Now you know how teams in "flyover country" feel when we lose players we drafted and developed only to have them "poached" from us for more money someplace else. Doesn't feel too good does it.

It's not just "can't beat family" as Ken Holland would suggest. All programs that rise to successful heights start somewhere and maybe this is where the Wild start defining their franchise? The fan base for hockey in MN is as good as it gets in the NHL. The money was there and the GM is solid. Why not come here vs. Detroit or those other cities if it weren't for family?? Those other teams all stunk at one point or another along the course of history. No different than the Wild.

These other teams like NJ, Detroit and Pittsburgh are not used to star FA's saying "no" to them. Now they know what it feels like to want. Go Wild!

Suter said back in Novemeber? Huh? Come on. That's really reaching. This is the beauty of the Free Agent System; if you want to have a draft and a reserve clause, like both baseball and the NHL have, then--other than being released--free agency is the only way out of that team ownership of a player. It almost sounds like Polie's advocating slavery. Tough luck, sport.

And lets not forget both of these guys were "poached/enticed" to leave their college teams early, thus "disappointing" a lot of fans as well. One thing about it though, the sun did come up this morning in N. J. and Nashville.

Two things First, Lou Lamoriello did not "poach" Kovalchuk, he traded 3 players and a draft pick for him and then re-signed him when he hit free agency at the end of the season. Secondly as far as NJ not being used to FA saying "no" to them, have you ever heard of Scott Niedermeyer,Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta,Brian Rafalski,Claude Lemeiux, Alexander Mogilny...shall I go on?