Wild/NHL Draft

[cbrooks]

You'll give him credit when he gets Freshman of the year in the WCHA

Face it UND has the cream of the crop for incoming freshman this year.

[OnAFly]

Spear - My bad, I forgot he was a free agent this year.

Will we see a trade to get someone to play with those two? Hopefully we don't give up any young forwards. We need them bad.

[OnAFly]

Wild traded their 2013 3rd rounder for Darrol Powe.

Sounds like he's a good PK/shutdown guy who can play wing/center. Also sounds like he's not afraid to get into corners and play physically too. I like this trade. Really, I like what Fletcher is doing so far.

[scsavre]

Fomrmer Princeton player. As long as he is cheap I am OK with it. Made $725,000 this year. Had some decent numbers for a penalty killer. I just hope we dont do typical Wild and try to make him a 2nd liner.

25 years old.

81gp 7gs and 10 assists last year. Apparently gritty and hits alot. Maybe a little like Clutterbuck.

Interesting move, not sure what the intentions are now.....

[Bear55]

Bear I will remember your statement on Rocco when UND plays Minnesota this year.

Hey I never said he was a bad midget, just a midget. I even want to say some scout on TSN said he would have gone #1 overall if he was 6 feet tall. Maybe the most skilled player in the draft last weekend. I wish he was ours, I also don't have much faith in our D keeping him contained, even with our recent coaching change.

[spearchucker]

]Fomrmer Princeton player. As long as he is cheap I am OK with it. Made $725,000 this year. Had some decent numbers for a penalty killer. I just hope we dont do typical Wild and try to make him a 2nd liner.

25 years old.

81gp 7gs and 10 assists last year. Apparently gritty and hits alot. Maybe a little like Clutterbuck.

Interesting move, not sure what the intentions are now.....

They will need to replace Kobasew, Madden, and Mittens, so it looks like a start. He scored more than most of our team last year.

[scsavre]

Sounds like a good guy to have on the team.

Rocco, really notworried about him. Brooks, u guys look like u r about 2 yrs away from being like the gophs program has been for the last 5. Go from top team in the country and get upset. Then you start going after the big prospects who either don't pan out or leave. Then you are stuck with sophmores and juniors with no playing experience. That is if they havnt transfered yet. The only diference is the gophs won 2 titles before their dimise.

I was jus giving you a hard time, but now it actually sounds kinda believable.

[Bear55]

]Sounds like a good guy to have on the team.

Rocco, really notworried about him. Brooks, u guys look like u r about 2 yrs away from being like the gophs program has been for the last 5. Go from top team in the country and get upset. Then you start going after the big prospects who either don't pan out or leave. Then you are stuck with sophmores and juniors with no playing experience. That is if they havnt transfered yet. The only diference is the gophs won 2 titles before their dimise.

I was jus giving you a hard time, but now it actually sounds kinda believable.

You have me convinced! Sioux finish no higher then 6th this year. Grimaldi quits hockey to become a horse jockey.

[scsavre]

Horse jockey, you cant pretend that isn't funny

[OnAFly]

[OnAFly]

Cam Barker was put on waivers today. We could buy him out for 1/3 his salary and only a third of that would hit our cap (I believe is how it goes).

This is a great opportunity for us to shed ~$2.5mil off our books and gain some more flexibility.

[spearchucker]

This is a great opportunity for us to shed ~$2.5mil off our books and gain some more flexibility.

$3.25 mil. We got much more out of Stoner for $575K

[cbrooks]

You have me convinced! Sioux finish no higher then 6th this year. Grimaldi quits hockey to become a horse jockey.

Not funny dude. Not funny at all.

Go Sioux

Go Jets

[OnAFly]

We still have to pay him ~$500K if we buy him out. We wind up with ~$2.5m in cap room.

cbrooks - Your Jets can pick up Barker right now, he's super reliable and only available for a short period of time!

[spearchucker]

We still have to pay him ~$500K if we buy him out. We wind up with ~$2.5m in cap room.

We have to pay him 1/3 of 3.25mil = 1.08 mil from my understanding. If under 26 you pay 1/3 of the average salary left. I tried finding information on the cap hit, but it involved some formula based on percentages and stuff. Apparently the salary cap hit is over twice the remaining length of the buyout. I think Barker has 1 year left at $3.25 mil so we will buyout at 1.08 mil over 2 years and take a cap hit of something less than that over 2 more years.

After some searching, the Strib says it will be a cap hit of $375,000 next season and $541,667 in 2012-13 season. We will save 2.875 mil on this years cap by buying him out.

[Bear55]

After some searching, the Strib says it will be a cap hit of $375,000 next season and $541,667 in 2012-13 season. We will save 2.875 mil on this years cap by buying him out.

Works for me, it just keeps getting better and better. Lots of good prospects in the system and plenty of cap space (14M) for the first time in years. No cap space is fine when you are making the playoffs but when you don't make them it gets a little ugly.

[OnAFly]

I think we're getting at the same thing.

Either way, hopefully we buy him out and get a little more room. Really, I'd be happy with Craig Leopold pocketing that cash and us floundering in last place for a year so we could get a studly draft pick.

[Bear55]

I'll take this kid!

http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=130572

We would really have to suck next year or suck and win the lotto to nab him but he looks like a stud in the making.

[archerystud]

I think most of the smart hockey people (Can you use smart and hockey in the same sentence?) realize that DR left the organization completely depleted of draft choices and young talent. They also had very little cap room. I agree with OnAFly as I think they are in the right direction.

The problem is when you draft 17 year olds which take a few years to develop then it will take a while to rebuild.

The only guy that really got hosed in this so far is Richards. I think he should have been given one more year based on the talent he was given. He'll probably get another chance to be a head coach elsewhere, but I think he was kind of made to be the scapegoat here.

[spearchucker]

The only guy that really got hosed in this so far is Richards. I think he should have been given one more year based on the talent he was given. He'll probably get another chance to be a head coach elsewhere, but I think he was kind of made to be the scapegoat here.

He got hired as an assistant in Columbus.

[spearchucker]

Its official, Barker will be bought out.

[OnAFly]

[Bear55]

Well the NHL "Christmas in July" is here there will be all kind of free agent crazyness going on today. I don't see the Wild doing much today but it should be interesting to see who lands where. A lot of guys are re-signing with their current teams so far. Brad Richards is the biggest fish available.

Signings so far.

Christian Ehrhoff signs with the Sabres (10y/$40M)

Steve Montador signs with Blackhawks, 4 years/ $2.75M per

[OnAFly]

The Erhoff signing is risky. I don't like those 10year deals when contracts are guaranteed.

[Bear55]

There has been a pile of signing today but here are the most interesting. Sad to see Bruno go but it looked like he was running out of gas last year, who know though, I could see him lighting it up again with all those skill players the Hawks have.

[COL/WSH] Varlamov traded to Avalanche for 1st and 2nd round picks

[FLA] Ed Jovanovski to Panthers (35+, 4 years, $4.125 per) ‎

[PHI] Jaromir Jagr signs with Flyers (1 year, $3.3M)

Columbus signs Wisniewski (6 yrs, $33 MM)

[CHI] Blackhawks sign Andrew Brunette (1 year, 2 million)

[FLA] Jose Theodore to Florida (2 years, $1.5M per)

[Bear55]

Wild sign Harding as our backup for 1 year - 750K

[solbes]

Here's a video link of a shootout goal by Sam Lofquist at the Wild's Development camp. Nice work young man!

http://video.wild.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=933&id=120932

[OnAFly]

Slick move.

Anyone seen the Becoming Wild series on FSN? I caught one episode on Friday I think it was. It was a great look into the Aeros and Yeo's coaching style.

[Bear55]

I haven't seen the series yet but the wild just wrapped up their development camp, from the sounds of things a lot of our guys were impressive. The next couple of years could get pretty exciting around here.

[Shorelunch]

I haven't seen the series yet but the wild just wrapped up their development camp, from the sounds of things a lot of our guys were impressive. The next couple of years could get pretty exciting around here.

I agree. I haven't been an NHL fan since the Jets left 'Peg and the North Stars moved. I'm more of a UND alumni fan (Blackhawks, Devils, Blues, etc) and also NHL teams with WCHA players. I've never really "liked" the Wild because it was mostly Euros. Now, I'm getting interested in the squad because of the WCHA possibilities/ties they have.