Wild Sign Sean Hill

The Minnesota Wild signed Duluth, Minnesota native and 37 year old defenseman Sean Hill last week. Hill had one goal and 24 assists in 81 games for the New York Islanders last season and was also the first NHL player suspended for violating the league's drug policy. Hill was suspended hours before the Islanders playoff loss to the Buffalo Sabres due to a positive test for the anabolic steroid boldenone, which is banned by the NHL. Hill received a twenty game suspension and will miss the first nineteen games of the new 2007/08 season. The Wild said Hill acknowledged using a doctor-prescribed testosterone booster approved by the NHL, but told the team he did not knowingly take boldenone and is unsure how it got in his system.

As an eighth-round pick of Montreal in the 1988 draft, Sean Hill has also played for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricanes and the St. Louis Blues. This hard-nosed Minnesota native ranked third in the NHL in hits and sixth in blocked shots last season which is probably why the Wild signed him to the one year deal. Minnesota Wild fans look forward to Hill helping beef up Minnesota Wild defense and Wild fans certainly hope that the Sean Hills next drug test turns out clean because every one knows head coach Jacques Lemaire doesn't mess around with troubled players.

Wild Trade Manny Fernandez

MN Wild Freak had a feeling about Minnesota Wild goalie Manny Fernandez being traded and the feeling was right. The Minnesota Wild traded goaltender Manny Fernandez to the Boston Bruins Sunday. In exchange for Fernandez and his $4.3 million salary, the Wild receive forward prospect Petr Kalus and a mid-round draft pick. The Wild confirmed that the trade was approved by the NHL just after midnight and came so late because of a league technicality. The 2007-08 salary cap didn't officially increase until Sunday, and Fernandez's salary would have pushed the Bruins over the $44 million cap if it had happened on Saturday.

Manny Fernandez was one of the three original Wild players still with the team last season. He had a record of 113-102-28 in 260 games with the Wild, with a 2.47 goals-against average and .914 save percentage. True Minnesota Wild fans will miss their beloved Manny, but goaltender Niklas Backstrom won’t leave us disappointed. Let’s go Wild!

Wild Select Colton Gillies in Draft

The Minnesota Wild traded up in the 2007 NHL Draft last weekend, but didn’t draft who many experts thought they would. The Wild must have really wanted Colton Gillies, because they gave up both their 19th and 42nd overall pick to acquire Gillies at only three picks ahead at 16th overall. Glen Andresen of Wild.nhl.com was sure the Wild was going to select either Alexei Cherpanov or Angelo Esposito. Andresen was high on Esposito because of his incredible on-ice speed. True to his potential, Esposito put up some outrageous numbers in the QMJHL. The 2006-07 season saw him notch 79 points and the 2005-06 season was even more crazy as he dropped 98 points on 39 goals for the Quebec Remparts. Esposito is only 18 years old at the time of the draft, and time will only tell if the Wild missed out on a furious NHL goal scorer. It’s all about the professional team creating a player’s image however, and the Wild has an opportunity to make Colton Gillies a big Minnesota Wild ticket draw in coming years.

Ticket Scalping and Minnesota Wild

It will be very interesting to see what the Minnesota Wild thinks about ticket scalping now that it is legal in Minnesota. I was downtown St. Paul last week and I noticed that Ticket King is opening an office directly across the street form the Xcel Energy Center. I am sure that they did this because Wild Tickets are such a hot commodity. My hunch is that the Minnesota Wild won't have a problem with people buying and selling Wild Tickets because they sell out all of their games and the only way to get tickets is to deal with a ticket broker.

Boogaard Involved in More Fights

After years of being exclusively in the realm of NFL and NBA players, nightclub fight shenanigans have finally entered into the NHL thanks to Wild left winger Derek Boogaard. Boogaard was charged with assaulting a 20-year-old man last August outside of Regina, Saskatchewan’s sole nightclub. OK, I don’t know if Regina has more than one nightclub, but Boogaard was charged with “causing bodily harm,” apparently throwing punches or something. Anyways, the Boogie Man had his charges “stayed” or dropped by the Crown the other day and he won’t have to go to trial. Thanks Boogie for some off-ice notoriety to strike fear into the hearts of opponents. If you want to see some on-ice Boogie fights, get Wild tickets now, because good news: Boogaard was allegedly last seen picking up pointers from Timberwolves player Ricky Davis at the local Déjà vu.

Wild Goalies Honored Together, Perhaps for Last Time

The two Minnesota Wild goalies who tended the net so well this season were both recently honored at the mini-NHL awards ceremony in Ottawa. Niklas Backstrom and Manny Fernandez received the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is awarded for allowing the fewest goals against during the regular season. The other award was the Roger Crozier Save Grace Award for the league’s best save percentage during the regular season (.929). The goalie tandem that the Wild sent to the awards ceremony might be disbanded soon, as the Wild has just signed Niklas Backstrom to a new contract. The Wild has yet to move on Fernandez, but the goalie still has two years left on a three-year deal at $4.33 million per year against the cap. Fernandez isn’t sure what next season holds for him, but he is happy the way he finished the 2006-07 season. He believes he left on a “good note,” and that other teams are going to have a spot for him if he gets traded. With Backstrom back in the net, the Minnesota Wild are sure to have a great season next year and Minnesota Wild fans won't want to miss one single save! Buy Wild Tickets now!

Wild Dismisses Thelen

Poor A.J. Thelen. The guy just tried to have a fun night out drinking at Michigan State and it amounts to the Minnesota Wild organization giving up on him. I guess hockey is like any other sport in that its players have to be good boys and girls before becoming a pro, otherwise pro scouts think a player has “an attitude.” Isn’t an attitude something everyone has? Can’t you have a good attitude? The word attitude has been negatively stigmatized and athletes are suffering everywhere because of it. Poor A.J. Thelen. Maybe he’ll sign with some other team and score two goals on the Wild on slap-shots from the blue line next year.

Fernandez Front Office Spat

Manny Fernandez continues his six-year tirade of trying to get out of Minnesota in an interview with Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press. Murphy calls the interview Fernandez gave him “wide-ranging,” and from the looks of the article it probably was. Fernandez says he has to “break free of these chains” to reach his full potential in another NHL city. If he wants to go so bad, maybe he should. I wouldn’t mind giving the young and promising Josh Harding a shot at backing up the impeccable Niklas Backstrom. In face, the Wild organization trying to hold on to Fernandez almost has a comical feel to it, being that the Wild don’t really need Fernandez and because Manny is such a whiner. Even his agent in the May 30 article basically calls Manny a whiner by saying “It’s just Manny being Manny.” Perhaps the most hilarious part of the situation is the way coach Jacques Lemaire and assistant general manager Tom Lynn react to Fernandez and his antics.

“At least once or twice a year Manny or his agent have said we’re going to trade him imminently,” Lynn said in the Pioneer Press article by Murphy. “After six years, it doesn’t really register.”

So the Wild just ignore Fernandez and keep him sadistically in a Wild sweater? I’m sorry but I find that amusing. I say keep Manny around so we can hear more funny rants from him this season. Unless of course the Wild can get some real talent in exchange for him.

How Will Wild spend?

With Niklas Backstrom an almost sure lock as the Minnesota Wild’s starting goalie next year, it’s going to be interesting to see what the Wild do with Manny Fernandez, who is due to receive $4.5 million next year. I certainly don’t want to see the Wild paying a bench player that much money, but it would be sweet to have a solid backup for Backstrom. If the Wild is not going to pay Fernandez next season and move him in a trade, the Wild would be able to apply their free cap space a little more liberally during the offseason on hot free agents the way they did in the last offseason. I think it would help to surround the core Wild players of Bryan Rolston, Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra with some additional talent, perhaps a scoring defenseman.

Minnesota Wild Tickets are HOT!!!

In a news release, the Minnesota Wild announced that the franchise has 16,500 Wild season ticket holders and more than 7,500 on the season ticket waiting list. In order to get your name on the Minnesota Wild waiting list, you have to place a $200/seat non-refundable deposit.

The Minnesota Wild has sold out every single game in its 274 home games history. The average attendance has been 18,543 per game at the Xcel Energy Center, which has an official capacity of 18,064.

I am sure that the waiting list will continue to grow if the Minnesota Wild keeps playing as well as they did last year. I would get your name on the waiting list now before it is too late.

Manny on the Market

What is the Minnesota Wild doing right now with two number one goaltenders while they have a great opportunity to free some cap space by moving Manny Fernandez to a team that is desperate for goaltending? According to the Star Tribune, both the Florida Panthers and the Phoenix Coyotes could be possible candidates for making a trade for Fernandez. One thing is clear: The Wild is probably going to make Niklas Backstrom their number one goalie to start the 2007-08 season based on his stellar playoff performance, so where does Fernandez fit in if he has to sit on the bench? Let’s not forget that Josh Harding proved himself in his limited opportunities to net mind last season with that big shutout against the Edmonton Oilers on March 1.

Niklas Backstrom & Manny Fernandez?

I was very surprised to read that Assistant Minnesota Wild GM Tom Lynn said, "We feel we can sign Niklas without trading Manny [Fernandez]." In my opinion, the feasibility of retaining two goalies of this caliber and salary level ended when the new salary cap was instituted. The Minnesota Wild is starving for one or two more impact players and they need to cut ties with one of their goalies in order to have the cap room to sign them. I hope that Tom Lynn was simply posturing prior to attempting to trade Manny Fernandez to free up some $.