Article: Wild Sign Some Restricted Free Agents

[Thomas Williams]

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[mnfaninnc]

One area where Leipold can really help his team is in Iowa. Normal ELC contracts have the players making about $80k in the A. That's not a terrible salary for a 20 year old! 

Recently, however, we've had to use some of these guys up in the N. I'm not sure how they want to use leadership at the A level, but getting guys with NHL bodies and some NHL experience would help. That requires a larger investment in Iowa. 

I'd love to see a state of the art training facility in Iowa, maybe smaller, but still pretty modern, and to invest in the kids by giving them some good models and leaders to help them on their way.

Much like Crash Davis did in Bull Durham, these kids need mentors and guys they respect. We had 3 grinders in charge of player development. We had no defense mentors in Iowa at all. These guys require somewhere in the neighborhood of $500k salaries....for the A!

1st class organizations invest in their prospects and development. Is it any wonder why Beckman flamed out, yet Ogie, Dino, and Kaprizov were able to make the jump? Iowa is not the place to train the kids right now! Faber didn't even go there. Only Rossi has come up from there after being developed, and only that was due to his great offseason last year. 

Iowa is under new management now. My hope is that Guerin will turn towards them with improvements that have lasting effects. This may require Leipold to look that way too. When you look at Iowa and notice just how many have spent significant time there and made it up here, you've got to wonder why that number is so small. You've also got to wonder why they can't find consistent playoff success there too. 

A question for you guys, is Des Moines the right place for our affiliate? Would it make more sense to try Mankato? St. Cloud? Would Des Moines be a better place for our E affiliate?

I'm not trying to move them, and I don't know about their attendance, but would it make more sense to have them closer to St. Paul? Is there a reason why they wouldn't want to invest in Des Moines?

[Dango]

The only thing i could think of would be Des Moines has an major  airport  where as Mpls is Minnesotas  so if a call up is needed it would be logistically better  .

[mnfaninnc]

So, wouldn't a quick drive down from St. Cloud or up from Mankato/Rochester be quicker to get them there? I would think that MSP would have a larger array of flights to the cities where the Wild are playing? 

[Up North Guy]

58 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

So, wouldn't a quick drive down from St. Cloud or up from Mankato/Rochester be quicker to get them there? I would think that MSP would have a larger array of flights to the cities where the Wild are playing? 

I just don't see Mankato or St Cloud providing enough support. They are decent college towns but that is about it. Des Moines' attendance has been pretty good from what I have seen. I don't believe any of the teams problems are location issues. It seems they are management/investment issues. If they really wanted they could relocate to the Twin Cities. There are several quality arenas and enough fans to improve attendance even more.

[Dango]

3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

So, wouldn't a quick drive down from St. Cloud or up from Mankato/Rochester be quicker to get them there? I would think that MSP would have a larger array of flights to the cities where the Wild are playing? 

If the Wild were out west or east whatever and needed a call up its a 1-1/2 hour drive from Mankato or St Cloud to MPLS airport  where as its a 10 minute drive to Des Moines airport    but thats really the only thing i could see as an advantage if it ever was relevant in the first place .

[Dango]

Maybe Jordan Addison can be the Wilds dedicated Uber driver .

[Sam]

Too soon…