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  • Wild Sign Some Restricted Free Agents

    Image courtesy of © Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    It's summer now, but the Minnesota Wild are still wrapping up their final transactions of the offseason before everyone can go to the lake and spend roughly four to six weeks not thinking about hockey.

    Over the last week, the Wild have re-signed three of their restricted free agents to new deals, to carry them through the next season.

    Defenseman Declan Chisholm has been signed to a one-year, $1-million deal to be the surefire bottom-pairing defenseman and provide some youth on this blue line outside of Brock Faber. And the Wild then secured both Sammy Walker and Adam Raska to similar one-year, two-way deals. Both of their contracts will carry a league-minimum salary of $775,000 at the NHL level, and the only difference is their minor-league salary -- $97,500 for Raska, and $125,000 for Walker.

    Now that those deals have been completed, all that's left for general manager Bill Guerin to do this summer (unless he wants to pull off a trade, or something) is sign lone restricted free agent Graeme Clarke to a new deal.

    And that will be it.

    That's Wild

    • The Wild's roster is certainly cemented. So that means that this team is really depending on some bounceback seasons for some players (like Ryan Hartman) to get their depth scoring. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • The Wild are getting their NHL depth, but the AHL Iowa Wild have also signed some deals. [The Hockey News]

    Off the trail

    • Speaking of the AHL, word on the street is that they’re expanding their playoff format (even further than the already expanded format they’ve been rocking with over the last couple of years). [Inside AHL Hockey]
    • The NHL offseason has certainly died down but there are still some rumblings and chatter that can cause for some drama. Here are five to look out for: [Bleacher Report]
    By 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?

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    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  .

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    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? 

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    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.

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    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 .

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