Wednesday update: FYI, I did not go down to the X today, so next update will be after Thursday’s scrimmage, which won’t end until 6 p.m.ish. So next blog most likely will be Thursday night. Have a good day everybody. 

It’s beautiful out, but it felt like hockey season down at the X.

In fact, it was fun getting my hockey fix, too.

First things first, I ran into a suddenly-jacked up Brent Burns. It always amazes me the transformation professional athletes can take during the offseason, and Burns has clearly been lifting weights.

In fact, 2007 first-round pick Colton Gillies has been living with Burns the last three weeks. Gillies said he’s living on the same floor as Burns’ 30-plus snakes.

Burns, Gillies and Burns’ younger brother, Brad, have been working out together daily.

And how about this for a star-studded Blog endorsement from the fast-rising defenseman? “All I do is eat, sleep, work out and read ‘Russo’s Rants,’” Brent Burns said. “Only way I know how to keep up with the league.”

Yahtzee.

As for development camp, first off, you’re not going to believe this.

I didn’t get to talk to Eero Elo. I know you’re disappointed. I am pretty sure he exists , however, because somebody was wearing No. 71 in the two practices. But when I went into the locker room, I wound up chatting with James Sheppard, Gillies, Benoit Pouliot and Cal Clutterbuck first.

I look at Elo’s stall, and he was no longer sitting there. And I don’t know what Elo looks like — every one of those kids look the same to me.

So I’ll have to report to you what Elo’s like later in the week, although I hear his English is a little limited.

Gillies isn’t the only Wild prospect around this summer. Guys like Matt Kassian have been here awhile. Clutterbuck just got a summer place in St. Paul with Barry Brust. Obviously Danny Irmen’s around. And I hear Ryan Hamilton and Cody Almond will be around, too. I’m sure there are others.

The rooks will be having lots of on- and off-ice workouts ’til Monday, including two scrimmages and a softball game at the Metrodome, too.

Talked a lot with Benoit Pouliot. I’ll probably write about him later in the week. He’s coming in with the mentality of making the team, although he has no Internet at the hotel and did not know Doug Risebrough’s publicly said that — as of now — Pouliot’s got a roster spot.

Obviously a lot can happen between now and training camp, but Pouliot said that’s a “bonus” to keep pushing harder.

I’m writing about Sheppard for tomorrow and the fact that he’s looking to make big strides this season after one year under his belt. The middle of the Wild’s forward lines is pretty weak depth-wise, and big improvement by Sheppard would be a coup for the Wild.

By the way, Sheppard said he’s considering living on his own next season and getting out of Darby Hendrickson’s (wavy) hair, and he is possibly willing to give up his No. 15 to veteran Andrew Brunette. Much more on the now 20-year-old Sheppard in tomorrow’s Star Tribune (which can be seen sometime tonight on www.startribune.com/wild).

Just an fyi, don’t expect a blog everyday from development camp. I’ll throw a couple up, like after Thursday’s late afternoon scrimmage, but I can’t make each day.

In other news,

– I’ve gotten two calls from Vancouver reporters who believe Pavol Demitra is close to signing with the Canucks. I have not made a single call to even try to confirm this because he’s not coming back here, but as you all know, I reported back in May that Demitra was in Vancouver “scouting” the community and his agent is now the Canucks’ current GM.

(I wrote that story on my Blackberry from the Detroit airport as I waited for a connection. Not easy writing a story on a Blackberry).

– I guesstimated inside the Blog comments yesterday that it might have been a first-come, first-serve thing between Owen Nolan and Brendan Morrison here (in other words, who called the Wild back first). I couched it as speculation. I have since learned that the Wild was informed Morrison decided he wanted to stay on the West coast, and that the Wild signed Nolan once it knew it was out of the Morrison sweepstakes. He’s since signed with Anaheim.

As I wrote many, many times leading up to free agency, the center position was horrific in this class. In fact, I think Bobby Holik was the only center to sign on July 1 despite a feeding frenzy for players. Once the Wild didn’t get Morrison, it didn’t feel it was worth spending lots of term and bucks on lesser centers.

– I have also learned from those close to Kristian Huselius that it did indeed come down to Minnesota and Columbus and the presence of good friend, Fredrik Modin, and the fact Ken Hitchcock promised him a chance to show off his skills were two big reasons why Huselius chose the Buckeye State over the land of lots of lakes and stuff.

That’s it for now.

– Forgot to mention, the goalie, Anton Khudobin is from Kazakhstan, and yes, he sounds exactly like Borat. It’s scary.

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