Good afternoon. Just checking in before the holiday weekend.

1. The Wild has had a number of talks with the agent of longtime checking center Stephane Yelle, but right now, Yelle’s agent Larry Kelly says the Wild has informed him they are “holding off.”

Yelle, 34, a gritty character guy and terrific faceoff centerman, is a two-time Cup winner with Colorado and spent the past five seasons with Calgary. Obviously, the Wild is thin, thin, thin up the middle, and whether it’s Yelle or someone else, you’ve got to figure at some point before or during the season that the Wild will address this issue.

2. On the Wild’s first-ever Fan Forum conference call, Andrew Brunette and James Sheppard chatted with season-ticket holders Thursday. My moles tell me Sheppard announced he’s giving his No. 15 back to Brunette, who’s worn the number throughout his career and back in the day with the Wild. Sheppard will switch to No. 51.

Brian Campbell’s the only No. 51 I can think of off the top of my head in the NHL, and I’m sure he’ll bring that to Chicago. Just thought of another: Detroit’s Valtteri Filppula.

3. Josh Harding’s doing something cool. On Sept. 9, he’ll be in Vancouver with Dion Phaneuf, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Pronger, Corey Perry and L.A.’s Drew Doughty to showcase some of his best moves in EA Sports’ first on-ice capture event for the upcoming NHL09 EA game. I guess every goalie in that game will be a southpaw

Enjoy the holiday weekend, Russoville.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.