Andrew Brunette will wear a Wild jersey for the first time since 2004 and Owen Nolan, Marek Zidlicky, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Antti Miettinen and Craig Weller will all be in the lineup when the Wild opens the preseason at home Wednesday night vs. Columbus.

The lines (at least to start):

Brunette-Koivu-Miettinen
Gillies-Sheppard-Nolan
Hamilton-Kolanos-Irmen
Veilleux-Pouliot-Weller

Schultz-Johnsson
Bergeron-Zidlicky
Mojzis-Reitz

Backstrom
Brust

Well, Grand Forks has officially ended.

Nice town, and what an arena.

The Wild opted not to make roster cuts today. Chris Snow said yesterday it was because of performance. Jacques Lemaire rolled his eyes at that today , going on a rant about how the Wild has seven games in 11 nights and that he wanted more bodies around so he doesn’t get all the NHL players injured.

The Wild split the groups into two practices today, one of mostly the minor-league team and one of the NHL team, including center Krys Kolanos and defenseman Tomas Mojzis.

GM Doug Risebrough said both players played so consistently in the scrimmages, he felt others needed to see the coaches and management were watching to see who warranted looks.

However, he said that doesn’t mean Kolanos and Mojzis would be in that group all the time, and that deserving players would be shuffled in and out.

As I told you all earlier in camp, Mojzis is a player and could make a bona fide run at a roster spot.

Lemaire was not happy with today’s practice. He put the NHLers through a grueling workout, and a bigtime bag skate.

“It seemed like they wanted to go back home, and I want to work on things that are important,” Lemaire scoffed

Marian Gaborik was nowhere to be seen today.

Negotiations are clearly at a delicate juncture, very delicate. The two sides are far apart, although Risebrough said he plans to keep trying to get Gaborik inked to an extension. He again maintains he has had no trade talks and doesn’t plan any in the foreseeable future.

The irony here is the big risk in paying Gaborik Ovechkin money or Crosby money or Malkin money or Staal money or Lecavalier money is he’s so injury prone.

And here Gaborik is seeking to be paid like a top two or three player in the NHL while he’s out with a strained quad aggravated on the first day of training camp.

Asked if Gaborik’s history of leg injuries poses a risk to signing Gaborik long-term, Risebrough said, “It’s a consideration, but I don’t think our offer says, ‘they’re really worried about it.’ Are we concerned, yes, but we’re still negotiating a long-term contract.”

Risebrough also said Gaborik needs to understand he can’t be paid the world because Risebrough’s got to save money for outside acquisitions and for the Burns’, Koivu’s, Sheppard’s, etc., who will eventually earn major, major paydays.

“The GM has to make decisions that’s in the best interest of the team,” Risebrough said. “Clearly a bigger factor, even for Marian, is what will be the opportunities down the road to acquire other players or reward other players.

“At the end of the day, players have to have other players in hockey to be successful with.

“If you don’t choose wisely, and I don’t want to be critical as observant of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but they made a choice to commit a lot of money to three players (Lecavalier, Richards and St. Louis) and they went from Stanley Cup champion to the worst-place team in three years. So that makes me nervous.”

OK, I have a flight to catch.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Training camp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.