Bonjour from one of my favorite places, Montreal, where I’m readying to cover my 12th NHL Draft (Buffalo, Boston, Calgary, Florida, Toronto, Nashville, Carolina, Ottawa, Vancouver, Columbus, Ottawa and Montreal).

Twelve.

By far my favorite league event to cover. That’s because every single person in hockey shows up at the Draft, so as a beat writer, there’s no better place to be. It’s the one pro Draft where you basically have to be there to cover it because all 30 teams’ Draft tables are on an arena floor.

And usually, the teams I cover swing big deals at the Draft. The Wild’s traded for Pavol Demitra and Todd White at the Draft, and set up the Manny Fernandez and Marek Zidlicky deals.

And the Panthers, to quote Jacques Lemaire, “Oh … My … Lord.” They were busy bees at every Draft, especially Bryan Murray, who acquired Trevor Kidd at the Boston Draft in ‘99 and Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha at the 2000 Draft.

The Panthers, with Chuck Fletcher playing a big part, acquired Val Bure and Jason Wiemer for Rob Niedermayer at the ‘01 Draft. Rick Dudley traded the first overall picks at consecutive drafts. The Panthers tried to take Alex Ovechkin at the ‘03 Draft — one year before he was eligible. They also, after I was covering the Wild, traded Roberto Luongo and Lukas Krajicek for Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan Allen at the Vancouver Draft and acquired Tomas Vokoun the next year.

Fletcher hopes to make some similar noise as the Wild’s GM, and we will see. He did learn from the one of the best, eh, blockbusterers in NHL history in Bryan Murray, and whatyaknow, BM the GM is about to execute yet another with some team with Dany Heatley.

As I’ve written, Fletcher doesn’t have a ton of assets he can deal, so there’s got to be the right fits and, as he said during last night’s interview, “the reality is there aren’t fits with most teams most of the time.”

Wanted to jump on and give you info on three events:

1) The Wild will have its Summer Bash on Thursday night at Rice Park in St. Paul from 6-9 p.m. Hockey-themed stuff, food and lots of autographs as the Wild broadcasters will be there, along with Nordy, Brad “Bomber” Bombardir and current players Derek Boogaard, Cal Clutterbuck, Colton Gillies, John Scott and James Sheppard — barring getting traded, of course

2) Tom Reid’s Hockey Pub in St. Paul will be hosting a Draft party Friday night starting at 5:30 p.m. The VERSUS telecast starts at 6 p.m. and Reid will have lots of information on all the draft-eligible players, as well as food and drink specials. And bring your laptops so you can still pay close attention to startribune.com/wild and startribune.com/russo, which will have live up to date information as it happens from the draft floor.

3) I’ll be hosting a live online chat on startribune.com Friday at 10 a.m., so be there or be square.

OK, I’m going to go stalk NHL execs, including “Chucky,” outside the Board of Governors Meeting now.

Talk to you later, I am sure.

(updated with Fletcher quotes)

Good Tuesday evening. Coming to you live from clear, crisp Vermont, where I will spend the night before heading up to Montreal in the morning.

By the way, very exciting day today. Know what happened on this very day 27 years ago?

Mrs. Joanne Boogaard gave birth to a strapping young lad that would ultimately become one of the NHL’s most intimidating 6-foot-7 and three-quarters-tall enforcers.

I talked with agent Ron Salcer after I landed this afternoon, and he said while the door’s not closed on the Wild with pending free agent Marian Gaborik, July 1 is “very enticing” and it’ll be awfully tough to get Gaborik to relinquish the rare opportunity of getting to speak to 29 other teams.

But Salcer said he’s had one conversation with Wild GM Chuck Fletcher but wouldn’t discuss if an offer’s been made. As I wrote last week, I’m pretty sure the Wild plans to offer Gaborik a five-year deal in the $7 million range. He turned down a 10-year, $78.5 million deal last fall because he didn’t want to commit to 10 years in Minnesota when he wasn’t comfortable with the direction of the team on and off the ice. That’s from well-placed sources.

Everything’s changed since with Jacques Lemaire and Doug Risebrough gone, which actually does intrigue Gaborik. However, with free agency eight days away, if Gaborik decides to stay here, as I’ve said over and over again on here, I would be beyond shocked.

Plus, as you can see at this link, the Vancouver Province’s Jason Botchford is reporting that Gaborik’s bought a house in Vancouver. I’ve talked to Jason and he’s citing unidentified sources but feels like he’s very much confirmed this. I haven’t been able to confirm and Salcer said he has no knowledge.

IF true, IF there’s been contact made with Gaborik and he has some sort of inside information that he’s going to sign with Vancouver that he is comfortable enough to buy a home there, it should be a very interesting couple weeks. Teams are not permitted to contact pending free agents until 11 a.m. CDT July 1. That is tampering — plain and simple.

And if you remember, the Wild accused the Canucks of tampering last year with Pavol Demitra before he signed a two-year, $8 million deal with Vancouver.

It was confirmed that Demitra was in Vancouver looking for homes well in advance of free agency, and his former agent is now the Canucks’ GM, Mike Gillis. The league looked into the situation at the Draft and eventually dropped the Wild’s charge around the time Demitra signed there.

If a team is ever found guilty of tampering, it can be fined lots of mula and draft picks.

Gaborik couldn’t be reached for comment, so I wasn’t able to ask him about the Province’s report.

But Salcer did speak to me.

Asked if Gaborik bought a home in Vancouver, Salcer said, “I have no knowledge of that at all. I know nothing about that. Nothing.”

Asked if he’s had conversations with Gillis, Salcer said, “None.”

Chuck Fletcher wouldn’t comment on the Gaborik situation, other than to say he feels it important to keep everything close to the vest at this point.

“There’s nothing I can comment on with the whole Gaborik situation,” Fletcher said. “I’m just going to work through things and we’ll see how it plays out.”

However, he continues to have trade talks with several teams and is hoping to make a move or two in advance of or at the Draft itself. He continues to be entrenched in Dany Heatley talks, which besides the assets, would cost any team a $4 million signing bonus July 1 and then a $4 million salary during the season.

Ottawa GM Bryan Murray has made clear that if the Sens pay that signing bonus, he’s staying there this season. So something should happen at the Draft.

But Fletcher’s involved in a number of things. He’s still definitely dangling Josh Harding. By the way, Niklas Backstrom’s no-trade doesn’t kick in until July 1, but Fletcher says he’s not entertaining trading him: “No. I haven’t. I mean, no. Nik’s our goalie. Nik’s our goalie for next year.”  

Fletcher’s keeping everything close to the vest.

“There’s always lots and lots of talk and things tend to happen at the Draft itself or a day or two before,” said Fletcher, who arrived in Montreal on Tuesday. “It’s certainly playing to form. You just don’t know. Everybody is talking to everybody, so you never know how serious things are.

“What I’m finding is you talk to a team one week and the next week things may have changed. So there’s things certainly I’m focused on and we’re having lots of conversations.”

(corrected)

Thought I’d start a fresh blog, so here be it:

Here are the weekend stories starting with Fletcher’s looking to wheel and deal 

AND

Josh Harding being open to a trade because he wants to be a No. 1

I’ll come on here later and blog some more. I’m hoping to talk to Chuck Fletcher today, but I can’t make any clearer that trading for Dany Heatley won’t be easy because of the amount of assets he’d have to give up. Plus, Heatley would have to waive his no-trade clause to come here and of the list of 10 or so teams he gave Ottawa, it’s unclear as to whether Minnesota’s on that list.

Also, I know 100 percent, Ottawa IS NOT interested in Josh Harding. Bryan Murray made his goalie trade when he acquired Pascal Leclaire at last season’s trade deadline.

Also, I keep getting emails and see comments on the stories about the idea of trading Niklas Backstrom. Remember, he’s got a two-year no-trade clause, then if he reaches certain criteria, that no-trade clause continues.

Lastly, here’s an interesting link on the Habs’ web site examining the Draft. The Wild has had more man games from draft picks than any team in the league since 2000. Of course, there’s lots of ways this can be analyzed; as an expansion team, the Wild had no other choice, plus Doug Risebrough’s philosophy of just sticking kids of the team.

That is a thing of the past, by the way. Chuck Fletcher has made extremely clear kids can be on the team, but they will have to MAKE the team. For instance, because Colton Gillies was on the roster for more than 40 games, his seven-year free agency clock started. However, if he plays in the minors next season (good possibility), that DOES NOT count toward free agency but his entry-level contract.

I bolded the above graph because it is now correct. I had it way wrong initially. 

Because James Sheppard has played 160 games, he can’t play in the minors without clearing waivers.

Anyway, hopefully I’ll be back on later. I’ll be mostly out of pocket Tuesday unless there’s hard news. I’m leaving for the Draft, but purposely taking the long way to Montreal.

That Heatley part got your attention, eh?

First things first, but there’ll be a Game 7 for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup on Friday in Detroit. Great game last night, and what an ending. Detroit’s net is empty for about 1:20, and Detroit wins three draws. Is there anybody in the league who protects the puck better than Pavel Datsyuk, by the way?

Apparently the Wings don’t care that the Wild’s currently conducting a coaching search. Otherwise, they would have gotten it done last night, right?

It appears all but certain that Chuck Fletcher at least wants to interview Wings assistant Paul MacLean, and maybe even Brad McCrimmon, so by the series continuing, it delays the interview(s) to this weekend at the earliest.

Fletcher attended last night’s game and is scheduled back in his St. Paul office today. In fact, he’s been hopping around the last couple days working on the coaching search. Peter Laviolette’s been MIA since originally being quoted in the Strib, so that often means you can bet your last dollar they’ve met within the last couple days.

And that is what I’ve been told by myriad sources. As I’ve written on here in the past, of all the former NHL coaches, Laviolette makes the most sense. Well respected, won a Cup, coaches a very aggressive system in which it’s all about attacking with the puck. 

One name I’ve heard in the last couple days is former Bruins coach Mike Sullivan, who’s been given permission by Lightning boss Brian Lawton to seek a head coaching job. Not sure completely if he’s talked to Fletcher, however, although he was on the original Fletcher “list.”

Technically, Sullivan’s still a Lightning assistant. He’s known as a details guy and was loved by John Tortorella when he coached there.

But from everything I hear, this is between Todd Richards, Peter Laviolette and eventually Paul MacLean. I don’t know exactly where Craig MacTavish sits right now.

As for Heatley, there seems to be a perception out there that if the Wild loses Marian Gaborik, it can just go out and acquire $7.5 million players.

It’s a lot more complex than that, especially since it’s unknown where the salary cap will dip to in the next two or three years and because the team spent $6 million a year on Niklas Backstrom. That $4.08 million salary cap hit for Pierre-Marc Bouchard the next four years tightens things up as well.

Yes, the Wild could take Heatley’s $7.5 million cap hit the next five years, but it would affect any flexibility or ability to plug other holes, like center and defenseman though the end of his contract. And remember, Mikko Koivu’s a UFA after two seasons and Brent Burns after three seasons. It’s imperative in today’s day and age to think that far ahead.

With that said, however, I am sure Chuck Fletcher will investigate what Ottawa GM Bryan Murray would want in a package if — and I repeat, if — he moves Heatley, who’s top-three in goals per game the last several years along with Kovalchuk and Ovechkin.

He’s a true superstar, and if you want to make a splash as a first-year GM, well, Heatley would be more like a tidal wave.  

And remember, Fletcher and Murray are very close. Fletcher was his assistant GM for seven of Fletcher’s nine years in Florida, and then Murray brought Fletcher to Anaheim after Rick Dudley was hired in Florida. (Incidentally, I hear Dudley will soon be leaving Chicago as assistant GM for another top job in the league).

I’ve talked to a number of people the last day on this Heatley situation, and it’s certainly not guaranteed that Murray’s just going to move Heatley because he is asking off the second team in his career (Atlanta being the first). Plus, Heatley’s got to approve any trade, so it’s not guaranteed he’d come to Minny even if Fletcher worked out a deal.

Also, it’s not guaranteed the Wild has the pieces to get Heatley. Murray would want a ton for Heatley, and lets be honest, the Wild’s not moving Koivu or Burns. So right there, that could take them out of it. Any deal would probably have to include Tyler Cuma and a first, plus a top position player.

Murray has long been interested in Kim Johnsson, but Johnsson’s in the last year of his deal at a $4.85 million cap hit, so that probably won’t work. Neither would goalie Josh Harding anymore either since Murray dealt Antoine Vermette to Columbus for Pascal Leclaire at the trade deadline.

Either way, you can bet Fletcher will make the call and see if he can dive into the trade talks. But again, this would be a complex deal because you have to find the right fits for a trade and then decide if it’s worth potentially creating other holes and/or putting yourself in a position where you can’t fill holes that are already there. 

As for Gaborik, I’m told Fletcher and agent Ron Salcer won’t talk again until after a coach is hired. Fletcher feels it important that Gaborik knows who’s coaching the team and what direction they’ll be going in. And regardless, Salcer’s currently vacationing with his family in Israel, so he won’t be back until later next week anyway. 

OK, that’s it from here. I’ll be on KFAN from 11-11:30 today.