I’ll be back on later this evening with a more in-depth free-agent primer, but I figured I’d jump on and say hello now.

I know there are all these Vincent Lecavalier rumors to Minnesota floating around the blogosphere, but I can tell you that yesterday morning, as good a source as you can possibly have from one of the two teams told me that “Vinny’s staying — 100 percent,” meaning he will not be traded before his July 1 no-trade kicks in.

I suppose if some deal knocked the Lightning’s socks off in the next 24 hours, that could change. But let’s be honest — it’s very doubtful the Wild has those assets to suddenly make the Lightning change its mind.

Essentially, as I mentioned on the blog last week, one owner wants to move Lecavalier; one does not. And both owners have veto power of any trade, so it would take a major philosophical altercation by that one owner today to put Lecavalier in another zip code.

Also, Lecavalier’s cap hit might be $7.7+ million in the next 11 years, but he makes $10 million in real dollars in the next seven. I just don’t see the Wild being willing take on that type of commitment in this economy.

It will be interesting to see if there are trades tomorrow. Remember, you can go 5 percent over the cap starting July 1 until training camp, so as often is the case, trades are agreed to at the draft and executed on July 1 (Manny Fernandez to Bruins, Marek Zidlicky to Wild, although that had to wait simply because that’s when Zidlicky’s no-trade expired).

The Senators have to trade Dany Heatley by midnight if they’re going to escape paying him that $4 million bonus.

Also talked to two sources yesterday — one exec, one agent — and both said they’d be shocked if Josh Harding isn’t traded in the near future. He’s got arbitration rights, and the agent thought he’d be owed a fairly significant raise just because of his goals against and save percentage last season.

Here’s a look at the depth chart as it currently sits assuming all the UFA’s go to free agency, so have some fun today, check out the free agent lists and you fill in the holes:

LW                              C                                RW

———                Koivu                          Bouchard

Brunette                Sheppard                   Nolan

Miettinen              Belanger                    Clutterbuck

Boogaard              Brodziak                     Weller

Potential candidates: Pouliot, Gillies, Irmen, Kalus

***I see the Wild pursuing a center, which would bump down the center spots and maybe put Brodziak on the right side and Weller in the press box; If they don’t sign a No. 2 center, maybe Bouchard or Pouliot gets that chance, which opens up a top-two line RW spot.

LD                         RD 

Johnsson              Burns

Schultz                  Zidlicky

Scott                      ———-

*** I see the Wild bringing in two NHL defensemen, meaning Scott could be the extra.

Goalies

Backstrom

Harding

***Harding is trade bait, and then the Wild would sign a cheaper backup goalie, and they grow on trees.

Kudos to editor/sportswriter Mark Wollemann for stepping in for me yesterday. The day off was very much appreciated.

Update: Negotiations are ongoing right now with Chicago and Pittsburgh regarding Martin Havlat and Ruslan Fedotenko, but if they are not re-signed, the Wild may pursue.

Update: USA Hockey announced the roster for August’s Olympic orientation camp. Here is the release.

The roster includes several Minnesotans or players with Minnesota ties: Tom Gilbert, Erik Johnson, Paul Martin, David Backes, Dustin Byfuglien, Phil Kessel, Jamie Langenbrunner, Ryan Malone, Kyle Okposo, T.J. Oshie and Zach Parise. 

Update: Wild at least having talks still with Stephane Veilleux.

Update: Wild has hired Jim Mill (not Nill) assistant to the GM and GM of the Aeros.

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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.”

Just got off the phone with Niklas Backstrom, who infuriated me because he was sitting by the pool at the Palms.

Tough life, pal. Me, I just walked the Stone Arch Bridge. Nice, but not the same.

Backstrom’s jacked to be in Vegas, where I gave him some advice on must-see’s, like the “Love” Beatles’ Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage. He’s a Beatles fan, as his girlfriend, Heidi. I gave him some other advice, too.

He’ll be up for the Vezina (Best Goalie) on Thursday night’s NHL Awards Show, which can be seen on VERSUS at 6:30 p.m. He’s a finalist with Boston’s Tim Thomas and Columbus’ Steve Mason. At the Show with Bax offering him support so to speak will be Heidi, Wild goalie coach Bob Mason, GM Chuck Fletcher and P.R. guru Ryan Stanzel — yes the same Stanzel who constructs the famed R.S.S. Feed on the Wild’s web site.

I talked to Backstrom about a variety of things that you’ll see in future sports sections, but here’s a few quotes I’ll offer up now.

On Vegas, Awards Show: “I haven’t been here before. Just to be part of it, it’s going to be one of the biggest days of your career personally. You never know if you ever get the chance to do it again. It really kicks in when you get here and you see all the guys – you know all these stars – and posters all over the city. I’ve never seen the Awards Show before. I don’t know how big it is. But when you get here, you start to feel it’s a pretty big thing.”

What do you think of Vegas: “I cant complain about the weather.”

How’s the surgically-repaired hip: “I feel really good actually. I’m going to see the doctor on Monday. I fly from here to Vail. I’m excited to see him there because it feels so good. I’ve never looked so forward to a doctors appointment before. Hopefully I’ll get permission to go full.

Nervous about being on camera and the Vezina? “Every athlete, you want to win. But when you go to a normal hockey game, you feel more that you want to win. It’s a great honor just to be here. You look at all the goalies, there’s only three who will be here tomorrow, but you look around the league, you could easily take 20, 30 goalies. So for sure it’s a great honor to even be here. Just looking back to where I have come from. Couple years ago, I played in Europe, and now you’re here up for such an award. I don’t want to say it’s enough. You want to be the best everyday and all the time. But it’s really good even to be here.”

Richards says the D will be running wild. Does that concern you? ”My job is going to be the same – stop the puck. If we win, it doesn’t matter how you play. That’s the only thing you’re concerned about – to win. If you’ve got a system that all the players believe in, and everybody really jumps into that, then every system is good. You look the way hockey is played now, you look at the good teams who were in the Final, even if they play some offensive hockey, I think everything starts from the defense. Even if it would be fun to have the 80s and 90s Edmonton Oilers here and score six, seven goals, I don’t think it’s possible in today’s NHL. So I think you can have a good offense, but everything still starts from the defense. Like I said, it doesn’t matter how we play, the only thing that matters is that we win.

You could be facing a few more odd-man rushes, but are you willing to give that up if it means you won’t have to be holding onto tie or one-goal games anymore? “It’s part of hockey. You have to live with that. You can’t worry about it. You have to make sure you’re ready for whatever happens. Goalies, we have to be there, we have to help the guys if that’s the case. On the other hand, if we play more offense, score more goals, maybe every now and then our goalies can make a mistake and we have a chance to win. So there’s some good and some bad things with every style. The only thing that matters is that you play good hockey. Then that gives you a chance to win.”

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So, it’s the morning after, and the new era of the Wild feels just a little more complete. GM and coach … in place.

Next up the Draft (and perhaps trades), and then free agency.

By the way, I’m not a Twitter guy yet, although you can follow this blog on there. But after seeing Wolves spokesman Kevin Love breaking the Kevin McHale news on Twitter just after midnight, I may have to scour the Twitter universe for Wild players.

First, here’s the coverage from Wednesday’s paper:

I wrote a Todd Richards profile in Tuesday’s paper, which quotes Richards’ mentor Claude Noel, his former teammate and agent Ben Hankinson and his former teammate Pat Micheletti.

So Wednesday’s main story was more focused on Richards and what he specifically sees from this team. Here’s that story

Here is the notebook on Tommy Thompson still working even with an uncertain job status, Fletcher talking about Gaborik and a note on the search for Richards’ coaching staff.

Here’s Jim Souhan’s column on Richards growing up in the State of Hockey.

After the news conference, Chuck Fletcher immediately turned his attention to the Draft, the trades that surround it and Marian Gaborik.

Fletcher planned to call agent Ron Salcer yesterday, and I’m not sure if that conversation took place. But Salcer is supposed to be back in the country by now. As you can see from Fletcher’s quotes in the paper, he still believes it’ll be a longshot to get Gaborik to stay this late in the game, but he’s certainly going to try.

During my lunch with Fletcher last Thursday, Fletcher said he was in the process on contacting every team in the league to discuss trades. Yesterday, he said that initial process was complete. He’s made some type of communication with all 29 teams.

Remember, Fletcher believes the trade market this summer will be greater than most summers because so many teams have cap issues. In fact, even after the first couple days of free agency is done, Fletcher is willing to go one player short for the first six weeks or so of the summer because he’s so sure you’re going to be able to commit highway robbery in a trade later in the summer.

The theory there: Since teams are allowed to go over the cap in the summer, teams will be forced to shed money, and even good, $3 million type players in late August and September. So Fletcher is willing to take that risk. But he also wants to try to make some moves at the Draft.

“I’ve had a lot of phone calls. I’ve initiated a lot of phone calls. I’ve had communications with every team in the league and probably spoken with the majority of them in terms of what their needs may be and what the interests are from us. That’ll intensify this week. There’s a lot of communication at the Draft, but I would like to maybe have a little more focused approach going into next week. You know, seeing where the fits will be.”

In other words, often times, trades are consummated right at the Draft or on Draft Day. Fletcher wants to have some frameworks in his mind going into Montreal week. So instead of dealing with a broad, 29-team frenzy next week, he’d prefer by Mondayish to have a more focused approach of a handful of teams he’s dealing with on specific ideas.

I’ll write more in specifics next week. Onward…

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I’ll be back on here later on this afternoon or early evening to discuss more in depth the Richards news conference, the nitty-gritty details of what was discussed in the post-press conference scrums (that’s where the most interesting news items or details always come from because that’s when we ask actual specifics) and a number of other items surrounding the Wild.

But I wanted to throw up the presser, as transcribed by Brian Stensaas (many thanks), and San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan, who did a conference call with myself and two other local writers. Remember, not only was McLellan Richard’s boss in San Jose, but he coached for a long time in the Wild organization in Houston. So he knows Koivu, Burns, Veilleux (likely gone), Boogaard, Bouchard, Harding from the Aeros and others like Schultz from training camp.

I also just got off the horn with Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who was nice enough to call me back between Cup celebrations. I’ll throw that up later.

Here is Todd McLellan:

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