Couple adds: Will be on KSTP at 6 pm tonight, live chat at 10 am Friday and Doug Risebrough had his second interview for the Panthers GM vacancy here in Montreal today.

Checking in with you again late this afternoon from the beautiful Montreal, although I’ve sort of been holed up in my hotel most of the day other than the hour or so to go hunt down Jacques Lemaire.

As of now, Chuck Fletcher is still trying to make a trade, with the emphasis on the trying. As proof by the crickets throughout the NHL, it’s not easy making a trade right now, not when as a colleague said to me today, there’s about 150 players on the block, of which 100 nobody wants. The problem I am sensing from the numerous execs I’ve talked to is sort of what I alluded either in an article or the blog or the Twitter — I don’t know, it all sort of runs together.

There are lots of teams looking to get rid of really good players, but good players with really big contracts. So those teams automatically want picks and prospects back, which as you know if you’ve been reading the Strib, the Wild isn’t exactly filled to the brim with. So, hence Fletcher’s problem. And hence, the league’s problem. You can’t just acquire a $4 million player in today’s game without giving up some dough.

He’s inquired about nearly 40 players, including Phil Kessel and Dany Heatley. But there are many others that I either don’t know about or don’t want to write because it’s just rumor, so who knows what Fletcher gets done — or quite frankly, if Fletcher gets something done.

I’ve been told Ottawa’s cut its targeted teams down to seven. I’ve been told the Wild is one of them. But I’ve also been told L.A.’s hot after him and would consider giving up winger Alex Frolov, a quality defenseman and the fifth pick, which let’s be honest, the Wild can’t contend with.

Right now, I’m not aware of any Wild trade being done tonight, although as I reminded Fletcher yesterday, the Panthers once made me sprint — OK, walk fast — back to this very hotel at about 10 p.m. one night in 1998 after executing the blockbuster of all blockbusters — Esa Tikkanen for Dwayne Hay.

Have I ever told you the story about Esa Tikkanen screaming at me in the Panthers’ locker room after I lowered the radio because I was trying to interview the low-talking Scott Mellanby? It’s a great story. One day I’ll you.

I keep hearing from everybody he’s still using Josh Harding at the big bait, mostly with Edmonton, St. Louis and Toronto. But again, Harding is restricted free agent, so if Fletcher doesn’t get the deal he wants, there’s no rush in trading him. You can wait until later this summer or even next season. But, he is likely eventually going to be dealt.

So, as for the Draft, …

(more…)

Forgot to put this up from the presser:

To View and Be Included in Star Tribune’s Wild/NHL Twitter Page, here is the link 

Good morning from Montreal. I will be back later, but this will be an extremely quick blog because I have a prospects media luncheon at noon EDT downstairs.

First of all, I’ve joined this century and Twittered up. You can find me on there by searching Michael Russo or user name Russostrib. The link should be this one here.

I just came back from the Team Canada press conference to introduce one heck of a coaching staff for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Head coach will be Mike Babcock, and his assistants will be Jacques Lemaire, Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff and Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock. Hitch will be the eye in the sky, Lemaire and Ruff on the bench with Babcock, who has long admired Lemaire. More on that in tomorrow’s paper. Lemaire will coach the special teams.

Lemaire and I had a long private chat about the Wild, and you’ll want to read his interesting comments on the new system in tomorrow’s paper. On whether he’ll coach against next season (aka Jersey): “I don’t know. We’ll know in the future — the near future.”

Sounds as if it’s up to Lou Lamoriello.

I talked with Canada Executive Director Steve Yzerman about Brent Burns, who looked like a 2010 shoo-in after Burns dominated the World Championships 13-14 months or so ago. He was named the best defenseman in the tourney. Remember, Burns had a trying season last year with a concussion and playing forward, but Yzerman said he’s very much still in the mix. During a five-hour meeting yesterday, Lemaire gave Burns a full endorsement. The invite list for Canada’s Olympics camp will be out in 10 days or so.

“He’s certainly on our list,” Yzerman said about Burns. “I know it was a trying year for him. I got the good fortune to watch him at the worlds two years ago and he played very well. He’s definitely a guy that we’re watching. I’ve got to finalize this list and get invites outs in the next 10 days or so and I intend to do that and he’s certainly on that list. He’s a great player, he had a difficult year and I understand that. But it certainly hasn’t hurt him. I don’t think any less of him as a player because of it. I’m hopeful he gets off to a very good start – his size, his speed and his offensive ability, his competitiveness makes him a guy that’s very intriguing for us. It’s just he’s younger, a little less experienced. I was hoping he would have a really great year, but injuries come into it. We’ll deal with that. But I still think very highly of him.”

OK, have to get downstairs. Chatted with Jordan Schroeder and Nick Leddy, and his parents for a while this morning in the lobby. Great kids. Very excited. Leddy, whom the Wild adores, met with them again today.

Laterz.

I was once told never make promises because you can only disappoint, so sorry. I fibbed.

Didn’t mean to though, but here’s your morning excuse. The wireless in the hotel is lousy. This hotel is packed with so much media and nine team’s worth of personnel, I just think the network is jammed with laptops. So yesterday, and again this morning, getting into web sites feels like the ancient days of dial up.

So last night when I tried to blog, the admin to the blog just stood there trying, trying and trying to open, just laughing at me as I pounded the desk. I finally needed to go meet folks and never got a chance to blog. This should make Friday morning’s chat next to impossible, but I’ll figure it out.

Anyways, here’s the main story from today on the three Minnesotans that can go in the first round. As the story states, the Wild likes all three players, but there is a chance it takes none of them if the players aren’t next up on its list when it picks. I’ll write more about these kids and other potential Wild targets in tomorrow’s paper, or if space restrains that, tonight’s blog.

And here’s the notebook on a bit of a trade update and the fact that Boston is at least fielding offers for Phil Kessel, the former Gophers forward and last year’s 36-goal scorer at 21 years of age. 

The deal here is Kessel’s restricted, wants between $4.5 million and $5 million and the Bruins are already at $50 million next year with other things to get done. They’re at around $35 million for the following year with several other players to re-sign or sign, and if you look at the fact Marc Savard’s entering the last year of his contract and next summer they’ll probably have to extend Zdeno Chara, Kessel could be a cap casualty.

Now, they are still trying to sign Kessel, but if they do, they’d likely have to move some other players to squeeze him in. So this is very much up in the air. So I’m told by numerous league sources that GM Peter Chiarelli is at least fielding offers from teams and is considering moving Kessel by the Draft or this summer. I saw Kessel’s agent, Wade Arnott (Jason’s brother), about 32 times yesterday, so he’s roaming around and is expected to continue talking with Chiarelli.

But Kessel is four years from unrestricted free agency and again is entering that lofty second contract status, so I can’t imagine Arnott’s going to just do Boston a solid. So, there’s a very real chance he’s dealt, and if so, the Wild has at least shown vast interest, I’m told.

Because Kessel would be traded simply because Boston can’t afford him, the Bruins conversely would not want much money back in a trade. So picks and quality young players is what they’re looking for, so I’m told it would cost Minnesota the 12th pick and at least a top, top young kid. For the Wild, that’d mean Tyler Cuma or James Sheppard, but that does not mean Boston’s necessarily interested and even if the B’s are, it’s unknown what they’re being offered from other teams.

So this gets back to what I’ve been writing for the last couple weeks, and months for that matter – Chuck Fletcher doesn’t have a lot of tradeable assets because of the way things were done here in the past. I cannot make any clearer how much the Wild lacks assets compared to so many other teams in the NHL. I don’t want to keep pounding on the old regime here, but it really is unforgiveable how it didn’t value draft picks and how it just let free agent after free agent walk for squat.

OK, I promise not to mention it again (today at least).

For instance, it certainly appears as if the Wild is about to lose Marian Gaborik for nothing. I ran into a million NHL types yesterday who asked me about Gaborik, and each one said the same thing — losing an asset like that for nothing back is the type of thing that takes years to recover from. And now that the Vancouver Province reported he’s bought a house there — something I still have been unable to confirm, by the way, but the Province stands by the story and its sources — it probably makes trading Gaborik’s rights to anybody next to impossible.

Whether that story is true or not, what team’s going to give up even a skate sharpener for Gaborik’s rights when it’s been reported that it’s a foregone conclusion he signs in Vancouver?

Also, remember, the Wild might be into Kessel now, but if Chiarelli’s waiting until Friday, who knows what Fletcher dips his toes into by then? And right now Fletcher’s in on a lot of different things, from Heatley to countless other things (lots of rumors, but I only report what I know from sources, not what’s just floating around) to talking with Toronto, Edmonton, Colorado, Detroit, St. Louis and Philly about Josh Harding.

(I was told last night that the Blues are very interested in Harding, and few teams are as overstuffed with young assets as the Blues). So it’ll be interesting to see if Fletcher gets something substantial done with so few tradeable pieces to dangle.

I have an interesting story in tomorrow’s paper — again, unless there’s hard news today — about Fletcher giving colorful behind the scenes anecdotes of the orchestration of previous trades he’s taken part in.

Anyways, Internet permitting, I’ll be back this afternoon with more stuff. I really want to attend the Team Canada presser and offer some Jacques Lemaire stuff later, but it’s a half-hour away and the prospects media luncheon is an hour later back here. So I don’t know how that’ll work out.

Just wanted to jump on real quick, and I will write a fresher blog later on with more specifics, I promise.

But a lot’s going on here as far as trade talk. Basically, there’s a lot of players available falling into two major categories — teams are trying to unload marginal players with big salaries and teams are trying to unload top players whose contracts are up this year or next that warrant big raises but likely can’t be squeezed under the current team’s salary cap — especially if it goes down in future years.

I’ll throw names up later, and yes, the Wild is in on a lot of this.

Just got done talking with Chuck Fletcher, who attended his second Board of Governors meeting in history. He said he’s got so many names bouncing around his head, he needs to sit down, throw them around with the staff and “sort it out.”

As usual this time of year, there’s a lot more talk than action, and as Toronto GM Brian Burke said, “Many teams are being unreasonable” as far as asking prices. Fletcher said like it always does, he bets it comes right down to Friday’s Draft.

Most teams wait to the last second to get the very highest offer they can get. So essentially, somebody needs to get the ball rolling. Like the Gov. of California, I’ll be back.

As for other stuff, multiple sources told me this morning Mssr. Jacques Lemaire will be one of Mike Babcock’s assistants for Team Canada in the Olympics. The others are Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock, both of whom I got to spend some time with today. Ruff, the Buffalo coach, used to be the Panthers’ assistant coach, and I reminded him that he’s been there so long, it was 1997 in the Marlins press box when I was writing he was leaving Florida to take the Buffalo job. He’s currently the NHL’s longest-tenured coach.

Anyways, Lemaire will be at tomorrow’s Team Canada presser.

Some funny sights today:

1) Hitchcock was waiting for Philly’s Ed Snider to grab a coffee. When Snider saw the horde of press waiting at the top of the staircase for the Board of Gov’s meeting to let loose, he faked a phone call until he found Hitch.

2) Len Barrie and Oren Koules, the two Tampa owners who are reportedly at each other’s throats one year after buying the team, walked up the stairs together clearly just for the cameras. They didn’t stop, however, then went off on their separate ways.

3) Tons of nervous prospects in the lobby waiting for initial interviews or re-interviews with teams. The Wild’s one of a handful of teams based in this current hotel, so you can bet a lot of them were to meet with Minnesota. Some included Omaha center Louis Leblanc, the Harvard bound talent, and Erie’s Ryan O’Reilly. This isn’t abnormal. Teams meet with several players at this late stage, so it definitely isn’t a sign of whom the Wild’s taking. 

OK, like I said, I’ll be back later with more specifics after I do some more reporting.

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.”