So my phone rings this afternoon, I look at the caller id and it says, “Jacques Lemaire.”

I answered and Mssr. Lemaire proceeded to have a little fun with yours truly.

“Michael,” in that unmistakeable voice, “I got a job. I’m working again. I’ve got a scoop for you.”

Excitedly, I say, “Oh yeah,” while I quickly open my blog admin so I can literally publish what he says as he says it.

“Yeah, listen,” Lemaire said.

And all of a sudden, I hear unbelievably loudly, “Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”

I go, “What the hell was that?” He goes, “A bench saw. I’m building a basement closet,” before he HYSTERICALLY started laughing.

Evil. Just evil.

I thought I got the New Jersey Devils scoop and this guy’s “been put to work by my wife.”

Then Lemaire gave his trademark, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” knowing that he got me.

I said, “Jacques, you better be careful. You already broke your elbow and shoulder this year.”

He said, “I’m watching my fingers. I won’t be able to shoot without them.”

I said, “How’s it possible to build a basement closet in Florida? I lived in Florida. You’re going to hit the ocean.”

He goes, “I’m in Montreal. If I was doing this in Florida, it’d be an entrance.” 

Have I mentioned Lemaire will be missed?

Lemaire was giving me a ring back from a few days ago when I called him about five minutes after Devils coach Brent Sutter quit.

Asked if he’s returning to the Devils as coach (he coached them from 93-98 and won a Cup there in 95), Lemaire said, “I can’t talk about that. There’s nothing done yet. There’s nothing that I can talk about right now.”

I told him I bet Brian Rolston wishes he comes there and Lemaire laughed and said, “Problem is he’s not the guy that decides.”

There’s no doubt though that Lemaire is interested in going back. He said he realized during the playoffs that instead of just taking any consulting job that came down the pike, maybe he does still want to coach in the right situation.

“That’s the thing I haven’t decided. After the season, I thought I was going consultant so I can be with the kids and the grandkids. But as I mentioned at that time, I’m not closing the door on coaching. I’ll look at the two options, and if I’m going to be busy, I’m going to be busy. So maybe I want to coach. We’ll see.”

The only other coaching job out there right now besides New Jersey and Minnesota is Calgary, and he’s not going to Calgary. 

If Lou Lamoriello calls Lemaire and the fit’s right, I bet he goes. Otherwise, he’ll take one of the consulting jobs.

He said he plans to come to stop by the Draft in Montreal “even if there’s nothing done, and then the Montreal press can speculate again. The day Jacques Martin was hired here, a radio station did a poll, who’d you rather have, Jacques Martin or Jacques Lemaire. Imagine that? Imagine that? Poor guy.”

Onward –

The Wild currently has the 12th overall pick (I bet they move down to try to gain more picks) in the June 26 Draft and assistant General Manager Tommy Thompson plans to bring five or six possible draft picks into Minnesota for tours of Xcel Energy Center and examinations by team orthopedist Joel Boyd. I’ll write more about this as the Draft approaches.

Three won’t have to come far though because they’re local – University of Minnesota’s Jordan Schroeder, Eden Prairie’s Nick Leddy and Edina’s Zach Budish.

“I’ve also invited myself into their homes for visits with their families,” Thompson said. “I’m not trying to make a moral judgment, but I want to see their personalities and their relationships with the parents.
“We don’t want any surprises.”

Also, I chatted with Chuck Fletcher for awhile today. He’s made significant progress in the coaching search, but he said he still has more work to do through the weekend and early next week. He said he’s not done interviewing candidates, and I think Red Wings assistant Paul MacLean will be one and it wouldn’t shock me if he called fired Dallas coach Dave Tippett, whose wife is from Minnesota and lives near Detroit Lakes. As I mentioned, Peter Laviolette is a top candidate.

But at the end of the day, I really believe it’s still going to be San Jose assistant Todd Richards. The more people I talk to about Richards, the better things I hear. He’s a very respected coach.

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.

Busy Chuck Fletcher has been swamped with many things on his plate, so in the past week, he hasn’t had a chance to talk with the beat writers.

Fletcher held a conference call with the two newspapers and Associated Press this afternoon, and he discussed the coaching search, Gaborik and pro scouting meetings.

Highlights:

He spoke with Gaborik, although it was mostly just to introduce himself. Asked if he got an idea as to whether Gaborik is willing to consider staying rather than just automatically going to free agency July 1, Fletcher said, “I can tell you the conversation was not as much about the future as just introducing myself and having a general conversation. I’ll talk more in depth with [agent] Ron Salcer as I continue discussions with him.”

On whether he’s talked to Salcer about a contract, he said, “It’s starting to get to that point in time where I’ll probably respectfully decline to comment on the specifics of negotiations.”

That made it sound like there have been negotiations, but in a subsequent email I sent to Chuck, he said there have been no negotiations and that he meant that any future talks as far as a contract would be with Salcer rather than Gaborik.

– On the coaching search: He said he’s still closer to the beginning of the process rather than the end. “I’m trying to narrow it down to a smaller list of candidates. I’ve spoken with some candidates. There are still some candidates I intend to speak with in a little more detail. Next week, I’ll start to make some progress.”

He said it won’t be an exhaustive search of everybody because he has a good idea of his finalists. He said that’s because in Pittsburgh when he and Ray Shero fired Michel Therrien this past season, he and Shero reviewed and assessed different candidates and spoke to a lot of different people about candidates.

“I don’t think it’ll take lot of time once I can devote all my time and attention to the matter. Next week I’ll jump into it more aggressively.”

He said his timetable is still by the Draft, and he’s confident it’ll happen. And quite frankly, Fletcher leaves for the June 26-27 Draft on June 22, so my guess is a coach will be named by June 19 the latest.

The candidates still appear to be Todd Richards, Craig MacTavish, Peter Laviolette, I hear both Detroit assistants Paul MacLean and Brad McCrimmon and Kevin Constantine. There could be others. But these are the names I’m hearing mostly from myriad leaguewide sources.

– Fletcher made it extremely clear he’ll be looking to swing a trade at the Draft. He comes from a long list of teams that have made big trades at the Draft — Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha the biggest. He said he and his staff are compiling free agent and trade priority lists, and that’ll continue to be refined.

But because free agency is such a crapshoot, he’d like to try to fill some holes “in advance” of free agency, which means the Draft.

I keep hearing Josh Harding is the big piece they’ll be floating. I also confirmed again the Wild offered Benoit Pouliot around to everybody last summer, so you can bet that won’t change. I also hear Derek Boogaard — one year from unrestricted free agency — will be at least shopped.

– Lastly, he thanked Mario Tremblay and said he asked Mario if he wanted to be considered for an assistant coaching position and Mario thought it was best to move on, which is what Mario told me. He said once a new coach is in place, the first order of business would be to sit down with Mike Ramsey, Matt Shaw and Bob Mason to see if there’s a fit.

Yes, I’m back. Yippee do!

I figured I better blog because the smart aleck son of a friend of mine sent me a text message saying, “Think you’ll blog again this year?”

Like father, like son

Back from Hawaii, and Ireland, and I’m ready to go back to each. Two awesome places.

The Brown Fox — Chuck Fletcher — is back in the office after landing this afternoon from Pittsburgh, where he attended Game 3 of the Finals and attended his first official GM’s Meeting — well, as a non-Interim, non-assistant GM — in history. Had to be cool.

What’s Fletcher been up to? Well, while I was in Ireland, he attended the Draft combine in Toronto last weekend, where he interviewed players and dined with the staff, including Tommy Thompson. On Thursday and Friday, he’ll conduct his first pro scouting meetings with Tom Lynn, Blair Mackasey, Jamie Hislop and Todd Woodcroft, among others.

They’ll be talking free agency, trades and likely whether the Wild should tender any offers to their own unrestricted free agents (i.e. Skoula, Veilleux, Bergeron or Foster). We know they’ll go after Gaborik, although it’ll be difficult at this late juncture.

(updated)

Fletcher has also been working on the coaching search. Same candidates as I’ve mentioned before. Todd Richards is still the frontrunner. I know for a fact Chuck went out to California to interview Richards, and that’s the place he wouldn’t tell me he was calling me back from (remember?).

But I still think he’d want to interview Detroit assistant coach Paul MacLean, who’s a bit busy right now.

If Richards gets the job, possible assistants include Claude Noel, Curt Fraser, Tony Granato and Mike Ramsey. Like I’ve said, I think Matt Shaw and Bob Mason have tremendous shots at being retained.

Lots of news going around the league. Jacques Martin is now the coach in Montreal, leaving Florida at a marvelous time with less than a month before the Draft and free agency.

All sorts of rumors out of Montreal that Mario Tremblay could eventually join Martin on that bench.

Florida will now conduct a full-on GM search, but owner Alan Cohen appears close to selling the team because I’m told that GM candidates are being referred to Alternate Gov. Bill Torrey and Tony Tavares, the former Anaheim Mighty Ducks head who just so happens to be leading the ownership group close to buying the Cats.

Some possible candidates in Fla.? Former Panthers coach Doug MacLean, former Panthers GM Rick Dudley, former Panthers captain Scott Mellanby, Hall of Famer and former Panthers analyst Denis Potvin, former Bruins assistant GM Jeff Gorton, TSN and NBC analyst Pierre McGuire and former Lightning GM Jay Feaster. Maybe former Wild GM Doug Risebrough would be interested, although he’s still on a two-week solo canoe trip, so he may not even know the job’s available

Lastly, aren’t you glad you’re a Wild fan? Imagine being in Colorado. Sorry, but at least Wild owner Craig Leipold conducts a far and wide GM search to get the best possible candidate and then announces him with a little fanfare.

The Avs do what they always do — hire internally.

Greg Sherman — the assistant GM — was hired today to replace Francois Giguere accompanied by the most underwhelming press release announcement ever. From Pierre Lacroix: “Greg Sherman deserves the opportunity to prove he can be an effective general manager in our business.”

I bet Avs fans everywhere are excited after that line.

It was also classy of Lacroix to finally fire Tony Granato after offering his job around the league for a month, including to former Avs star goalie Patrick Roy. Kudos to Denver Post writer Adrian Dater, who’s been all over that story for some time.

Speaking of Dater, he talked to Marc Crawford, who’d be interested in returning there as coach. Dater reports that Joe Sacco’s got an inside shot. Wonder if Jacques Lemaire would be interested, eh?

OK, I’m back on the clock folks. Blogs will be updated more regularly.

(updated 11:45 p.m., Tuesday)

Believe it or not, I’m back in Minnesota — for a few hours at least. Because I got too tan in Hawaii, I’m heading to Ireland on Wednesday to untan, but just for the weekend. Everybody who knows me can attest to the fact that I’m a globetrotter.

But I’ll be back in town well before a new coach is hired.

Chuck Fletcher, who wouldn’t divulge where he was calling me back from late tonight because then I’d figure out what he was up to(ha), is still in the research phase of the coach hunt process. He’s compiling a list of names, then will do some due diligence and then will decide whom he wants to speak with. He said literally everybody and anybody is on the list, so he hasn’t defined exactly who’s really on the list. He wants to get it down to about four before conducting interviews.

He will definitely interview San Jose Sharks assistant coach Todd Richards, as I reported over the weekend. I also talked to Peter Laviolette today, who is interested in the job. Here is the link to that story. I listed a bunch of possible candidates in the article.

In the former-NHL-head-coach-department, Laviolette makes a ton of sense. Yes, he’s won a Stanley Cup, but he also coaches a system very similar to the prerequisites Fletcher has laid out — communication skills, up-tempo, physical, offensive.

Pat Quinn and Tom Renney are off the market. Craig MacTavish is still on the market, and he’d make the writers happy (quote machine). Fletcher also has a history with Newell Brown and Paul MacLean.

In the meantime, Fletcher was in Winnipeg on Monday night to watch the Houston Aeros, who were eliminated in Game 6 of the conference finals. He’ll be in the office later Wednesday and Thursday to meet individually with the staff and as many players (who are still in town) as he can. He will be in Toronto this weekend for the draft combine.

He’s started calling players as well.

To clarify one thing that was reported earlier this week, he has decided no staff member is leaving or staying. He’s been in the office for three hours total, and has met a precious few. He said there’s no reason for anybody to be walking on eggshells, but stories that he’s told anybody they’re safe or unsafe were premature. What does that mean? He’ll meet with staff over the next several weeks, ask a ton of questions and then things “will become apparent to me,” and that does include Tom Lynn and Tommy Thompson.

Incidentally, Fletcher’s played telephone tag Tuesday with agent Ron Salcer regarding initial contact on Marian Gaborik.

Fletcher’s old team, Pittsburgh, advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals tonight, and wow, actually touched and picked up the oft-snubbed Prince of Wales Trophy — thus, delighting the NHL. The Penguins are a better team this year than last, and Bill Guerin looks as ageless as ever.

Assistant GM Tommy Thompson and his staff are in Toronto interviewing players at the Draft combine. Thompson said the Wild interviewed a single-day record 23 draft-eligible players Tuesday.

Okee dokee, I’ve got to pack. I’ll hit a few golf balls for ya.

Aloha from the North Shore of Oahu.

It’s been 25 hours since Chuck Fletcher was officially introduced as the Wild GM, and NHL sources say he already has permission to speak to the one coaching candidate I anticipate will be a heavy favorite — San Jose Sharks assistant coach Todd Richards.

As you’ll see from this San Jose Mercury News blog by David Pollak, a Sharks’ spokesman has confirmed to David that the Sharks have given two teams permission to speak to the former Gophers star. Only the Wild, Edmonton and Calgary are without coaches, and I’ve confirmed through a league source that the Wild is one of the two. 

Lots of respect between Fletcher and Richards. Fletcher originally hired him in Wilkes-Barre. Yesterday morning, I talked to Penguins GM Ray Shero about Richards, and not only did he give him a glowing recommendation, he talked a lot about the skills Richards has and they’re probably not so coincidentally some of the ones Fletcher said he wants as the next Wild coach.

Shero on Richards: “I have a great deal of respect for Todd Richards. He was one of my first hires when I came here. [With Nashville], he was one of my first hires in Milwaukee as an assistant coach. I got to work closely with Todd for a number of years. When I came here, I had already hired Chuck. While I knew that Todd was my guy, Chuck had all the responsibilities of running our farm team in Wilkes-Barre. Part of that was hiring a coach. I told Chuck I really believe Todd was a guy worth talking to, but having said that, it’s your decision. Chuck went through a real good list of candidates – maybe five, six, seven people to interview and came back and said Todd is the most qualified and best fit. So it was his decision at the end. Our organization has a lot of respect for Todd – his intellect, his communication skills, his passion for the game, he pushes the pace. One of the first things I heard back on Todd from Chuck was that our pregame skate was harder than some team’s practices. He really pushes the pace and makes players better. … He had the opportunity to move on to San Jose. It was a fantastic decision for him. This job in San Jose I believe really prepared him to being around the pro game with the fantastic coaching staff they have in San Jose. He’ll be a great head coach in the NHL, I believe, whoever will give him that opportunity. He’s got the right age, he’s got the right experience. I’m a big Todd Richards fan. He’ll be a great fit for someone.”

Mahalo!