Braving the Wild: Minnesota's Quest for Lord Stanley
Being a kid from Minnesota my whole life, I was ecstatic as the next person when I found out that we were getting a hockey team back. I was too young to remember much about the North Stars, but getting hockey back in Minnesota was the biggest thing I can remember. When they were selecting the name of the new Minnesota hockey team the finalists were Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, Voyageurs, White Bears, and Wild. I remember wanting the Northern Lights so bad, but ultimately, the Wild was selected. The name has grown on me, so I like it a lot now. As for the Wild's history, there really isn't much, but they did have one improbable run in 2002-2003 when they upset the Avalanche in 7 games after being down 3-1 in the series and coming back from another 3-1 series deficit against the Vancouver Canucks. Their run would end against the red-hot Ducks and J-S Giguere who would ultimately lose to the Devils that year. The Wild have made the playoffs 3 years and were one and done the other two years that they ended up making it. They own 1 Northwest Divisional title and that came in the year 2007-2008, but were bounced by Northwest divisional foe Colorado Avalanche in 6 games. Jacques Lemaire and Doug Risebrough brought a team that wasn't very good to pretty good with Risebrough bringing in the correct players for Lemaire's system and Lemaire using his defensive prowess to "coach up" players to a more successful season, but the Achilles' heel that is coming back to haunt the Wild now is the ineffective drafting that Dough Risebrough has done. Since 2004, most of the 1st round picks by the Wild have been atrocious, with a few glances of hope from some players such as Cal Clutterbuck who was drafted in the 3rd round and has come into his own not only as a grinder, but a guy who could pop in 20 goals a year. Let's look at the continual failures by Risebrough in the first round:
2004: AJ Thelen - complete bust, playing ECHL
2005: Benoit Pouliot - traded for Guillaume Latendresse, new GM Chuck Fletcher was able to make something out of nothing here
2006: James Sheppard - rushed to the NHL, maybe if he was brought along slowly, he would have been better
2007: Colton Gillies, trading a 2nd round pick to move up one spot to take a guy who had not much offensive flair was a big mistake. Who was taken with that 2nd round pick? Eric Tangradi
2008: Tyler Cuma, who has been injured too much to know how he will be, but it remains to be seen on this one, GM Chuck Fletcher seems intent on letting Cuma develop in Houston for a while, but the real gem out of this year's draft was Marco Scandella who has looked great for the Wild.
After the 2008-2009 season, Jacques Lemaire stepped down and Owner Craig Leipold fired Doug Risebrough and brought in new GM Chuck Fletcher who brought in the most logical head coaching candidate in Todd Richards. Fletcher's first draft as GM was an okay one, but the later picks are where he shined. He got Nick Leddy in the 1st round, but traded him away for Cam Barker. In the 3rd round, he obtained Matt Hackett who is being groomed for a starting role at some point. 4th round was Kris Foucault who seems to have a 2nd/3rd line potential in the NHL. He has scored some "clutch" goals for the Calgary Hitmen. He took Alexander Fallstrom in the 4th round also, but he was traded to the Boston Bruins in the Chuck Kobasew trade. 6th round came Darcy Kuemper who has looked nice in Red Deer and will also be groomed for a future role or maybe a trade chip. He took Jere Sallinen who is playing with the Blues of SM-Liiga. He seems like a long shot to make the NHL. Last pick by Fletcher in the 2009 draft was Erik Haula who has been outstanding in the USHL and looked great for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Since this game doesn't have NCAA schools in it, I created him and put him on the Calgary Hitmen (who own his rights in the CHL). This draft looks to be an okay one, but I'm much more optimistic for his 2010 draft in which he took Mikael Granlund, Brett Bulmer, Johan Larsson, and Jason Zucker. We will see how they progress in the coming years.
In this BEAGM mode, I'll be controlling the Wild and it's affiliates. I will be using OBG's newest sliders since he always makes good ones, but I may tweak depending on how the games go. I plan on doing monthly updates. I have some modified rosters, but I have all of the updated moves in the NHL as of now, and I've created some prospects. I might do a full recap for the bigger games like rivalry and stuff like that.
2004: AJ Thelen - complete bust, playing ECHL
2005: Benoit Pouliot - traded for Guillaume Latendresse, new GM Chuck Fletcher was able to make something out of nothing here
2006: James Sheppard - rushed to the NHL, maybe if he was brought along slowly, he would have been better
2007: Colton Gillies, trading a 2nd round pick to move up one spot to take a guy who had not much offensive flair was a big mistake. Who was taken with that 2nd round pick? Eric Tangradi
2008: Tyler Cuma, who has been injured too much to know how he will be, but it remains to be seen on this one, GM Chuck Fletcher seems intent on letting Cuma develop in Houston for a while, but the real gem out of this year's draft was Marco Scandella who has looked great for the Wild.
After the 2008-2009 season, Jacques Lemaire stepped down and Owner Craig Leipold fired Doug Risebrough and brought in new GM Chuck Fletcher who brought in the most logical head coaching candidate in Todd Richards. Fletcher's first draft as GM was an okay one, but the later picks are where he shined. He got Nick Leddy in the 1st round, but traded him away for Cam Barker. In the 3rd round, he obtained Matt Hackett who is being groomed for a starting role at some point. 4th round was Kris Foucault who seems to have a 2nd/3rd line potential in the NHL. He has scored some "clutch" goals for the Calgary Hitmen. He took Alexander Fallstrom in the 4th round also, but he was traded to the Boston Bruins in the Chuck Kobasew trade. 6th round came Darcy Kuemper who has looked nice in Red Deer and will also be groomed for a future role or maybe a trade chip. He took Jere Sallinen who is playing with the Blues of SM-Liiga. He seems like a long shot to make the NHL. Last pick by Fletcher in the 2009 draft was Erik Haula who has been outstanding in the USHL and looked great for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Since this game doesn't have NCAA schools in it, I created him and put him on the Calgary Hitmen (who own his rights in the CHL). This draft looks to be an okay one, but I'm much more optimistic for his 2010 draft in which he took Mikael Granlund, Brett Bulmer, Johan Larsson, and Jason Zucker. We will see how they progress in the coming years.
In this BEAGM mode, I'll be controlling the Wild and it's affiliates. I will be using OBG's newest sliders since he always makes good ones, but I may tweak depending on how the games go. I plan on doing monthly updates. I have some modified rosters, but I have all of the updated moves in the NHL as of now, and I've created some prospects. I might do a full recap for the bigger games like rivalry and stuff like that.
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