That’s Wild
- All the obligations the Minnesota Wild had this summer are now complete. Everyone is able to play professional hockey under contract next season, as the Wild signed their final restricted free agent, Graeme Clarke.
The winger was acquired in a swap with the New Jersey Devils for Adam Beckman and is now on a one-year, two-way deal that will earn him $800,000 in the NHL and $105,000 in the AHL. Clarke is waiver eligible, so if he does not make the Wild out of training camp, the team could lose him for nothing if another team really sees potential. [NHL.com] - Former Wild head coach Dean Evason was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets to run their bench. So, do the Wild have an opportunity to get rid of an unfavorable contract and trade one of Evason’s favorites to the rebuilding Blue Jackets? [Hockey Wilderness]
Off the trail…
- The NHL teams that changed the most this offseason — in good and bad ways. [ESPN]
- After allegedly quasi covering up the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault of player Kyle Beach and letting it fester for over a decade, general manager Stan Bowman was no longer welcome in the NHL for a period time. Earlier, the league reinstated him (along with coach John Quenneville) and the Edmonton Oilers are quickly taking that opportunity to get an extremely mediocre executive that has bad press all around him. According to Elliotte Friedman, the Oilers are planning on hiring Bowman to be their GM.
- Brandon Montour, of Mohawk descent, is heading home to Six Nations in Southern Ontario for a special Stanley Cup parade. [CBC]