Why Minnesota Wild Fans Should be Excited

This summer, Wild fans have had the privilege of enjoying the Wild's most news filled summer yet. Some highlights:

- Jacques Lemaire, the only coach that the Wild has ever known, steps down and eventually winds up taking a job in New Jersey, the same team that he won the Stanley Cup with in 1995. The Wild, about a month later announce that Crystal, Minnesota native Todd Richards will be his replacement.

-The Wild's only GM that they've ever had, Doug Risebrough, fired and quickly replaced with Chuck Fletcher.

-The franchises most storied player, Marian Gaborik moves to the Big Apple during the first day of free agency and then shortly after announces publicly that he never even received a contract offer from the new regime.

-The Wild make their biggest free agent signing in their short history by picking arguably the third best offensive talent in free agency by signing winger Martin Havlat to a 6 year deal for $30 million.

All of this news looks to be the story of the Minnesota Wild from now on it seems. Gone are the days where Wild fans long for the first day of free agency and get their hopes up of possibly landing a big name, only to watch Doug Risebrough sign third and fourth line grinders. Gone are the days where Wild fans stare at various blogs and websites across the internet during trade deadline day where they hope they hear that the Wild have landed a big name, only to suffer in anguish when they hear the name Chris Simon. Gone are also the days where Wild fans across the State of Hockey cling to the bottom of their chairs at the X as they keep a firm watch on the time remaining on the scoreboard as they watch the Wild cling to a one goal lead late in the third period as Wild players form a five man shell in front of poor Niklas Backstrom.

Everything that fans have become used to during the past eight hockey seasons should be thrown out the window. There are some new sheriff's in town. Enter Chuck Fletcher and Todd Richards.

Chuch Fletcher, hired roughly a month after Doug Risebrough was fired, has become the second General Manager in Wild History. Before Fletcher was hired GM of the Wild, he was the assistant general manager of the Florida Panthers from 1993 until 2002. During his time in Florida, he helped negotiate big named contracts such as Rob Niedermayer, Kristian Huselius, Rhett Warrener, Ed Jovanovski and was a huge piece of the puzzle in getting Pavel Bure to sign that mammoth $58 million contract over 6 years just a month after he was traded from Vancouver to Florida.

After that, he served as the Director of Hockey Operations, assistant general manager, and Vice President of Amateur Scouting/Player Development for the Anaheim Ducks for 4 years up until 2006. During his time in Anaheim he helped negotiate the contracts for Ryan Getzlaf, Joffrey Lupul, Corey Perry, and Bobby Ryan. In the 2006/2007 NHL season, the Ducks ended up winning their first Stanley Cup. Then, most recently, he was the assistant GM for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Now if you go back and look at his history, he helped turn the Florida Panthers from a weak expansion team into a Stanley Cup appearing team in just three short seasons. In his time in Anaheim, he was a huge piece of the puzzle in turning the Ducks into Stanley Cup Champions. In his time in Pittsburgh, he helped get the Pens to the Stanley Cup finals two years in a row. So for every team he has been a part of, he's been to the Stanley Cup finals with each of them. Looks like a promising start to me.

Minnesota native Todd Richards was named the second head coach in the history of the Wild on June 16th, 2009. What Richards promises to bring is "up-tempo, fast" hockey, something that all Wild fans should welcome with open arms. I'm not going to say that I had a problem with the way Jacques Lemaire coached the Wild in his eight seasons here. What I am going to say though is that at many times, this team was one of the most boring teams to watch in all of the NHL. We never forechecked, and rarely took chances offensively which led to some pretty quiet moments inside the Xcel Energy Center.

No more says the new regime. It's time to take the next step. Become Stanley Cup contenders. To do that, Richards says, "The type of hockey we want to play is up-tempo, fast. We believe we have that foundation here. Defenseman have to be part of the rush. Forecheck as a group of five.” Sounds like a night and day difference from Jacques Lemaire doesn't it? Richards and Fletcher are on the same page as far as to how they want to build and run this team. The same cannot be said however about Doug Risebrough and Jacques Lemaire.

Over the past few seasons, Risebrough brought in several players via free agency and trades that Lemaire basically had no interest in giving ice time to. Players that come to mind are Dominic Moore, Adam Hall, Sean Hill, Chris Simon, Aaron Voros and Craig Weller. Obviously, to succeed, you need to have your GM and head coach on the same page which was sadly something that Risebrough and Lemaire never seemed to agree on. Chuck Fletcher took him sweet time in finding a head coach, and when he finally chose someone, it was someone that he knows and trusts. Someone that agrees with him in how the Wild should be run. To me, this is a big step in the Wild taking the next step towards becoming a Stanley Cup contender. Communication. Something that Risebrough seemed to have lacked during his time here.

The second step is actually being able to follow through on your word. Chuck Fletcher stated that he wanted to be able to land a big free agent during free agency. He did so by signing one of the top snipers available in Martin Havlat. Havlat can easily be considered the top free agent that the Wild have ever been able to sign. Fletcher has also stated that he wants to open of the offense a little bit more and "dictate the pace of play." He took his first step in doing so by signing a head coach who believes and coaches the same way.

Minnesota Wild fans should be excited for what lays ahead for this franchise. If you enjoy watching teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins or the San Jose Sharks, the new look Wild should get your blood pumping. It might need to take a little bit of time considering that we have a large returning core from last year that still has that defense-first mentality still fused into their brains, but once everyone is on the same page, look for the Wild to actually start looking like a team that opponents should take a little bit more seriously.

Players that maybe certain Wild fans have come to dislike or be annoyed with may just become their new favorite players. Players that look to benefit from the new system are names like Benoit Pouliot, James Sheppard, Colton Gillies, Kim Johnsson and Marek Zidlicky. Brent Burns should really be able to shine if he is over his serious concussion that he battled last season.

Overall, it's been a long time coming to see the Wild take the next step. Wild fans should thank owner Craig Leipold for seeing what die-hard fans have known all along. He did, and looks to have hit a home run with Fletcher and Richards running the show. The question is, can they follow through on what they want to accomplish? If their past history is a sign of things to come, then it certainly looks like they'll be able to. Time for everyone in the State of Hockey to get excited. A new beginning is here, and hopefully soon, we will be able to see that precious silver cup being marched down Kellogg or 7th to the cheering of thousands of fans.