Minnesota Wild Finalize Roster Shakedown

Preface: My apologies for not writing for a long while. When you’re writing three or more papers a week for school, as I am now, I don’t have much spare time to do anything, let alone write more. That is coupled with the fact that I don’t have a radio in my dorm, so I couldn’t listen to any of the Wild's preseason games.

With the NHL’s regular season looming just mere days away, the Wild have made their final cuts, packed their bags, and moved from Parade Ice Garden to the cozy confines of the Xcel Energy Center to await the Boston Bruins on October 8.

There were a few surprises cracking this year’s version of the Wild, as Jacques once again put together his patented mix of skilled youngsters and muck-and-grind veterans. Here’s what the roster looks like this year:

Eric Belanger  
Derek Boogaard  
Pierre-Marc Bouchard  
Andrew Brunette  
Marian Gaborik  
Colton Gillies  
Mikko Koivu  
Antti Miettinen  
Owen Nolan  
Benoit Pouliot  
James Sheppard  
Stephane Veilleux  
Craig Weller  
Marc-Andre Bergeron  
Brent Burns  
Kurtis Foster  
Kim Johnsson  
Tomas Mojzis  
Erik Reitz  
Nick Schultz  
John Scott  
Martin Skoula  
Marek Zidlicky  
Niklas Backstrom  
Barry Brust  
Josh Harding  

On the forward side, it seems that the Wild will have a tough time scoring many goal.

As I’ve preached before, the Wild will need a solid performance from sophomore center James Sheppard, who is due for a breakout year.

I’m happy to see Gillies make the roster. He’s sure to spark the offense, and is a good guy to have around for that energy shift, or on the penalty kill.

On the defensive side of the puck, I wonder why Jacques hasn’t cut Skoula yet, but I guess depth on the blue line is a good thing to have.

John Scott must have really impressed in training camp and the preseason.  I have to confess I’ve never heard of him before.

The Wild have three goalies on their roster, but this is because Skoula injured Harding’s eye late in the preseason (yet another reason to get rid of Skoula).

I’m a little perplexed as to why Brust is backing up Backstrom instead of Schaefer. Brust has more NHL experience, perhaps? Maybe Brust showed something in the preseason, but I missed it because I don’t have a radio.

I guess it doesn’t really matter, because Brust will be sent back down to Houston when Harding gets healthy anyways.