Kukla's Korner Hockey
Category: Minnesota-Wild
Wild/Devils Trade
by Paul on 02/24/12 at 08:17 PM ET
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via Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice,
According to multiple reports, Minnesota Wild defenseman Marek Zidlicky has agreed to waive his no-trade clause to come to the Devils and a trade is imminent.
Zidlicky is not taking part in pre-game warm-ups for Wild tonight in Dallas. Zidlicky was supposed to be in the Wild’s lineup tonight.
Defenseman Kurtis Foster was a late scratch for the Devils’ game tonight against Vancouver. He was supposed to return to the lineup after missing two games with a stiff back.
added 8:36pm, via NJ Devils tweet,
Devils acquire Marek Zidlicky from Wild for Kurtis Foster, Nick Palmieri, Stephane Veilleux, 2nd rd pick in ‘12, conditional pick in ‘13.
adjusted the headline to reflect the trade being official
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Kurtis+Foster, Marek+Zidlicky,
Video- Warren Peters Suspended One Game
by Paul on 02/19/12 at 04:37 PM ET
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Peters is not in the Wild lineup today, so his suspension is served.
Brendan Shanahan explains the suspension.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Warren+Peters,
Wild Lose To The Blues And Decide Not To Go Down Without A Fight
by Paul on 02/18/12 at 06:10 PM ET
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Final score 4-0 for the Blues.
Things got rough when Cal Clutterbuck received 2 for boarding late in the 2nd period.
The 3rd period brought more rough play…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tweet Gets Wild Prospect Suspended
by Paul on 02/14/12 at 08:39 AM ET
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from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants,
The Wild has suspended Houston Aeros forward Justin Fontaine for the next two games after he used a gay slur during a Twitter exchange about the Grammys with a teammate on Sunday night.
Fontaine soon removed the tweet and apologized, saying, “My apologies to everyone, it was wrong. Twitter rookie and it came out totally wrong. It was a roommate battle, nothing more. #sorry.”
By that time, however, it was retweeted by another Aeros teammate and spread across the Internet.
“Minnesota Sports and Entertainment (MSE) apologizes for the offensive slur that was posted by Justin Fontaine on Twitter last night,” the Wild said in a statement Monday night. “Fontaine has been suspended from playing in the next two games for the Houston Aeros.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Houston+Aeros, Justin+Fontaine,
Wild GM Will Be Smart At Trade Deadline
by Paul on 02/12/12 at 09:55 AM ET
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from Michael Russo of the StarTribune,
Would it be smart for the Wild to give up a Johan Larsson or Jonas Brodin or Charlie Coyle just for the prayer of making the playoffs? And even though anything can happen in the playoffs, the reward for making the playoffs may be Detroit or Vancouver in an opening-round matchup.
“We feel like we’re starting to build up a pretty good group of young players,” Fletcher said. “You just want to be careful you don’t start backtracking on some of the accomplishments our scouting staff has made. You never want to close off any option, but we’re highly reluctant to give up our top prospects for short-term fixes.
“This is the time we need to be building up our asset base, not taking away from it.”
The dilemma Fletcher and many teams face is that several teams want to upgrade, yet there are only a half-dozen teams that you can argue have no prayer of making the playoffs.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
Late Evening Line
by Paul on 02/10/12 at 02:11 AM ET
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Or I guess you could call it the Early Morning Line too.
“We flat-out stink the last two months. We stink. I’m concerned about the fact that we come into games and we don’t have enough guys when we should have absolute desperation in our game.”
“We’re 28th in the league in offense and you look at the goals that they scored: They have a point shot and a deflection, they have a point shot and rebound, 5-on-3 is a point shot and a rebound. And we still want to either skate the puck into the net or pass the puck six times to get the puck into the net.
“You’d think that we would look at a team that skilled and has scored as many goals and say, ‘Wow, they score goals like that, that might be a good idea for us to try it.’ Or we might say, ‘We we don’t have that much skill, it might be a good idea for us to do that,’ yet it’s tough to get that across right now.”
-Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo after losing to Vancouver. More from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Mike+Yeo,
Rangers/Wild Trade
by Paul on 02/03/12 at 11:09 AM ET
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via New York Rangers tweet,
the #NYR have traded Erik Christensen and a 7th round pick to the Minnesota Wild for forward Casey Wellman who is being assigned to @CTWhale
The pick heading to Minnesota in Wellman deal is a conditional 7th round draft choice in 2013
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Casey+Wellman, Erik+Christensen,
Video- J.S. Giguere With The Save Of The Night
by Paul on 02/03/12 at 12:26 AM ET
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Cal Clutterbuck sees a wide open, top half of the net, but Giguere robs him with his glove hand.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: J.S.+Giguere,
Problem Brewing In Minnesota With Zidlicky
by Paul on 01/31/12 at 08:39 PM ET
Comments (1)
from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants,
Zidlicky is unhappy, something I learned this morning when the veteran defenseman came looking for me to offer his opinion on the fact that tonight against his former team, the Nashville Predators, he’ll be scratched for a third consecutive game.
Zidlicky was critical of coach Mike Yeo, the way he has been treated and the fact that he loves the game too much to sit idly by if the Wild keeps scratching him.
While Zidlicky didn’t say he has asked for a trade, he indicated he is willing to waive his no-trade clause if this continues.
“I can’t be quiet,” Zidlicky began during our sitdown, which you can read more details about in tomorrow’s Star Tribune. “I think three games healthy scratch, it’s more than just like a healthy scratch. [Yeo’s] put me in this position that I am in right now. It’s not easy for me….
Also from Russo,
I’ve covered the NHL since 1995. Never before have I sat in a coach’s office 45 minutes before an important game talking about a scratched player. You can bet Mike Yeo wished he could have been doing something else, but he chose this time and venue to respond to this morning’s conversation I had with scratched defenseman Marek Zidlicky. Check out that blog below or by clicking this link.
Here are Yeo’s comments. Check out the story in Wednesday’s newspaper. I’ll also be on KFAN at 9 a.m.
“One thing for sure, we’re going to talk. This is not the right way to handle it. Much the same as I wouldn’t want a player to pick up the newspaper one day and read something like, ‘Woah, I didn’t know the coach thought that.’ Like, come into talk to me if there’s a problem. There’s always more than enough communication from our side. It’s got to go both ways.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Marek+Zidlicky, Mike+Yeo,
Will Ottawa Owner Get His Money Back?
by Paul on 01/26/12 at 06:54 PM ET
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from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,
Eugene Melnyk will finally face off with Dany Heatley in court once the two sides can agree on a date.
League sources confirmed Thursday, almost three years after filing a grievance to get the $4-million bonus the Senators owner paid to Heatley on July 1, 2009, the case is inching closer to being heard.
Independent arbitrator George Nicolau had agreed to a March 23 hearing in New York, but the date didn’t work for either side and is being rescheduled — soon.
As first reported by QMI Agency in November, 2009, Melnyk filed the grievance shortly after Heatley refused to lift his no-movement clause and accept a deal to the Edmonton Oilers (for Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Ladislav Smid).
Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Dany+Heatley, Eugene+Melnyk,
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