Wild – Page 13 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Wild Owner: Teams Want Brock Faber, Won’t Get Him

Posted on May 28, 2024May 28, 2024 by David Shama

Want to get Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold in a good mood after his team missed the playoffs this spring for the first time since 2019 and only the second time in the last 12 years?

Then ask him about Maple Grove native, former Gopher and budding star Brock Faber. Playing in his first full season for the Wild, the young defenseman finished tied for second among NHL rookies with 47 points (eight goals, 39 assists) while leading first-year players in average time on the ice per game (24:58) and season (2,047:53). In 82 games Faber ranked first in blocked shots (150), tied for first in assists (39), third in power-play assists (13), third in power-play points (16), tied for sixth in power-play goals (three) and eighth in shots on goal (136).

“Oh, my God. He’s a stud,” Leipold told Sports Headliners. “He’s a great player. He played with some injuries at the end of the year that nobody had any idea (it was happening). He’s a smart player, very cerebral on the ice. Every team in the league would love to get their hands on Brock. That will never happen.”

Injuries to other defensemen presented increased playing time last season and Leipold said the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Minnesotan responded in a way “we weren’t expecting.” The Wild owner since 2008 thinks next season will be even better for Faber, including because he will be able to team with a veteran defenseman in either 30-year-old Jonas Brodin or 34-year-old Jared Spurgeon.

Leipold gushes about Faber for both his talent and character. “He’s just a wonderful kid and people love him in the locker room. He is so respectful. …He’s only 21 but he has the maturity and the presence of a player that’s been in our team and in our league for a lot longer than just one year.”

The Wild, with Wild GM Bill Guerin making a savvy trade in June of 2022 to acquire Faber, has him under contract through next season. Even after that he would be a restricted free agent allowing Minnesota to match any offer from another team. Speculation is Minnesota, could extend control this offseason by negotiating a new deal possibly paying more than $9 million per season.

That compensation would top Kirill Kaprizov’s reported five-year deal averaging $9 million per season. The NHL All-Star forward has two years remaining on his contract and the electric scorer is a player Wild fans fret about him becoming an unrestricted free agent.

The Wild can’t negotiate with the 27-year-old Kaprizov until the next offseason. In his first four seasons with Minnesota, the team has yet to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs and it’s expected playing on a winning team will be a factor in a decision regarding a new deal.

“He’s just like the owner (about winning). You know, I am not happy where we are,” Leipold said. “You know we had no luck last year. But we didn’t play particularly well to overcome some of the bad injury issues.

“So, everything about that is on the table and I think everyone of our players, not just Kirill, but they all want to see a path they can look at and feel confident that we have the right hockey operations with the right strategy to get us back into the playoffs. And frankly, just being in the playoffs is not good enough.”

Earlier in the month Leipold, Guerin and other decision makers met in the Bahamas for the club’s annual offseason planning meeting. Leipold described the gathering as one where “everything was on the table.” That included a three-year plan where the brain trust looks forward to next offseason when the Wild frees itself from reportedly $14.7 million in dead salary cap space from the payroll—the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts.

Asked about key things that need to change for the Wild to improve on last season’s team that won five more games than it lost, Leipold first mentioned the penalty kill, describing it “as bad as it’s ever been.” He also said: “Our faceoffs are not good. They haven’t been good for years.”

Scoring has long been an issue for Minnesota and Leipold said the offense was “great” by the first line, okay from the second, but the third and fourth under performed. He expects Guerin to address scoring in the offseason, hinting at a move that perhaps will be made outside the organization.

Goal tending, mediocre last season, is another roster issue intriguing fans in the offseason and for next fall and winter. Veterans Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson, and hyped prospect Jesper Wallstedt are in the mix, with Leipold predicting the team could start the season with all three on the roster. “Specifically, what we do with our goal tending is still up in the air,” Leipold said.

The Wild will head into training camp in September with John Hynes beginning his first full camp and season as head coach. He took over a slumping Wild team late in November, replacing the fired Dean Evason.

Was Leipold caught off guard when Guerin told him he wanted to change coaches? “No, I wasn’t surprised. I really like Dean and so does Billy. We needed to shake up the team and you can’t move 22, 23 players. You can’t fire 23 players. We made a move at coaching in hopes that that would shake them up. It did. So, we accomplished what we wanted to but the hole was a little deep and we couldn’t get out of it.”

Leipold said he and Guerin gave Hynes “a really high grade” for his first time leading the Wild, a team that was plagued by injuries. Leipold described Hynes as a strategic thinker, a coach who is willing to do things differently and is liked by the players.

And, oh, yes, there is another way to keep Leipold in an upbeat mood following a season he didn’t like. Ask him about the franchise’s season tickets renewal. He reports a 90 percent renewal figure, describing it as an “extraordinary rate” and a testament to the “State of Hockey.”

Gophers-Tommies Building Hockey Rivalry

The Golden Gophers won their hockey series with St. Thomas last October and it was announced today the developing rivalry will continue in 2024 as part of nonconference scheduling for the programs. The Tommies will play Minnesota on October 25 at 3M Arena at Mariucci. The two teams meet again October 26 at Xcel Energy Center.

The Tommies, who transitioned from Division III to Division I hockey in 2021, have an improving program. They played the Gophers in an instant classic overtime at Xcel Energy Center last season, losing 6-5 before an announced crowd of more than 11,000. The next evening (October 14) Minnesota won at home 3-0.

The Gophers announced their complete nonconference schedule today as the program enters its 104^th season. The schedule begins October 11 and 12 with the Gophers hosting the Ice Breaker Tournament at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Minnesota opens the tourney against Air Force Academy on October 11 and continues October 12 against either Omaha or UMass.

More at https://gophersports.com/news/2024/5/28/mens-hockey-gophers-release-2024-25-non-conference-schedule.

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Tuesday Perk You Up: Name Dropping and Telling Stories

Posted on May 7, 2024May 7, 2024 by David Shama

Quips and other nuggets to entertain and inform:

Writing columns week after week is something like being the fifth husband of a Hollywood beauty. You have a general idea what to do, but can you come up with something new?

I’ve had many career stops over the years. Never forget long ago driving by my place of work when our youngest son looked out the car window and said: “Hey, Dad, there’s the place that gives you nightmares!”

I’ll say it right now: if the Timberwolves can stay injury free—and play at the level of their first six playoff wins—plan on an NBA championship parade in Minneapolis in June.

The Wolves’ swarming, electric defense last night in their 106-80 victory over the Nuggets might have been the best in franchise history.

I’ve tried to watch Wolves playoff games on TV with the sound off while listening to Alan Horton, the team’s superb radio voice. Too confusing, though, because the radio play-by-play isn’t closely synched to the TV action.

A friend, lamenting about Byron Buxton being on the Injured List for what seems like 100 times in his career, said this: “He’s made of glass.”

Didn’t ask him about Royce Lewis, who may be more talented than Buxton and more effervescent than anyone in baseball. Third consecutive season Lewis is sidelined with a major injury.

No Twins TV games on Comcast has me following the club on radio. Shocker! That’s how years ago many of us tracked the team. Even the rain delays were entertaining with broadcaster and master storyteller Halsey Hall spinning yarns that had the audience laughing and in no hurry for the skies to clear.

Wonder if the Pohlad family has Twins critic A.J. Pierzynski on their Christmas cards list?

There’s palpable optimism about next fall’s Golden Gophers football team after an off-season injection of talent and retention of top players from the 2023 roster.

Sorry, can’t use the “P” word about Gopher men’s basketball but can regarding Dawn Plitzuweit’s women’s team. Based on her first season and impressive overall coaching record she could turn out to be one of AD Mark Coyle’s best hires.

Thanks to the Big Ten’s West Coast expansion, the football Gophers have a more intriguing schedule than usual, with a trip to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA and hosting blue-blood USC. The first time the Trojans ever played in Minneapolis was in 1955. The weather for the late October game was a doozy, with the wind, sleet and snow credited with slowing down a fast USC team ranked No. 10 in the country.

The unranked Gophers prevailed, winning 25-19, with an L.A. Times reporter saying the game was played before “64,592 prospective pneumonia patients.” That quote is from coach Murray Warmath’s biography, “The Autumn Warrior” by Mike Wilkinson, who wrote when the Trojans arrived the day before the game the temps were in the 50s but when they woke up Saturday, October 29 the message was: “Welcome to Minnesota, this ain’t Tinsel Town.”

Here’s more fuel for the fan frenzy over first round draft choice J.J. McCarthy: the 21-year-old quarterback is the same age Fran Tarkenton was in his rookie season with the Vikings in 1961.

One of the many things Charley Walters and I agree on is a dislike for public speaking. The popular Pioneer Press columnist once told me: “I abhor speaking. I am not very good at it and I got nothing to say—and I’ll probably have a toothache that day.”

My friend Bob Klas has the most impressive memory for calendar dates of anyone I’ve even known. He emailed Sunday to say it was 24 years ago that coach Bill Musselman died on May 5, 2000, and that Thursday will be Lindsay Whalen’s 42^nd birthday.

I golfed so poorly the last time out I considered retirement. That notion lasted about five days, a little longer than previous retirements.

I haven’t been fishing yet, but the outlook is more encouraging than the links. My grandson discovered a “fishing hole” a couple of years ago that must be one of the best in the metro. I’d rather give you the password to my I-phone than reveal the secret spot.

Shout out to Mike Max for the referral, and the pros at Hopkins Health and Wellness for corralling my back misery.

It makes almost no sense: in the State of Hockey, neither the North Stars nor Wild have ever won the Stanley Cup.

Foreign confusion: when I worked for the Stars, we had a European player who was pulled over by the police and asked for his driver’s license. Guess what? A Czechoslovakian license didn’t work here.

Never know how this intern business will turn out. Two that we had at Met Center are now Twins president Dave St. Peter, and sports reporter and podcaster Judd Zulgad.

Zulgad posted this on X over the weekend: “The one good thing about Angel Hernandez behind the plate is he has no biases. He’s terrible for both teams.”

The explosion in pickleball popularity is the shadow hanging over tennis. Courts are being converted to pickleball. The 50 and over crowd is switching to the easier to play, more social and gender friendly game. Word is the best pickleball players are former tennis players.

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Hall of Famers Lavish Praise on Wolves’ Anthony Edwards

Posted on May 5, 2024 by David Shama

Anthony Edwards, 22 years old and in his fourth NBA season, is leaving no doubt about achieving superstar status this spring. His latest statement was scoring 43 points yesterday to lead the Timberwolves to a 1-0 advantage in their second-round NBA Western Conference playoff series with the Nuggets.

Edwards (22 years, 273 days) is the fifth youngest player in NBA history to record three or more 40-plus point playoff games, joining Amar’e Stoudemire, LeBron James, Kevin Durant (three games each) and Luka Dončić (five games). The latter three players, all still active, are one day headed to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“The Ant man is here to stay,” Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said on TNT’s postgame show. Dirk Nowitzki, enshrined in Springfield last year, was asked on the show about the Wolves’ shooting guard who is drawing early comparisons to legends Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

“I mean his poise at that age,” Nowitzki said. “He’s an unbelievable athlete…(and) he’s got the skillset with him. He’s the complete package.”

In Minnesota’s 106-99 win over the Nuggets in Denver, Edwards had seven rebounds, three assists, one turnover, two blocks and one steal. A second half left-handed block of a shot attempt by Denver’s Michael Porter Jr. was a showstopper.

During the nationally televised game TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller raised the question of whether Edwards isn’t the best two-way player in the NBA now. “I am saying he is,” Miller said.

Yesterday morning, Trent Tucker talking on KFAN Radio, said Jordan, his former teammate and old friend, has taken notice of Edwards’ ascent to elite status. Apparently, No. 23 likes what he sees in No. 5.

Edwards, who scored 25 points in the first half, made an impressive variety of shots during the game, converting 17 of 29 field goals. “When I came in the league, the thing was that I couldn’t shoot,” he said at the postgame news conference.

Then Edwards explained how hard he worked on his shooting during past summers. There were days that 2,000 practice shots were part of his effort.

Nuggets’ superstar Nikola Jokic is a near consensus candidate to win his third NBA MVP Award this year. It’s not too soon to think Edwards could be front and center in that conversation starting next year and for many more.

“To be honest, of course he is a special player,” said Jokic who will one day be a slam dunk selection for Springfield. “I have a huge respect for him. He can do everything on the floor. You need to enjoy and respect your opponent and how good and how talented he is. …”

Worth Noting

Barkley talking on TNT about the second half taunting technical on Edwards called by Courtney Kirkland: “Hey, Mr. Official. Nobody came to see your ass play. Stop giving taunting technicals in the game. Nobody came to see you. You give a kid a warning. You don’t call a taunting technical in the playoffs. Don’t do that (for staring at another player).”

Owner Craig Leipold, GM Bill Guerin and others from the organization are meeting at an out-of-town site this week to make offseason plans for the Wild who missed the playoffs this spring for the first time since 2019.

Former Wild executive and WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson spoke via zoom the other day to Mike Max’s sports leadership class at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Max, the WCCO TV sports director, is an adjunct instructor during spring semester at the school.

Robertson, now living in South Carolina, will speak May 13 in Bluffton about the business of sports to the Athletic Club of the Lowcountry.

Outfielder Matt Wallner, who started the season with the Twins and hit 080, is batting .214 with the Triple A Saints. The 26-year-old Forest Lake native’s future may well be determined by reducing his strikeouts which have been a pro career challenge. In 56 at bats with the Saints he has struck out 24 times.

No one should be surprised if 2023-2024 freshman guard Cam Christie, now in the transfer portal while mulling NBA interest, ends up at Michigan State where brother Max Christie, now with the Lakers, played.

Put this in the 2025 prediction bucket: incoming freshman point guard Isaac Asuma will be the Gophers’ starting point guard by mid-January.

Willie R. Braziel, who was the head boys’ basketball coach at Columbia Heights and been involved for years with Minnesota AAU basketball, is the new head coach at Simley.

Joe Alt, from Totino-Grace High School, was the only Minnesota native selected in the 2024 NFL Draft. Florida had 30 players, followed by Texas 24; Georgia 23; California, 18; Louisiana, 11; New Jersey, 11; Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio, all with 10 each.

J.J. McCarthy and his Michigan teammates received four rings last month to commemorate their 2023-2024 success: Big Ten championship, Rose Bowl, College Football Playoff and National Championship.

Condolences to family and friends of former Gophers’ fullback Dick Borstad who passed away April 25. He played in the mid-1950s and later was an assistant coach on the 1960 national championship team. The Detroit Lakes High School alum was the 1954 Mount Olivet Minnesota State Athlete of the Year.

With Borstad’s passing, assistant coach Dick Larson is the only living coach from the 1960 championship team. A Gopher quarterback from 1955-1957, Larson turns 88 in August and remains a treasured link to great teams of the past.

Bob Parsons, founder of sports equipment company Parsons Xtreme Golf and a “golf nut,” has a book out about his life story including the entrepreneurial success that made him one of the wealthiest people in the world. The Vietnam veteran, best known as the founder of GoDaddy, will be at an event Friday open to the public at the Minneapolis Club to talk about his book FIRE IN THE HOLE! The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life and Explosive Success. Mpls Club welcomes Bob Parsons, Founder of PXG & GoDaddy. Tickets, Fri, May 10, 2024 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite

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