The SHL summer actions is now complet for the Minnesota Wild as Labor Day weekend is approaching us. The Wild GM will take a couple of days off next week to celebrate his labor effort but before that, let’s recap his summer of work.

Who doesn’t remember the story of the signing of future Wild captain Ryan McDonagh? I’m sure the Leafs and Sabres GMs do remember! Looks like everything is settled now and for sure a couple of dozen of Mooseheads 24 cases got emptied at the McDonagh cottage over the summer….Thanks to Bernie own reserve.

Here a quick list of 7 players drafted by the Minnesota Wild :

41. Robert Mastrosimone

60. Dominik Kubalík

80. Mattias Norlinder

88. Nikita Okhotyuk

103. Michael Vukojevic

112. Aaron Huglen

134. Justin Bergeron

Will be talking more about them in early September.

First off, the Wild decided to keep all the qualifying RFAs in Tanner Pearson, Casey Nelson, Nathan Walker. Signing them to multiple years contract, these kids should see a lot of ice time this season.

The Wild had a couple of players going to free agency. The first one came in at Round 3 when Semyon Varlamov, still young at 31 years of age, decided to stay in Minni. He is going to see a lot of rubber this winter as the Wild is going into full rebuilding mode for the next 2-3 years. It took all the money and a little more they received from the Yanni Gourde deal with Winnipeg (8 millions) to keep him but the Wild think he still has great value and he is setup in a good situation to succeed with the NHL Islanders.

In Round 5, recently acquired from the Anaheim Ducks, the Minnesota Wild farm team :), Roberto Luongo was supposed to be ending his SHL career in a Wild uniform. That was the original plan. Luongo had some good seasons in other sim leagues that GM Lemyre participes in, plus being a fan favorite of his, unfortunately the Dallas Stars offered way too much money and the Wild couldn’t afford to keep him. Looks like Luongo will have some free time with 4 backup goalies signed in Dallas, so he decided to open a Forum account to chat with the SHL community. Looks like a good side job!

In wave 7, the Wild though that they needed it to add some grit and character as Corey Perry is not going any younger. The Wild was able to ink little pest Antoine Roussel for the next 3 years at a reasonable 851k cap hit. Him and Cedric Paquette should be given the green light to run around and hit everything that move and try to get under the skin of all the opponents star players. Should be a good show to watch this winter in Minni.

Later on in Round 9, Carl Gunnarson and Matt Cullen decided to leave Minni for Detroit and Vancouver respectively. We wish them good luck.

Finally, in order to fill out the void left by Luongo leaving for Dallas, the Wild signed 2 goalies in Alex Stalock and Richard Backman.

In the unassigned round, the Wild was more than surprised to put the hands on  Karson Kuhlman for 2 years. The speedy 24 years old will still be an RFA at the end of his contract and the Wild has great hopes for him. He should develop into a middle of the lineup at the forward position.

That sums up pretty much everything that GM Lemyre did during the last 3 months. Next write up in early September should cover this summer drafts selections by the Wild. Until then, enjoy the rest of the summer!

The Minnesota Wild

In Constant Evolution (ICE)