Nick Bjugstad returns to the Gophers

The Minnesota Gophers got some good news yesterday when they learned that their power forward Nick Bjugstad will be returning for his junior season. With the return of Bjugstad the Gophers are going to have the target on their back.

Lets not kid ourselves, Bjugstad is one of the better forwards in the WCHA and could’ve signed a entry level professional contract this summer if he wanted to.

Recently while listening to the P.A. show on KFAN 100.3 at the end of June,  the host Paul Allen had Michael Russo of the Star and Tribune on the show with him.

During that segment in question Russo said that if Bjugstad did in fact sign an entry level deal, he would probably would start the season in the AHL based on who the Panthers had on their roster. It also sounds like the Panthers were in no rush to sign the young Minnesota forward.

The upside is with Bjugstad staying in college, it doesn't hurt his development at all, he is going to play against older players. The Gophers also win because they don't to rush another forward in to take his place in the line up and they keep their coveted forward for one more season.

There is one loser in the equation - it's bad for WCHA goalies - who he could be lighting up for 20+ goals this season - Bjugstad had 25 last season. 

Gopher Sports --- Minnesota junior Nick Bjugstad announced today that he is returning to the Golden Gopher hockey team for the 2012-13 season.

"This is the right spot for me," said Bjugstad. "I am going to be close to finishing my education and hopefully can accomplish the goal that I have had ever since I was little, which is winning a national championship. We are going to have a good team this year and hopefully get another chance at the national championship and make a run there. I feel I can develop here and become more of a leader on the team as well. Hopefully, I will have a good season."

The 6’5”, 211-pound center from Blaine, Minn., was named All-WCHA First Team and Second-Team All-American after recording 42 points in 40 games as a sophomore. He led Minnesota with 25 goals (tied for fifth in the nation) and also added 17 assists as he finished third on the team in points. His 25 goals were the most scored by a Gopher since Ryan Potulny had 38 in 2005-06. Minnesota was 20-6-1 when he had a point last season.

Bjugstad, who will turn 20 next Tuesday, recorded 21 of his points (9g-12a) in 16 road games and he had a point in 13 of 16 games away from Mariucci Arena. He was +21 on the season and tied for second on the team in power-play goals (8). He also led the team in shooting percentage (17.2%) and faceoffs (of players who have taken more than 50 faceoffs) with a 57.9% success rate.

Based on what has happened recently in College hockey Nick Bjugstad returning to the Golden Gophers for another season is a win for college hockey. It's rare that we get to see a highly talented blue chip players stay more than two seasons – this is exciting for college hockey fans – in the past highly talented first round draft choices rarely if ever stay more than two seasons.

Bjugstad goes back to college

Panthers prospect forward Nick Bjugstad, who was believed to have a chance at making the team this year, has decided to return to the University of Minnesota for his junior season and put his pro career on hold.

“We told him to weigh the pros and cons,’’ Tallon said. “Either way we stick by him and support him. He has a brilliant future for us and I’m excited for whenever it starts.’’

Parise and Suter signings didn't go unnoticed

I don’t think that anyone one is going to feel sorry for the NHL owners during the upcoming CBA negotiations when they say we’re broke and we can’t afford to play these big exuberant salaries anymore… Seriously! No one is going to feel sorry for the owners – especially after the Minnesota Wild’s owner signed two players for a total of 196 million dollars. I just don’t see there being a lot of empathy – especially for the Wild owner Craig Leipold.

I would imagine that the players have been watching these players’ signings as well.

Michael Russo, Star Tribune --- Leipold responded Monday, saying, "Listen: We've been losing money and the way we were going, we were going to have another year of 'keep losing more money and more money and more money.' So if I'm going to make the kind of financial commitment to keep this team and move this forward, I'd rather do it growing it.

"Ultimately that was the decision. As a result of this move, it's not going to cause us to be financially stable. I believe it will be within a year or two. This is a move to get us out of the hole that we've been digging. And as I spoke with some other owners in the league as to why I did it, they totally get it. They understand it. At some point you have to make that kind of commitment in order to turn your franchise around. If we didn't, then we would just keep losing more going forward without any plan of changing it."

Ironically, the day after the spending spree, Leipold was one of the owners who sat in the bargaining session between the NHL and NHL Players' Association in New York. The league has moved to terminate the collective bargaining agreement and negotiate another. The current agreement expires Sept. 15, and the league is in danger of a lockout. In 2004-05, the season was wiped out because of a lockout.

The hockey world has been a buzz since the big signing in Minnesota and you can bet that executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association Donald Fehr took note of the signing as well.

The owners want to move to a 50/50 revenue split; currently the players are at 57-43 revenue split. If the players are to accept the 50/50 number would mean that means the players are going to have their salaries rolled back. This could end up being a long fight especially with the recent signing in the NHL during free agency.

Parise tight lipped about where he's going

This is one of those stories that aren’t going to go away, until we know where former Fighting Sioux All-American forward Zach Parise is headed. Zach Parise hasn’t tipped his hat where he is going either, only to say that he wants to re-sign with the New Jersey Devils. You can rest assured that Parise and his agent are going to get a bunch of offers from a lot of teams.

Joan Niesen, FSN.COM --- Parise said he treats his impending free agency as something he can take advantage of, but it would seem that balancing his sanity with the desire to get the most out of this summer is something he's grappling with daily. Talk to Parise for five minutes and who knows how many times he'll say he wants to minimize the stress of the process. However, coming home to Minneapolis this offseason, though a natural move, is unlikely to mitigate the constant scrutiny.

Parise grew up in Bloomington, Minn. His father, J.P., played for the North Stars, and Parise still keeps a house in the Twin Cities, which he returned to last Friday from New Jersey. That's why he made an appearance Wednesday at the Defending the Blue Line game on the University of Minnesota campus, where he signed autographs and watched from the bench. As an unsigned player, Parise did not compete with the local hockey stars who took the ice. Instead, he subjected himself to the barrage of questions he's mostly unable to answer.

On Tuesday morning Paul Allen had Michael Russo beat writer of the Minnesota Wild from the Minneapolis Star and Tribune on the KFAN 100.3 and the two of them discussed the Parise free agency story and where they think that Zach might go. Russo seems to think that if the Wild get Parise that they might have a good chance to get Predators’ defenseman Ryan Sutter. You can listen to P.A.’s interview of Russo from the podcast that is embedded below in the blog post.

Latendresse calls himself symptom-free, wants to stay

This is is one of those stories of what could've been - Guillaume Latendresse came to the Minnesota Wild via trade that sent Benoit Pouliot to the Montreal Canadians on On November 23, 2009 and started out on fire scoring 25 goals in his first 55 games in a Minnesota Wild uniform before he was then out of the line up for the past two seasons with a myriad of injuries... There seems to be a lot of risk with this potential signing.

One of the biggest concern is Lattendresse had a concussion last season and missed most of last season and as we have seen with the Pittsburgh Penguins super star Sidney Crosby, Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard and with the Minnesota Wild's Pierre-Marc Bouchard concussion are can return again and linger for some time. All three players suffered multiple concussions and the Bruins Savard's is no longer in the NHL and Bouchard could soon join Savard in the retirement line if he doesn't get healthy but also stay healthy. 

Michael Russo, Star Tribune --- Latendresse, after being treated by a concussion specialist in Georgia who uses a contraption called a "GyroStim," has declared himself symptom-free from a concussion that destroyed his 2011-12 campaign. He said he can return to being the thunderous power forward who scored 25 goals in 55 games after a November 2009 trade from Montreal.

"It's like I never had any concussion," Latendresse said from his home in Montreal. "I feel 100 percent. I'm doing training like before. I have nothing. I can't even remember when my last headache was." But that doesn't mean the Wild will re-sign Latendresse. While collecting $5 million, Latendresse has played only 27 of 162 games over the past two seasons because of injuries.

The Wild would have to tender him a qualifying offer of $2.5 million by June 25 to retain his rights and make him a restricted free agent. That's unlikely. "I know I won't get a qualifying offer," Latendresse said. "I'm 100 percent sure about that. It's pretty obvious with my last two years."

This would be a perfect player for the Minnesota Wild to sign to a one year contract that based on incentives. If Latendresse isn't healthy you fail to re-sign him in the off-season.

For all of your Minnesota Wild Ticket needs you can purchase tickets on this link See Minnesota Wild games.

Mikael Granlund is now part of the Wild

Michael Russo of the Star Tribune was on KFAN with Paul Allen last week talking about the Wild signing Mikael Granlaund. Russo informed Allen that as soon as the World Championship was over, the Minnesota Wild would sign the young star. That wait is now over and the Wild now have their top prospect signed up and ready to go.

Related articles

• Mikael Granlund, Minnesota Wild close to contract

  ---

• Wild prospect Granlund expected to be signed soon

  ---

• Wild Near Signing of Mikael Granlund

  ---

Anthony LaPanta is going to be the play-by-play for the Wild

I posted on the on Sunday, that Michael Russo of the Star and Tribune was reporting on Russo's Rants  that Anthony LaPanta was going to be selected to be the play-by-play voice of the Minnesota Wild on FSN. This story kind of went viral - Minnesota Wild fans are not happy with the selection of LaPanta. In fact, it's getting down right ugly and here is a sample of a few of the recent tweets that I found. You can also see some of the comments here at the Star and Tribune site.

While I am not really a fan of LaPanta per se - I am not a hater of LaPanta either. So I guess I don't know what all of the furor is about either, who did the fans think that FSN was going to hire, they already have a person on payroll so they don't really have to bring anyone else in it makes sense from a business stand point.

While there probably are better choices than LaPanta - is this really an issue that Wild fans need to get totally bent out of shape about? I have listened to LaPanta a lot while he was the play-by-play for the Minnesota Gopher broadcasts on FSN, I don't think he did that bad of a job. 

LaPanta to be play-by-play for Wild

There are going to be a lot of people that aren't going to be very happy with this move if Anthony LaPanta becomes the voice of the Minnesota Wild - LaPanta did play-by-play for the Gopher this past season and there are a lot of Gopher fans that aren't very fond of his work either. I don't think that LaPanta is a bad announcer per se, but I think the Wild could do better in selecting a personality that the fans could get behind.

Personally, I liked Dan Terhaar and thought he did a good job with the Wild. Terhaar also called hockey games for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

Michael Russo, Russo's Rants --- It's looking more and more like Anthony LaPanta, the man with the most famous hair in the Twin Cities and Fox Sports North's longtime studio host for pre- and post-games for the Wild, Twins and Wolves, will be the Wild's next television play-by-play man.

If officially hired, he'll replace Dan Terhaar, whose contract was not renewed last month after seven seasons at the microphone. That move could happen as early as Monday. The Wild last week ironed out new deals with TV color man Mike Greenlay and the radio team of Bob Kurtz and Tom Reid.

Justin Fontaine suspended by Houston Aeros

Image via WikipediaFormer Minnesota Duluth Bulldog Justin Fontain has been suspended by the Houston Aeros for his comments he made on Twitter on Monday night.

Michael Russo , Star Tribune --- The Wild suspended Houston Aeros forward Justin Fontaine for two games after he used a gay slur during a Twitter exchange about the Grammy Awards 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 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."

The day after the McLeod hit on Spurgeon

I don't like this hit one bit and these types of dangerous hits need to be eliminated from the game of hockey. Even today after watching the hit some more, I am not changing my opinion one bit. The hit is dangerous, senseless and unnecessary.

You have a player like Cody McLeod that is at best a third line player in the NHL taking out a top defensive player for the Wild. Again, the refs rescued the offending player McLeod before anyone from the Minnesota Wild could get to McLeod to have him answer for that Bush League hit.

To also suggest that Spurgeon is responsible for being plastered into the boards is also ridiculous. I have also seen Avalanche fans defending this hit and Cody McLeod.

According to Michael Russo, after the game Wild Coach Mike Yeo was unimpressed with the McLeod hit. Yeo went so far to suggest that the Av's players were targeting Spurgeon during the game.

"I didn't like the hit one bit," Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

Yeo didn't have an update on Spurgeon immediately after the game, but he did have a strong opinion. He said he felt the Avalanche might have been targeting Spurgeon. "They hit him from behind two shifts before that," he said. "And I thought that one could have been called, too. I thought that one was dangerous. So twice ... five minutes into the game?"

The next time the Wild play the Avalanche this hit has to be answered for and Wild need to respond appropriately. I also predict that McLeod will get nothing in the way of a suspension from the National Hockey League.

No Supplemental Discipline for the Jets Bogosian

According to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, there will be no supplemental discipline for the Winnipeg Jet's Zach Bogosian for his hit on Minnesota Wild forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard. I guess that doesn't make Pierre-Marc Bouchard nose and face feel any better.

Per Michael Russo --- Per league source: No Supplemental Discipline for Bogosian. Player Safety Dept. feels that Bogosian did not run at Bouchard and that Bouchard turned just prior to the hit.

So this season we have seen similar hits result in no supplemental discipline; Letang on Burmistrov, Krejci on Stuart, and now Bogosian on Bouchard. My question is; aren't these the types of hits the league wants to get rid of?

Whitney knees Cal Clutterbuck.

This was a blatant knee on knee hit, there is no room in the game for this kind of crap and the NHL should throw the book at Ryan Whitney. There is no way you can defend this hit, and Ryan Whitney should be getting a call from Brendan Shanahan tomorrow morning.  Below is the screen shot of what Michael Russo had to say on the hit.

Boston Bruins practice at Havard...

I thought this was funny when I read it and I tried to put it up last night but blogger was down...

Russo's Rants --- The Wild attended Hahvahd for an afternoon practice at Bright Hockey Center, home of Alexander Fallstrom, the Swedish-born, former Shattuck-St Mary's forward drafted by the Wild and eventually traded to the Bruins for Chuck Kobasew.

Kobasew, who played one year at Boston College, where he won the Beanpot and some other somewhat major tournament by beating North Dakota, will play in Boston on Thursday for the first time since being traded to Minnesota in October 2009.