A couple of options for the Wild...

I think the Wild should trade defenseman Brett Burns to another team so they can unload his fat contract and then pick up some offense talent. I think Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien or Kris Versteeg would be nice additions to the Wild line up. The Blackhawks are going to have to move a few players to get under the salary cap. The rule that punishes the Blackhawks because Jonahtan Toews won the Conn Smythe, is a horrible rule.

Seis: It'll be interesting what Chicago does this week. Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien and/or Kris Versteeg could be cap casualties. The Blackhawks were over the cap about $2.5 million this year, and Jonathan Toews had a $1.3 million bonus for winning the Conn Smythe. And since they were already over, all this will be charged to next year's cap. So while the official number hasn't been released, the Blackhawks cap could be about $4 million lower than everybody else's next year.

In essense, a bunch of sportswriters' votes (Toews) cost the Blackhawks $1.3 million of cap space next year. Not that Toews didn't deserve it, but you know what I mean.

The Wild would love Sharp if he's available, but I'm sure so would about a dozen other teams. They'd like Byfuglien, too, but as his mom told me in that feature I wrote on Big Buff before the Finals, she doesn't think the Wild would be a good place for him. As she said, "too many relatives, too close by." I'm sure the Wild like Versteeg, but I just don't see it being "the fit."

I think Stephen Weiss is somebody the Wild would love, but I just don't know if Florida trades him. I've mentioned Carter before.

The Wild again is looking for a big center, but as I mentioned above, any significant trade that would include somebody like Burns I would guess has to be for somebody that's in his 20s with a good chunk of contract left. [Russo's Rants]

I still to this day can't figure out why the Boston Bruins sent the Chicago Blackhawks Kris Versteeg for Brandon Bochenski? That trade is a really head scratchier. No offense to former Fighting Sioux forward Brandon "Bucks" Bochenski but Kris Versteeg has scored 101 points in two plus seasons in the NHL and Brandon Bochenski has played with six NHL teams and never played more than 40 games in a season.