First of all, for live play-by-play of the draft and constant updates Friday and Saturday, definitely follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/russostrib.

Remember, last year when I was on twitter and I live blogged, I was able to give you a full play-by-play of 1)they were taking Leddy; 2)they were talking to the Islanders about dropping back; 3)the fact Chuck Fletcher was talking trade with Edmonton (Kyle Brodziak) and 4)that Chris Pronger was traded.

But I won't be able to live blog on this new platform, so Twitter is where you should follow me.

We just got GM Chuck Fletcher, who spent the day inside the Board of Governors meeting with owner Craig Leipold.

Fletcher said no trade was imminent yet, but he should have a better feeling whether a trade could happen Friday by the time he goes to bed tonight.

"It's too early to say," Fletcher said, as far as anything being imminent. "There's a lot of different conversations on a lot of different topics. We'll just see. There will be more conversations. There's still a lot of time before [6 p.m.]."

Leipold said he's not putting any pressure on Fletcher to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

"If Chuck can do a trade that makes us better and gets us to another level that we weren't at last year, I'm all for it," Leipold said. "But I don't feel like we have to do a trade. What we have to have is players step up and play better than they did last year." Leipold said, "Look at our assets and what we have, he's got the green light to do whatever he needs to do." The salary cap will be $59.4 million next season, an increase of $2.6 million. Leipold said the Wild will have to rework the budget to take into account the increase, "but if we're not a cap team, we'll be within $2 million. We'll be at the top." As for the draft, assistant GM Brent Flahr has kept everything close to the vest.

Here's Flahr's scouting reports when I had lunch with him earlier this month on some of the guys that could be there when the Wild selects at 9:

--On Nino Niederreiter, Flahr said, "Big, strong Swiss kid who had a great world junior tournament and can score."

--On Ryan Johansen, Flahr said, "He's a talented kid. Big. He came out of nowhere from Tier-2 and has grown dramatically." --On Mikael Granlund, Flahr said, "He's a very dynamic player, high-skilled, smart and competitive. But he is small." --On Jeff Skinner, Flahr said, "Pure goal scorer." --On Emerson Etem, Flahr calls him "a special athlete. He flies and he can score. Just a dynamic skater. He's already strong and he can really shoot the puck." --On Jack Campbell, "He wins big games and is very athletic. Definite starter potential." --On Derek Forbort, "He's big, he's got lots of potential. Great skater, he moves the puck. He's got a lot of upside." --On Alex Burmistrov, Flahr said, "Skilled. Small, but highly-skilled. Lots of energy."

--On Vladimir Tarasenko, Flahr said, "Highly skilled, strong, really shoots the puck. Plays with men over there [in Russia]."

Talk to you in the morning or if there's news tonight. I'll be on 1500 ESPN with Patrick Reusse, I think, at 1 p.m. CT.