Resting Gaborik doesn't mean a trade, team says

Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

Marian Gaborik had a goal and an assist against the Hurricanes on Tuesday night. In the third period, he skated up the ice ahead of Carolina’s Eric Staal.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: December 24, 2008 - 8:07 AM

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With the eighth-place Wild in dire need of every point, assistant General Manager Tom Lynn said Tuesday night that the Wild will hold right wing Marian Gaborik out of the next two games after the NHL's holiday break -- Sunday against Chicago and Monday at Calgary.

"Marian's going to take the Christmas break off, and it looks like we're not going to play him in the two games back-to-back. We're doing this, not him," Lynn said. "When he played back-to-back the other day, he got very sore. We were thinking of playing him in one game and not the other, but [GM] Doug [Risebrough] made the decision that he's going to make [Gaborik] rest for four days and hold him out.

"Hopefully he'll be back full-time after that."

The decision seems a peculiar one, especially since there's four days before the next game and the Wild, which has won only three times in December, isn't allowed to practice today or Thursday.

Also, the timing coincides around the NHL's roster freeze being lifted. That occurs when the clock strikes midnight Saturday.

Asked if the Wild was holding Gaborik out to ensure he doesn't get injured so it can trade him, Lynn said, "I would say 100 percent I'm not holding him out for a trade."

However, according to NHL sources, the Wild has conducted trade talks involving Gaborik, who can become a free agent this summer, and according to a source close to Atlanta GM Don Waddell, the Thrashers have expressed strong interest in Gaborik.

Waddell and Risebrough were seen talking two weekends ago in Los Angeles.

Gaborik, who talked with Lynn for five minutes before he talked to the Star Tribune, said the Wild first talked to him about sitting out Monday.

"I just want to get over the hump," Gaborik said. "I want to feel strong, stronger than I feel right now and I want to be close to 100 percent. This is what Doug decided. Doug decided to take this route."

Asked if he believed he wasn't being held out for a trade, Gaborik said, "I don't know about anything. I don't think that's an issue."

Asked why Gaborik wouldn't just play against Chicago and not Calgary or vice versa to avoid soreness, Lynn said, "We don't want the setbacks we've had in the past. Rather than backpedaling, we want him back full so when Jan. 1 starts, he's good to go. He's playing right now, but playing with soreness. We want him to get over it."

Not his nephew

Contrary to the 2007 NHL Draft guide, the 2008 Wild media guide and countless sites in cyberspace, Wild rookie Colton Gillies is not the nephew of Hall of Famer Clark Gillies.

"I've traced it to Colton being the son of my cousin's son, so I think that would make him my third cousin, right?" Clark Gillies, a financial adviser in New York, said, laughing. "

While the two have never met, Clark hopes to go to dinner with Colton in New York in March.

"I've paid attention to his career [from afar]," said Clark Gillies. "I've heard all kind of great, glowing things." ...

Notes

Benoit Pouliot was scratched against Carolina. Said coach Jacques Lemaire: "He needs to do the little things better ... and the big things better," Lemaire said. ...

For the first time in seven years, Gaborik and Pierre-Marc Bouchard were even-strength linemates in the first period. Said Lemaire, laughing, "And it's the last time. Just a try. But last time they play together.