Another familiar face makes his return to X

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: October 31, 2009 - 12:06 AM

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Wild fans never got to see the return of injured Rangers star Marian Gaborik on Friday night, so they had to settle for Aaron Voros instead.

Voros, 28, who played 55 games for the Wild two seasons ago, became a popular player by chipping in seven goals and 14 fights.

"I left for security," said Voros, who signed a three-year, $3 million deal with the Rangers instead of a one-year deal with Minnesota. "It was not easy to leave here, especially with the connection I had with the fans. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think I was the No. 1 jersey seller that season at the Hockey Lodge.

"So this was a very special place for me, and the best arena in the NHL by far. I don't even think there's second or third place. There's a big dropoff after this building."

After Cal Clutterbuck and Benoit Pouliot were given shots that season, Voros got called up and never left. But by Voros leaving that next summer, it gave Clutterbuck his first real shot last season after Gaborik was injured.

"At that stage of my career [in 2007], I really didn't think I was viewed here as a potential full-time NHLer at all," Clutterbuck said. "I don't know what it was, but for some reason my confidence in myself at that point, I was just getting used to playing in the AHL.

"But it surprised a lot of people in Houston that Voros stuck, especially the way Voros was as a guy. He was a really confident guy, almost borderline cocky, but I guess that's what got him here."

Clutterbuck remembered how in training camp Voros, now an in-and-out fourth-liner in New York, took runs at veteran teammates Keith Carney and Mark Parrish.

"Voros was unfazed by the whole thing and I was afraid to touch anybody," Clutterbuck said. "He did what he had to do. Unfortunately for him, I think he got a little overconfident and thought he'd be a 50-goal scorer. It was just surprising to see a guy in the minors that confident in himself."

Not playing? Booooo!

Rangers writers were asking Wild players how they felt Gaborik would have been greeted by the fans in his homecoming.

When always-diplomatic Mikko Koivu said, "Good," Clutterbuck chimed in: "Booed. No question, he would get booed. No question at all."

When Gaborik was announced a scratch, he got booed.

Gaborik, out because of a knee injury, said, "It is disappointing [not to play], but I can't do anything about it."

Thompson finally home

Wild assistant GM Tommy Thompson watched the Wild play for the first time this season after a 27-day scouting trip that brought him from as far west as Prince George, British Columbia, to as far east as Val d'Or, Quebec.

Thompson was scouting draft-eligible players from the Western Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and got to pop in on Wild prospects Marco Scandella, Kris Foucault and Darcy Kuemper.

If you think Thompson is excited about the Wild's poor start because the team could be on its way to a top pick in what Thompson calls next summer's "pretty deep" draft, you're wrong.

"There's not an owlier group of people than the scouts when you lose a game. We want to win every game," he said.

Etc.

• Goalie Josh Harding is day-to-day because of a sore hip. "Hopefully he'll be back to practice at some point next week," GM Chuck Fletcher said.

• Pouliot was scratched.

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